Help me get my cat food budget under control?

paiger8 · Sep 8, 2016

Hi -

My cat food spending is getting a little out of control for 2 cats. Usually I don't care, but I'm attempting to save up for a new car and new garage/driveway (and hopefully pay cash) within the next year. Currently spending $120 on RadCat (4 oz per cat per day) + litter/probiotics/treats/etc ... so probably over $160 per month on just the cats. It's a lot on a single income.

So I'm attempting to draw up a budget spreadsheet and realized that expense I need to cut the most is the cats. Honestly my "cat budget" and "grocery budget" are not that far apart. They are worth every penny, but I do need to start saving more money or they're going to be the most well fed, homeless cats around.

So I know RadCat isn't the cheapest commercial raw ($7.49 per 16 oz container, .47 cents per oz.) Is there anything that would be more cost effective frozen raw option? Other option is to put them back on all canned or part canned... though I hate to do it. I'm also fine with making my own, though it'd need to be pre-ground because I don't have any room in my kitchen to store a grinder.

In my dreams the cat food budget would be around $65. (Is that possible at all on raw?) I was looking at this Catcentric article and it seems possible but that was 4 years ago, and I know raw has gone up in price a lot.

I'm completely willing to take the time to make it if it would save me a ton. I've been checking out My Pet Carnivore since they have a delivery location near me, so thats one option. But they seem to sell their whole ground prey as "complete" and I don't think that is correct with the ratios. Obviously rabbit runs low on Taurine, chicken is super boney, etc. I could do EZ Complete and buy boneless meat at Sam's Club but then I'd still either need to cut it super tiny (the cats prefer smooth food) or grind it. Or get ground and cook it. (Sadly MPC doesn't sell boneless ground.) Plus I think the cost of buying boneless with EZ is similar to RC per ounce.

Anyway, help please! Suggestions welcome!

Willowy · Sep 8, 2016

I once did a cost analysis on Hare Today's meats and figured out I could get it down to $1 per day per cat, shipping included in the price (heavy on the chicken but still a decent variety). . .but that was a few years ago and I've lost the figures so I can't say if you can do the same. But check them out and see what you can come up with. Of course if you buy a full box the shipping price will be less per pound than if you only buy a little at a time. But I don't know how much freezer space you have.

hbunny · Sep 8, 2016

Do you have a local butcher? I know a lady that feeds her dogs a raw diet, and she goes to them and they grind everything for her that she feeds them. She says it is cheaper because she buys it by the pound and then they grind it for free, and she vacuum seals it in portions at home to thaw and feed. She has two small dogs and they don't eat much in a serving, so she has saved a ton doing it this way. I asked why not give them whole portions, and she said she is too squeamish to do that!! That's why she gets it ground, so it isn't "recognizable" raw animal parts. Of course I nearly died laughing, at least on the inside

because I was wondering how she ate her food!

hbunny · Sep 8, 2016

And, I think she goes once every two weeks since she lives in an apartment and doesn't have a stand-alone freezer...might be an option for you.

paiger8 · Sep 8, 2016

I worked out the cost per ounce ordering boneless ground Chicken, Turkey and Beef from Hare Today with shipping (ordering 5 lbs chubs, and ordering 30 lbs which is 2 month supply) at a time + EZ and it works out to being .54 cents per ounce. Which sucks because Radcat is .47 cents per ounce at my indy store. It's actually $10 more expensive per month to make it myself.

Does anyone know if making it with bones & organs and supplements any cheaper? Or U-stew or another complete supplement?

Oh, and EZ Complete works out to being .23 cents per ounce of food (big bag + shipping) for future reference if anyone needs to know.

It took me a shocking amount of time to figure that out. Grams and measurements are not my friend.

paiger8 · Sep 8, 2016

hbunny said:
Do you have a local butcher? I know a lady that feeds her dogs a raw diet, and she goes to them and they grind everything for her that she feeds them. She says it is cheaper because she buys it by the pound and then they grind it for free, and she vacuum seals it in portions at home to thaw and feed. She has two small dogs and they don't eat much in a serving, so she has saved a ton doing it this way. I asked why not give them whole portions, and she said she is too squeamish to do that!! That's why she gets it ground, so it isn't "recognizable" raw animal parts. Of course I nearly died laughing, at least on the inside

because I was wondering how she ate her food!

Unfortunately not really. I was hoping to find one, but most people just go to the grocery stores here.

Willowy said:
I once did a cost analysis on Hare Today's meats and figured out I could get it down to $1 per day per cat, shipping included in the price (heavy on the chicken but still a decent variety). . .but that was a few years ago and I've lost the figures so I can't say if you can do the same. But check them out and see what you can come up with. Of course if you buy a full box the shipping price will be less per pound than if you only buy a little at a time. But I don't know how much freezer space you have.

Thanks for the suggestion. I priced it with boneless meat (obviously not complete) it was $1.16 per cat for just the meat. I'm a little scared of trying to figure out bones/organs/muscle - but if it'd save me a lot money, I'm willing to try it.

Willowy · Sep 8, 2016

They say their bone/muscle/organ mixes are complete, once you add Alnutrin (the supplement they sell). You can email them about bone content and get some boneless grinds to mix in for the particularly boney meats. They're very very helpful so email them with any questions and they'll go out of their way to help.

I do see their prices have gone up a bit. But let's average 30 pounds of chicken, turkey, beef, and mutton, maybe pork and a little rabbit (my cats always liked the mutton best) bone/meat/organ grinds, at $4 a pound (less per pound if you get the 5-lb chub but we'll use this for now), plus 27.99 for the Alnutrin for 35 pounds (less than $1 per pound---might be better than EZ Complete?). I forget how much shipping is but let's say around $35 for the 31-pound box.

That would come to $1.52 for 4 ounces (and you'd have 5 pounds worth of Alnutrin left over but we'll ignore that so as not to complicate the math, lol). So about $46 per cat per month, which is more than you want to spend but less than you're currently spending

.

paiger8 · Sep 8, 2016

Paiger8 said:
I worked out the cost per ounce ordering boneless ground Chicken, Turkey and Beef from Hare Today with shipping (ordering 5 lbs chubs, and ordering 30 lbs which is 2 month supply) at a time + EZ and it works out to being .54 cents per ounce. Which sucks because Radcat is .47 cents per ounce at my indy store. It's actually $10 more expensive per month to make it myself. :shame:

I just realized I forgot to factor water into that weight. I assume the 4 oz that the eat per day should include the water? So like EZ + Meat + Water = 4 oz?

That would obviously bring the cost per ounce down. Hmmm... I hate math.

missmimz · Sep 8, 2016

The only thing to keep in mind is your cats may not like the raw you make as much as they like RC. I'm feeding 9 cats raw and i feed majority RC with some HT boneless meats with EZ, because my cats just don't really care for anything other than RC and I ended up wasting it, which is basically just wasting money. My cats wont even touch grocery store meat (raw), i think just because it's not all that fresh. I looked at MPC too, but you def have to supplement and while they claim their grinds are only 10-15% bone they are probably higher. Buying from HT is probably your best option, but YMMV.

Oh, and I'd avoid any of the HT poultry grinds other than maybe quail because they're very high in bone and you'd need to add a lot of boneless to drop that bone content down. You'd probably have to stick with the beef mixes, pork, rabbit, the ones that are low, or buy boneless and use EZ, or another pre-mix for boneless.

paiger8 · Sep 8, 2016

Looks like with water added in the EZ recipe I'm at .36 cents per oz which is better than RC but still expensive.

@missmimz - I hadn't even factored them not liking it into the equation, which is totally possible. I'd hate to switch them back to canned but I spend more on them than I do myself most months. It's getting ridiculous. But way less hairballs on raw, which is why I'm trying to get it as cheap as possible.

Holy cow, I just worked out how much it would cost using the Feline Nutrition recipe for boneless ground meat, chicken livers, chicken hearts, eggshell, and supplements. Everything included, it's like .23 cents per ounce! I could feed both the cats homemade raw for $56 a month. Why am I not doing this yet?! I know RadCat is crack, but it can't be THAT different from homemade...

missmimz · Sep 8, 2016

Paiger8 said:
Looks like with water added in the EZ recipe I'm at .36 cents per oz which is better than RC but still expensive.

@missmimz - I hadn't even factored them not liking it into the equation, which is totally possible. I'd hate to switch them back to canned but I spend more on them than I do myself most months. It's getting ridiculous. But way less hairballs on raw, which is why I'm trying to get it as cheap as possible.

Holy cow, I just worked out how much it would cost using the Feline Nutrition recipe for boneless ground meat, chicken livers, chicken hearts, eggshell, and supplements. Everything included, it's like .23 cents per ounce! I could feed both the cats homemade raw for $56 a month. Why am I not doing this yet?! I know RadCat is crack, but it can't be THAT different from homemade...

Yeah, there is a huge price difference. I hope it works for you! I don't know, my 9 that eat RC just aren't crazy about homemade. I end up mixing half homemade half RC to save a little money, but I tired cutting out RC all together and they just didn't want to eat their raw at all. I think i created spoiled monsters! I wish I knew what RC was putting in their raw to make it taste so damn good

oldgloryrags88 · Sep 8, 2016

I have 6 cats and they do fine on $65 a month for food. I make them raw sometimes as I raise and butcher my own rabbits.

Do you feed just raw?

paiger8 · Sep 8, 2016

Yep, I'm just feeding raw.

$65 for 6 cats? How!? lol I assume you're feeding something in addition to the rabbits? I would think all your rabbits would end up as cat food for that many cats. :lol3:

oldgloryrags88 · Sep 8, 2016

Yep. You read that right. Some times it's as low as $30. I feed kibble, canned, raw, and freeze dried. Raw is mostly from my rabbits. I keep some rabbit for myself to eat and for the cats, the rest is pets/breeders/profit to support my hobby.

I own a farm and when I butchered my swine, I fed some to the cats who loved it.

sophie1 · Sep 9, 2016

I remember a forum member who hasn't posted in a while, who raises her own mice to feed her cats. The costs were ridiculously low!

Apart from the growing your own techniques, there are plenty of ways to minimize cat expenses. I agree that $160/month for two cats is extreme. My budget is $120/month for two large (15 lb) cats, including food, litter, treats and toys. They eat about 10 oz/day between them and are fed nearly 100% raw. And I'm quite sure I could reduce this further, maybe down to $60/month if I had to.

The first thing to do is immediately stop buying commercially prepared foods. The price markup above homemade is ridiculous. There is one exception: Nature Variety sells a dog variety of their raw chicken and venison food as 5 lb bricks. It's the same as their cat food but minus the taurine (so you have to mix that in when you feed it). My cost for the chicken food is just above $4/lb, or about $.25/oz.

Second, don't buy supplement mixes. Buy the individual supplements, following the catinfo.org recipe. It's WAY cheaper and only slightly less convenient. I found that the most annoying part of mixing your own is adding fish oil from capsules, so I buy the bottles from Hare Today. It keeps just fine in the fridge. Eggs are the most expensive additive, but the website makes it clear that they are optional (Dr. Pierson says she hasn't added eggs in years).

Third, don't buy the boneless grinds except to thin out mixes that are too high in bone. They cost a LOT more than the whole animal grinds. If you must buy boneless, consider getting cheap things like gizzards and hearts, and use scissors to cut them up or just let your cats eat as is (they can do it!). If you live near a delivery point for My Pet Carnivore, I would absolutely go with them. You could easily get costs down under $3/lb. Buy their chicken supreme, turkey delight, rabbit, and whatever else you find on their website. You shouldn't need to buy any boneless unless you find your cats are getting constipated, and then you can just supplement with boneless meals as above. If instead you go with Hare Today, buy food in 55 lb orders to minimize shipping costs. Also see if there are local raw food buying coops in your area.

Anyway...cutting your costs is very doable. Good luck!

paiger8 · Sep 9, 2016

sophie1 Thanks for the reply! The sad thing is, I went and picked up RadCat after work and noticed it was $8.49 and not $7.49 for a 16 oz container. They must have raised it and I didn't notice. So I've been paying $135 a month for just RadCat, so probably $180 with everything else. :bawling:

I think I am going to try making my own. It's SO much cheaper. Looks like I can get it down to around $56 per month with HT boneless meats, liver, and heart. The bone-in mixes worry me a little from MPC, just since I worry about not getting the ratios correct, since it's kinda hard to know exactly how boney some things are. I'm ordering 3.5 months of meat at a time to maximize the shipping costs. It's crazy that $15 lbs of meat is like $22 shipping and 45 lbs is $25.

missmimz · Sep 9, 2016

it was pointed out to me recently that catinfo was updated a few months ago and mentions pretty strongly that she doesn't like whole animal grinds for cats and feels their too high in bone and not something cats eat in the wild. Something to think about considering most lower cost grinds both from HT and MPC are whole or mostly whole grinds.

I noticed my local store raised prices on RC too. I get a pretty good deal ordering from ONP.

missmimz · Sep 9, 2016

$65 for 6 cats?! That's bananas! I spend more than that per cat per month on 15.

silverpersian · Sep 9, 2016

missmimz said:
it was pointed out to me recently that catinfo was updated a few months ago and mentions pretty strongly that she doesn't like whole animal grinds for cats and feels their too high in bone and not something cats eat in the wild. Something to think about considering most lower cost grinds both from HT and MPC are whole or mostly whole grinds.

I noticed my local store raised prices on RC too. I get a pretty good deal ordering from ONP.

missmimz · Sep 9, 2016

http://www.catinfo.org/?link=cannedfoods#Raw_Meat_and_Bones_-_Balanced_Diets

"My strong feeling is that cats should not be fed ground up whole carcasses (e.g., rabbit, chicken, duck, etc.) because it forces them to eat more bone material than is optimal/safe. "

Help me get my cat food budget under control?

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