# Cheaper wet food for cats?



## Zar

It's currently costing me more to feed two not-so-big cats than all three of my big dogs. They both eat canned Wellness (and it's running me roughly $70 a month). I have to find some sort of alternative. Right now I'm looking at either giving them some dry food with the wet to make it stretch, rotating in with a cheaper brand of wet food, or just switching to a cheaper brand of wet food altogether. I'm not sure which is best. This is for two 8 year old, fairly inactive and small/medium sized female cats.

I've looked into raw, but the only place I have easy access to is a Kroger, unless it's possible to do raw for less money than what I'm currently spending with that being the only place to get meat. I'm ok with ordering food from online (it's how they currently get Wellness).

Suggestions?


----------



## Maxy24

Do you have a Trader Joes? I've been told that their brand of wet food is pretty good and much cheaper than things like wellness. Otherwise Felidae is a little bit cheaper than other foods around here, but not by a whole lot.


----------



## Unosmom

yes, trader joes food is great, its around $.50-60 for 5 oz can. My other options would be chicken soup and felidae.


----------



## werecatrising

I don't know how it compares cost wise, but when I was feeding my cats canned they got eagle pack. I really watched sales. Places like pet care rx often would have good sales plus free shipping. I'd stock up then. Still, with 7 cats it was killing me.

They are all on PMR now and I spend less than half of what I did on canned. In the beginning they were on a pre made which cost slightly less than canned. From there I ground my own. That was even cheaper than the PMR but involved a lot of work.


----------



## Zar

Maxy24 said:


> Do you have a Trader Joes? I've been told that their brand of wet food is pretty good and much cheaper than things like wellness. Otherwise Felidae is a little bit cheaper than other foods around here, but not by a whole lot.





> the only place I have easy access to is a Kroger


This goes for everything.


----------



## Zar

werecatrising said:


> I don't know how it compares cost wise, but when I was feeding my cats canned they got eagle pack. I really watched sales. Places like pet care rx often would have good sales plus free shipping. I'd stock up then. Still, with 7 cats it was killing me.
> 
> They are all on PMR now and I spend less than half of what I did on canned. In the beginning they were on a pre made which cost slightly less than canned. From there I ground my own. That was even cheaper than the PMR but involved a lot of work.


I'm starting to think PMR might be cheaper than what I'm currently spending, I just don't know about how cheap it would be considering I can only get meat from one place and don't really have the option to shop around (like I do with ordering online dry/canned food).


----------



## Cliffdog

Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuude. Hey Zar. LOL.
I gotta agree with the raw, cats seem like they'd be pretty cheap to raw feed. Like just chicken wings, chicken organs, maybe some feeder mice from time to time.

ETA: Not to mention that if the mood really struck you, you could order online... Hare Today, My Pet Carnivore, etc


----------



## Zar

Cliffdog said:


> Duuuuuuuuuuuuuuuude. Hey Zar. LOL.
> I gotta agree with the raw, cats seem like they'd be pretty cheap to raw feed. Like just chicken wings, chicken organs, maybe some feeder mice from time to time.
> 
> ETA: Not to mention that if the mood really struck you, you could order online... Hare Today, My Pet Carnivore, etc


I'm pretty sure Kroger does not stock feeder mice, lol. 

I don't know much about ordering things online that need to be kept refrigerated like raw meat would besides vaccines, and I remember the shipping cost was always outrageous on that.

also, stop stalking me Paul.


----------



## Cliffdog

Feeder mice is something else you could order online (that's where we get ours for the snake) but you're right, shipping ain't cheap; it's only worth it if you buy in bulk. Feeder mice and other online orders wouldn't be a necessary thing, it was just something you could use to mix it up if you got the chance. I think the cat'd get all it needed from chicken. I'd get whole chickens so you'd get all the guts. Balance over time and the cat gets the whole carcass, and there you have a balanced diet- all the bone, meat, guts. Might could throw in some cheap cuts of beef or pork in every now and then for diversity but again, wouldn't be a necessity. Although it'd probably be healthful for the cat to get beef heart if you can get that at Kroger. I don't know what Kroger is like, assuming it's a grocery store, but Walmart and Winn Dixie have beef heart so it might. Heart's cheap, too.


----------



## naturalfeddogs

Heart would be a must for a cat, for the taurine. I'm not sure how much of it is in chicken, or if it would be enough. If we don't have heart, I will alternate between a meal of raw and a meal of kibble for our cat. Taurine deficiancy is bad, so I don't take the chance. 

Beef heart is best, but chicken heart is fine also and probably eaiser to find.


----------



## Cliffdog

Yeah, that's why I was saying to get the whole bird because it comes with it. Don't want to miss out on that heart and liver.


----------



## Zar

Cliffdog said:


> Feeder mice is something else you could order online (that's where we get ours for the snake) but you're right, shipping ain't cheap; it's only worth it if you buy in bulk. Feeder mice and other online orders wouldn't be a necessary thing, it was just something you could use to mix it up if you got the chance. I think the cat'd get all it needed from chicken. I'd get whole chickens so you'd get all the guts. Balance over time and the cat gets the whole carcass, and there you have a balanced diet- all the bone, meat, guts. Might could throw in some cheap cuts of beef or pork in every now and then for diversity but again, wouldn't be a necessity. Although it'd probably be healthful for the cat to get beef heart if you can get that at Kroger. I don't know what Kroger is like, assuming it's a grocery store, but Walmart and Winn Dixie have beef heart so it might. Heart's cheap, too.


I don't have a whole lot of storage space though, is the thing. I'd probably be having to only get enough to feed them for a week, maybe two, due to the storage space if I did actually go through with putting them on raw. Ordering in bulk probably wouldn't work out.
I know about the taurine thing, but I saw some people added taurine from supplements/pills. That I could easily order online. I'm not sure if Kroger has beef or chicken heart, I've never really looked a lot (though I probably will tomorrow).
Do you have Ralph's there? Kroger is basically just that. It's not nearly as big as a Walmart.


----------



## Zar

Cliffdog said:


> Yeah, that's why I was saying to get the whole bird because it comes with it. Don't want to miss out on that heart and liver.


I've never seen whole chickens with all the organs sold at the Kroger here though.


----------



## Scarlett_O'

TOTALLY agree with raw....NONE of my cats have EVER looked as amazing as our 3 right now!!:wink:

You live in Houston, TX and the only place you can go to is a single grocery store?


----------



## Zar

Scarlett_O' said:


> TOTALLY agree with raw....NONE of my cats have EVER looked as amazing as our 3 right now!!:wink:
> 
> You live in Houston, TX and the only place you can go to is a single grocery store?



I live in the general Houston area, not actually in Houston. If I put my actual city on there, no one would know where it is, so I generally just list Houston.
But yes, the only place I can actually get to on a regular basis is a single grocery store. Crazy.


----------



## Cliffdog

Zar said:


> I've never seen whole chickens with all the organs sold at the Kroger here though.


Oh, huh. I thought all chickens came with the guts. But yeah, I reckon supplements would work. But you'd need to buy liver if you can't get guts in the bird. Liver is important.


----------



## Zar

Cliffdog said:


> Oh, huh. I thought all chickens came with the guts. But yeah, I reckon supplements would work. But you'd need to buy liver if you can't get guts in the bird. Liver is important.


Can probably find liver.


----------



## Cliffdog

Sounds good to me then. Chicken + Liver + Taurine Sups or Heart. Should work out. The hardest part is getting your cat to eat it.


----------



## Zar

Cliffdog said:


> Sounds good to me then. Chicken + Liver + Taurine Sups or Heart. Should work out. The hardest part is getting your cat to eat it.


These are the least finicky cats in existence. They try to steal people food and even paper towels that once had people food on them constantly.


----------



## Scarlett_O'

Make sure you add in as much red meat as possible! Pork, beef, bison, rodent, game birds, etc.....cats NEED variety and they need the taurine that is by far easiest to come by via red meats!:wink: Even the 95% meat canned food would be something good to provide variety.

S.A.D. Dog Sushi, Texas Tripe, RodentPro, and a few others might be worth looking into for you as they ship/deliver!

Yes any raw is better then processed....but for cats it is VERY important to not just feed chicken.


----------



## Zar

I got them a chicken tonight just to see if they'd go for it. Gave them both a wing and they had zero issues devouring it and crunching through bone. They seemed pretty pleased with themselves. I got them some beef liver as well because it was on sale (got a whole pound for only 93 cents), but haven't tried that yet. 

A few questions:
I still have 16 cans of Wellness left. I don't want to let it waste so I figured for now they'd get one meal canned, one meal raw. I've seen other people do this without issue, so I don't think it'll be a problem, but the question is: will this provide them with enough taurine (for now)? 

About how long should a 4lb chicken last two 10lb cats?

What beef/pork/red meat cuts are best for cats?


----------



## GoingPostal

Depends on how much your cats eat, my cat same weight eats about 6 ounces a day so with her plan that would last two cats 5 days and change, I would think it would be fine for the taurine and I often did one meal canned, one raw when I was switching my cat. Really any meat they will eat is fine, hearts should be fed often but other than that as much variety as you can get. You can also buy powdered taurine to supplement if you are worried about it.


----------



## brandypup

My cats LOVED chiken wings! So glad yours are happy with them. 

Have you asked kroger if they can get you a box and if so how much? I get mine necks 17$ at the market. I recall publix and kroger said they could order for me but forget the cost. At the market I spend around 60$ every 2 weeks for 7 cats and 2 dogs. 

Buit that said, FYI a cheap canned food is better then kibble. My vet told me that a cheap canned food is better then a high quality kibble. I fed friskies canned for at least a year before switching. Just watch the graivies. I used pate. I was feeding orijen kibble at 60$ a month and my cats looked better and were healthier ont eh friskies canned at half the cost.


----------



## werecatrising

I get pork roasts for pretty cheap. I give the cats parts of that. Every now and then I can get beef roasts on sale. Otherwise they just get beef heart.


----------

