Food, Balancing budget and well-being for a 5mo kitty [Canadian]

awsomepatates

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Hi all,

So I've recently adopted a 5mo little bugger from the local Humane Society here and have run into a small dilemma with respect to feeding healthy food while not overspending. Now I realize the importance of good food for cats, but I am currently a student and don't have the means to spend over $50 a month on quality wet food while paying rent, groceries, tuition etc... Although I would love to, I can't afford it for now.

So kitty currently eats 3 servings (85-90g a day) of FROMM grain-free dry food. This gives enough for him to eat at meal time and graze until next meal time. He also drinks a ton of water, which makes sense since it is dry food after all...

I bought this because my dog at home currently eats FROMM dog food and the breeder bragged about how great it is, so I figured FROMM probably makes great cat food too and low and behold the local shop owners agree. Thing is it's approximately $34/mo and that's already a bit at the top end of my budget; but I'm willing to make the stretch for this little guy. The problem is, after so much reading, wet food is apparently much more suitable for cats. The cheapest canned food I can find is at Walmart, Fancy Feast pate for $0.68/85g can. That is approximately $20.40/mo for 1 serving and 40.80/mo for 2 servings. This is already getting a bit prohibitive price-wise and I'm 90% sure that quality of ingredients in FROMM is a million times better than FF which contains artificial and natural flavourings and other random crap on the ingredient label - please correct me if I'm wrong about FF ingredients, I haven't done enough research to make solid conclusions on the effect of these ingredients but I'd rather avoid them than risk feeding non-carnivore foods.

With all that said:

1) Is it worth it to make the switch from FROMM to FF, and if yes, how many servings/day should I give? Should I do a mix of both?

  a. If I were to do a mix of both how much should I feed kitty and how would the price turn out per month using the prices I listed here

2) Are there other brands I should consider with respect to dry foods/wet foods that are just as good or better than my current options and cheaper?

3)Can I just wet the dry food a bit so it softens up and provides a bit of moisture? Or is that a terrible idea (spoilage issues?) ...

4)For all the Canadians out there, are there any good retailers out there which have decent prices on cat food? I live around the GTA in Ontario if that helps at all.

Thanks!
 

2cats4me

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Hi all,

So I've recently adopted a 5mo little bugger from the local Humane Society here and have run into a small dilemma with respect to feeding healthy food while not overspending. Now I realize the importance of good food for cats, but I am currently a student and don't have the means to spend over $50 a month on quality wet food while paying rent, groceries, tuition etc... Although I would love to, I can't afford it for now.

So kitty currently eats 3 servings (85-90g a day) of FROMM grain-free dry food. This gives enough for him to eat at meal time and graze until next meal time. He also drinks a ton of water, which makes sense since it is dry food after all...

I bought this because my dog at home currently eats FROMM dog food and the breeder bragged about how great it is, so I figured FROMM probably makes great cat food too and low and behold the local shop owners agree. Thing is it's approximately $34/mo and that's already a bit at the top end of my budget; but I'm willing to make the stretch for this little guy. The problem is, after so much reading, wet food is apparently much more suitable for cats. The cheapest canned food I can find is at Walmart, Fancy Feast pate for $0.68/85g can. That is approximately $20.40/mo for 1 serving and 40.80/mo for 2 servings. This is already getting a bit prohibitive price-wise and I'm 90% sure that quality of ingredients in FROMM is a million times better than FF which contains artificial and natural flavourings and other random crap on the ingredient label - please correct me if I'm wrong about FF ingredients, I haven't done enough research to make solid conclusions on the effect of these ingredients but I'd rather avoid them than risk feeding non-carnivore foods.

With all that said:

1) Is it worth it to make the switch from FROMM to FF, and if yes, how many servings/day should I give? Should I do a mix of both?

  a. If I were to do a mix of both how much should I feed kitty and how would the price turn out per month using the prices I listed here

2) Are there other brands I should consider with respect to dry foods/wet foods that are just as good or better than my current options and cheaper?

3)Can I just wet the dry food a bit so it softens up and provides a bit of moisture? Or is that a terrible idea (spoilage issues?) ...

4)For all the Canadians out there, are there any good retailers out there which have decent prices on cat food? I live around the GTA in Ontario if that helps at all.

Thank 
The Fancy Feast Classic is good ..  I am not sure if you have Walmart in Canada but if you do check out Special Kitty Pate . My cats love it and it is very affordable decent food .. Friskies Pate is another option .
 

ruaryx

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I think any amount of wet food is better than none.  If you can just add even half a can a day and feed dry for the rest of his meals, that would help a lot with his hydration.   Since you're on a budget, this seems like a good way to keep costs down. 

Yes, Fancy Feast Classics are pretty good quality wise, but not the cheapest if you look at how much you're paying per oz.  You should look for 5.5 oz cans.  Friskies is affordable and not horrible.  Trader Joe's canned food is pretty good and affordable as well.  

Personally, I like to stock up on cat food online.  It's easier to compare prices and convenient.  I use Chewy.com and Amazon.  However, you'll probably want to buy single cans locally to check if your kitty will eat it.  

I think the FROMM you're feeding looks fine, but other brands I would recommend are Orijen, Wellness Core, and Ziwipeak just based on quality (haven't compared prices). 

Also, a lot of people don't recommend adding water to dry food due to bacteria growth.  

Since he's so young, I think he's at that age where you allow him to eat as much as he wants.  Kittens use a lot of energy playing and growing, so he'll need the calories.  Btw, is he neutered?

To answer your questions about the FROMM having better ingredients than the Fancy feast:
"The three key negative issues associated with dry food are:

1) water content is too low

2) carbohydrate load is too high

3) type of protein - too high in plant-based versus animal-based proteins
I would much rather see a cat eating an all-by-product canned food than any dry food.   This is because even the cheaper canned foods have the 'Big Three' covered:
1) high in water

2) usually  low in carbohydrates

3) the protein is from animals - not plants"
http://www.catinfo.org

I hope this helps!
 

crazy4strays

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Yep, I agree. If a financial emergency hit and we were unable to spend the amount that we currently do on cat food, I'd feed the cheaper wet food like Friskies pates, maybe mixed in with 4Health canned foods.
 
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awsomepatates

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Thanks for all the helpful and informative replies! It seems like wet food is the absolute answer for cat food so ill look into slowly integrating into his meals and hopefully finish with him on 100% wet. Ill use a bit of dry since he loves to catch and eat kibble when i throw it. Will look into Friskies 5.5Oz, fancy feast special pate and a bit more into other wet food options in the meantime.

Also, to answer Ruaryx, yes he is neutered. Does that make a large difference in feeding?

Finally, since he should be eating as much as possible, how would feeding wet food look like since I can't free feed with it (spoilage?). Should I portion 1-2 cans/day into three meals?
 

ruaryx

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No, I don't think neutering affects the feeding.  I was just curious.  Yes, portioning 1-2 cans into 3 meals per day sounds good.  You can play with the amount and see what he'll usually eat.  If you'll have some kibble around still, you can just make sure he has access to that and not have to worry about the canned.  You can start cutting back on food if he starts looking chubby or when he turns a year old (this is what I did personally, others might have different opinions on what age to stop free feeding).  Good luck!  
 
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