Question About The Best Quality, Affordable Cat Food & Cat Litter

Hi,

My family has one pet right now, our cat, Ruby.  She will be 1 in June.  I am feeding her fresh pet cat food right now.  It is running us about $30-$40 a month though for her.  I want to food her the best quality food I can for the best price.  I would be interested in finding something good that I can buy in bulk and save money.  I know it's good to find a food where the firs ingredient is meat and not a type of meat by-product.  Also, I am in search of a good quality cat litter I can buy in bulk that is affordable but that keeps odor away and clumps well.  We have a BJ's membership so I like to buy in bulk for things we use a lot to save money.  Can anyone give me any suggestions for food and cat litter?  Also, does anyone have any opinions on fresh pet cat food?  Thank you so much!

Ruby's Mom

I don't really know anything about Petsfresh, and when I look at their website, I find it somewhat confusing?  At first I thought it might be raw, but then I see what appears to be kibble, and some "canned", but for dogs, see some food in chubs, so not really sure what's what.  But I thought I had seen it in Petcos and Petsmarts in the refrigerator section. 

Well, anyway, are you looking for a less expensive way to go while feeding canned food?  I think maybe your best bet is to start by reading these articles, because "the best" is everyone's own opinion  

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/choosing-the-right-food-for-your-cat

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/what-makes-the-best-canned-cat-food

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/how-to-compare-cat-foods-calculate-carbs-dry-matter-basis

I do not have a BJ's in my area, but DO have a Costco, and in canned food, they do not offer much.  Some Costco's do, but not ours .  Mainly I order cases via the internet, and I use several different brands, mainly because of changes to formula's recalls, picky cats, etc.  But I don't want to feed just ONE brand all the time.  That's me.  And for me, my personal preference is to pick a very low carb canned food,.  Plus I actually have one cat who eats raw.  If you do your own and do not buy commercial raw, it can be  less expensive than buying high quality canned foods.

As to litter, if you search "best litter" under our search area, you'll get dozens of hits, with dozens of answers.  Everyone's got their own opinion.  I'm still searching for the perfect one.  Right now I'm using Tidy Cat 24/7, which I find clumps well and neutralized odor well, but tracks too much.  Again, it's a personal preference.  Some people like a scented litter, some don't.  I prefer no scent at all, so I'm afraid to try lots of them if I can't unscrew the lid to sniff them before buying.  Tidy Cat has a tiny scent, but it goes away very quickly, thank goodness. 

Here's a thread on Fresh Pet cat food:  http://www.thecatsite.com/t/268073/fresh-pet-select-cat-food

http://www.traciehotchner.com/cc/files/CatChatCatFoodSupermarketBrands.pdf

http://www.traciehotchner.com/cc/files/CatChatApprovedFoods.pdf

Tracie Hotchner is the author of The Cat Bible and has a really good website also.  www.traciehotchner.com

I used Dr Elsey's Precious Cat Litter, (about $15 for a 40lb bag) has great clumping and keeps the odor to a minimum along with vigilant scooping and my cats used it.  Recently I changed over to his R&R crystal litter because my one cat has allergies, it seems to help her, but the jury (my opinion) is still out on the crystal litter.

 I've tried about all the "natural" types out there and most are horrible with odor control and the dust is everywhere, once when I opened a bag of World's Best Cat Litter (corn) it was full of bugs - ech.  Every cat is different all you can do is try different ones until you fnd one your cat likes and uses not what you like but what the cat likes, if the cat doesn't like the litter it may find somewhere else to eliminate.  Good luck in your search.

I use clumping clay litter since it's pretty convenient for us. If you have one nearby, I like going to Pet Valu and getting their brand of unscented clay litter, Fresh 4 Life. It's not too dusty, the texture is fine so it's easily sifted and it doesn't stick into the cats' paws, and it's VERY affordable - $7 for 22lbs or $10 for 40lbs. I add some baking soda to combat any extra strong odors, but the litter itself does a pretty good job when stuff gets buried.

I haven't had much experience with Fresh Pet. I bought it for a snack because of it's kibble like shape, but higher moisture quality. I do remember it is lower calorie, so I thought it was a little expensive considering the amount you would need to feed vs. something canned. If you are looking for better quality food that you can bulk purchase you're probably looking at online ordering. Some of the foods I favor are Hound & Gatos, By Nature organic line, Paul Newman's (95% organic line), Wellness, and possibly Dave's.

I never really paid that much attention to litter. I went down to Costco and got some brand called "Litter Purrrfect," it's OK. Could probably do better in the dust and tracking dept., but for the price it was decent. I did try World's Best once but didn't like it because it didn't clump that well. The Petco rep said that is typical of the alternative natural base litters--less clumping, but theoretically safer. I felt that clumping helped me keep better track of urine volume since I was able to judge the size of the clump better.

I have a few links in my signature if you want to order single cans of cat food for tryout purposes.

I use World's Best for litter, but now am a little freaked out about the bugs.

I am interested in what people have to say about food. I am transitioning to a raw diet because of skin/coat issues paired with human allergies. In all honesty I would be fine spending $50 a month on canned meat, but I don't see a really great canned option out there that I can feed all of the time.

I used to use World's Best, but switched over to Dr. Elsey's Precious cat litter and my cats like it a lot better. It's also WAY cheaper. It doesn't have dusts or perfumes, clumps well, and has great odor control. I also sprinkle arm and hammer in it because it does tend to lose its potency over a few days, but other than that. It's great!