Ouch!! Switching to all wet food could cost me at least $100/month

I know in the long run it would save on vet bills etc. But as I add it up for my 3 cats one on Royal Canin SO it is going to be at least $5/ day to feed them. That would be also alternating Fancy Feast in for my other two. I can add some Friskies in there which I don't think is as bad as the others. But I never realized they would have to eat so much canned food each day to get their required calories, etc.

I would appreciate any suggestions. I don't want to go back to dry food but I may have to for financial reasons for one feeding of the 2 cats without urinary problems.

This gets to be so frustrating and confusing.

I'm curious what experts say here. Is it better to feed better quality kibble, or cheaper canned (i.e. Friskies)?

uggg I know, I think I spend over $200 a month on commercial raw and premium canned food (for 1 cat) . Things here in Canada, are  much more expensive than in the States. But like you said, hopefully feeding them a better diet will result in lower vet bills and a longer life together. 

Depending on what flavours and what varying ingredients, I do believe "cheaper" canned food is better than strictly kibble. I feed my cat mostly Sheba and Fancy Feast. Then on occasion, NV Instincts, Holistic, and Primal Freeze Dried Nuggets. (If I had it my way, my cat would be eating the higher quality wet food but alas... picky eaters will be picky eaters.) 

If you're on Fancy Feast, I would choose the classics that don't have wheat gluten (Chicken and Liver Feast, Turkey Giblets, etc). I believe FF is pretty good for its price since it doesn't have certain ingredients like carrageenan that some pet owners dislike feeding their cats. However, I think one of the biggest concerns would be if you're concerned about where the meat is sourced and FF/Nestle have a bad reputation...

It's definitely hard to feed two cats on canned food on a budget. You could go check out the raw and home-cooked forum for more alternatives to dry food. I believe feeding raw that is homemade is cheaper depending on what meat source you choose AND you know what's in your cat's food! And AGAIN, if I had it my way, my cat would be eating homemade raw... BUT ALAS! I've been persuading my kitty to go on this ride with me but he just won't. 

You think three cats are expensive try 5 lol. I feed mostly fancy feast and some dry but after crunching the numbers it's actually cheaper for me to feed raw homemade than even the ff! As long as you follow a balanced recipe and source your meats/organs from a reputable place such as hare today you should be good to go! I'm in the process of making the switch so we'll see how it goes.

Buy the big 12.5 oz cans.  They're cheaper per oz than something like Fancy Feast that only comes in small cans.  You can absolutely feed Friskies and other cheaper canned foods.  If you can't afford all wet, maybe you can feed half canned and half dry.  Still better than no wet!  Stock up when things go on sale.  Shop online to compare prices.  Good luck!  I'm glad you're making the switch for your kitties. 

catlover100 said:

 
I know in the long run it would save on vet bills etc. But as I add it up for my 3 cats one on Royal Canin SO it is going to be at least $5/ day to feed them. That would be also alternating Fancy Feast in for my other two. I can add some Friskies in there which I don't think is as bad as the others. But I never realized they would have to eat so much canned food each day to get their required calories, etc.

I would appreciate any suggestions. I don't want to go back to dry food but I may have to for financial reasons for one feeding of the 2 cats without urinary problems.

This gets to be so frustrating and confusing.

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I have 3 cats on an all canned diet (none are are on a prescription diet though). We have a pretty varied rotation of foods. My 3 are varied degrees of picky when it comes to food from not that picky (Henry), moderately picky (Sophie) and very picky (Lilith). I'd recommend buying a can or 2 of a variety of foods that are within your budget and letting them taste test them. Obviously, your cat with a special needs diet would stay with what they are on. I don't know where you are located but if you're in the US, I'd hit Petco, Petsmart, Big Lots and Wal Mart to start.

At Wal Mart, I'd get some Friskies, Sheba and Special Kitty pates. One or 2 of each. The pates are better than the other varieties because they don't have as many carbs from the gravies and fillers. Fancy Feast makes an appearance in our rotation from time to time but it doesn't have a regular spot because I find it expensive for  grocery store brand. It's .57 for a 3 oz can and I can get a 5.5 ounce can of Friskies for .48. When you're on a budget, everything helps. Are these the best brands out there? No but like I said, if you stick to the pates, they aren't bad and a lot of cats like them. Remember, the best food for your cat is A) one he or she will eat and B) one you can afford. The best foods out there are worthless if they end up in the trash because your cat won't eat them.

At Petsmart, I'd grab a couple of cans of Grreat Choice. This is their house brand and I'd put it on the same level as Friskies and Fancy Feast. This a very reasonably priced food. I've seen the 5.5 ounce cans on sale for .35 and I got some 13 ounce cans of the mixed grill for .67 on sale. My Petsmart has a hard time keeping this brand in stock. This is another brand that I would advise sticking to pates with. As far as the higher end brands go, while in Petsmart, walk the aisles. They often put canned foods on sale or clearance. If you see a food your cats like on sale, grab some while you can. I do this a lot.

Petco is more expensive than Petsmart but they often have good sales. A plus about this one is the Petco Pals program. If you are a member, you accumulate points for every dollar spent and you earn $5 in rewards for every $100 spent. Petsmart has a program also but it doesn't give rewards. You have to be a member to get the sale prices.

Big Lots often will have brands that you can usually find only at the Petcos and Petsmarts. Nutro has been spotted there for .50 cents a can which is less than half price of what the Pet twins co and smart get for it at their regular price. If you have one near you, stop in from time to time. You never know what you'll find.

Once you have a good variety of foods that you can afford and your cats will eat, you can consider buying in bulk online to save money. Chewy.com, Wag.com, Amazon.com, Petfooddirect.com, Petco.com and Petsmart.com all offer some kind of auto delivery service that you can use that often gives you a better price than they give to someone who is just doing a one time buy. Chewy is probably the most popular one among members here. Shop around, see who has the best price for what you need. Some of them offer a discount for a first time buyer. Most have free shipping for orders over $49. The exception being Amazon. It's $35 for non prime members on items sold by them. Using subscribe and save gets you free standard shipping for all items (3-5 days) for non Prime members. Prime members get free 2 day shipping for Prime eligible items. They offer a free 30 day trial of Prime if you are interested and have never gotten the trial before.

I also recommend that you check out ebates. Ebates is a great site that I don't think a lot of people know about. When you are shopping online, go to them first and do a search for the store name, If it's affiliated with them ( SO MANY ARE), they will tell you what percentage cash back is being offered if you go to the store's site through them instead of going through Google etc. They will add the cash back to your account and quarterly ( I think), they will make a deposit of your cash back earnings into your Paypal account. You don't need to ask them to do it, they do it automatically. If you're going to shop online anyway, why not get something for it. Again, every bit helps. 

Look for coupons online at Coupons.com, couponsurfer.com and through the manufacturer websites. Recently, I found printable coupons for Purina Muse canned food buy 2 get 6 free. My cats decided they don't like this kind but I bought the food anyway and donated it to a no kill shelter. The cats there were happy to have it. If they are willing to give the food away for free, it should go into a cat's belly and not stay on a shelf.

I shop sales, buy online and use coupons. Do I still spend a lot on food? Yeah but I could be spending more.

misterwhiskers said:

I'm curious what experts say here. Is it better to feed better quality kibble, or cheaper canned (i.e. Friskies)?

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A lot of people here do both. Higher quality dry with cheaper canned (or a variety of canned - both higher and lower end as part of a rotation). I think that if you're going to feed dry, this is the way to go since the canned will be a good source of water for the cat as the dry obviously is not and cats get most of their water intake from the food they eat. As ar as the canned foods go, get what you can afford and what your cat will eat. For the lower end brands, I'd try to stick with the pates but some cats won't eat them so do the best you can.

Buy bigger cans, buy in bulk, buy with coupons, buy online. Also, if you go to pet conventions, I've gotten tons of kibble samples there, hahaha!

My last trip to Petsmart a year ago ended in ladies in line giggling at me when one asked "lots of cats?" and I said "nope, just one" - I had 6 cases of 24 5.5oz cans of Grreat Choice, a bag of litter, and a 12lb bag of Simply Nourish Source kibble.  I grabbed about 40 cans of Fancy Feast when it went on sale at another store. I send my brothers to get 48 can cases of 5.5oz Friskies at CostCo since it works out so much cheaper there than anywhere else. Thankfully she doesn't need any special foods, and at 9.5lbs, she eats about 5.5oz a day. Wet food is her staple, but I supplement it with homemade raw and kibble as a treat.

Wow, I really appreciate all of the suggestions and info about your experiences. I went to Petsmart today and bought a few different grain free brands and a case of Fancy Feast which made it .54/can.

I have 3 cats. I have to keep one on the Royal Canin Urinary Food. I know just being on any wet food may be ok for him but him having had a blockage I just don't want to take a chance.

So I add it all up and it will cost about $6.50 to $6.75/day at least to feed them all. 

I really don't have a choice. I am going to have to keep the one cat on the Royal Canin and learn how to cook my own food for them. I am divorced and live alone and have the time on the weekends and I think surely it will cost less than $150 or so a month. There is no way I can afford buying all of this canned food. I want to do what is best for my cats. I don't want to go back to feeding them kibble. I feel so bad what happened to my poor Jack and his blockage but I have to go on from here and do what I can in reality afford. And give them something that will get and keep them  in the best health possible and I am sure the one really obese one I have will continue to lose weight.

So I have a quiet several days ahead of me so I will be reading on the forum about making my own food I think. That is my decision for now. I think it is the right one. 

catlover100 said:

I really don't have a choice. I am going to have to keep the one cat on the Royal Canin and learn how to cook my own food for them. I am divorced and live alone and have the time on the weekends and I think surely it will cost less than $150 or so a month. There is no way I can afford buying all of this canned food. I want to do what is best for my cats. I don't want to go back to feeding them kibble. I feel so bad what happened to my poor Jack and his blockage but I have to go on from here and do what I can in reality afford. And give them something that will get and keep them  in the best health possible and I am sure the one really obese one I have will continue to lose weight.

So I have a quiet several days ahead of me so I will be reading on the forum about making my own food I think. That is my decision for now. I think it is the right one. 

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I think it's great that you made this decision, particularly considering Jack's blockage and your other cat's weight. Feeding cats properly -- and at a reasonable price -- isn't nearly as easy as most people think, is it!? Our cats' sensitive stomachs make them a bit high-maintenance and the foods that work best for them are rather pricey but that's far better that than the alternative of higher vet bills because of unhealthy cats with unhappy stomachs. They really thrive on their wet diet. (And, big plus, the litter box doesn't smell much. )

You might already be considering this but perhaps you could feed some homemade food and some canned food, maybe brands available in large cans that cost less per ounce than Fancy Feast. We feed part raw (not homemade) and part canned, and the cats really like all the variety. 

The raw/homemade food forum is great so I'm sure you'll find lots of good ideas and advice there! Good luck!

Wellness 12.5 cans are cheaper than Fancy Feast. Also, SO is garbage and terribly expensive.

You can use both canned and dry also to help with cost and some cats love water added to the dry food.

I hear you!! I've had to do some research into this also. For health reasons, I have to feed my elder male cat mostly Wellness CORE. I recently brought in another cat, and I simply can't afford to feed this food to both of them exclusively. At the rescue I volunteer at, we feed Authority canned food (Petsmart's house brand) and Friskies. I think Authority especially is a decent option at a decent price, particularly when you can catch it on sale. When it comes down to it, even the cheapest canned food is better than an exclusive dry diet in most cases, in my opinion. 

I will suggest passing on trying PetValu's performatrin canned cat food (one of their house brands). I couldn't see anything objectionable on the ingredients list, but it made her sick to her tummy (and of course I was careful to transition her onto it slowly), and I tried it more than once just to make sure it wasn't something else that caused her tummy upset. 

Another thing I do sometimes is supplement their regular food with boiled chicken thighs. I'm not savvy enough to make my pet food at home (major kudos to those of you who do!!), but with one package of chicken thighs I can give them extra calories for quite a while. I just worry about them getting the right micronutrient balance, so with keeping in the manufactured canned food gives me a bit of "insurance" so to speak.

It is confusing to try and figure out what's a good food and also easy on the budget! I hope that since consumers are more savvy these days as far as pet foods go, the manufacturers become more transparent in providing us factual information about their products. Good luck!!

For multiple reasons, we do canned and free-feed dry. I know some folks are anti-free feeding but my cats are grazers. I learned the other night that Penelopy especially likes to do so at night. She had to fast for surgery and let me tell you, neither of us slept much that night, lol. I only have the one cat that is overweight (omg) the others are all normal to even slightly under-weight in the case of Sara. We have Science Diet for seniors and for kittens available, since we have both seniors and kittens. And they all eat both, except for Maple. She doesn't need kitten food and she's too lazy to climb up where we put it. And I know Science Diet has a bad rap too but that's what they like, so that's what they get. 

As far as canned, they get Friskies and Fancy Feast (the FF they get on Sundays). The Friskies we split two cans between the five, and the Fancy Feast they each get their own can. Sara also gets half a can of k/d during the day. I can't keep her from eating all the other food, and you know, since she seems to love eating now, and she's underweight to begin with, I don't want to keep her from eating, regardless of what it is. I just have to hope that the k/d fills her up enough to make her not hungry for the other stuff so much, but so far that theory has not panned out, lol.

I thought cooking my own food would be cheaper but after looking into it and reading on the forum here it is not. The supplements you have to add are expensive. I would still end up spending about the same money.

So I am just going to have to keep Jack, the one that had urinary blockage, on the Royal Canin. It has become hard to get him to eat more that one can a day so I am having to mix a little of other food into it. And I am going to have to go back to feeding the other two a combination of wet and dry. From what I have read on here I had them on 4Health all stages dry  from Tractor supply which seems to be very good for the money.

Then I will add about 1/2 Fancy Feast or Friskies each day depending on how much I can afford. I just spent $34 at Petsmart the other day on wet food and a few bags of treats to sprinkle on Jack's food and I see each day how fast it goes. With the $18 I spent last Thursday on Royal Canin food. It is all adding up to way too much!!!

Really I don't think canned cat food should cost this much. We could feed them canned tuna or chicken for the same price although I wouldn't because of obvious reasons. But even on sale at Petsmart the Fancy Feast by the case was .54 can for 3 oz???

If I fed my other cats FF at about $2.00/day that is not much less than feeding them the Royal Canin at $1.88/can. Now that is really ridiculous!!!!!

Donutte said:

 
For multiple reasons, we do canned and free-feed dry. I know some folks are anti-free feeding but my cats are grazers. I learned the other night that Penelopy especially likes to do so at night. She had to fast for surgery and let me tell you, neither of us slept much that night, lol. I only have the one cat that is overweight (omg) the others are all normal to even slightly under-weight in the case of Sara. We have Science Diet for seniors and for kittens available, since we have both seniors and kittens. And they all eat both, except for Maple. She doesn't need kitten food and she's too lazy to climb up where we put it. And I know Science Diet has a bad rap too but that's what they like, so that's what they get. 

As far as canned, they get Friskies and Fancy Feast (the FF they get on Sundays). The Friskies we split two cans between the five, and the Fancy Feast they each get their own can. Sara also gets half a can of k/d during the day. I can't keep her from eating all the other food, and you know, since she seems to love eating now, and she's underweight to begin with, I don't want to keep her from eating, regardless of what it is. I just have to hope that the k/d fills her up enough to make her not hungry for the other stuff so much, but so far that theory has not panned out, lol.

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Yes I understand what you say when you are dealing with an underweight and older cats. Some times it does come down to just feeding them what they will eat. I have a 15 yr old male and he is thin and not eating as much as he should. I am going to buy some Friskies fish flavor to either give it 'straight' or mix in from time to time. At his age I'm not really sure that it matters as much what he is eating as long as he is eating enough. I don't really understand what all the hype and controversy is about them eating fish anyway. I wonder if people have gotten so upset and it really is not that big of a 'deal'. 

catlover100 said:

 
I thought cooking my own food would be cheaper but after looking into it and reading on the forum here it is not. The supplements you have to add are expensive. I would still end up spending about the same money.

So I am just going to have to keep Jack, the one that had urinary blockage, on the Royal Canin. It has become hard to get him to eat more that one can a day so I am having to mix a little of other food into it. And I am going to have to go back to feeding the other two a combination of wet and dry. From what I have read on here I had them on 4Health all stages dry  from Tractor supply which seems to be very good for the money.

Then I will add about 1/2 Fancy Feast or Friskies each day depending on how much I can afford. I just spent $34 at Petsmart the other day on wet food and a few bags of treats to sprinkle on Jack's food and I see each day how fast it goes. With the $18 I spent last Thursday on Royal Canin food. It is all adding up to way too much!!!

Really I don't think canned cat food should cost this much. We could feed them canned tuna or chicken for the same price although I wouldn't because of obvious reasons. But even on sale at Petsmart the Fancy Feast by the case was .54 can for 3 oz???

If I fed my other cats FF at about $2.00/day that is not much less than feeding them the Royal Canin at $1.88/can. Now that is really ridiculous!!!!!

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Have you tried looking on Amazon by chance? I've noticed it's a lot cheaper to get it on there usually. Not sure about Royal Canin, but the Fancy Feast and Friskies are gotten there.

misterwhiskers said:

I'm curious what experts say here. Is it better to feed better quality kibble, or cheaper canned (i.e. Friskies)?

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There is no good answer. At least not one that is evidence-based and backed up by actual data from studies. Pro-wet believe that cats don't drink enough when fed strictly dry but frankly, there's not enough data to tell us one way or the other. Many many cats have lived long healthy lives fed only dry cat food. 

Personally, I think that without enough data, mixing wet and dry can a good compromise for those on a budget who are concerned with water intake. 

Here's my $0.02 based on my experiences with my cat, Bud, who is now 20 months old:

I started feeding canned food from the beginning, with a little bit of dry. I realized quickly how expensive some of the "premium" brands are, and settled on a "grocery store brand" -- Sheba -- that seemed to offer the best balance between nutrition (real meat ingredients), moisture, and price. I don't know what your situation is, but I live in an urban area just outside of NYC, and I can almost always find Sheba on sale, or offers like Buy 2, Get One Free, that sort of thing.

At one point, Bud seemed to be really liking his dry food, so I switched his diet to dry food 2X a day and canned 1X a day, but I realized very quickly that he was not getting enough water -- there was a strong smell of ammonia in his litterbox, when there had never been a noticeable ammonia smell before. He definitely was dehydrated. So I switched him back.

So now my formula is: Bud gets wet (canned) food for breakfast and lunch, and dry food for dinner, as well as a small amount of dry food in his bowl for him to snack on overnight. This spares me the trouble of waking up at 3 a.m. to give him food, because he WILL wake me up. As I've told other people on this forum, he is so persistent that if he can't get me up by walking on my head and meowing his loudest, he will get to higher ground and dive bomb onto my stomach when I'm sleeping. That's an AWFUL way to wake up...so I have no qualms or guilt about giving him a small amount of dry food to "free feed" overnight if he gets hungry. It's never enough for him to pig out, it's just enough to tide him over until morning.

Lastly, I have three bowls for him: One for water, one for wet food, and one for dry. It makes life easier, and saves dry food because I don't have to throw it out if it's mixed with half-eaten wet food.

Good luck. With a little research you should be able to find good deals on cheaper brands in your area. If not, a lot of people have luck ordering online and in bulk. Cheers!

I went to Tractor Supply this afternoon and they have  2 varieties of Friskies in the larger cans so that will help.

I decided I will just have to skip feeding a grain free dry food since one of my cats cannot tolerate all the added veggies and fruits. I don't know what else is causing his more loose stools. 

So I looked through what Tractor Supply had and for now I am going to try Iams Adult food. I am not so sure they have to have a grain free diet anyway. Maybe that has become the new 'fad' and way to promote new foods. I know there is some truth to it but I was thinking in the wild doesn't a cat eat the whole mouse etc. including the stomach and it's contents. In the stomach it would contain what the mouse had eaten which would have been more than likely corn or some kind of grain that he would have found. Who knows? It seems logical to me.

I know there are companies that do not add enough real protein and use corn gluten as a filler and that I know is not good but I don't necessarily think a grain free diet is the only way to go. Especially now since it seems to be upsetting my cat's stomach.

Why are they adding potatoes, blueberries, cranberries, spinach, and apples?? I think really people look at that and think their cats are getting more nutrition from it but are they really? The cranberries didn't keep my Jack from having crystals in his urine.