#1
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Chicken soup for the cat lover's soul.
I have been feeding our five cats Eagle pack the pink bag because one cat has a food allergy. Since we have 5 cats we buy the largest bag which is 15lbs I believe. Anyway the Pet Valu we buy our food from will no longer be carrying this size and the other store in town stopped carrying that size over a year ago.
I just bought the next largest bag to get through the holidays and it cost half of what the 15lb bag cost. So not very cost effective with 5 cats. Now we need to find another food and since I do not know what the cat is allergic to, I'm looking for a decent food on a $50 budget. Any opinions on this food? Thanks Breezer
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Five cat mom Whisper 11 y.o Casey 8 y.o Austin 6 y.o Zachary 6 y.o Cole 2 y.o |
#2
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Breezer,I feed my cats canned Wellness,but a couple of years ago I let them free-feed in between meals on CSFTCLS,the ingredients in it is good IMO,but I would not feed my cats only dry.
At the time I got a huge bag for $41,but it's not available anymore here.
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"The cruelest animal is the Human animal" 3 kitties,Rocky(r.i.p my boy),Chico,Vinnie |
#3
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Is this a $50 a week or $50 a month budget? $50 a month does not give you many options for feeding five cats. One thing I would most definitely do is to get rid of the dry food all together and feed only canned. The worse canned food is better than any dry. Cats need the moisture in canned food.
This is a great site for giving you information on feeding cats. http://www.catinfo.org/ I know our cat gurus will be along soon to give you some help. Hopefully this will give you a start.
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Assumptions do nothing but make an ass out of u and me. We can stick our heads in the sand for only so long before it starts choking us. Face it folks. The pet population is bad ALL OVER THE WORLD! |
#4
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Not a fan, but then I'm not a fan of any dry food. Here are the main ingredients for Chicken Soup: Quote:
To echo what 14+ said, I would look into switching all of your cats over to wet food. If canned is too expensive, maybe consider making your own raw meals, which is the cheapest and healthiest diet for cats. It's definitely not as convenient as commercial pet food, but in the long run you will save money on vet bills.
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"To close your eyes will not ease another's pain." ~ Chinese Proverb “We must not refuse to see with our eyes what they must endure with their bodies.” ~ Gretchen Wyler |
#5
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Thanks
Actually $50 every six weeks is what we seem to spend. The first time I took Cole to the vet, I thought one of the other cats either scratched or bite him below the front of his ear. The area where they have sparce fur. It was scabby and then it started on the other side. The vet told me it is a food allergy.
To be honest I can't remember what the cats were on before Cole. I know that I have tried Natural balance and he had a reaction. We do give them canned food a few times a week as a treat. It is hard when you have one overweight, two that are average and two on the skinny side. As for the raw diet it is something I could look into, my work schedule is MAD weekly rotation from Midnights, Afternoons and Days. Thanks for the feedback and I will definately check out the website that was posted. I was just reading that info on the website, I found it very interesting especially that you can freeze it! I will spend more time once I am on holidays come Wednesday morning. Got the get ready for work. Breezer
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Five cat mom Whisper 11 y.o Casey 8 y.o Austin 6 y.o Zachary 6 y.o Cole 2 y.o Last edited by Breezer; December 20th, 2009 at 09:03 PM. Reason: added more information |
#6
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I actually just posted a new thread about PC Brand Nutrition First. They just reinvented this food for cats and dogs and really have come up with a very good dry food that is as good as, if not better, than many of the expensive brand name foods in specialty stores. I was so happy about this because, like you, I am on a budget! I can't remember how much I paid for the medium size bag for my cats but I am sure it was cheaper than the dog version of the food which was $40 for a VERY large bag - I have dogs to feed too. Could easily feed 5 cats for at least a month on the big bag. And the nice thing about this is too that you can buy it in the grocery store so that is pretty convenient (SuperStore).
Here is the start of the ingredients listing (copied right from the back of the bag): Chicken Meal, Chicken, Brown Rice, Dehulled Barley, Oatmeal, Chicken Fat (Preserved with Mixed Tocopherols), Potatoes, Natural Chicken Flavour, Whole Dried Egg, Herring Meal, Salmon Oil, Tomatoes, Brewers Yeast, Phosphoric Acid, Whole Sweet Potatoes, Whole Carrots, Whole Blueberries, Whole Cranberries, Whole Apples...etc (too lazy to type the rest) That is a really good protein ratio if you consider the chicken meal is the first ingredient (which is actually dehydrated and actually contains more meat than if chicken was the first ingredient)...but chicken with all the water content is the 2nd ingredient too! The preservative is named (bonus) and it contains no by-products (yay no beaks or feathers! lol) PC (Loblaws) has not updated the website yet and I haven't been able to find a lot of information about this new food on the internet as of yet. But I have been spreading the word because it is quite impressive what they have done. |
#7
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"To close your eyes will not ease another's pain." ~ Chinese Proverb “We must not refuse to see with our eyes what they must endure with their bodies.” ~ Gretchen Wyler |
#8
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You can also add water to dry food...that's what I do. But my cats drink a lot of water anyway outside their food...sink hogs!! |
#9
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You shouldn't. Dry food is a breeding ground of bacteria and toxic mold spores that love a moist environment. From the link I posted above:
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So basically, feeding better food now (which does not include PC kibble) is more likely decrease the amount you have to spend on vet bills later.
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"To close your eyes will not ease another's pain." ~ Chinese Proverb “We must not refuse to see with our eyes what they must endure with their bodies.” ~ Gretchen Wyler |
#10
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thanks sugarcatmom. i appreciate the information i do give wet from time to time...as a treat. i used to more but after the big menu food recall scare i have been a bit paranoid of wet food to say the least! way more cats die and become ill from contaminated wet food than dry. so indeed the safest would be to prepare from human-quality food yourself!
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#11
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Quote:
Quote:
__________________
"To close your eyes will not ease another's pain." ~ Chinese Proverb “We must not refuse to see with our eyes what they must endure with their bodies.” ~ Gretchen Wyler |
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