Keeping food bills down whilst improving quality.

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

The vet has suggested that I change the cats' diet. One gets diarrhoea and itchy skin, one throws up 10 minutes after breakfast, and one seems relatively normal. The latter is 7 and the approximate size and intelligence of a small sheep (she's a Maine Coon, so that's par for the course), one is skinny as a rake, one is quite muscular and normal build (eventually - he's always been a fat so and so until we moved to a house with a garden and he discovered the joys of protecting his own territory). They have been given the same food all the time.

The muscular one is off out a lot, the other two don't really do much, the skinny one the least of all, as she will only step foot outside if it's with me. Neither have many teeth left at 13 years old. There's also a new kitten coming next week. :j


I bought some Applaws today from PAH as a trial. The skinny, old, fussy cat, who would rather starve than be fed something more than twice, threw herself at my chest and screamed at me until I got the still sealed packets out of the carrier bag.

She then demolished two packets of chicken and pumpkin, fell asleep in front of the fishtank for half an hour before waking up to steal some mackerel teriyaki (my dinner), demanding another pouch and is currently draped across my shoulder and neck, purring, grinning and farting her way through her dreams.


Obviously, as this reaction is only matched by their response to my opening a tin of crab meat, tuna, bringing home sashimi/prawns or salmon, the old cat food must have got so bad that they don't regard it as a foodstuff anymore.




Ideally, I would like to keep the animal food bill down to under £20 a week. If I go the Applaws route, that's not going to happen. Not at 68p a packet at 9 - 12 per day. _pale_



Does anyone have advice on how to keep the costs down without trying to keep them on the abbatoir floor sweepings and chemical junk that's been causing problems? (I don't have a freezer and chicken wings are useless for the toothless wonders - they will fight to the death over a chicken spine, but end up giving it to the crows as they can't actually eat it)

Help!

Rev

Applaws wet isn't a complete food, it's meant as a side to their dry. I use it as a treat. Get it in sainsburys, it's labelled encore there but it's the same stuff.

Have you tried natures menu? Pets at home do 48 pouches for about £22, it's 70% meat (ish). It's been great for my boy, he was on steroids for his skin for months, he's very much on the mend now and the throwing up has stopped. Plus, it's grain free.

I also grab the hilife 60% meat pouches from b&m, home bargains etc for 19p.

I feed both mine grain free for about £20 a month, but they're just regular sized moggies. But with a budget of £80 a month it's very easily do-able.

Pets at homes purely has a decent meat content too, not great, but decent and it's well priced. They do purely trays too at 90% meat.

If you dont mind ordering online, Have a look at bozita on zoo plus, best wet available IMHO (also in asda as top life chicken dinner, but more expensive). 93% meat. You can get 6 480g cartons for about £5. Gravy or jelly. Excellent food.

Nod_Off

If you can afford to buy in bulk, have a look at the Berriewoods website as you can find great savings on there with a lot of the brands.

rising_from_the_ashes

LOL - I gave mine a tin of tuna the other night (not had any for months) and you'd think they'd not been fed that whole time the way it was devoured;)

I've tried loads of "better quality" wet food without much success unfortunately.

Bozita probably went down the best of them but found they wouldn't get through a pouch before it went off (you'd probably not have that problem tho';)) - works out about £1 / 370g (depending on flavour) pouch which would probably last your lot a day?

Still more than £20/month - but better than £8.40_pale_/day.

I found getting it to try a pain - many places do in packs of the same flavour (Zoo+) and those that sell it individually have high spend before free delivery (Seapets etc) ....


Do they eat dry too or solely a wet diet?

Fridaycat

I feed mine Applaws/Almo/Encore (all the same thing) from time to time as a treat, but as Rev said, it is a complementary rather than complete food, so it is only occasional.

I feed mine dry Royal Canin in the morning (have given up trying to get them to eat higher quality dry such as Orijen) and wet in the evening - I rotate between Grau Grain Free, Bozita and Smilla. I have to be careful what I feed them because the two Bengals have sensitive tummies and are prone to diarrhoea and one of my moggies also tends to be sick after eating, as he can sometimes wolf stuff down too quickly.

I have found with any of the above three, the diarrhoea/sickness problems are pretty much resolved.

I get all of these from Zooplus at reasonable prices - the Grau is the most expensive, the other two are a very reasonable price per kg. And all are high quality, premium meat and grain-free.

gettingready

I have to say I have tried feeding Animonda, BOzita, Grau etc etc and my 3 are simply not interested.

BUT they like Classic from PAH:



http://www.petsathome.com/shop/classic-meat-in-jelly-cat-food-tins-400gm-24-pack-14605

I have seen Classic in Tesco's too, smaller "packets" of I think 12 tins....

Fred will not touch ANY dry food EVER. Teddy and George seem to even prefer dry to wet. With dry I mix them in a bucket : Taste of the Wild (zooplus), Hills Oral Care, Hills Hairball, Bozita and Go Cat. So that way in my head they get some balance.... sigh.....

Wet - Classic and Felix but only "as good as it looks" and that one only ocassionally...

What I find is expensive with my lot is the litter.... sigh....

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Oh dear, I checked the Applaws pouches and they didn't say they were only complementary food.

The MC loves MC Royal Canin. The others love it until they decide they don't want it anymore. All the posher dry food I have tried has been sneered at, and the cheapie stuff may as well be aquarium pebbles for the chances of being eaten. The skinny one now refuses dry food, the muscly one wolfs it and then throws it up and wants another breakfast. Orijen was treated with equal contempt as Go Cat. Iams (ergh) will only be eaten when it's just out the packet, but not the rest of the time. And it's flipping expensive to have to buy it in small packets everytime.

They've had Classic, liked two flavours for about five days and then refused to eat it.

And now, this morning, skinny has demolished half a packet of Applaws chicken and ostrich (but she could still be full from last night, as she is extremely happy still), muscly has eaten a bit and wandered off into the garden, where he is staring into space and the 'normal' MC has eaten a bit, walked off as it's not crunchies and is now trying to go to sleep on the armchair.


:wall:


Why can't they sell spider, moth and cranefly flavour cat food?

rising_from_the_ashes

Can I add "mouse" to that list please JoJo ........ sure that would be the end of my problems!

Although, I had to say but your lot nearly sound worse than mine (and I didn't think that was possible) - at least they'll eat their dry quite happily (touch wood) - Royal Canin.

gettingready

Remember something else Jo - the second you think you found something you think they like and happily run to the shops to stock up - the same second they will ALL go off that particular food..... But I am sure you know that already.... sigh....

paddypaws101

I am presently having success with Feline Fayre ( the BLACK range which is complete ) Both the tuna flavour and the chicken, sachets and tins are all popular here and not too expensive at all . sachets 38p and tins currently 3 for £1 in Asda.
They are the shredded white meat type similar to Applaws.

ka7e

My skinny Maine Coon (with 5 teeth) has really bulked up on Gourmet tins and pouches and his coat is thick and fluffy for the first time EVER! He also had a tendancy to bolt food and have it bounce right back up :shocked: , but hasn't done so on this. I shop around to get the best price.

My 2 other cats - 1 smallish moggie and one big MC are fed on Fish4Dogs dry cat food which is 70% fish (and smells like it!). They all love the Salmon mousse but it doesn't agree with the MCs so the dog has it as a treat.