New to rescue, need advice plz :))

I am in Northeast Texas close to Shreveport, LA. I am one of 6 founders for a rescue that was just started up. I have quite a few (lots! Lol) of kitties of varying ages that I need to feed. I am a 1 income family as well. I need the cheapest option available to me. I am currently doing dry but would like to do more wet. The question for the dry would be the same as the wet. Pretty much any advice on saving money would help. I've read baby food, but not sure how that would be. Please help! Thanks!!

Hello and welcome to TCS! What a wonderful thing your doing! Thank you.

You could ask small local pet stores if you could set up a donation bin, or even a local supermarket maybe. The big name stores usually already have a rescue they work with, but could ask. Buy Friskies pate's in bulk online from places like PFD that offers free shipping for orders over $49.00, or from Amazon where many sellers offer free shipping on anything over $25. Cosco has a dry brand that is pretty cheap called Kirland signature that is considered decent. Though wet is always better for a cat then dry, when your dealing with rescuing of course cost is always a factor.

Are you going to try and foster out your rescues? This puts the cost of feeding on the foster parent and is often the only way rescues survive. This allows for the rescues funds to be spent on the health care, such as neutering, deworming, flea treaments, the list goes on. Setting up a website that is linked with petfinder and has the ability to take in donations helps. I'm sure other members here may have more ideas, as quite a few of them deal in rescues themselves.

Wow..sending you many good for your success! It's no small undertaking!

Lots of info on here about good, cheap, nutritious foods. Other than thanking you for taking on this task, the only comment I have is that the baby food is usually used as a training tool/supplement to cat food, which is designed to have the nutrients cats need. Baby food won't have all that, so use it only as a way to "bribe" kittens if needed. It works sondes with feral kittens who are on the edge of socialization.

Again, THANK YOU and good luck!

It works "wonders." Don't you hate autocorrect?

Baby food is NOT cheap! LOL. It's like a dollar for a teensy little jar. It's good for tempting sick kitties but not for regular feeding.

Anyway, I have a lot of cats too. I feed them canned Friskies because I can buy it online for a lot cheaper (I'm currently buying from www.doggiefood.com, but other online buying options are www.nationalpetpharmacy.com, www.chewy.com, www.petflow.com, www.petfooddirect.com, and Amazon), but Walmart has the 13-oz can for 98 cents. I don't live near Walmart so it's easier for me to order it. Petsmart's store brand, Grreat Choice, is just as good as Friskies but is cheaper. And if you live near a Tractor Supply, 4Health canned is only 99 cents for a 13-ounce can. Buying the 13-ounce cans is always cheapest per-ounce.

For dry food, you don't want to go too cheap. I've seen terrible results from the really cheap foods like Alley Cat or store-brand generics. If they're unhealthy from the food, vet bills will be higher. The cheapest I would consider is Purina Cat Chow, better would be Purina Naturals.

One way to stretch the food budget without sacrificing moisture is to mix some dry food, canned food, and a canful of water in a big pan. Only mix up what will be eaten quickly, because the mix will get disgusting before too long. But it is so important for cats to get enough moisture.

Thank you so much!! We have a website set up and are getting it together with pet finders. We also have a Facebook page. "The Cat's Meow Rescue" if y'all would like to "like" us. hehe We are using fosters, but because we are new WE are mainly them. Lol. We are actively searching for more and are networking with other rescues. I added a comment to the reputation spot by mistake but it still applies. I appreciate the advice!!

Katluver4life said:

Hello and welcome to TCS! What a wonderful thing your doing! Thank you.

You could ask small local pet stores if you could set up a donation bin, or even a local supermarket maybe.

Wow..sending you many good for your success! It's no small undertaking!

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Thanks y'all!! I wrote some stuff down so I could remember it. I like the dry mixed with wet idea but wish I could do just wet. I do that now with my nursing moms but will look up the places you've mentioned and go from there. I'm alllll for the bin idea!! If I keep the dry consistent, do you think that donations of different wet brands would be okay? With donations, beggars can't be choosers. Currently I am using a dry food that is for all ages since the kitties just usually go after food. Lol. I was using Purina Deli-Cat and a dry food from SAMs. They are currently mixed together to last longer which was suggested to me by a fellow founder. I appreciate all the support. I am super excited about getting established with our rescue so thank again!!

You also might look into donations by the big companies. Iams, Hill's, Purina. . .all of them have donation programs for shelters and rescues. They all have requirements like needing to recommend their food, give advertising packets to adopters, etc. , but, like you said, beggars can't be choosy.

Yeah, mixing foods is a good idea too. So if you get a higher-quality and a lower-quality food and mix them, then you have a mid-grade food! :tongue2:

Also, take a calculator and figure out how much the food costs per pound. For instance, if I remember correctly, Deli-Cat is pretty expensive, even though it's low-quality. It only looks cheap because it's in a small container. So if you figure out the per-pound price, you won't pay more than you need to.

Mixing Purina Cat Chow and the Sam's brand would probably be a good staple food for when you aren't getting donations. Cat Chow is only about a dollar more than the Sam's brand.

catsmeowrescue said:

Thanks y'all!! I wrote some stuff down so I could remember it. I like the dry mixed with wet idea but wish I could do just wet. I do that now with my nursing moms but will look up the places you've mentioned and go from there. I'm alllll for the bin idea!! If I keep the dry consistent, do you think that donations of different wet brands would be okay? With donations, beggars can't be choosers. Currently I am using a dry food that is for all ages since the kitties just usually go after food. Lol. I was using Purina Deli-Cat and a dry food from SAMs. They are currently mixed together to last longer which was suggested to me by a fellow founder. I appreciate all the support. I am super excited about getting established with our rescue so thank again!!

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It is fine to mix it up with wet food, not so good doing the same with dry. Switching up dry's should be done slowly. But when I was fostering and getting donations of dry, I also mixed them all together, so each dry meal was a little of everything. I didn't seem to have any problems doing it like that, as they were just getting small amts of anything new that was added.