What make of cat food is good and tasty for cats and inexpensive?

Devorah

I really need some inexspensive food for my cat... i little help please??



Eusebia

Not all pet food is made equally. A lot of it is full of corn, by-products, dyes, unhealthy preservatives, filler grains and all sorts of nasty stuff. A lot of pet food companies are perfectly happy to the dump cheap leftovers and things that arent safe for human consumption (from human food processing plants) into their foods. Will it kill your cat? No, it has to be nutritionally complete and safe to even be marketed. Is it healthy? Not by a long shot. Corn is a low quality ingredient you never want to see in your pet food. Corn and low quality grains are two of the biggest culprits when it comes to food allergies in our pets. Thankfully, there are some excellent cat foods being made these days that include organic, human grade ingredients rather than trash not fit for human consumption. Examples of low quality foods to avoid: Anything you can find in a grocery store will be low end, Purina, Iams, Eukanuba, Science Diet, Royal Canin, Whiskas, Fancy Feast, Friskies, Meow Mix. Examples of high quality foods to look for: Innova, Wellness, Solid Gold, Felidae, Fromm Four Star, Merrick, GO Natural, Natures Variety Prairie, Natures Logic, Artemis Fresh Mix, Timber Wolf Organics. Although the high quality foods are more expensive, youre getting what youre paying for. Less filler material and higher quality ingredients means more concentrated nutrients... this means you typically need to feed far less of the high quality food than you would of the low quality one. Which also means less poop! Seriously on a budget? Two of the most affordable of the higher quality foods would be Chicken Soup for the Cat Lovers Soul and Felidae. Before following your vets food recommendation, keep in mind that vets get /very/ little nutritional training during their schooling. Besides that, what training they /do/ get is usually sponsored or taught by... you guessed it, the crappy pet food companies! They also often get kickbacks from the companies for pushing these products at their clinics (Science Diet, Royal Canin etc.)A great option is to go with an entirely grain-free diet. Diets high in grain/carbohydrates have been attributed to problems with diabetes in cats. Cats are obligate carnivores, so why should there be grain in their diet? Many of the high quality foods now put out grain-free formulas. Some good grain-free diets include: Innova EVO, Wellness CORE, Blue Wilderness, Natures Variety Instinct, Orijen, Horizon Legacy, Fromm Surf Turf, Now!, GO Natural Grain Free, Sold Gold Indigo Moon, Ziwipeak, and Taste of the Wild. Some pretty decent foods can even be found in common pet stores. Petsmart carries Blue Buffalo products (such as the excellent grain-free diet, Blue Wilderness). Petco carries Wellness, Solid Gold, Natural Balance, Eagle Pack Holistic Select, Blue Buffalo, Castor Pollux Organix, Pinnacle, and Halo. If you cant find a food, most of the high quality cat food brands have websites with store locators on them that will help you find the store closest to you which supplies their products. Simply type the cat food brands name into Google, go to their website, and type your zip code into their store locator. Another option, if you cant find anywhere around you that sells good foods, is to order your pet food online. Heres an excellent place to do so: http://www. petfooddirect. com/store/Remember that foods should be switched gradually (mixing the new slowly in with the old over the period of about week or so), especially when switching to a higher quality one, so as not to upset tummies. For example:Days 1 2: 75% old food, 25% new foodDays 3 4: 50% old food, 50% new foodDays 5 6: 25% old food, 75% new foodDay 7: 0% old food, 100% new foodAnother option for feeding cats is to feed raw. This is something that should be thoroughly researched before being attempted:http://www. rawfedcats. org/ (Raw Fed Cats)http://community. livejournal. com/rawdogs… (Raw Dogs Livejournal Community [not just for dogs despite the name!], excellent raw feeding information on the profile page and overall helpful community for raw feeding questions)http://www. rawfed. com/myths/index. (Myths About Raw Feeding)Now the question is, do you feed wet or dry? Wet is the correct answer. The reason is, in the wild, cats normally get most of their water content directly from their prey items and drink very little. Domestic cats are no different, and because of the fact that they are designed to take in water with their meal, they have a very low thirst drive. Cats often just dont drink enough. This leads to urinary tract infections and crystals. The bit about dry food being better for teeth is a myth and has not been proven in the least (cats barely even chew their dry food and, really, does a pretzel clean /your/ teeth? Cats should have their teeth brushed with cat toothbrushes and cat toothpaste at least a few times a week as well as see the vet for dental cleanings when necessary /regardless/ of what they are being fed). Canned/wet food is better because it more closely mimics the cats natural diet. More on why canned food is best:http://www. catinfo. org/ (Why wet/canned food is best. Excellent cat nutrition information by a vet)http://www. littlebigcat. com/index. php? ac… (Why Cats Need Canned Food)http://www. blakkatz. com/dryfood. (The Truth About Dry Cat Food)http://cats. about. com/cs/catfood/a/canne… (Canned Cat Food: Can Your Cat Afford to Live Without it?)http://maxshouse. com/feline_nutrition. ht… (Maxs House: Feline Nutrition)Another option to get cats to drink more would be a cat fountain. Cats tend to like to drink from running water and cat fountains see to that need, encouraging cats to take in more water. Also remember that freefeeding (leaving food down) is the fast lane to feline obesity. Make sure to have scheduled feeding times loosely based on the feeding guidelines on your cats food. Adult cats are typically fed two meals a day. More on cat food:http://www. petfoodratings. net/cattable. h… (Cat food reviews. Four stars is a good food, five stars is a great/excellent food [click the name of the cat food brand for a more indepth analysis of it])Darksong~



Hilde

To be blunt, none if the inexpensive stuff is good. In fact its horrible. I cringe every time I see a person pick up a bag of Friskies or Whiskas. Its nothing but animal fat and corn meal...... would you want to eat that?



Kayce

Well, Whiskas in any form is the very worst. So avoid that. I dont know what you consider inexpensive. For me, $1 for a 5.5 oz can is a good price. $2 is a bit much. If youre more like the $.50 per can type, then go with Fancy Feast. I dont actually know how much it costs and it comes in a smaller can, but I think its less expensive than what I buy. And if you avoid the ones with fish or gravy, its not a bad food. For dry food, I believe the least expensive that is somewhat decent is Chicken Soup for the Cat Lovers Soul. I dont know how much it costs though. If that is even too pricy for you, then just avoid Whiskas. And try to find one that doesnt list corn as the first ingredient.



Ramonita

We are on a slight budget too now, We feed Nutro Natural Choice, Indoor management (a blueish bag) dry cat food (indoor management because they are indoor only cats).We always feed dry to keep their teeth healthy and so they teeth stay cleaner too. They like it its not too pricey, and they are all healthy, soft coats, and good, pretty firm stool. (we have 5 cats 9 dogs, so if we can afford it, you can hah.)



Kieth

Remember that the price of food doesnt include vet bills Nutrition since there are so many bad things out there is very important to your cat’s healthContrary to what you may have heard; dry foods are not a great thing to feed a cat. Please read the label on what you are feeding? What are the ingredients? Do you know what they mean? Is the first ingrediant a muscle meat like chicken or meal or other things? http://www. catinfo. org/#Learn_How_To_Rea…http://iml. jou. ufl. edu/projects/Spring04…Dry foods are the number 1 cause of diabetes in cats as well as being a huge contributing factor to kidney disease, obesity, crystals, u. t.i’s and a host of other problems. Food allergies are very common when feeding dry foods. Rashes, scabs behind the tail and on the chin are all symptomsThe problems associated with Dry food is that they are loaded with grains and carbohydrates which many cats (carnivores) cannot process. Also, Most of the moisture a cat needs is suppose to be in the food but inDry, 95% of it is zapped out of dry foods in the processing. Another thing, most use horrible ingredients and dont use a muscle meat as the primary ingredient and use vegetable based protein versus animal. Not good for an animal that has to eat meat to survive. http://www. catinfo. org/#My_Cat_is_Doing_…You want to pick a canned food w/o gravy (gravy=carbs) that uses a muscle meat as the first ingredient and doesnt have corn at least in the first 3 ingredients if at all. THE BEST CAT FOODS CONTAIN NO GRAINS NO BYPOODUCTS NO MEALCats are meat eaters not cereal or rice eaters Fancy feast is a middle grade food with 9lives, friskies whiskas lower grade canned and wellness and merrick upper grade human quality foods. I would rather feed a middle grade canned food then the top of the line dry food. Also, dry food is not proven to be better for teeth. Does a hard pretzel clean your teeth or do pieces of it get stuck? http://www. felinefuture. com/nutrition/bp… Please read about cat nutrition. http://www. catinfo. org/ http://www. catinfo. org/feline_obesity. ht… http://maxshouse. com/feline_nutrition. ht… Vetinarian diets The reason your vet thinks so highly of the pet food they sell probably has more to do with money than nutrition. In vet school, the only classes offered on nutrition usually last a few weeks, and are taught by representatives from the pet food companies. Vet students may also receive free food for their own dogs and cats at home. They could get an Iams notebook, a Purina purse and some free pizza. http://iml. jou. ufl. edu/projects/Spring04…



Alda

I use Purina One. Its 12 bucks a bag, but a bag lasts a whole month. I have noticed when I feed my cat a higher quality food, he eats less.



Penni

9 lives is good



Haywood

Av never tried cat food



Dudley

Good usually doesnt come with cheap. However, Costco sells a brand called Kirkland that is fairly decent. It has rice, but two good quality meat ingredients. You can go for Chicken Soup for the Cat Lovers Soul. Orijen and Now! Grain-free (the purple bag, by Petcurean) are good choices as well. Price ranges from 15.99 to 23.99 for these, but its truly healthy and made with quality ingredients. Its so nutrient-packed that a cat can eat a lot less and get more nutrients than ever, with no extra crap to make it unhealthy. Stuff like Whiskas or Meowmix have to be fed in large portions with lots of extra crap. (same way you get some fibre from chips and you eventually feel full after eating a lot, but it still comes with tonnes of fat!)Basically, what Im trying to say is, a more expensive food can turn out to be cheaper, because the animal eats a lot less (which makes the bag last much longer and the price per day cheaper or just as cheap) and doesnt have as many health problems you have to pay for.



Candance

I use Purina Cat Chow (in the blue bag) for my cats. It is the cheapest decent quality food out there. Beware of the store brand knock-offs. The package and shape of the food is the same, but the ingredients are usually different. Also, buying the bigger bags is cheaper than buying small bags.