wet food on a tight budget

Matt was moved to wet food  in early summer and I want to keep him there, but money's really tight right now. I have been paying about  $179/5.5oz can and feeding him one/day,but I have to cut corners for a little while.please recommend grocery store brands to feed to him until I sort out my bills and stuff. He's on Friskies right now and doing well but I'm not sure about feeding him only friskies because it has salt in it? I have to buy 5.5oz cans or smaller , because I have been unable to regulate how much he eats when i get the bigger cans.......my own failing

You could try Trader Joe's canned food if there is one near you. The ingredients are decent and it's 69 cents for a 5.5 ounce can.

Don't worry about Friskies. . .I've been feeding mine Friskies paté for a while now and they're all fine . But of course a good variety is best. If you have a Trader Joe's, yeah, their canned food is pretty good. But most canned paté foods are fairly decent. Even some flavors of Special Kitty and grocery store brands are OK. Just look at the ingredients. . .avoid added sugar, anything that's pure filler (wheat middlings or powdered cellulose, etc.), too many grains, that kind of thing. Petsmart's house brand Grreat Choice is OK, and inexpensive.

I'm in canada so Trader joes is out. He likes special kitty but gets gassy after about 4 days, though I could slip it in among the friskies and fancy feast. 

I already watch ingredients, because he reacts badly to something in dry-corn gluten i think, and has thrown up after eating a few different wets(one whiskas had vegetable oil in it and a science diet  that had had corn gluten)If he reacts badly I pull the food and don't give it to him again, logging the ones he eats without problems and the ones he doesn't digest well. He seems to do best on friskies out of everything he's had(including better foods) it's just the cheap ingredients and salt I don't like...plus the vet said about it being high in fat and I was trying to bring him in line with his healthy weight.

I don't think Friskies is particularly high in fat :dk: (I actually think it's a bit low. . .EVO is super high in fat so I mix some in to the Friskies). Besides, fat doesn't make cats fat; carbs do. And all living beings need salt, just in the proper amounts. I agree that the ingredients aren't super high-quality, but as far as less expensive foods go, it's not bad. Poultry Platter is generally considered the best flavor of Friskies because it has turkey first instead of a by-product.

I don't know about shipping to Canada, but I only pay about $10. per case of 12 six oz cans of By Nature 95% at PetFoodDirect.

It might be worth a look, or perhaps you can find it in some Canadian Pet store?

I feed both my cats Friskies and they do great on it. I also had a little calico that lived to be 18 eating only Friskies.

I would stick w/ the Pate' only as they have no gluten of any kind in them. I do know however that Fancy Feast Pate' has wheat gluten. My 1 yr old cat is allergic to it due to the gluten.

well, at  $0.69 a can instead of  /$1.79 a can, it sure is a break for my pocketbook, so If he's doing well on it, and no one else seems to think the salt's an issue, I'll stop worrying too. I'm still going to get him the better food, just not every day, maybe a can or two a week and he still has a little dry to nibble so if he misses any nutrients at all,they're in dry food. I'll have to get a new container though, he's almost figured out how to unlatch this one lol! I don't need a big dog food container now anyway, not when he eats so little I'm not sure if I'll bother replacing the bag once it's done.

Matt likes Chef's dinner and mariners catch...that's what the corner store had, I've been careful what I fed him because of a food sensitivity and I'm not sure what exactly he's sensitive to. I know he can't eat whiskas pouches chicken flavour( he threw up..there was vegetable oil in the ingredients maybe that did it?) or any science diet (corn gluten) 

partof the reason for wet-feeding him was so that if we ever ran short of money and couldn't afford his expensive sensitive tummy food, he could eat canned, because anything dry off the shelves will give him the runs within 24 hours

bigperm20 said:

I feed both my cats Friskies and they do great on it. I also had a little calico that lived to be 18 eating only Friskies.
I would stick w/ the Pate' only as they have no gluten of any kind in them. I do know however that Fancy Feast Pate' has wheat gluten. My 1 yr old cat is allergic to it due to the gluten.

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Wow 18 is a ripe age, I hope we have Matt that long!

I'm beginning to wonder why  the vet warned me off friskies...maybe it's got more to do with them pushing science diet than any real concerns? They tried twice to have me put him on science diet, after I had pulled him off it for having loose stools. I hate the stuff, its little more than a corn-based multi-vitamin. Matt was on it when i got him from the shelter, and didn't have a decent  litterbox til I took him off it. 

Matts mom said:

Wow 18 is a ripe age, I hope we have Matt that long!
I'm beginning to wonder why  the vet warned me off friskies...maybe it's got more to do with them pushing science diet than any real concerns? They tried twice to have me put him on science diet, after I had pulled him off it for having loose stools. I hate the stuff, its little more than a corn-based multi-vitamin. Matt was on it when i got him from the shelter, and didn't have a decent  litterbox til I took him off it. 

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Actually, I thought so too, but when I did an ingredient comparison...

Friskies Pâté Turkey and Giblets Dinner:
Meat by-products, water sufficient for processing, poultry by-products, turkey, poultry giblets, fish, rice, artificial and natural flavors, salt, guar gum, calcium phosphate, added color, potassium chloride, carrageenan, magnesium sulfate, taurine, choline chloride, thiamine mononitrate, Vitamin E supplement, zinc sulfate, ferrous sulfate, niacin, calcium pantothenate, copper sulfate, Vitamin A supplement, manganese sulfate, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity), pyridoxine hydrochloride, riboflavin supplement, Vitamin B-12 supplement, biotin, folic acid, Vitamin D-3 supplement, potassium iodide. B-6061

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Science Diet Adult Turkey and Giblets:
Water, Turkey, Turkey Giblets, Liver, Salmon, Corn Starch, Meat By-Products, Chicken Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid), Powdered Cellulose, Rice Flour, Wheat Flour, Corn Gluten Meal, Chicken Liver Flavor, Chicken, Soybean Meal, Guar Gum, Dicalcium Phosphate, Locust Bean Gum, Calcium Carbonate, Brewers Dried Yeast, Caramel Color, Choline Chloride, Carrageenan, Potassium Chloride, Taurine, Iodized Salt, DL-Methionine, Calcium Sulfate, Vitamin E Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate, Zinc Oxide, Ferrous Sulfate, Niacin, Manganous Oxide, Copper Sulfate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Riboflavin, Biotin, Calcium Iodate, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Folic Acid, Sodium Selenite.

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I realized that Science Diet actually is A LITTLE better than Friskies. With SD, turkey, turkey giblets and liver are the first few ingredients. But with Friskies, meat byproducts, poultry byproducts are the first two (meaning they comprise most of the product). For some reason, even with this information, I would rather feed my cat Friskies than Science Diet...SD rubs me the wrong way with all of their false advertising.

Hmm, I'm not sure. With SD, there's a TON of plant products--corn starch, powdered cellulose, rice flour, wheat flour, corn gluten meal, AND soybean meal. The plant matter probably outweighs the meat matter when everything is added up. And soy. . .I think I'd rather go with Friskies paté, personally.

Friskies Poultry Platter:

Turkey, poultry by-products, water sufficient for processing, meat by-products, liver, fish, rice, artificial and natural flavors, guar gum, potassium chloride, salt, choline chloride, carrageenan, magnesium sulfate, calcium phosphate, taurine, thiamine mononitrate, zinc sulfate, Vitamin E supplement, ferrous sulfate, niacin, copper sulfate, calcium pantothenate, Vitamin A supplement, manganese sulfate, menadione sodium bisulfite complex (source of Vitamin K activity), pyridoxine hydrochloride, riboflavin supplement, Vitamin B-12 supplement, biotin, folic acid, Vitamin D-3 supplement, potassium iodide.

vs

Science Diet Adult Turkey and Giblets:
Water, Turkey, Turkey Giblets, Liver, Salmon, Corn Starch, Meat By-Products, Chicken Fat (preserved with mixed tocopherols and citric acid), Powdered Cellulose, Rice Flour, Wheat Flour, Corn Gluten Meal, Chicken Liver Flavor, Chicken, Soybean Meal, Guar Gum, Dicalcium Phosphate, Locust Bean Gum, Calcium Carbonate, Brewers Dried Yeast, Caramel Color, Choline Chloride, Carrageenan, Potassium Chloride, Taurine, Iodized Salt, DL-Methionine, Calcium Sulfate, Vitamin E Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate, Zinc Oxide, Ferrous Sulfate, Niacin, Manganous Oxide, Copper Sulfate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Riboflavin, Biotin, Calcium Iodate, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Folic Acid, Sodium Selenite.

This is an easy decision in my opinion...

although I am not a fan of by-products,

even if Turkey was not the first ingredient, I'd still choose Friskies over SD because of the corn in SD,

particularly when you consider that close to 90% of the corn produced in America is now Genetically Modified.  

The horror stories about GM corn are coming more frequently, and I fully expect that trend to continue.

It's sad - I absolutely LOVE corn, but I have all but stopped eating it.

Willowy said:

Hmm, I'm not sure. With SD, there's a TON of plant products--corn starch, powdered cellulose, rice flour, wheat flour, corn gluten meal, AND soybean meal. The plant matter probably outweighs the meat matter when everything is added up. And soy. . .I think I'd rather go with Friskies paté, personally.

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I'm definitely on the friskies side of the fence.... i have yet to feed Matt a science diet product that did not come out one end or the other. it's definitely hard to digest, no matter how good they CLAIM it is for your pet. Matt came to me on the dry food, didn't have solid stools till i took him off it........then the vet said try the dental formula, well i didn't even get him transitioned onto it before he went runny again. I accidentally picked up a can of it, and he puked all over my basement stars an hour later. now I boycott the stuff. I'm sure some cats do well on it, but myself i will steer clear. 

 That said, koodos to the company for providing food to Matt's shelter 

I have been dabbling in raw food, typically 1/2 a chicken thigh per day.  On sale I can find it for $.79 a pound, which means $3 worth of thighs lasts a week. (Ok, I am the queen of cheap, I cut the meat off the bones, keep a little of the best meat back, freeze it all and then make chicken soup with it, so they get chicken and we get dinner).   I do give 1/4 a can of wet food in the morning just because i feel the thighs are probably not complete, as the cats aren't getting the fur, organs, skin and bones that they would get with some other natural diet like raw mice.  I've put a question out on the raw forum regarding what people think of plain old grocery store chicken, as many of the raw fans create elaborate raw feasts for their kitties, but frankly in my heart even plain old caged and hormone injected chicken couldn't be worse than some modified "food product" like cheap commercial cat food - which undoubtedly contains the same cheap caged and hormone injected chicken as its protein. - at thanksgiving I can buy a turkey at crazy low price, like $.20 a pound, portion and freeze it for an even better bargain.

Is there a source of raw anything that's inexpensive near you?  I would think that nearly any raw scrap food, whether it's chicken or fish or meat would be reasonably healthy - and cheap - as long as it's fresh.  Maybe you could make a deal with your supermarket butcher.

If not raw, Friskies in the big can - 13.5 oz  I think - is $.94 here and can be split into three slightly smaller full meals.  That comes out to $.31 per day.  (or if you feed the same amount as you would with the small cans, you could stretch 2 cans over 5 meals, about $.37 each)  Invest in a $1 snap-cap and you can keep the remainder in the fridge and ration it out.  my opinion of Friskies:  I don 't think it's great, too much ash and corn filler, but it's not like feeding him Twinkies, either.  I use a bit of it and have not seen any ill effects that I can tell, and it stays down!

Bisbee Kitty said:

If not raw, Friskies in the big can - 13.5 oz  I think - is $.94 here and can be split into three slightly smaller full meals.  That comes out to $.31 per day.  (or if you feed the same amount as you would with the small cans, you could stretch 2 cans over 5 meals, about $.37 each)  Invest in a $1 snap-cap and you can keep the remainder in the fridge and ration it out.  my opinion of Friskies:  I don 't think it's great, too much ash and corn filler, but it's not like feeding him Twinkies, either.  I use a bit of it and have not seen any ill effects that I can tell, and it stays down!

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Not a bad idea, but I prefer to store the leftover canned food in plastic containers, as the part of the can that gets cut starts to rust in the fridge,

and the food starts to get that metallic smell.

I have not noticed ANY corn in Friskies, but I generally only feed my Ferals the Poultry Platter Pate.

Do you happen to know which flavors contain corn by chance?

Well i called the vet today, to find out exactly how much to feed him for his weight, and as soon as she found out he was going to be on grocery store brands for a week or two, she said to come in and pick up some weight control food that someone had returned when they switched to another vet-special. So that solves the food question for now-he's going onto dry until i can get his california natural and Go natural back. vet says cheap wet food causes urinary issues, which was the thing I put him on wet to avoid in the first place. I'll just have to be extra vigilint about watching his litterbox, to make sure he tolerates the dry food ok, because he's had trouble before

I'd say he's way more likely to have urinary issues on dry food. The problem with vets is that so many of them know very little a about nutrition. They only know what companies like Hills teach them.

I've fed every cat I've ever owned Friskies and NONE of them had urinary issues. Including the two I have now, that's 5 cats... 2 male and 3 female. That's the reason we always tell people that ANY wet food is better than feeding dry. Tje extra water a cat gets in wet food helps prevent kidney issues/ crystals.

bigperm20 said:

I'd say he's way more likely to have urinary issues on dry food. The problem with vets is that so many of them know very little a about nutrition. They only know what companies like Hills teach them.
I've fed every cat I've ever owned Friskies and NONE of them had urinary issues. Including the two I have now, that's 5 cats... 2 male and 3 female. That's the reason we always tell people that ANY wet food is better than feeding dry. Tje extra water a cat gets in wet food helps prevent kidney issues/ crystals.

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That's what i thought.......and I mix extra water in as well, to safely warm it for him to eat, so by the time he gets it it's more of a stew than a pate. i couldn't figure out why the vet would tell me that ANY grocery store wet food will increase his risk of stoppage and vet bils

Just wanted to say that I've been advised by others here Not to go with the raw food diet if it's going to be just meat and not "the whole package" - meat, bones, organs and so on.  As far as adding water to the diet ...
(It's expressly for them, with a filter, no fish.  Although speaking of a raw diet, maybe a few goldfish wouldn't be such a bad idea!)

I just wanted to mention something that's a bit "out there" but apparently not as crazy as I thought.  I have suffered with UTI infections and for me the go-to miracle product is called d-mannose powder, it's basically the same chemical that's in cranberry juice only very concentrated, you can buy it online or at the health food stores.  It sounds scary but it's actually all natural and non--reactive with body chemistry (it's not digested as a carbohydrate but passes through the digestive tract whole); I have read two theories, one that it attracts bacteria and they attach to it as it's excreted, and one that it coats the bladder and makes it difficult for pockets of bacteria to stick.  Either way, I absolutely swear by this stuff, it was a godsend for me, and have wondered if it's safe to give to a cat.  Apparently it is:

http://healthypets.mercola.com/site.../prevent-urinary-tract-infection-in-cats.aspx

ETA:  sorry, that site is somewhat commercial, not meant to be an endorsement of Mercola, just a reference to using this treatment for cats.