Any recomendations on cat food and litter

lindatoo

I know some might feel pets are a luxury but both of mine are rescue cats. First one acquired when a litter was abandoned next to  a neighbour's wheelie bin. And the other from cats protection with the idea it would be company for first one at a time when I when I was still working. (sadly they hate one another and spend much of their time trying to kill each other)

Over the years since retiring, like everything else they have become increasingly expensive, insurance, boosters, flea treatments etc.Not much I can do about those things but I am wondering if I could save money on food and cat litter. 

Cat no1 developed a tummy problem years ago and as well as some medication, the vet said 'try her on some fresh chicken or tuna for a while'. Now she wont eat anything else, except occasionally whiskas dry food which she will only eat if she has eaten everything else. Cat no2 is not as keen on the chicken and will sit cry at me until I go and open a tin of tuna. (I know they've got me for a fool) she will also eat dry food occasionally. I put dry food out everyday along with the other food.

Iv'e tried pouches no1 wont even entertain them, no2 just licks the gravy off. I buy 4 cans of tuna from Tesco 4 for £3 and chicken frozen breasts currently £3.79 for a kilo which usually lasts a week. So I'm paying about  £1.30 with the dry food included a day and I'm not sure if this a lot to spend or not. Is there anything that anyone can recommend that ideally would be cheaper or at least be proper cat food?  I'd prefer them to be eating cat food rather than human grade food but the premium stuff seems more expensive than what I'm currently giving them so it's a lot to spend to try it

The other ongoing expense is the cat litter not that they use it often during the summer,.I've always bought  Catsan as it is non clumping and absorbs smells quite well. At the beginning of the year it was £5.50 for 10L bag  and last time I bought it was £7.30 and I absolutely refuse to pay that again. So again any recommendations gratefully received.

katkin

I have an old boy on a prescription diet usually bought from the vet that I recently bought it online at a much reduced cost. The kitten is on supermarket wet and dry food and prefers Purina which I again bought in bulk online. Worth shopping around.

I also bought 30l of wood-based litter pellets from Ama*on for £6.08. Free delivery on Prime with a discount if you "buy now". Wood pellets smell nice and are super absorbent. Appreciate your cats may find it "different"  if they've been used to Catsan.

It may be worth looking to see if you can buy cheaper in bulk online. 

My wee one prefers Purina but if he is hungry enough he'll pinch food from the old boy and the next door neighbour's cat. The vet said it wouldn't harm him but not the best for a growing kitten and he'd eat what was given to him if he was hungry enough.

I know cats can be super fussy and try your patience but considering some of them eat their wildlife catch from outdoors I don't think they'll starve themselves. Difficult if they are pestering you though! Remember they are manipulative little so and so's.

Have a good chat with them about the cost of living 

MovingForwards

I get a big bag of wood pellet litter from pets at home. I also buy a bag of cat biscuits, but she gets about 5 from it a day.

Originally I always had regular kibble in her bowl, now one good kibble gets randomly thrown in. She adapted and stopped having a strop.

Cat food pouches are Sheena, Felix and some of the expensive ones from PaH (real fish) for weekend treats. Occasionally my OH has a tin of fish and she'll get a bit, but knows it's a special treat.

double_dutchy

We have 4 cats - 2 stay in at all times and one of the others is in 90% of the time. At one time we were spending £25 per month on Catsan cat litter.

We switched to using a "breeze" litter tray with wood pellets. There's a pad at the bottom which neutralises nasty odours and the wet pellets turn to sawdust and can be shaken out. One bag of litter has lasted 3 months, so even with the expense of the litter tray itself and the pads (you can get those cheap from Amazon) we will save £150 in year one.

lindatoo

katkin said:

I have an old boy on a prescription diet usually bought from the vet that I recently bought it online at a much reduced cost. The kitten is on supermarket wet and dry food and prefers Purina which I again bought in bulk online. Worth shopping around.

I also bought 30l of wood-based litter pellets from Ama*on for £6.08. Free delivery on Prime with a discount if you "buy now". Wood pellets smell nice and are super absorbent. Appreciate your cats may find it "different"  if they've been used to Catsan.

It may be worth looking to see if you can buy cheaper in bulk online. 

My wee one prefers Purina but if he is hungry enough he'll pinch food from the old boy and the next door neighbour's cat. The vet said it wouldn't harm him but not the best for a growing kitten and he'd eat what was given to him if he was hungry enough.

I know cats can be super fussy and try your patience but considering some of them eat their wildlife catch from outdoors I don't think they'll starve themselves. Difficult if they are pestering you though! Remember they are manipulative little so and so's.

Have a good chat with them about the cost of living 

Thanks will definitely look into your suggestions. The vet said I should just put down what I want to feed them and they'll eat it if they get hungry enough. I did try, only lasted 3 days before I caved as no1 wouldn't even sniff the dish. The Vet's response was I should have persevered as she is overweight anyway and going hungry for a bit longer wouldn't hurt her although she wasn't really going hungry as there was still the dry food. But my goodness the looks she was giving me. I need to get tougher! 

I do have regular chats with them. My neighbours say it often makes them smile, as I groom no1 outside and they regularly hear me saying 'I am trying to put this flea treatment on for your benefit else you'll get fleas and you'll be sad and I'll probably get bitten and I'll be sad'  Usually ends with 'Ouch, stop trying to bite me'. She really isn't a cat to listen to reason.

But I am definitely going to try again and not be such a pushover this time. Can I ask,roughly what do you pay for food per cat per day?

ariarnia

the problem with both whiskers (most supermarket cat food) and human food is that they're not actually very good for your cat. especially if one has a sensitive digestive system. human food doesn't contain all the vitamins and minerals a cat needs (unless you're feeding a proper raw food diet with added taurine and including organs/bone/skin). And the problem with supermarket food is that cats are obligate carnivores (they can't digest non-meat) but one of the way places like whiskers save money and make food taste 'good' to cats is they fill it with grains and sugar.

ingredients: CHICKEN BY-PRODUCT MEAL, GROUND YELLOW CORN, CORN GLUTEN MEAL, WHEAT, SOYBEAN MEAL, ANIMAL FAT (PRESERVED WITH MIXED TOCOPHEROLS), PORK MEAT & BONE MEAL, NATURAL FLAVOUR, CHICKEN, POWDERED CELLULOSE, DRIED BEET PULP, WHEAT FLOUR, BREWERS RICE, POTASSIUM CHLORIDE, CARAMEL, VITAMINS 

everything in bold your cats can't actually digest, but unless you feed a raw food diet theres always going to be some 'filler' and for favour. the problem is the wheat and gluten that's the equivalent of a macdonalds burger being fed to someone sensitive to gluten. it might taste good today but its not going to be good for them long term. feeding gluten free can even save you money on cat litter as they should make less poo and their poo should be more dry/less smelly after they have adjusted. 

that said if you are willing to buy in bulk (not silly sachets at more than a pound a pop) you can get gluten free wet and dry food at about £3 a kilo (which is cheaper than most human tuna or chicken). but you will have to be firm because what child wants to eat healthy when they can have burger and cake if they make a fuss?

we have a rescue with kidney issues so feed more wet than dry but buy from zooplus and these products are both cheap and gluten free 

https://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/canned_cat_food_pouches/smilla/smilla_saver_packs/565541
https://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/canned_cat_food_pouches/bozita/bozita_saver_packs/554382
https://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/canned_cat_food_pouches/bozita/bozita_saver_packs/358729

animonda carney and MACs big tins are also good but hard to find. 

these are the dry food we sometimes buy (but only really in the middle of summer when its really hot and the flies are being a bother) https://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/dry_cat_food/smilla/smilla_special_nutrition/895318
https://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/dry_cat_food/crave/1379645
https://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/dry_cat_food/sanabelle/sanabelle_special_nutrition/313863

you can buy smaller packs to see if the cats will eat it but the savings are from buying the larger packs

katkin

lindatoo said:

But I am definitely going to try again and not be such a pushover this time. Can I ask,roughly what do you pay for food per cat per day?

I chatter away all day to my cats. It's amazing how good they are at solving complex work problems   

Quick mental tot up of cost per day. The kitten is c£1.40 and the old boy who is on a urinary tract reduced calorie diet (pouches and dry) is c£3.50. They hardly use the litter box being outdoors cats, I'm expecting that 30l bag to last 6 months.

The prescription diet has likely saved us thousands on vet bills over the years and keeps bagpuss alive. 

If she eats the dry why not stop the pouches etc for a bit, then re-introduce them as a special treat 

If she''s fine on dry food only I'd add more water dishes. Cats can be fussy with water and my vet told me to put several fresh bowls out not beside the food as they apparently don't like drinking where they eat. That worked for us and I now have 3 bowls dotted around the house. Of course they still drink out of puddles and glasses of water if given half a chance...  

My kitten ate a huge spider yesterday, absolutely disgusting. He didn't look like he enjoyed it either but managed all the same... you just have to love them don't you. Contrary but beautiful beasts! 

Brie

Another vote here for Zooplus and Smilla food.  It was great when our Ariadne was diagnosed as diabetic.  There was a great selection of non grain food and snacks available.  She was particularly fond of the freeze dried chicken treats.  

Catsan worked great for us and getting it from zooplus delivered was great.  It was as cheap or cheaper than the shops and I didn't have to lug it about.  For ease though I used the prepacked tray bags as Ari got less able to easily use a tray which was upstairs (impossible to drag a 10k bag up there).  Also I used the puppy pads under/around the tray to make cleaning up easier.  They also helped reduce the spread of the litter.  Not completely unfortunately - not sure if it was just her but that stuff would get tracked through out the house.  In fact it's now a year after she departed and I've just found a bit of litter in a particularly hard to hoover bit under the radiator in the back bedroom.  

Best watering holes for any cats I've had is the saucers under neath large plants and, of course, the watering can.  Rust, frogs and all.

lindatoo

katkin said:

lindatoo said:

But I am definitely going to try again and not be such a pushover this time. Can I ask,roughly what do you pay for food per cat per day?

If she eats the dry why not stop the pouches etc for a bit, then re-introduce them as a special treat 

If she''s fine on dry food only I'd add more water dishes. Cats can be fussy with water and my vet told me to put several fresh bowls out not beside the food as they apparently don't like drinking where they eat. That worked for us and I now have 3 bowls dotted around the house. Of course they still drink out of puddles and glasses of water if given half a chance...  

My kitten ate a huge spider yesterday, absolutely disgusting. He didn't look like he enjoyed it either but managed all the same... you just have to love them don't you. Contrary but beautiful beasts! 

Good idea thanks. I also have water bowls all over the house, their favourite being the large mug I have on the living room floor,I put there after no2 kept trying to drink my tea. I'm sure they think they're having same as me. Contrary, beautiful and just a little bit weird. 

lindatoo

ariarnia said:

the problem with both whiskers (most supermarket cat food) and human food is that they're not actually very good for your cat. especially if one has a sensitive digestive system. human food doesn't contain all the vitamins and minerals a cat needs (unless you're feeding a proper raw food diet with added taurine and including organs/bone/skin). And the problem with supermarket food is that cats are obligate carnivores (they can't digest non-meat) but one of the way places like whiskers save money and make food taste 'good' to cats is they fill it with grains and sugar.

ingredients: CHICKEN BY-PRODUCT MEAL, GROUND YELLOW CORN, CORN GLUTEN MEAL, WHEAT, SOYBEAN MEAL, ANIMAL FAT (PRESERVED WITH MIXED TOCOPHEROLS), PORK MEAT & BONE MEAL, NATURAL FLAVOUR, CHICKEN, POWDERED CELLULOSE, DRIED BEET PULP, WHEAT FLOUR, BREWERS RICE, POTASSIUM CHLORIDE, CARAMEL, VITAMINS 

everything in bold your cats can't actually digest, but unless you feed a raw food diet theres always going to be some 'filler' and for favour. the problem is the wheat and gluten that's the equivalent of a macdonalds burger being fed to someone sensitive to gluten. it might taste good today but its not going to be good for them long term. feeding gluten free can even save you money on cat litter as they should make less poo and their poo should be more dry/less smelly after they have adjusted. 

that said if you are willing to buy in bulk (not silly sachets at more than a pound a pop) you can get gluten free wet and dry food at about £3 a kilo (which is cheaper than most human tuna or chicken). but you will have to be firm because what child wants to eat healthy when they can have burger and cake if they make a fuss?

we have a rescue with kidney issues so feed more wet than dry but buy from zooplus and these products are both cheap and gluten free 

https://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/canned_cat_food_pouches/smilla/smilla_saver_packs/565541
https://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/canned_cat_food_pouches/bozita/bozita_saver_packs/554382
https://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/canned_cat_food_pouches/bozita/bozita_saver_packs/358729

animonda carney and MACs big tins are also good but hard to find. 

these are the dry food we sometimes buy (but only really in the middle of summer when its really hot and the flies are being a bother) https://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/dry_cat_food/smilla/smilla_special_nutrition/895318
https://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/dry_cat_food/crave/1379645
https://www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/dry_cat_food/sanabelle/sanabelle_special_nutrition/313863

you can buy smaller packs to see if the cats will eat it but the savings are from buying the larger packs

Thanks I might give them a try if I can find some smaller packs as the reviews are mainly good, but some owners have said they didn't agree with their cats

PM22

I feed my cat Felix pouches Countryside collection which you can only buy in Sainsbury's (We eat from Aldi).
Minnie gets 3 pouches a day costing £0.99p but she refuses dry food. She sometimes gets a bowl of tuna or ham