canned vs dry question

Hi. I am new here and I had a question I was hoping I could get some help with. I have been researching what to feed my cats. I currently have one skinny 2 year old male cat, very active, one 6 year old overweight female, and one ?? years old female of perfect weight who has a history of sturvite crystals. I had been feeding Eagle Pack dry only and science diet to the one with crystals. Reading online I became convinced to feed them canned only. I had gotten the switch to about 1 can each per cat per day (2 meals) and only a few kibbles at bedtime so they would let us sleep. Anyway, I have realized that this is going to cost about 100.00 per month because the cans are so expensive/ I have been alternating between Natural Balance, Nutro, Merrick, Fosters and Smith and Eagle Pack canned. I honestly can't afford to feed the canned food (I also have two large dogs to feed, plus me and my hubby).
So now that I've rambled, my question is this: Is it better to feed a high quality food with a 50/50 mix (50% Eagle Pack dry and 50% various mixed cans, or is it better to switch to all canned, but by a lesser quality supermarket food. And which one would you choose, Friskies, NIne Lives, Whiksers, Fancy Feast, etc. OR does anyone know of anything more affordable? I live in NY and can afford to spend maybe $50 - $60 per month all told to feed the three of them. Thanks for any help and sorry to ramble.

Canned is now being seen as the best but 50 quality canned and dry would be good also ... I wouldnt do all grocery canned read them... Do you have a whole food s market or a trader joes?? I dont but I know that they carry very good canned without a high price... do you have a petsmart?? there authority brand canned is very reasonable and good ...

I have one cat on dry with a bit of canned or raw
one on raw
and a dog on dry and raw...

Thanks. I do have a Trader Joes nearby. I will definitely check that out. I also have Petco, not Petsmart. Does anyone else know of any decent brands that are a little cheaper, but still high quality? I really wanted to try to get them on the canned. I thought it would help with the crystals with Mew and with the weight problem with Whiskers.

I heard Chicken Soup for the cat lover's soul is cheaper and good....?

I didn't do the math but here are Petsmart's prices on Authority canned.


And, welcome to TCS.

Dan

Yeah if I keep up my new diet for kittys on Hills tins, it will cost my roughly £10 a week to feed all 3 roughtly, $20 i think maybe more, is that bad?

Originally Posted by 3CatCrew

Thanks. I do have a Trader Joes nearby. I will definitely check that out. I also have Petco, not Petsmart. Does anyone else know of any decent brands that are a little cheaper, but still high quality? I really wanted to try to get them on the canned. I thought it would help with the crystals with Mew and with the weight problem with Whiskers.

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My TJ's (I live in downtown Chicago) sells the single serve cans for 45 cents. My cats LOVE them. They weren't as big on the big cans (49 cents), but one of them still ate it.

I get Nutro in the bigger cans. I think they're like 15 oz. It's quite a bit cheaper for me that way. If I buy a whole flat of them at a time (12 large cans), they are discounted a little further. Ends up being about $1.08 per large can and it's equal to like 2 1/2 of the 6 oz cans or 5 of the small 3 oz cans. My cats eat about 50/50 too. I've also been thinking of switching them to strictly wet food though. They seem to have less digestive problems when I feed them mostly wet. Boy that Nutro canned food stinks to high heaven though they sure seem to like it! LOL A large 15 oz can last my 3 cats 2 days when I'm feeding them 50/50. So about .54 cents per day. Of course that's just for the wet. But I buy a 10 lb bag of Nutro dry or Max Cat and it lasts them a couple months.

High quality mix would definitely be better than exclusively canned junk food. Canned junk would help protect the urinary tract but leave them open to problems related to general nutrition.

Many foods are available in large (soup can size) cans, which helps moderate costs considerably.

Thank you for all of your replies. Unfortunately I do not have a Petsmart near me to check out Authority. But I am going to check out trader Joes next weekend if possible (about 1/2 hour or so away). I'm afraid to feed chicken soup right now because of the diamond recall. Also, I did not realize Nutro came in big cans. I will have to look around for those -- that would probably help too. Maybe the regular pet store I go to can order them. Does anyone know if Petco sells Nutro in the large cans? Petco isn't too far away either.

Originally Posted by 3CatCrew

Thank you for all of your replies. Unfortunately I do not have a Petsmart near me to check out Authority. But I am going to check out trader Joes next weekend if possible (about 1/2 hour or so away). I'm afraid to feed chicken soup right now because of the diamond recall. Also, I did not realize Nutro came in big cans. I will have to look around for those -- that would probably help too. Maybe the regular pet store I go to can order them. Does anyone know if Petco sells Nutro in the large cans? Petco isn't too far away either.

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Petco by me has big nutro cans in two or three flavors

I went to the innova website and found the one place in town that carries the canned stuff. It's soup can size and cost $1.40 (I think) which I thought was a pretty good deal.