Help Me Switch To Wet

trickerie

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Hey all,

I have two cats, one four years old, and one 2 years old.  My 2 year old cat has always had a big issue with dry food.  She eats too fast, or too much, the food swells and she spits it back out of her stomach half digested.  Ive tried multiple different foods in attempt to cure this, but nothing has worked.  Also, my 4 year old cat is overweight.  Recently, I gave them a few cans of wet food I got for free.  They love it and no problems puking or anything for over a week.  I want to switch to a wet food diet, since after doing research I've found its a better diet for my girls anyways.

I'm looking for a food thats reasonably affordable.  I can't buy grossly expensive food for them, as I can't afford it.  But, are there any brands that I can buy that are relatively inexpensive and at least decent for them?

Thank you :)
 

sugarcatmom

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I want to switch to a wet food diet, since after doing research I've found its a better diet for my girls anyways.
Excellent! 
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Trickerie  


I'm looking for a food thats reasonably affordable.  

Depending on where you live and what you have available, some pet food stores will give you deals if you buy by the case. Large cans (like the 13oz ones) are cheaper per ounce than the smaller ones. Try to minimize the amount of grains and avoid corn/wheat/soy where possible, and limit fish intake to a couple times a week at most. Some good info at this link on choosing a canned food: http://www.catinfo.org/?link=cannedfoods

If you can find Precise anywhere, it tends to be cheaper than many other brands and generally has good quality ingredients. You can also rotate several brands, so you don't have to feed cheaper OR high quality food 100% the time, you can compromise by feeding varieties of both. 
 

mrsgreenjeens

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You can save quite a lot of money ordering on-line, and if you order enough, you can get free shipping.  Are they picky, or do they seem to like any canned food.  If they aren't picky, I think on-line is a great option, since obviously it would be difficult to return it.  We can give you some more options if you want/need them.  Just let us know.
 
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trickerie

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They are not picky at all.  They have quickly taken to any dry or wet food I've ever given them.  I've looked around online, but I'm not sure where the best place is to get food from.
 

ldg

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Most likely http://www.petfooddirect.com or http://www.onlynaturalpet.com Both are widely used and reliable. :nod:

You can search the sites for food parameters - I'd definitely try to stick with grain free varieties. Look for foods with mostly meat, no meal as an ingredient if possible. If you give fishy flavors, do infrequently. The main thing when evaluating the foods is to pay attention to the required amount to feed. If you're order 5.5 oz cans, one that recommends 1 can a day per cat, but costs $1.20 per can is going to cost less to actually feed your cat than one that recommends 1.5 cans a day, but costs $1.00 per can. :nod:

Better brands are Before Grain, Nature's Variety Instinct, EVO. Those may be too expensive. :dk: The Wellness grain free foods are pretty good. I don't know Precise, but Sugarcatmom knows her stuff. :)
 
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trickerie

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Petfooddirect is the one I've been looking at.  All grain free recipes are fairly expensive.  Even more so considering my older cat is about 15 lbs.  Shes fat and needs to lose weight >.>  I really want to feed them all wet food, but I just don't know what to do!
 

mrsgreenjeens

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Just wanted to add that most cans say to feed WAY to much!  Even the pricier brands.  I'm feeding just about 1/2 of what the grain free cans say, and my babies still aren't licking their bowls clean.  Laurie, I think you are the one who told me about that when I first went to canned and was talking about the cost (thinking of an average of 2 cans per day per cat, when in reality, I only needed 3 cans per day (5.5 oz cans) total)! 
 

Willowy

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Before you order online, go to a pet store and buy one of every flavor of every brand you think is an option. You don't want to buy several cases of something before you know they like it. As for which online shop is best, that depends what brands you're buying. I like to start an order with each place, and once everything is in the carts, compare the total prices and finish the order with the lowest bidder :lol3:. I like www.doggiefood.com best right now. www.nationalpetpharmacy.com is good, too.

And a lot of people (including me) think that a cheap canned food is better than a higher-quality dry. My cats are on canned Friskies (cheap, not grain-free, has some icky ingredients) and are doing better than when they were on mid-to-high-quality dry food. My cousin recently switched her cats to an all-canned-food diet, and is giving them Special Kitty. Which is totally blech, but you know what? They're doing better than when they were on dry Purina ONE. So don't worry too much about the quality of the canned food if price is a problem. And you can give a lower-quality food for one meal and a higher-quality for the next meal, or whatever your cats do best on.
 
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