Whats the cheapest way to feed my cat?

Hi,

I have a three year old female cat and currently buy her tesco's own cat food in a six pack which lasts about a week.

Should I use biscuits to 'bulk' her food or are they only intended as a treat?

Do cheaper supermarkets do their own cat food

Thanks
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Comments

  • buy biscuit based and it'll be cheaper. use the meat for "treats". If your cat is still hungry then she'll go hunting for mice etc so don't worry about her starving..
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  • Swipe
    Swipe Posts: 5,064
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    Dried biscuits are much cheaper than tinned meat but make sure you buy a decent brand that protects from urinary tract infections. I'd leave a permanent bowl of buscuits out and then just feed her smaller portions of meat to supplement them.
  • Pink.
    Pink. Posts: 17,675
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    Hi Ian,

    You should get more help with this on the Pets & Pet Care board so I'll move your thread over there.

    If you do an advanced search on that board for threads with 'cat food' in the title there are numerous threads that should help.

    Pink
  • valk_scot
    valk_scot Posts: 5,290
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    Very cheap dried cat food is low in protein and bulked up with all sorts of stuff cats were never intended to eat. Buy a more expensive one and you'll find your cat will eat less of it and the price difference will be reduced. Whiskas is okay, better than most supermarket own brands, but the premium versions are better and there's always some sort of offer on somewhere. If you feed too low a protein food the cat will start begging for food to make up the difference and that's annoying. The other money saving tip here is to use a measure or scales to measure out a portion as per the feeding suggestions on the back of a pack. Throwing out uneaten food is the ultimate waste of money!

    You can of course up the protein by feeding carefully chosen table scraps and other foods. I buy my two cats an inexpensive tin of basic sardines or mackerel in oil once a week..30p or so and money well spent when you see the shine on their coats. They can also get the chewy bits of cooked chicken etc that you wouldn't eat yourself (chop very finely) and if you use a local fishmonger they'll normally sell you packs of fish trimmings for pet food. These can be frozen in portions. It sounds more expensive than cat food but you serve it instead of a cat food meal, not as well as. and you only need one or two treat meals per week.

    My two cats get half dry food, half wet, in seperate bowls, two meals a day. they get a tin of fish between them and one or two other non cat food meals a week. They look sleek and healthy on this, so I'm happy.
    Val.
  • ljonski
    ljonski Posts: 3,337 Forumite
    never give a cat especially a male only dry food as itcauses urinary problems
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  • gettingready
    gettingready Posts: 11,330
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    Cheap pet food is almost always mor eexpensicve in the long term as the pets tend to eat more of it and.. it often results in massive vet bills as a result of cheap pet food being fed to pets later on in their lives.

    False economy I am afraid.
  • gettingready
    gettingready Posts: 11,330
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    ljonski wrote: »
    never give a cat especially a male only dry food as itcauses urinary problems


    No it does not - good qyality dry food and plenty of water always available is fine for cats.. male or female.
  • MrsE_2
    MrsE_2 Posts: 24,162
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    No it does not - good qyality dry food and plenty of water always available is fine for cats.. male or female.

    I agree:D

    If I was going for cheap food I would go with Iams, I wouldn't touch anything else the supermarket sell.

    The more you spend the better food you get.
  • NJW69
    NJW69 Posts: 843
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    Aldi and Netto all do packet wet food. I just used to buy whatever was on offer and get a few at a time. Very often butchers and deli counters do 'pet bits' which are the ends of the cooked meats. Also look out for cheap sardines and tuna on offer on BOGOF as these often work out cheaper than cat food. My cat died recently and I think she had kidney disease which if you read up on, dried food can contribute to. For the last few months I just bought her the 'gourmet' ones and prawns etc because if a bag of prawns is £1.99 it will do about 10 meals which doesn't work out expensive after all.
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  • KiKi
    KiKi Posts: 5,377
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    I buy the £10kg packs of Hills Science Diet / Royal Canin. They last my two cats 4/5 months. Yes, they're £38 each, but that works out at maybe £1.50/£2 a week, much cheaper. You must always leave fresh water out with dry food.

    Cat food is like wine. You REALLY get what you pay for!! :) As others have said, if you pay for cheap food, your cat eats more, you pay more, and your cat may well end up ill because the food quality can be very poor.

    I would never, ever recommend dry food which are Supermarket brands, Whiskas, Go Cat, Purina (parent brand) etc. They are not good enough quality to feed on their own, IMO.

    I would *just* about let my cats eat Iams, but I don't rate them. They used to be really good, but Nestle bought them and changed the ingredients significantly enough to make a difference as far as many vets were concerned, who stopped selling them. If you're going to buy Iams you might as well pay £5 more and get Hills or Royal Canin and get much better quality.

    Use wet food as a treat every few days, or offcuts of meat. Oily fish in particular is great. When I use tuna from a can (in Spring Water only!), I always drain the water out for my cats who go a little crazy for it.

    www.petsupermarket.co.uk have excellent deals on the 10kg bags at the moment, and will deliver. They often have 2 for 1 deals and things like that, too.

    HTH :)
    KiKi
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