Is there a way to convince my mom to quit using MEOW MIX??

We've had cats ever since I can remember. Probably why I turned out to be so cat crazy...anyway, I don't know how my parents put up with them all these years. Because now they're very...anti-pet. They can't wait until they don't have to deal with anymore pets. One of the reasons why I'd like to move out ASAP...get away from all this pet negativity.

We have one outdoor cat from a friend who moved away, had her for quite awhile, at least 5 years, probably more. Don't know how old she was before that. My mom has ALWAYS fed the cheapest dry food there is. Meow Mix. If there's a cheaper one, don't tell her. The ingredients are pretty terrible. Corn is the first ingredient, with some other type of corn as the next. I think the only reason that cat has survived so long is because she can supplement with real raw food and breathes fresh air every day and night and gets sunshine. Like nature intended. 

I've been trying to educate my mom about wet food and how that's closer to their natural diet, since I've been researching a lot about it (kinda wish I didn't know so much now). But she says that "she's been fine all these years, looks healthy to me, blah blah blah..." And sure, I can't argue with that. She seems pretty healthy, besides the worms (from the mice and birds she catches). I've been feeding her some of my own wet food that I feed my own 2 indoor cats, and mixing it with dietemaceous earth. I think the worms have settled a bit... but I simply cannot afford to feed FOUR cats--a new addition recently showed up. He has six toes, orange and white long hair. Friendly. Super sweet. ADORABLE. Now there's 2 outdoor cats. (Side note, he had some sort of bloody sores on his paws, it looked like chunks had been taken out? I wanted to take him to the vet, but mom suggested I use coconut oil on it since my sister had been using it for her baby's rash. It's healed them up very nicely and very inexpensively!!! )) I still want to know what that would be from? Maybe paws got stuck to the ice? Idk.)

My measly budget cannot handle buying for four cats, no matter how much calculating I do. I want my mom to buy the food for them. But she won't "splurge." She estimated she buys 2 bags of Meow Mix a month. Which is like...probably under $20? I don't know. Pretty cheap. I asked if she could spare an extra $35 for wet food that I would pick out. She pretty much flat out said no and that was WAY too much to spend on cats. Not that she can't afford it, but more like she doesn't see it as necessary.

So my question is, could canned cat food be cheaper? Or is Meow Mix really that cheap and there is absolutely no competition price wise? 

I just looked at different cat foods on Amazon and unfortunately Meow Mix was indeed the least expensive one offered.  The closest one in price was Purina Indoor Cat formula and the ingredients are basically the same as those of Meow Mix.  I'm not sure you can convince your mother to spend more money on her cats since she feels they are nuisances, not family members.  At least she is feeding the stray who came along, which is something.

Ordinarily, I'd make the argument that investing in better food will mean lower vet bills down the road but I have a feeling that argument won't hold much weight.  For one thing, her cat appears to be healthy on this diet.  (And you're probably right that the supplemental food she gets explains her good health.)  For another, it's not certain your mother would pay for vet care anyway, based on her refusal to take the stray with the bloody paws to the vet. ( BTW:  that's great the coconut oil worked.  I'd never heard of that.)   And finally, since she says herself she can't wait until they're gone, she probably isn't going to do anything to prolong their lives if they do get sick.  Does she even take them to the vet for check-ups and vaccinations?  

As for figuring out a way to purchase canned food for less money than kibble, the best I could come up with was Friskies cans on sale half price for 2/$1.00 but that still works out to $30 per month for two cats at 1 can per day.  I'm not familiar with some of the store brands out there however.  It might be possible to get better prices that way.

This is a tough situation.  It's hard to argue with success, which is what your mother has with a healthy cat eating Meow Mix supplemented with whatever she  (the cat) catches.  I wish I could be more help.  Hopefully some other members have some better ideas.

If she doesn't want to spend the money on the cats, I don't think there is any way you can convince her. Is there any reason you can't pay to get a few cans of food a week? Since you're the one who cares about the cats it may be only you who can see the value in feeding them anything healthier.

My cat growing up ate low quality cat chow, she lived to be 17 as an indoor outdoor cat. So clearly sometimes that kind of nutrition does work out okay.

Not everyone has the money to buy high quality food. I certainly don't and my cats do fine on Purina, it's not because I am cheap btw they have always done great on it so I have no reason to switch it. I am sure you want the best food possible for your cats, maybe you can convince her to buy a high quality canned at least? Even the fancy feast line is ok.

For my fosters, I purchase 13 oz cans of Friskies pates when they are on sale for $0.70 per can. Including sales tax, that works out to $10.20 to feed one cat for a month, if they eat 6 oz per day.

When the cans are on sale for that price, I buy 36 of them. Right now, I have probably about 65 of those cans stored in my house. When I go to the grocery store again, I'll check and if they're on sale, I'll buy more. Stocking up prevents me from having to pay full price.

Around $10 per month for wet food is pretty cheap!

I wish I could still find 13-oz cans of Friskies for 70 cents! Now the sale price is $1.00 . That used to be the regular price.

If all she cares about is price, I don't think you can make her change her mind. Is she willing to give them some canned food "as a treat" if they like it? Maybe you could give them some canned food and show her how much they like it. Even Special Kitty Mixed Grill isn't too bad (some of the other flavors are worse; stick with Mixed Grill), and that's 70 cents for a 13-oz can, regular price. She might be willing to spring for a few cans a month.

And, well, if she fed them all Special Kitty, say they both ate half a can a day, that would be $21 a month. But you can't really get any cheaper than dry Meow Mix. It's $10 for a 16-pound bag, and that ought to last a month for 2 cats. So purely by price you can't beat cheap kibble.

Yeah, I'm sure that it depends on the area. Our regular price here is 99 cents. 

It used to be that price here too. It went up only recently. . .last couple of months. Now it's $1.08 for 13-oz Friskies at Walmart, $1.19 at Petsmart. Petco is currently having a sale at $1.00 a can, I bought 6 cases from Petco's website because the local store didn't have (or wouldn't go in back to find them for me) anything other than the few cans on the shelf. I also found out that Dollar Tree has them for $1.00 a can all the time, and I can order cases online and pick them up at the store for free. So that's a good option. The things we do to find a good deal! :lol3:

Thanks for the replies, guys. I forgot about Friskies! I think what I'm going to do is just forget about trying to feed Weruva and Hound and Gatos to my indoor kitties and just buy Fancy Feast and Friskies...at least until I move away from home. That way it's a lot cheaper for me and I can feed more cats. I think my kitties like Fancy Feast more anyway than the expensive stuff. I have a feeling I've made them become addicted....oh well. There could be worse problems, right?

The Friskies pates are actually pretty decent and low carbohydrate. They are definitely one of the more cost effective ways to feed multiple cats, particularly if you can get them in the large cans and on sale.

Another idea, OP, have you considered chipping in towards getting your mom a big bag of grain free kibble for her cat and then supplementing with Friskies wet food? Back when I fed kibble, I recall that I could buy a 10 lb bag of Natural Balance dry food for around $21. Taste of the Wild is another relatively affordable option, as is Whole Earth Farms. Since kitties tend to eat less of the higher quality stuff, she may not be saving as much money as she thinks, by buying 2 bags of Meow Mix per month. What size bags is she buying?

I think she's buying the 16 pound bag. I could be wrong. I never pay much attention as we always pour it straight into a container. It's not a very big bag.

I think I may have brought up the point once before about them eating less when it's higher quality food. She just smiled and nodded. Maybe if I could find some way to prove that she'll save money by switching to a higher quality food? I personally like Taste of the Wild, I used to feed it to my cats until I switched to all wet food. They don't eat very much dry when they're fed wet food twice a day. I just don't know how I would be able to convince her to spend *gasp* $30 on cat food at once! Any suggestions on how to convince--or rather prove-- her that she'd be saving money? 

You could explain to her how cats poop less when they're on high quality food, so that saves on litter as well. Except for that if her cats stay outdoors only, that probably wouldn't be a big selling point. 

Maybe compare the caloric values on the Taste of the Wild versus the Meow Mix and figure out how much a cat would need to eat per day of each brand?

Update!

I did send my mom a link explaining how cats eat less with higher quality food. She's willing to give it ONE trial run. So yesterday got a 15 lb bag of Taste of the Wild. Which I know is not the best ...but honestly no dry food is good. And honestly, ANYTHING is better than Meow Mix!!! So I'm excited and kind of scared to see if it really will last longer than Meow Mix. But I'm thankful my mom is at least willing to try.

Please make sure to let her know to introduce the new food SLOWLY, to prevent stomach upset.

I totally agree that TOTW is a big upgrade over Meow Mix. I agree, have her mix the two together slowly until the Meow Mix is gone.