Cat Food on a Budget?

jaspurrr

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I recently adopted a little kitten (6/7 weeks old, not entirely sure).  I've been planing to adopt, but I didn't think it would be so soon and have found myself in a bind to find good cat food that'll run around $20 a month.  If that's just not feasible I'd also like to know and I can wiggle my budget a bit.

For reference, this kitten hadn't been eating for close to a week before I got him, his barn cat momma had taken him to a place there was no food and he wasn't willing to go exploring to find any.  He's been on Purina Kitten Chow since I took him in about a week ago and so far has went from no energy to little tornado in the house.
 

howmany

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There was recently a nutrition expert thread here on the cat site you might like to read some of it. There are many strong opinions about cat food. I am currently feeding wet and grain free dry, others like "raw"or cook your own add vitamins. But I and many others have raised healthy happy cats on decent dry cat food. Read lables talk to pet store folks and make your own choices,dry with a bit of wet or dry with a bit of plain ( no onoins or garlic for cats) chicken (meat or livers)white fish ,salmon, occasional tune water or pinch of tuna and you should have a happy cat. He should eat all the dry he wants until one year ish or full grown and then you can decide if he is lean or fat!
Good luck and enjoy your kitty
 

LTS3

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Here are threads on affordable canned foods:

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/308964/healthy-but-affordable-canned-food

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/327692/cheapest-most-affordable-grain-free-or-healthiest-canned-food

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/306956/new-affordable-petsmart-brand-d

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/248594/best-hopefully-affordable-canned-food-kitten

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/292890/4health-now-has-affordable-grain-free-wet-food

Dry food:

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/326475/affordable-dry-food-for-5-month-old-kitten

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/259019/best-kitten-dry-food

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/280916/suggestions-for-quality-dry-wet-food-that-is-still-affordable

Kittens eat a lot of food so you most likely will spend more than your $20 a month budget. It's best to feed both canned and dry foods to a kitten and then later switch to mostly canned if possible around 1 years old. It's fine to feed a kitten "adult" food. Most "adult" foods are formulated for all life stages. Kitten canned formulas tend to be pretty limited in variety. Some people like to feed mainy kitten food and occasionally feed an 'adult" food for variety.
 

Willowy

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If you feed canned Friskies only, you can feed most adult cats for $15-$20 a month. So that should be about right when he's grown. However, kittens do eat a ton, and while he's small it won't be a problem, but when he's about 8 months old you're going to feel like you can't keep up! So some dry is probably in order while he's young. Personally, I've had success with Purina ONE kitten kibble, and Fancy Feast canned kitten food. I usually stick with the Fancy Feast until the kitten is about 4 months old, then switch to canned Friskies.
 
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jaspurrr

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Thanks for the info everyone!  Currently I'm looking into feeding him wet food in the morning and then leaving him free feed his kibble till he's basically fully grown and adjust the kibble accordingly.  Ended up readjusting my budget a lot after looking into things more and wanting him to be healthy.  My only experience is with outside cats that have a steady supply of mice so never expected food to be a big deal till I looked into it and it sounds to be worth it in terms of general health AND vet bills.  Kitten's first year is going to be expensive regardless right?

As long as he's not picky I think I'll be putting him onto Boreal Chicken Grain-Free Kibble and then rotating his wet food between Grain-Free Holistic Select, Boreal (the reviews seem to be iffy for the canned of that on this site, so I'm hesitant), I Luv My Cat (if Costco still stocks it) depending on what I can get on sale or easiest.  Will also be looking into Friskies and Fancy Feast, but unfortunately artificial colors is a no go since if I touch the stuff I go into anaphylactic shock and from what I've read a lot of their varieties have color.  Never expected cat food to have artificial colors either.
 

hellomisskitty

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J jaspurrr check into Chewy.com. Their prices are usually low and you'll save more if you use their auto ship program. 1-2 day Shipping is free if your order is over $49. They sell every cat supply under the sun so I buy litter, toys, food, treats and everything else from there. I buy 6-8 week supply at a time so that I get the free shipping. Their customer service is excellent and it's easy to adjust the auto ship to fit your needs.
 

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I also recommend ordering from chewy. They have most brands (not Boreal, it seems :/) at a good price.

Your plan seems like a good one! I'm not sure how much Boreal costs. But if price becomes an issue, some of the higher-quality foods that aren't too expensive are: Chicken Soup for the Soul, Victor, Red Barn, Taste of the Wild, Dave's, 4Health, oh, and I'm sure I'll think of more later :D. None of those should have any coloring.

And if you have to, there are some Friskies and Fancy Feast flavors with no coloring.
 
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thegreystalker

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Of course your budget will dictate your choices but $20 is a very reasonable expense for cat food, in my experience.

I am a budget shopper so I frequently hunt for deals on cat food. No corn, no wheat, no soy recipes tend to cost more but quality brands can be had at discount if you know where to look for them.  For example, a few weeks ago the east coast locations of the Dollar Store franchise were selling cans of Newman's Own cat food for 50 cents each.  That stuff regularly sells for nearly a buck fiddy at pet stores.  Chewy.com is a great source.  And some good quality brands are less expensive to begin with.  My cat loves the recipes from Natural Value, a California company that manufactures and distributes organic products.  Natural Value cat food is a great bargain, especially the "chunk" varieties.  Their recipes do contain carregeenan, if that's a concern for you...but no artificial colors.
 
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jaspurrr

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Chewy looks really convenient.  I don't think they ship where I live though, so I ended up finding a pretty good pet store around here that carries more of the healthier cat foods, a lot of grain-free, etc.  They also had raw for a decent price, so when he's bigger/an adult I might look into that for him since it really won't be much different in price per month compared to my budget now.

Got him a bunch of different canned foods for him to try (Wellness, Instinct, Rawz, Hound & Gatos, Boreal, Merrick Purrfect Bistro) since it seems like the general consensus seems to be that switching between different canned foods is fine.  We'll see what he likes best and just make a list of what he does for when they have a sale on at the store.  In fact, as long as it's the same brand, I can grab any 12 cans of canned food and get case price discount.  So far he'll pretty much eat anything, thankfully, so sales should definitely help with the budgeting too.
 
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