Can I get cat food and litter cheaper?

Miami

Hi! I'm hoping this is the correct place to post!

My mum and I own cats and at the moment I'm just wondering if we can get our cat food and litter any cheaper, without switching brands. We buy in bulk because it works out cheaper in the long run and we're able to afford what we're paying now, but if it's possible to get even £5 off our regular spend to put into savings / spend on other bills, neither of us would say no

Our cat tins are from Asda, specifically their own-brand Tiger range. We buy 6 tins for £1.99, which works out at 33p per tin. I've checked and their bulk buys actually work out more expensive -- £10 for 24 tins / 41p a tin -- so I'm fairly sure we can't get cheaper than that.

We buy our cat biscuits from the local pet shop -- a 10kg bag of Go Cat for £22.99, plus £2 delivery. We try to cut delivery costs by ordering two bags at a time (plus, this means we can alternate between different flavours) but the total cost of two 10kg bags plus delivery is £47.98. I tried searching Pets at Home online to no avail, and I'm not sure what other places are reliable. Any suggestions?

Our cat litter is also from the local pet shop -- we try to buy some at the same time as the biscuits to avoid the £2 delivery charge, but it isn't always possible. The name is Sanicat Antibacterial Cat Litter, £10.99 for a 25L sack so 44p per litre.

I can't seem to find anything that doesn't give me an astronomically expensive delivery charge, and I'm a little sceptical about buying from the internet (because if something goes wrong eg it doesn't turn up, we're both deaf so we can't ring up to complain and no, no-one can ring on our behalf). If any MSErs can recommend somewhere I can buy these products at a cheaper price than I am now, I'd really appreciate it

arbrighton

Er, greenfingered= gardens, there is a pets/ pet care board as part of marriage/ relationships/ families

DaftyDuck

Try the Zooplus website. Used them for years, brilliant service. And, yes, try the pets section of marriage board....

rising_from_the_ashes

TBH if you want to cut costs, you'll need to up quality IMHO

Although, for many human things, 'sm own' is just as good, I'm afraid it's not the same case for pet stuff

Many cheap products are full of fillers to bulk them out (and make them cheap) but you then need to feed a lot more than more expensive products (as you need less of these to fill the pet up)

I buy my cat litter from Zoo+ - it's £20 for 2 x 14kg bags. I bag goes in the tray and the 2nd does for top ups for about 2 months - very easy to clean, no smell, the cats like it AND it works out a lot cheaper than buying cheap stuff ....

http://www.zooplus.co.uk/ free delivery over £29 and you get cashback & there is a loyalty scheme too http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/cat_litter/golden_grey their customer service is great and they respond to emails very quickly

They do great wet foods - some like Smila work out very cost effective http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/canned_cat_food_pouches/smilla and one of the best budget dry foods is Porta 21 which is great quality, high in meat and cereal free http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/dry_cat_food/porta_21/porta21_feline_finest/170885.

Even my fussy 2 love it and it is not hugely more expensive than the GoCat and the quality is in a different league and so much better for your cats (and they will less of it to feel full so it will last longer balancing out the cost)

Another Porta 21 is even closer to the GoCat in cost (not grain free but has rice in & no wheat / maize etc which is OK) http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/dry_cat_food/porta_21/porta21_feline_finest/170517

catkins

I use Zooplus too and am very happy with them. I put in order this week on Monday and it was delivered on Wednesday. I make sure my order comes to enough so that I don't have to pay delivery charge

Rev

If change brands. Neither of those are good brands. They're full of fillers which means the cats will eat more. So you'll need to buy more.

I buy this from zoo plus.


http://m.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/dry_cat_food/porta_21/porta21_feline_finest/170885


The 10kg bag lasts around 4-5 months. The feeding guide is small because it's 60% meat. No grains.

It's free delivery over £29 too. Delivery usually takes 2-4 days.

I also go to my local b&m or home bargains and buy hi life pouches for 19p. They're also 60% meat. Sometimes they have boxes of 48 for £10-£12.


It cost me less than £5 a month to feed two cats a high meat grain free diet.


The higher the meat content the less they eat the less you spend.

Rev

If you look at the ingredients you will see a vast difference.

Portal 21 ingredients.


Ground chicken meat (64%), chicken meat (9.15%), chicken fat, dried potatoes, dried brewer's yeast, beet pulp (sugar removed), cellulose, MOS (mannan-oligosaccharides), FOS (fructo-oligosaccharide), dried cranberries, green tea extract.




Go cat ingredients

Grain, meat and animal by-products (10%, including 20% rehydrated meat and meat by-products, min. 4% chicken, 4% duck and 4% rabbit), plant-based protein extracts, oils and fats, vegetable by-products, minerals, yeast.

HappyMJ

Miami wrote: »

I can't seem to find anything that doesn't give me an astronomically expensive delivery charge, and I'm a little sceptical about buying from the internet (because if something goes wrong eg it doesn't turn up, we're both deaf so we can't ring up to complain and no, no-one can ring on our behalf). If any MSErs can recommend somewhere I can buy these products at a cheaper price than I am now, I'd really appreciate it

I'm not deaf myself but I never ring the companies that fail to deliver or the quality of the product is not as expected I always email and get responses that way. The resolution is exactly the same it's either redelivered or a refund is given. I really wouldn't worry about that. The reason I don't ring up is that I just can't stand being put on hold, I don't have a record of our conversation and I don't have an unlimited call plan on my phone....and besides emailing is much easier.

The last complaint I had was totally resolved over email and I got £250 in compensation so it's not that hard.

lisajane8482

Another vote for zooplus, I have only ever had one problem which was a littler tray had cracked in transit, I emailed them and they sent a new one straight out which arrived in one piece, I didn't even have to send the old one back.

We use golden grey master litter from there and for our 3 cats 2 bags lasts 2 months. £19.99 for 2 bags works out at £3.33 per cat per month.
http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/cat_litter/clumping_litter/golden_grey/29960

We only have 2 litter tray as our cats aren't fussy about going after another cat has been... In fact I think it's a ritual that after one has been another has to go in pretty much straight after. These are the litter trays I use
http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/cat_litter_litter_boxes/medium_litter_boxes/284528

http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/cat_litter_litter_boxes/medium_litter_boxes/328076
I can get 2 inches of litter in the bottom which means that I usually only give them a full clean out every 2 months.

For food we have 2 eat mainly wet food and a little dry, 1 eats mainly dry food and a little wet.
I've just swapped our cats from asda's tiger select pouches, Sheba trays and gourmet tins (which they were eating 6 a day of) to Animonda Carney tins. At the moment they're eating one tin a day between 3 of them (one only eats around 20g of it).
It cost around £50 per month to feed them supermarket food, it now costs just under £40 a month to feed them a higher quality food.
http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/canned_cat_food_pouches/rafine/megapack/158224

For the dry food we swap between Porta 21 grain free from zooplus (they get this most of the time)
http://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/dry_cat_food/porta_21/porta21_feline_finest/170885
And Harringtons from Asda (they get this occasionally)
http://groceries.asda.com/asda-webstore/landing/home.shtml#/product/910000512830
We go through around 3.5-4kg per month.

AbbieCadabra

another vote for zooplus, used them for years, never had an issue & usually delivered within 2-4 days. currently buying animonda carny senior & porta 21 dry food (senior/light version), works out pretty economical & decent quality ingredients.

i buy the big packs of cat litter from costco (that's the price delivered, in store i think it's just under £10 each). you have to be a member, but it can work out very cost effective as loads of food/home stuff that's very good quality & price. they do food too but it's only 2 varieties of felix from what i remember. i think the 44 pack of as good as it looks cost me £12 recently (same as zooplus, used to be a little cheaper at costco).

just had a look online & costco do their own brand dry food, i use a lot of their kirkland range & it's excellent quality. can't remember seeing this in store, but i wouldn't be looking for it so it could well be there too, should be cheaper as delivery included in online prices.

pawsies

Using go cat may result in increased vet visits as there seems to be a correlation between this and urinary issues in cats