Cat Food Questions

Sassamac

I am after some tips please on the cheapest way to feed my 2 cats.

When we got them as kittens the RSPCA home insisted we keep them on dry mix food for a while as when they had tried to wean them onto meaty food it gave them the squits. Until they were a year old we continued to feed them the very expensive kitten feed that the rehoming centre recommended (back when our income was much higher).

Anyway since then (the last 8 months) we have just fed them the 'complete meal in a biscuit' crunchy things from the supermarket.
Recently my parents donated some pouches of proper cat food ('Felix') that their cat turned her nose up at. Our cats wolfed them down (we rationed them to one a day) and since then I feel really guilty aboiut not feeding them meat. we rarely feed them scraps / leftovers because there rarely are any, although they have done well out of the Christmas ham fat, Turkey innards etc.

I have bought them some (pigs I think) liver from the supermarket as there was a fair of 'meat' for about 60p, but its obviously trial and error as to what they lke because they often dont eat the 'meat' we put out for them.

So what do your cats eat and how much does it cost you (per cat) to feed them for a month?

Pink.

Hi Sassamac,

You should get more help with this on the Pets moneysaving board so I'll move your thread across for you.

Pink

Edit, I just had a quick look and this thread might help: Cat Food Questions

jcr16

my cats eat my cat food from morrisons. it is £6.99 for 24 tin's. they do like whiskers and felix, but it gives them wind. and the cats stink , lol.

i also use tesco value cat food dry mix. one bag of this last per month. and i prob buy 3 trays on 24 cans. as i have 3 cats. 1 girl and 2 boys and the boys are much hungarier.generally i get through 2 tins a day between them. but sometimes more.

But they do eat our food. if say i have any meat left from roast i will give them a little chopped up. if i have cooked a spag bol, they love this espesh the pasta with cheese. i don't tho give them too much of our food. as i don't want it to upset tere tummy.

One of my cats is addicted to malteasers tho. he will such the chocolate off before crunching the biscuits. lol.

Badger_Lady

I got mine at 8 years old and was told he'd only eat Felix wet food... but recent experimentation (when the supermarket was out of stock) showed that he's just as happy with Tesco's own.

I give him biscuits every couple of days - there's one brand that's always much cheaper than even the Tesco stuff, does anyone know what it's called? I always forget! It's in a pink box.

Occasionally, he has a special treat of Tesco Value frozen prawns, which send him completely insane... but he doesn't get any other scraps or "real" food, except maybe a pea-sized taster of my dinner :-)

According to my spending diary, he gets about £15 a month of my wages - half of that gets eaten, and the other half gets shat on.

Horace

Loan the cats to folks that have mice.

viticella

Dry food works out much cheaper, even good quality stuff like Purina. A £30/7.5kg sack of Purina ProPlan lasts me nearly three months (2 female cats), and there are cheaper brands too. Just need to make sure the cat has lots of water available.

the_devil_made_me_do_it

Please don't give cats dried foods.

My cat developed Diabetes mainly due to finding small amounts of dried cat biscuits. My vet totally advised against giving her anymore. They are full of starch and cats can't cope with it. They ain't good at all for cats. A lady i spoke to in a supermarket a couple of weeks ago, said her daughter's cat had to have a serious operation on it's intestines due to the dried food not being digested properly and causing severe blockage.

Cats don't drink much as it is. They get alot of moisture from "wet" cat food; but feeding them dried food (even with water) can/does cause them problems; their urine gets very strong and can burn their insides.

Dried food maybe cheaper, but your pocket may suffer in the long run.

ClaireLR

My cats eat dry food and they love it. I buy 2 boxes of dry food so they can have a bit of either, they ll eat any type, asda's own and once I bought tesco value which they loved.

I also give them one pouch per day between 2 of them, I know that doesnt seem like much but they sometimes dont even eat that and prefer to still eat the dry food.

Sometimes I give them a tin of value tuna, 29p (prob once a week) and they ALWAYS without fail scoff that up

the other day I opened a tin of tuna and started putting it in the dish when I noticed it looked funny, looked on the sideof the tin and I was actually feeding them RED SALMON! Funny thing was they only ate a bit whereas value tuna is gone in the blink of an eye!

Moneysaving cats!

the_devil_made_me_do_it

ClaireLR your cats love dry food cause that's their only option + it's nice and starchy.

I've just had experience which has proven to me that dried food isn't good and isn't moneysaving in the long run.

ClaireLR

They do ahve the pouches as well but like I said half the time they aren't interested in those to much

What do you feed your cats??