Cheaper priced cat food for non diabetic cats?

[Sock's mom]

Hello, I have 2 non diabetic cats in my house and am working on weaning them off of their dry kibble now and have been introducing Fancy Feast to them since that is what I started my diabetic cat on. She keeps trying to jump the baby gate to get to the dry food and I don't want to mess up her progress so I was trying to see if anyone has found a cheaper priced low card soft food for cats that their cat likes? Or is fancy feast the cheapest option for the quality? Feeding 1 cat Fancy Feast isn't a big deal, but feeding 3 cats 3 cans a day is going to end up costing me $80 a week just to feed them I think the dry food is way handier and far as not having to set times to feed them everyday because we just always let our cats graze, but from what I've read there are really no healthy diabetic options in the dry foods and I would feel much safer if whatever out other cats are eating is safe for our diabetic girl in case she gets into their food if we accidentally forget to put it up when we leave the house or something. Thanks ahead of time!

 

[CORKY]

Hello, I have 2 non diabetic cats in my house and am working on weaning them off of their dry kibble now and have been introducing Fancy Feast to them since that is what I started my diabetic cat on. She keeps trying to jump the baby gate to get to the dry food and I don't want to mess up her progress so I was trying to see if anyone has found a cheaper priced low card soft food for cats that their cat likes? Or is fancy feast the cheapest option for the quality? Feeding 1 cat Fancy Feast isn't a big deal, but feeding 3 cats 3 cans a day is going to end up costing me $80 a week just to feed them I think the dry food is way handier and far as not having to set times to feed them everyday because we just always let our cats graze, but from what I've read there are really no healthy diabetic options in the dry foods and I would feel much safer if whatever out other cats are eating is safe for our diabetic girl in case she gets into their food if we accidentally forget to put it up when we leave the house or something. Thanks ahead of time!

If you are in US the cheapest form to purchase Fancy feast foods is thru CHEWY.COM and they have all the brands including raw foods, you can compare prices, also as a first customer you get 25% off your first order, I buy for the month, you cannot buy single cans is by the case of 24, but instead of paying $1.14 per can at Publix, I pay $23.00 A case, I have narrowed down their favorites, also the litter is like 1/4 less then stores, after $35. or less you pay not shipping,
It's good you are going to transition to w
FF wet can food, the kibbles contain anywhere from 25-30% carbs and even tough they are not diabetic, you do not want them to be, My Corky grew up since he was 4 months old on Meau
Mix kibbles, inside cat now going on 12 years, and in 2023 he was diagnosed with diabetes, In this Forum I learned how important the food we feed our cats are below is a Drs list you might benefit from many brands to choose from the third column contains the % of carbs per food, healthy most cats should contain a diet between 0-10% carbs, I hope I was able to help, if not just post us again
FOOD CHART CHECK CARBS/ FF

 

[squeem3]

A lot of store generic brands are very similar to Fancy Feast such as WalMart's Special Kitty brand. Buy a few different ones to see what your cats likes, checking the ingredients for any potential source of carbs.

You may need to feed more than one 3 oz can per cat per day if that's the only food source. A 3 oz can doesn't have many calories. A general suggestion is to feed 20 to 25 calories per pound of body weight daily. A brand that is sold in larger sized cans is more cost effective for mutli-cat homes. Buying in cases also saves money.

Air dried and freeze dried raw are healthier crunchy dry options for all cats and are good for diabetics. They're expensive though. There's a brief discussion here: https://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB...th-diabetes-four-months-ago-at-age-16.297252/

Maybe a microchip feeder for the non-diabetics would be helpful to keep the diabetic from eating kibble?

Dry food is a convenience product made for Humans. It's not an appropriate diet for cats. There's more info at http://www.catinfo.org

 

[Sock's mom]

Great info! Thank you both!!!

 

[CORKY]

Great info! Thank you both!!!

Anytime, hope you find what OUR pockets can assume, I know woman, I am on a penny budget, and somehow I’m blessed to be able to give my Corky and Coco everything they need and more, I may not go to get a mani/pedi anymore, but they are spoiled rotten!! We are here for you for any of your concerns

 

[Diane Tyler's Mom GA]

From what it said when I googled it
Generally, Friskies pate is considered cheaper than Fancy Feast pate; Friskies is typically positioned as a more budget-friendly cat food option compared to Fancy Feast, which is often seen as a premium brand.

 

[Sienne and Gabby (GA)]

I would also check prices on Amazon. I generally agree that Chewy has good options and they will offer a discount if you autoship your order. I had the same thought about store brands but you should definitely run the nutritional analysis numbers through a cat food carb calculator to make sure the food is low carb. (Carb content is not on the label.)

Another option may be to make your own raw food. You can buy ground meat on sale which can help with costs. I use a pre-mix which is a powder that has all of the necessary supplements that make the food nutritionally complete. I use a product from FoodFurLife.

 

[Gracie85]

Chewy.com's Tiny Tiger brand is cheaper than Fancy Feast, and nearly identical. And if you put it on autoshipments, they discount it 5%. Friskies pate is also very similar to FF, we were using that for a while but then they got picky.
As for 3 cans per cat per day, each 3 ounce can is usually 90-95 calories per can, so while a young, very active cat may need more, we have found that 2 to 2.5 cans per cat per day is just right. Our cats weigh from 10.5 pounds to 13.5 pounds, most get 2 cans per day, the psycho youngest one with constant zoomies needs a bit more. We weigh them every couple of months to see if we need to adjust, since they all share all the bowls, we've found it's the best way to make sure one isn't eating more than his share while another is therefore not getting enough. Greedy cats get fed in a separate room from the others, so that everyone gets to eat what they want/need before the greedy one tries to muscle in and take more.