What is the healthiest and chepest cat food to buy for my cat?

Question

What is the healthiest, safest cat food to buy that is also low in cost?

Answer 1

natural choice complete care indoor

http://www.nutroproducts.com/ncccprod.shtml

Answer 2

Healthy and cheap don't go together, sorry. Good cat food should be at least 35% protien. The first four ingredients should have at least two meat sources in them, and NOT by-products. There should be no corn in the first four ingredients either. A bag of dry food usually lasts a month for a cat, so think in those terms. Chicken Soup for the Cat Lovers Soul is $8 a bag here & fairly good Royal Canin Siamese 38 is excellent! $11 a bag. Evo is $17 but it is a bigger bag and lasts 2 months Wysong "Vitality" in the silver bag is the best out of all they make and that one runs $8 I'd recommend all those. Most are available at pet supply stores, not at grocery stores (you'll not find good food in a grocery store, it's all 30% or less with protien). Sometimes WalMart carries the Chicken Soup one. Sometimes vets carry a few of these. I've found the Wysong at the health food store in our area in their pet section. ONLY get the Vitality choice in that though, check the protein levels and you'll see why. If you pay $10 for a bag, that breaks down to $2.50 a week, which is a LOT less than buying canned food. And you'll be feeding a good diet to them.

Answer 3

Healthy and cheap don't go together, sorry.

Good cat food should be at least 35% protien. The first four ingredients should have at least two meat sources in them, and NOT by-products. There should be no corn in the first four ingredients either.

A bag of dry food usually lasts a month for a cat, so think in those terms.

Chicken Soup for the Cat Lovers Soul is $8 a bag here & fairly good
Royal Canin Siamese 38 is excellent! $11 a bag.
Evo is $17 but it is a bigger bag and lasts 2 months
Wysong "Vitality" in the silver bag is the best out of all they make and that one runs $8

I'd recommend all those. Most are available at pet supply stores, not at grocery stores (you'll not find good food in a grocery store, it's all 30% or less with protien). Sometimes WalMart carries the Chicken Soup one. Sometimes vets carry a few of these. I've found the Wysong at the health food store in our area in their pet section. ONLY get the Vitality choice in that though, check the protein levels and you'll see why.

If you pay $10 for a bag, that breaks down to $2.50 a week, which is a LOT less than buying canned food. And you'll be feeding a good diet to them.

Answer 4

Well, the two may not go together.....

I buy Nature's Variety Instincts which is about $1.79 per can, and By Nature Organics which is around $1.49 per can (both 6oz).

I know that's high, but I'm ok with that.

I think most other good brands tend to be around $1.00 per can, give or take a few. If that price range is acceptable, check out the foods in the What to feed link. They're the only ones (other than the 2 I mentioned above) that I would recommend.

Although....there are other decent foods out there that aren't on the list. But if your cat doesn't have a weight/digestion problem like mine does, they should be fine. I'm talking about ones like Newman's Own. I don't know how much those run, but I think the average price of $1 is pretty much ballpark.

If you check the websites of these foods, they'll lead you to local suppliers and you can shop around. Or you can search for them online and find a price.

One rule of thumb for identifying a health cat food - if your grocery store sells it, it's not good.

TIP: You can buy a can of this and a can of that, and once you find one that your cat likes, start buying by the case. You'll save money that way. And some pet stores have discount cards that'll help as well.

Oh, one more brand - Natural Balance. Not grain free, but it's pretty good quality. I used to buy it by the case and I think I paid around $29 for 24 cans.

Also, I probably forgot to mention these are all canned foods. I don't recommend feeding dry food.

Answer 5

Purina Cat Chow Complete

Answer 6

First let's address "Cheap" In the pet food world you get what you pay for. The cheaper the food the less quality ingredients. Did you know that it's been known that some pet food manufacturers will put ground up feathers into their cheap food to up the protein content? Now what part of feathers is nutritious?

But I also know that not everyone can afford the best food available. So I would advise you to buy the most expensive you can afford.

Answer 7

okay that one lady is kinda crazy about how to home make your own cat food. but you cannot buy healthy food and not pay the price for it, there is no healthy Cheap cat food. DO NOT buy anything from a super market like purina or friskies if you want a healthy cat. Go to your vet or your local PET STORE like petco or something like that and ask them what is best. I feed my cats Science Diet that i buy from my vet but you can also get it from a good pet store.

Answer 8

My cats inhale Purina Cat Chow and I know it's very healthy and doesn't cost too much. I worked as a Vet Tech for quite some time!

Answer 9

Some dry cat food keeps their teeth clean. They seem to like Friskies fish flavor.

Answer 10

Purina
Friskies
Whisker
Good Life Recipe( I would use this or purina)
Good stuuf like that. You could always go to the vet and ask.

Answer 11

Commercial Cat Food is BAD for your cat. Feed it the way nature intended:

Raw Cat Food Diet Recipe Made WITH Real Bones:

2 kg [4.4 pounds] raw muscle meat with bones (chicken thighs and drumsticks or, better, a whole carcass of rabbit or chicken amounting to 2 kg; if you don't use a whole carcass, opt for dark meat like thighs and drumsticks from chicken or turkey)
400 grams [14 oz] raw heart, ideally from the same animal (if no heart is available, substitute with 4000 mg Taurine)
200 grams [7 oz] raw liver, ideally from the same animal (if you can't find appropriate liver, you can substitute 40,000 IU of Vitamin A and 1600 IU of Vitamin D--but try to use real liver rather than substitutes)

NOTE: If you cannot find the heart or liver and decide to substitute with the Taurine/Vitamin A and D, then remember to REPLACE the missing amount of organ meat with the equivalent amount of muscle meat. In other words, if you cannot find heart, you add another 400 grams of the meat/bones. If you can’t find the liver, add another 200 grams of meat/bone.

16 oz [2 cups] water
4 raw egg yolks (use eggs from free-range, antibiotic-free chickens if you can)
4 capsules raw glandular supplement, such as, for example, multigland supplement by Immoplex)
4000 mg salmon oil (see note at bottom of recipe*)
800 IU Vitamin E (“dry E” works well)
200 mg Vitamin B complex
(optional: 1/4 tsp. kelp and 1/4 tsp of dulse (1/2 tsp total)
(optional: 4 tsp. psyllium husk powder (8 tsp. if using whole psyllium husks; see note at bottom of recipe**)

NOTE: If you will not be using the food immediately and freezing for more than a week or two, toss in 4000 mg of additional Taurine to make up for what may get lost during storage. It is also not a bad idea to sprinkle extra Taurine from a capsule on the food as you're serving it two or three times a week, just to be certain your cat is getting plenty of this critical amino acid.

1. Remove the skin from the muscle meat. Chunk up (i.e., cut) as much of the muscle meat (minus most of the skin if using chicken or turkey, but leave skin on if using rabbit) as you can stand into bite-sized (nickel-sized, approximately) pieces. Save the chunked meat for later. Do not grind it.
2. Grind up the raw liver, any skin, raw meaty bones, and raw heart. Once ground, stir this meat/bone mixture well and return to refrigerator.
3. Fill a bowl with 2 cups of water and whisk everything (non-meat) except the psyllium. If you had to replace liver with Vitamin A/D or replace heart with Taurine, add the substitutes now. Add psyllium at the end--if you're using it-- and mix well. Finally, put the three mixtures together--the "supplement slurry" that you have just mixed, the ground up meat/bone/organs, and the chunks of meat that you cut up by hand. Portion into containers and freeze.

Don't overfill the containers. The food expands when frozen and you don't want lids popping off. Thaw as you go. The food shouldn't be left thawed in the refrigerator more than 48 hours before serving. To serve, portion into a 'zipper baggie' and warm under hot water in the sink. NEVER microwave the food. Cats like their food at something approximating "mouse body temperature."

*Every two or three days, I suggest sprinkling a few drops of fresh salmon oil from a newly-opened capsule on to the cats' food. The Essential Fatty Acids in salmon oil are extremely fragile, and since we do not know exactly how much gets lost during freezing, I think it's wise to use a bit of fresh salmon oil directly on the food a few times a week. Most cats love the flavor.

**Not all cats require additional fiber (psyllium) in their diet. If your cat has been eating low-quality commercial food for several years, especially dry food, she may have lost bowel elasticity and may benefit from the extra fiber. As a general rule, I recommend using psyllium when an adult cat first gets raw food. I rarely add much psyllium to my adult cats' diet. Bear in mind that some cats seem to get constipated without additional fiber, whereas other cats seem to get constipated if they get too much fiber. Each cat is unique, and you'll have to judge what works best for your cat.