worst canned food is better than best dry food? well ok, but what about this scenario?

dan138zig · Jul 31, 2012

this is actually a continuation from my previous thread. I would post on that thread but that thread is dead with no one responding anymore, so I hope it's ok to create this new thread.

ok, so I want to switch my cat to a full wet diet within my budget. "within my budget," that's the key. the problem is, the wet food that are within my budget and available here are all fish-based. I heard that feeding fish everyday is bad for cats. the best alternative I can find is fussie cat sardines which also contains chicken. so, with this in mind, is wet still better than dry? thank you in advance.

Willowy · Aug 1, 2012

Where do you live (general area/country)?

dan138zig · Aug 1, 2012

A country called Indonesia

catvocate · Aug 1, 2012

Unfortunately, canned food can be very expensive.

I suggest you start off with the canned food you can afford. Then calculate how much it costs to feed your cat(s) per day. Then buy a few higher quality, more expensive cans and feed those and calculate how much it costs you to feed them as well. You may find that the more expensive food is cheaper to serve. Cats will eat less of a higher protein, lower carb, higher caloric and higher digestible food than one that is not.

I have done a cost analysis on my site comparing three different foods. http://fnae.org/cost.html

My cats all ate different flavors of the same food which caused me to have to open several small cans instead of one large can which was cheaper. It became very costly to feed them that way. I now feed a homemade raw diet to my cats, which works out to be about $0.70 per cat per day which is certainly more affordable to me.

What kind of fish ingredients did the label say? Was it just fish oil? If so, then that is fine. However, I would not feed fish to a cat daily for its entire life.

bigperm20 · Aug 1, 2012

I don't remember which brand it was of the 2 u posted, but 1 thing sticks out in my mind about that Indonesian cat food. I got a really good chuckle from it...

On one of the pics you posted in that thread, PRAWNS were listed as 1 of the main ingredients of the food. Now, I'm not sure what prawns cost in Indonesia, but here they are about $30-$40 per lb. So... this tells me that the food has a bunch of prawn heads, legs, and shells in it... YUCK!

I see your conundrum my friend.

Willowy · Aug 1, 2012

I'm not sure about what kinds of food are available in Indonesia. But there must be some wet foods that aren't all fish (even if it's meat by-products, it's better than fish every day). And probably the dry food has a lot of fish, too. Is there any place that sells American brands of canned food like Friskies or Nine Lives?

Or, if you're interested, you could do a raw or homecooked diet. Probably chicken is fairly cheap there.

ldg · Aug 1, 2012

If your lifestyle allows for it, I'm thinking feeding home made (as Willowy points out, either raw or cooked) is going to be your best bet if you want to provide something other than kibble. It's easier to do raw, but.... :dk:

I have to agree - if most of the canned food is fish-based, I expect the same will be true for the dry.

dan138zig · Aug 1, 2012

Catvocate said:
Unfortunately, canned food can be very expensive.

I suggest you start off with the canned food you can afford. Then calculate how much it costs to feed your cat(s) per day. Then buy a few higher quality, more expensive cans and feed those and calculate how much it costs you to feed them as well. You may find that the more expensive food is cheaper to serve. Cats will eat less of a higher protein, lower carb, higher caloric and higher digestible food than one that is not.

I have done a cost analysis on my site comparing three different foods. http://fnae.org/cost.html

My cats all ate different flavors of the same food which caused me to have to open several small cans instead of one large can which was cheaper. It became very costly to feed them that way. I now feed a homemade raw diet to my cats, which works out to be about $0.70 per cat per day which is certainly more affordable to me.

What kind of fish ingredients did the label say? Was it just fish oil? If so, then that is fine. However, I would not feed fish to a cat daily for its entire life.

I've already done the calculation based on the feeding suggestion and trust me cheap brands (fish based) still cost lower than the expensive brands, probably because they're mass imported so the price can be cheaper. and by expensive brands I mean Royal Canin and Science Diet. there's no way I can afford them even though the ingredients are better (no fish). and to get other brands like TOTW I have to go to the capital city which is far far away. so yeah, my situation is pretty overwhelming.

nah, it's not just fish oil. fish is the first ingredient with chicken 4th IIRC.

dan138zig · Aug 1, 2012

Willowy said:
I'm not sure about what kinds of food are available in Indonesia. But there must be some wet foods that aren't all fish (even if it's meat by-products, it's better than fish every day). And probably the dry food has a lot of fish, too. Is there any place that sells American brands of canned food like Friskies or Nine Lives?
Or, if you're interested, you could do a raw or homecooked diet. Probably chicken is fairly cheap there.

yeah, there are chicken or pork based products like Royal Canin and Science Diet but as stated above they're too expensive. you won't believe the price difference compared to the US price. as for Friskies and Whiskas, the "asian version" doesn't seem to have other variety than fish. ok there's chicken whiskas but only available in pouches and that'd be expensive in the long run.

no, the dry food here are good. many products that don't contain fish like orijen and felidae.

yes, chicken is cheap, but I heard feeding one kind of meat is bad also?

dan138zig · Aug 1, 2012

LDG said:
If your lifestyle allows for it, I'm thinking feeding home made (as Willowy points out, either raw or cooked) is going to be your best bet if you want to provide something other than kibble. It's easier to do raw, but....

I have to agree - if most of the canned food is fish-based, I expect the same will be true for the dry.

the problem with raw/homemade is the ONLY available poultry here is chicken. no rabbit, too. I heard that you better feed your cat kibble rather than raw but only one kind of meat?

dan138zig · Aug 1, 2012

here's one crazy thought: what about I feed my cat kibble or fish-based wet and just deal with the health problems later since vet fee is freakin cheap here? my last visit cost me 6 USD and that includes drugs and injection.

Willowy · Aug 1, 2012

You don't need rabbit. . .you can use beef, chicken, turkey, goat, lamb/mutton, llama, pork (I'd cook pork if you don't live in the U.S.), and whatever other kind of meat they sell there (guinea pig? That would be great!). A variety is important, yes, and I'm sure the humans don't only eat chicken so there must be something :dk:.

I think Orijen does have fish. Maybe Felidae, too.

Probably, under those circumstances, I'd feed half kibble and half canned and/or raw meats.

Willowy · Aug 1, 2012

dan138zig said:
here's one crazy thought: what about I feed my cat kibble or fish-based wet and just deal with the health problems later since vet fee is freakin cheap here? my last visit cost me 6 USD and that includes drugs and injection.

Aww, you wouldn't want your kitty to get sick

. And some things aren't fixable no matter how cheap the vet is.

Lots of cats live long lives on kibble. But not all. And lots of cats live long lives on nothing but fish-heavy foods. But not all. It's kind of playing the odds. And I do think kitties are happier when well hydrated, so I think at least half of any kitty's diet should be wet food whenever possible. And I have no objection to fishy foods now and then, but daily just can't be good.

just mike · Aug 3, 2012

dan138zig said:
here's one crazy thought: what about I feed my cat kibble or fish-based wet and just deal with the health problems later since vet fee is freakin cheap here? my last visit cost me 6 USD and that includes drugs and injection.

Well, that is flipping a coin. Lots of cats do quite well on an all kibble diet, provided they drink plenty of water. But, you do have a situation there. I would probably, if it were me, go with a high premium kibble for maybe 40-50% of kitty's diet and then home cook meals. I'd check with the vet to make sure this is okay and try to find as much info as I could on home cooked cat food. You don't have to use just chicken or rabbit. There is beef, pork etc. which cats seem to like. And fish now and then is not going to hurt anything. Best of luck Dan. If I can help you research anything or ask my company vets questions for you, just PM me.

minka · Aug 7, 2012

I would rather see you feed the fish-based cheap wet than dry food. You could always give a small piece of raw chicken to her per week too. :nod:

kittylover23 · Aug 14, 2012

Minka said:
I would rather see you feed the fish-based cheap wet than dry food. You could always give a small piece of raw chicken to her per week too. :nod:

Very true.

kittylover23 · Aug 14, 2012

Minka said:
I would rather see you feed the fish-based cheap wet than dry food. You could always give a small piece of raw chicken to her per week too. :nod:

Very true.

worst canned food is better than best dry food? well ok, but what about this scenario?

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