The cost of feeding 4 cats on mix od dry/wet food

paddypaws101

With 4 cats to feed, forget the tiny tins of food such as Hilife pate...very poor value. Animonda is a great quality food but Butchers classic is not actually all that bad and less than half the price so I would be going for that right now. ( and is on special offer in Lidl right now £4.49 for a pack of 12 ) I would worry about buying the cheapest quality dry...but then again you could mix it with the taste of the wild and also you are still feeding wet so actually it should be ok.

paddypaws101

Oh, and the Animonda dry is not actually a great option so forget that. Have you looked at the A-z of foods list over on petforums as it gives some idea of daily feeding costs for foods.
These days I really do try to feed wet food, but TBH I fed exclusively dry for years and all my oldies did pretty well on it ( never bought cheapo brands mind you ) If money is really tight right now then stick mainly with dry for the 3 who eat it.

gettingready

Paddypaws - Is BUtchers classic the same as Classic that PAH sells?

I always worry about my 2 boys as the dihrea (spelling????) that I have spent loads of money at the vets for both of them never really went away, nothing was dignosed, cats have beautiful coats, are bouncy and normal just the poo is all over the place, my 2 boys not girls so can not work this one out... grrrrrr Maybe it is just the way they are? Had them for good 5 months now and they always been like that

Going to try and stick to Animonda for maybe 2 months and then see how they are on that - if still no difference, may have to look at some other cat food....

Can not just feed moist to Fred, once I open the tin they all run into the kitchen - already feel bad for Zara as sjhe loved her leftovers (tiney bits) but need to bring her weight down from 40kg to 35kg so she is on a strict diet and feels very sorry for herself poor girl.. But her hips are really bad and excess weight does not help...

AbCynthia - I do similar thing with cat litter but I do not use Oko, I use Clean N Tidy from PAH. I see so many people say Oko turns dusty? Clean N Tidy never does. I too have that massive cat litter tray that is the size of a baby bath and 1 bag of Clean N Tidy (7kg) fills it up to about half its hight. I do not scoop once or twice per day, I scoop non stop with 4 of them, as soon as I do - one is there within seconds... sigh... they are still young so maybe that is why? Anyway, I empty the whole 7kg into the tray, scoop 3787864876 times per day and at the end of the week siewe (yup) what is left, into a bag, clean the tray, put a new whole bag in and top up with the siewed leftovers of the last bag. A 7kg bag lasts me 7-8 days with my 4 cats and only costs £5.50 for 7kg which I think is brilliant, no waste with that litter at all....

Tracking is an issue, they do not dig it out as tray is very high but tracking...hmmmm My hoover has died, I only got it in November, was dead within 2 months (and it was supposed to be pet hoover - yeah right...) good I got it half price for £60 instead of £120 but of course did not keep a receipt so when the damn thing died I had no way of returning With a long haired GS and 4 cats - the hair etc killed it I think..... No money for a new hoover... grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr With laminate floors and leather furniture/glass tables etc - the fur is in the air all the time and drives me crazy....

Thanks for posting

spookylukey

Did your vet speak to you about probiotics for the boys with runny bums? Worked wonders for my cat's runny bum (after faecal tests ruled out any nasties).

Worth asking the vet about plain activia yoghurt or a veterinary powder version...

http://www.vetuk.co.uk/dog-supplements-cat-supplements-prebiotic-probiotic-products-c-5_172/lacto-b-powder-75g-pot-p-1657

gettingready

spookylukey - thanks for that, may get them some

Vet had no idea what is up with those 2 as they show absolutely no signs of being unwell in any way - apart from the poo issues (which do not seem to bother THEM)

I was going to ask people about plain yogurt for cats as I use it for my dog from time to time but was not sure about cats.... Thanks for that

rita-rabbit

free feeding is expensive - stop
Burns: best quality dried food in terms of cost - feed them that as well as wet (source best - I also feed anicondi carni - I heard Burns wet isn't a patch on Burns dried)

&

raw - so much choice - butchers good for chicken feet & boiling fowls @ £2 for 2 my way. As well as offal - beef heart etc.

rita-rabbit

gettingready wrote: »

Paddypaws - Is BUtchers classic the same as Classic that PAH sells?

I always worry about my 2 boys as the dihrea (spelling????) that I have spent loads of money at the vets for both of them never really went away, nothing was dignosed, cats have beautiful coats, are bouncy and normal just the poo is all over the place, my 2 boys not girls so can not work this one out... grrrrrr Maybe it is just the way they are? Had them for good 5 months now and they always been like that

Going to try and stick to Animonda for maybe 2 months and then see how they are on that - if still no difference, may have to look at some other cat food....

Can not just feed moist to Fred, once I open the tin they all run into the kitchen - already feel bad for Zara as sjhe loved her leftovers (tiney bits) but need to bring her weight down from 40kg to 35kg so she is on a strict diet and feels very sorry for herself poor girl.. But her hips are really bad and excess weight does not help...

AbCynthia - I do similar thing with cat litter but I do not use Oko, I use Clean N Tidy from PAH. I see so many people say Oko turns dusty? Clean N Tidy never does. I too have that massive cat litter tray that is the size of a baby bath and 1 bag of Clean N Tidy (7kg) fills it up to about half its hight. I do not scoop once or twice per day, I scoop non stop with 4 of them, as soon as I do - one is there within seconds... sigh... they are still young so maybe that is why? Anyway, I empty the whole 7kg into the tray, scoop 3787864876 times per day and at the end of the week siewe (yup) what is left, into a bag, clean the tray, put a new whole bag in and top up with the siewed leftovers of the last bag. A 7kg bag lasts me 7-8 days with my 4 cats and only costs £5.50 for 7kg which I think is brilliant, no waste with that litter at all....

Tracking is an issue, they do not dig it out as tray is very high but tracking...hmmmm My hoover has died, I only got it in November, was dead within 2 months (and it was supposed to be pet hoover - yeah right...) good I got it half price for £60 instead of £120 but of course did not keep a receipt so when the damn thing died I had no way of returning With a long haired GS and 4 cats - the hair etc killed it I think..... No money for a new hoover... grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr With laminate floors and leather furniture/glass tables etc - the fur is in the air all the time and drives me crazy....

Thanks for posting

I haven't tried it though.

Do stop free feeding & there will be alot less poop to scoop!

Abcynthia

Hmm definitely sounds like you might need to look into something to help their tummies as that will cut down the scooping

Mind you, you say you only have one tray? I have 4 (2 of which are jumbo, only the indoor lot use these trays so that would be 2 cats per tray) so this is probably why I don't need to scoop so much. As I said in my previous post I did find it went dusty if I didn't top up a little every day. But like I say I also feel that your issue might be with the problems you are having with runny bums.

I have dark carpets...so you can imagine how well the OKO shows up on that! :eek: I just have myself in a strict routine, which is working well now I would need to hoover up every day anyway because 7 of my cats are long haired!

Oh and yes classic is butchers classic. The butchers bit isn't very clearly marked. PAH sells it, Tesco sells it and Lidl have it on offer at the moment

gettingready

Zara was on Burns (tins) for long time before I switched her to Orijen.

Already tried Burns with the kitties, they did not like it at all (moist or dry). My old cat did nto like Burns either.

Raw food may be cheap if one has a friendly butcher around, I do not - and I only evr get my shopping online from Asda (saves on bus fare) once every 2 weeks or so - would not get cheap meat for kitties that way. They do get some raw when I buy wings for example, but those are normal price wings

Yes, I only have one tray out for them at the moment - I used to have 3 when they were little, then went down to 2 and they were only really using one so cut down to one as being at home I do not mind scooping every 5 minutes. If / when I go back to work, will have to take another tray out as it would not be possible to have just one and let them use it all day between 4 of them while nobody is at home to scoop it out, as cats of course they like it clean...

But I do not top up the litter at all, with the size of tray I have for them, I put the whole 7 kg in at once and then scoop up every time they go in. By the end of the week there is little left on the bottom, siewe it, wash the tray, put another bag in and add whatever was left from previous week. There is no dust from this litter/it does not turn into dust, it is very fine like sand so easy to sieve even the smallest bits out and keep whatever is left in the tray at the end of the week clean, there is no waste whatsoever. I would not pay any more for cat litter, this is the one I use:

mutter

I make a point of feeding my four on anything and everything so they don't get too picky and so I can take advantage of offers and promotions.
I always buy multipacks and really stock up when it's '2 for xx' or 'buy 2 get 1 free' or whatever.

I give them a can between them in the morning, and another at tea time, and they always have a bowl of bisuits available.

So - even at normal prices, 14 cans per week is around £7, and a 2kg bag of buscuits can range from £3 to £6+, but it shouldn't be too hard to feed them for £12 - £14 per week.