Rescue kittens...eating us out of house and home!

Sburke

Ok, we're now at 6 rescue cats and the food bill is climbing :-) We have them on a wet/dry mix but the wet food costs a fortune!! We're using wiskas wet simply steamed and purina dry. Any thoughts on how we could reduce our feed bill? I know we should try weaning them off the wiskas but with 6 of them, it's a really difficult task!! All advice appreciated :-)

Themadhouse

Your best bet is to wean them off the whiskas completely, its brutal food for them.
Bulk buying dry food is the only way. We have 10 cats here and use applaws dry, 15kg for €80 which lasts us about 5 weeks. with a few cats it really is the only way to do it.

Sburke

Thanks TMH. I hadn't realised wiskas was bad for them :-( Any tips on weaning them off it? They're ranging in age from 10 years to 5 months old....I've no idea how to wean them all! I'll know better with the next ones :-) I'm already planning how to take more rescues in....just haven't told my husband yet.

Themadhouse

If you are feeding 4 pouches a day, half it. and every few days continue to half the amount. You could give them wet food as a treat say once a week but i would go with Felix as good as it looks rather than the whiskas. But yeah i would look at zooplus maybe and see about getting a good few kilos of food in the one go, it'll be cheaper.

Themadhouse

12kg of almo nature dry ( good food) for €50. that would last you weeks.
Just an example.

Sburke

Thanks for the tips TMH :-) I usually give them 2 pouches a day...milly gets 3 as she has little or no teeth (another story!) I've been cutting back on the wet food already as they're all neutered and tending towards chunky! I'll work on getting them weaned over the next few weeks and keep you posted.

Themadhouse

If you are worried about Millie not getting enough food you could soak one bowl of dry food in warm water and that will soften it for her.
Wet food is so expensive to feed. We have 6 kittens here who are 15 weeks old now and over the last 2 weeks have been weaning them off the wet and onto full time dry. Its so expensive to feed wet all the time.

Ziegfeldgirl27

Just be careful, my kitten was hungry all the time and had a dry food only diet. Then last year I noticed that he had blood in his urine. It turned out that because the dry food is so concentrated, the urine was forming little crystals which was causing the blood. He now gets one pouch of wet food per day, together with his dry food. the vet recommended this to me.

Sigma Force

You have to be cruel to be kind with cats when it comes to food because the wet stuff stinks their poop and costs a fortune.

Check out sites like zooplus for good quality dry food. You'll just have to put your foot down and they will eat it if they are hungry..they will test you though and they will act like they are inable to eat it but they are well able if they want it.

You can always give them the odd treat of chicken or fish or the like now and then but having a food bin with a large bag of dry food in it is the cheaper option.

mymo

Dry is much cheaper for a number of cats as said.
I often get Bozita wet food on offer on zooplus, and dish it up with some warm water and dry mixed in, one carton(about a tin size) does 3 cats for 2 or 3 dinners as a treat.

Nody

What I've found is going to a high quality, high protein, dry food has reduced how much our two cats eat (esp. Alice who tended to wulf through food). We're currently using Acana Wild Prairie Cat Food which is 65% meat and works wonders for us (we switched over from Royal Canin 37 Steralized) and it works out as cheaper over all (at least so far) even if the bags are smaller (7kg vs. 10kg) and the cats preferred Acana over RC making it a easy switch.

With that we mix in some soft treat food after play time, some high quality pouches etc. as well. Sadly our kitties did not like chicken wings though so no fresh meat switch yet.

hadook

If you're bulk buying on zooplus use the German site (zooplus.de) as it's often cheaper than the Irish site for the same products and everything ships from the same warehouse anyway. If you use Google Chrome it'll auto translate for you too.

I personally free feed mine dry food (24/7 access to kibble and water) and they get wet food or chicken legs/wings every evening (Sanabelle, Bozita, Taste of the Wild & Smilla are the current favourite brands). I've found offering both is the best way to keep clean teeth, shiny coats and their weight down. I don't think I'm spending more than 30c per day per cat on food

planetX

hadook wrote: »

If you're bulk buying on zooplus use the German site (zooplus.de) as it's often cheaper than the Irish site for the same products and everything ships from the same warehouse anyway. If you use Google Chrome it'll auto translate for you too.

I personally free feed mine dry food (24/7 access to kibble and water) and they get wet food or chicken legs/wings every evening (Sanabelle, Bozita, Taste of the Wild & Smilla are the current favourite brands). I've found offering both is the best way to keep clean teeth, shiny coats and their weight down. I don't think I'm spending more than 30c per day per cat on food

really? the brands you mentioned are expensive, just wondering how you figure 30c per cat. I'm probably spending 3 times that and I'm feeding whiskas

mark renton

Themadhouse wrote: »

. You could give them wet food as a treat say once a week but i would go with Felix as good as it looks rather than the whiskas.

But 8/10 cats prefer whiskas, so you run the risk of disappointing a couple

Nody

planetX wrote: »

really? the brands you mentioned are expensive, just wondering how you figure 30c per cat. I'm probably spending 3 times that and I'm feeding whiskas

You pay a ton for their commercials but very little for the actual food content so the cats have to eat that much more to compensate it. Good high protein food will mean they eat less and your need to give constant bags of wet food goes down and hence your over all cost goes down accordingly. Even on RC buying 10kg bags I was hitting less than 35c per cat (but the key thing is you need to buy the biggest bags to get the best discount basically).

planetX

Nody wrote: »

You pay a ton for their commercials but very little for the actual food content so the cats have to eat that much more to compensate it. Good high protein food will mean they eat less and your need to give constant bags of wet food goes down and hence your over all cost goes down accordingly. Even on RC buying 10kg bags I was hitting less than 35c per cat (but the key thing is you need to buy the biggest bags to get the best discount basically).

Ah, problem is too many cats... when I was feeding RC one cat got obese, others at the time were underweight. I have to free feed, and find that on whiskas they all regulate their weight better.

Nody

planetX wrote: »

Ah, problem is too many cats... when I was feeding RC one cat got obese, others at the time were underweight. I have to free feed, and find that on whiskas they all regulate their weight better.

RC is better then Whiskas on general food content but I know people who've had similar issues (need to play around with RC to find the right one for each cat) but I'd recomend Acana instead for either brand. Yes it's moer expensive up front but the quality is night and day and the price per serving comes out same/cheaper as the cats tends to eat less.

Here's an list of food content from Whiskas Dry Cat Food indoor
POULTRY BY-PRODUCT MEAL, GROUND YELLOW CORN, BREWERS RICE, CORN GLUTEN MEAL, DRIED PLAIN BEET PULP, NATURAL CHICKEN FLAVOR, ANIMAL FAT (PRESERVED WITH BHA AND CITRIC ACID, SOURCE OF MEATY FLAVOR), WHEAT FLOUR, POWDERED CELLULOSE, POTASSIUM CHLORIDE, INULIN, CHOLINE CHLORIDE, SALT, CALCIUM SULFATE, TAURINE, DL-METHIONINE, DL-ALPHA-TOCOPHERYL ACETATE (SOURCE OF VITAMIN E), ZINC SULFATE, L-CARNITINE, YUCCA SCHIDIGERA EXTRACT, NIACIN, COPPER SULFATE, VITAMIN A ACETATE, VITAMIN B12 SUPPLEMENT, THIAMINE MONONITRATE (VITAMIN B1), RIBOFLAVIN SUPPLEMENT, MANGANESE SULFATE, D-CALCIUM PANTOTHENATE, PYRIDOXINE HYDROCHLORIDE (VITAMIN B6), BIOTIN, VITAMIN D3 SUPPLEMENT, FOLIC ACID, POTASSIUM IODIDE.

Acana Wild Prairie Cat
Chicken meal, russet potato, boneless chicken, boneless walleye, whitefish meal*, peas, chicken fat, sun-cured alfalfa, chicken liver, boneless Lake Whitefish, whole eggs, salmon oil, sweet potato, pumpkin, spinach, turnip greens, tomatoes, carrots, apples, organic kelp, cranberries, blueberries, juniper berries, black currants, chicory root, licorice root, angelica root, fenugreek, marigold flowers, sweet fennel, peppermint leaf, chamomile flowers, lavender flowers, summer savory, rosemary.

Notice a difference in the parts making up the content of the food? Whiskas is all about by products and carbs (corn, rice etc.) while Acana is human grade meat (i.e. meat you're allowed to serve to a human) and natural components.

planetX

Oh I know it's lower quality - but I'm looking to save money, not increase my spend. Whiskas dry is cheap, I always get large bags on offer. It's the wet food that's the killer, but I don't believe a totally dry diet is healthy.

Pumpkinseeds

I've recently cut back to half the amount of Felix pouches I was feeding along with the Royal Canin. One of my chaps was overweight and the other chap seems leaner than he should be. I've always thought of Whiskas as 'kitty crack', the way my 2 go insane for it if we can't get the felix as good as it looks pouches that they usually have.

I've cut out the RC and switched to Meowing heads grain-free, high protein dried food, which was recommended by another boards member. My overweight chap seems to be regulating his food normally and isn't behind me every time I go to the kitchen, like he used to be. Our leaner chap on the other hand seems hungrier so we have increased his wet food to 3 pouches but intend to cut back on it again next month and see how it goes.

Nody

planetX wrote: »

Oh I know it's lower quality - but I'm looking to save money, not increase my spend. Whiskas dry is cheap, I always get large bags on offer. It's the wet food that's the killer, but I don't believe a totally dry diet is healthy.

But by going to a higher quailty dry stuff you can reduce your wet food from daily and reduce cost by mixing it up with things such as tuna soup (one can of tuna mixed with three parts water), chicken etc. as they get energy and content from the dry stuff.

Forgot to add; with our cats at this stage if we serve them Whiskas pouches for fish (can't recall the name of them, the "premium" once) the cats only eat the tomato sause and leave the fish behind. If we serve them tuna soup all that tuna will be gone by following morning (we usually feed them in the evening).

hadook

Nody wrote: »

But by going to a higher quailty dry stuff you can reduce your wet food from daily and reduce cost by mixing it up with things such as tuna soup (one can of tuna mixed with three parts water), chicken etc. as they get energy and content from the dry stuff.

This is it exactly. I'm feeding 21 cats between the indoor lot & the ferals so yes, I bulk buy dry food & take the time to find things other than kitty crack to mix in but I'd probably spend less than or the same feeding 21 as you do feeding 6 OP.

I also think it's false economy to buy the cheap stuff cos you just end up needing regular dentals and constantly scooping stinky litter trays. You can get chicken legs/wings dirt cheap in Aldi/Lidl or get small bones from independent butchers and it'll keep their teeth lovely and clean and cost a fraction of the price. The smilla wet food we get from Zooplus has a lot less liquid and more fish so goes a long way.

A couple of years ago we had a problem with weight regulation on RC as well as bolt eaters who'd vomit undigested food within minutes of eating. Since we switched to free feeding high quality dry with regular wet food all of my cats (mogs & peds) are now in the healthy range and our dental bills have dropped to almost nothing.

mistress_gi

+1for zooplus.de we can feed 2 large dogs and loads of treats for about 60 euro a month

Unistudent

Hi,

I'm currently feeding my male neutered cat wiskas wet food, tried him on dry food but after a few days he gets all bloated - looks like he's heavily pregnant and won't eat it anymore. He doesn't have this issue with wet food, but has had it with a few different brands of dry.

Wondering if anyone else has had this issue?

misslt

Similar question here - my girl always has royal canin indoor 27 in the bowl (she gets about 50-55g per day) and then half a pouch in the morning and half in the evening - she's put on a good bit of weight recently and she's indoor only so I want to try and shift some of it

It is whiskas pouches she gets, but I want to move her off it, has anyone got any recommendations? Was thinking of the RC pouches, any opinions? She doesn't eat that much so I don't mind it being that bit more expensive!