Decent but economical dry food for 6 (!!!!) cats

gettingready

Teddy - 7.5kg - 7 yo
Fred - 6.5kg - 3yo
George - 6kg - 3yo
Phoebe - 6kg - 3yo
Macius - 4kg - 2 yo
Fiona - 4kg - 3 yo



So in total I have around 34 kg of cats at home :eek:

Even though Fred will never touch dry....so lets say 28kg of cats at home.

Just looked at feeding guide on Orijen cat and nearly got a heart attack - 6.8kg bag costs 52.99 and would last my lot... just over 2 weeks. So absolutely no way.

For this price I could get 2x6.8 kg bags of Taste of the Wild Rocky Mountain or Taste of the Wild Canyon River - according to their feeding guide .. can not work anything out as they state how many CUPS not grams.... why can not everyone just use grams? How do I know what "cup" do they mean?

I am also looking at Royal Canin - but they have so many varieties that I am getting a headache. Possibly RC Indoor Cat as they go out for short while only - would need about 12kg of this one per month. Bags are 10kg the biggest one... Hmmmm

Trying to budget monthly not buying for 2-3 months at once.

My lot have dry food in their dishes all the time and graze whenever they want so I may be completely wrong with my estimate "per total weight of cats" of course.

And they also have tinned food so perhaps do not need so much dry as I understand those feeding guides are for cats few dry only.

Anyone want to help me to work this out?

Lets assume 28kg of cats in total (disregard Fred, he prefers bread with butter/mushrooms/chick peas - ANYTHING apart from dry food, NEVER seen him having any).

I have been feeding them GoCat for a long time as had an awful lot of it from US but do not really want to buy any.

Got about 2 weeks to decide what to move them to. Want decent food but need to squeeze it in no more than £40 per month for the lot of them for dry food as got tinned food to buy on top of it...

Recommendations?

Friend at work who got 7 cats (good to know somebody has more than I do LOL) swears by RC Indoor cat re the solid deposits/less smell etc.

Anyone else can confirm this please?

Thanks...

EDIT - If it was not for Fred the weirdo - would only be buying dry but Fred does not ever touch any dry food so not possible. He even won't touch any treats like dreamies etc.. sigh.. Anyone wants to adopt Fred and make my life easier?

Celli

Have a look at Canagan, very similar to Orijen, but made in UK so cheaper, for a 4 kl bag it's about £ 32, which is about the same as RC, you do have p&p on top pf course, unless your lucky enough to have a local supplier.
I did have my kittens on RC but I'm not overly keen on it as the ingredients don't merit the price imo, can't say as I noticed any diffrence in the poo, between RC and Canagan, which they are on now.

rising_from_the_ashes

Did you ever try this stuff?

http://www.vitalinpetfood.co.uk/mall/productpage.cfm/VitalinCompletePetFood/_VitapurrAll/280882/Vitapurr

Good value & good quality

10kg would be £24 and I'm sure would do your lot a month!

I'd try to avoid RC if you can - reason being is that just about everyone I know that starts feeding it has real problems getting their cats off it and onto anything else. Not sure what they put in it and TBH probably don't want to (I know their dog food has known carcenogens (sp?) in it:()

ohmochraich

Highly recommend Eden cat food. £39.99 for 6kg. http://www.uk.edenpetfoods.com/eden-cat-food-18-c.asp. I originally got the dog food for my dog but the cats were stealing it. :rotfl: but thankfully they have now brought out the cat version with taurine added. You can make it go further by splitting it with the dog food which is £49.99 for 15 kg. my 4 cats are thriving on it. You also feed less than other brands. As cat food has just been released its not which rated yet but the dog food is 5 star rated. It's also grain free.

Beetlemama

A cup is an American measure, if you've got a measuring jug, it's half a pint.
Also, check on Amazon, I get my dog food in there on the "subscribe and save" and it saves me a fortune with their discount and free delivery.

hampshirebabe

Sorry no help with dry food, but if you're trying to cut cost's how about giving them a bit of fresh meat, chicken wings are really cheap and most cats seem to like them. I give my cat's one each a day when I remember to buy them, along with 1 tin of Butchers classic between the 2 cats and half a days portion of applaws dry cat food, although in this hot weather the dry food hasn't been touched, my boy cat has been asking for extra wet food and supplementing his diet himself with pigeons. (My little girl cat is at the vets :-()

krlyr

Beetlemama wrote: »

A cup is an American measure, if you've got a measuring jug, it's half a pint.
Also, check on Amazon, I get my dog food in there on the "subscribe and save" and it saves me a fortune with their discount and free delivery.

But different dry foods weigh different amounts - so trying to work out how many cups or pints in a 15kg bag, for example, is impossible if you don't know the weight of that cup. `

Dimey

If you are feeding a diet of mainly dry food grazing, please put down multiple water dishes (refresh twice a day) and also feed wet food twice a day.

Reason I say this is that cats who eat dry food only, don't get enough moisture and develop kidney disease. You can't be sure they are drinking enough so the wet food helps.

I had experience of this myself. Being out to work 7 days a week I thought the dry food grazing was perfect. Sadly I didn't realise about the water intake until it was too late. So now I spread the word.

hampshirebabe

This looks good, http://www.mymaddog.co.uk/15kg-vitalin-vitapurr-premium-hypoallergenic-cat-food-713-p.asp

Dimey

As to which brand of dry food. I wouldn't use Iams because of their cruelty testing on cats and dogs.

I used Hills but that's the brand my cats were on their whole lives (incl. kitten, regular, senior and KD) and they developed and died of kidney failure.

I now use Royal Canin wet and dry. I don't measure it. I just have dishes in 3 rooms that I keep fresh daily so its not stale. I have water dishes next to it.

(I put any uneaten cat food wet/dry out for the local fox family at night. They have two cubs at the moment.)

I feed half a sachet of wet per cat, morning and evening. If they wanted more I'd give it but they are happy with that.

If I had a kitten I'd start it on the raw meat diet like cats used to have. Lots of info online if you research. Far less expensive.

hampshirebabe

Dimey wrote: »

If you are feeding a diet of mainly dry food grazing, please put down multiple water dishes (refresh twice a day) and also feed wet food twice a day.

Or over water your plants regularly, my cats wont use their water bowls, but drink out of the plant trays.