Help please!

I live in Minnesota and I have 7 cats and I have to buy food in large bags (anything less than 20lbs lasts me less than a week) and the dry kibble that I use seemed ok for a while...before I read the ingredients list. The first ingredient is "meat by-product" and the rest is mostly plant-based. I honestly didn't know! I should have read, but it's been hard to find better ingredient and affordable cat food around my area so I just took what I could get in the amounts that I needed. I was thinking about getting wet/canned food (like Fancy Feast) after I read that, but I can't buy 98 cans a week to feed them twice a day every day and I don't have the storage room to buy in bulk. So really what seems like the best option for my situation (which I have been considering doing for a while anyway) is to make my own. My vet is very against it and prefers canned cat food, but as I said that won't work for me. I have the time and patience and in large batches I can make it affordable, but I'm afraid that I won't meet their nutritional needs and the Internet has not been helpful in trying to find what those needs really are. I know they need protein/fats/calcium/phosphorus but I don't know how much or what else might be needed to keep them healthy. Any suggestions as to websites that are 1. Not biased toward any one type of food or brand and 2. Give me the facts as have been tested and applied. Pros and cons alike. I would also appreciate those of you who have tried the raw or home cooked cat food diet or are doing it to tell me how its worked for you and your cats and if you tried it, but no longer do it I'd like to know why you stopped. Thank you!

There are quite a few members here who have successfully transitioned to raw or home made diets for their cats, and you should be able to get a lot of help here.
I suggest going through this thread here for the resources it lists:

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/264153/home-cooked-cat-food-resources

I feed 10 indoor cats about 90% raw, and I make homecooked for a feral colony of about 4. Is it cheap? Not really. Cheaper than buying canned and kibble? Maybe, but is it much better for them? No doubt. The cheapest way to make cooked or raw is going to be to buy meat in bulk on sale and to supplement with your own supplements. You could look at using something like EZcomplete, which is awesome, but its not going to be super cheap.

You might want to look at something like Tractor Supply's brand 4Health, which has a grain free wet food that comes in 12oz cans. Friskies also has big cans, as well as Dave's, and I think there might be others if you hop over to the regular nutrition thread you'll find some posts over there. Unless you know your cats are going to eat raw I wouldn't jump ship onto that right away. Transition to 100% canned and then start giving some raw and see how it goes. 

​I realize your post is a couple weeks old but wanted to reply. It is not hard and it is less expensive than canned food, if, you make it yourself. Please go to www.feline-nutrition.org. There you can find so much information. There is also a very easy recipe that you can double ( or triple) it is a nutritionally sound recipe.I also use a recipe from Lisa Pierson's site.  I can't remember the url but you can google Lisa Pierson DVM nd find it.Both recipes are great

If you are going to make cat food for so many cats you may need an additional freezer. You can find plenty of them on craigslist. I think raw is the way to go. I feed my 3 cats 100% raw and they are very healthy. I evolved from feeding just commercial raw to ordering everything from www.hare-today.com . Tat was really simple, just mix with nutrients and freeze. A few months ago I bought a grinder and began to make large batches of chicken that I buy here. I still order rabbit from hare-today and gizzards, different organs etc. This saves me a lot of money. I use the 'easy recipe'for beginners' found on the feline nutrition site.It is all very easy to do with a good recipe. Let us know how it goes.

Thank you guys so much! I will definitely look at those websites and find out what works best for me with how many cats I have. Thankfully Christmas is coming up soon so I will be able to use Christmas money to help pay for a good quality meat grinder. I will switch them over probably around new years, then we can all start the new year with healthier foods and lifestyles. Again, thank you for everything and I will let you know how it goes!

Good. I found Dr. Pierson's site it is www.catinfo.org. and the recipe from feline nutrition is here- www.feline-nutrition.org/nutrition/making-raw-cat-food-for-do-it-yourselfers. Many people use the Tasin TS 108 grinder. it costs $150, a great grinder. I am in love with it. The first time I used it I felt like grinding everything! Ha -ha, anyway you can find it here -www.onestopjerkyshop.com. Great customer service.

My wife and I have used Dr Pierson's recipes for homemade cat food for a couple years. It's easy enough to make and pretty economical compared with buying wet cat food. We use one recipe for our 17 year old Siamese with chronic kidney disease and another for our 2 1 year old Cornish Rex's. The young cats got tired of it after a while so we ended up having to jazz it up a bit with toppings.