Transitioning from dry to wet food question

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N7Bri

N7Bri

Member Since 2016
Hello, I'm new and have a food question.

I have three cats who have only ever eaten dry food so I'm entirely new to wet.

The instructions on Fancy Feast Classic say, "Feed an average size adult cat 1 can per 3 pounds of body weight daily."

The approximate weights of my three cats are 21, 11 and 9 (the diabetic). That comes out to almost 14 cans a day?? That doesn't sound like it could possibly be correct. That's like $500 on food a month. Am I doing something wrong here? I'm used to a $20 bag of food once a month.
 
That may be a little high but not a bod guestiment. I would say for average 8 pound cat, 2 cans per day. However, each cat is different. Some require more and some less.
Yes, feeding FF to all cats can be expensive. Friskies is less expensive
 
Financials are always tricky and one has to be realistic about what one can afford.

That said, if it's at all affordable investment in species-appropriate food helps keep cats healthier and live longer which ultimately pays for itself in terms of reduced vet bills and - most importantly of all - avoids the heartache of seeing a little one develop an illness that could have been avoided by feeding a healthier diet.


Mogs
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Critter Mom said:
That said, if it's at all affordable investment in species-appropriate food helps keep cats healthier and live longer which ultimately pays for itself in terms of reduced vet bills and - most importantly of all - avoids the heartache of seeing a little one develop an illness that could have been avoided by feeding a healthier diet.
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I have just run a quick calculation, and it will emphasis what you have just pointed out:

At the beginning, I was feeding Capoo with dry food from the supermarket : it costed me around 30€ per month (total 360€ per year).

After just a few years, problems of cystitis and urinary stones begun : at least 300€ of vet per year + dry food = 660 € per year (and the vet fees in France are really more affordable than the ones in the US).

Then, transition to prescription food : 50€ per month, so 600€ per year.

And at the end of 2015, beginning of diabetes. At least 200€ of vet and diabetes stuffs per month, + prescription dry food = 250€ per month.

Mainly due to the transition to wet food, my cat is OTJ now. I feed him now with one of the more expensive wet food (Terra Faelis) on Zooplus, but it costs me "only" 60€ per month, and no more visit to the vet.
 
@N7Bri -

Another potentially more affordable diet might be to feed a homemade, species-appropriate food (prepare in bulk and freeze in portions). You can find information about this at vet-authored site, catinfo.org. Also, I'm tagging member @Bron and Sheba to see whether she might be able to give you some pointers on cost of homemade food.


Mogs
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Capoo said:
Mainly due to the transition to wet food, my cat is OTJ now. I feed him now with one of the more expensive wet food (Terra Faelis) on Zooplus, but it costs me "only" 60€ per month, and no more visit to the vet.
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And a happier kitty! :bighug:


Mogs
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Critter Mom said:
And a happier kitty! :bighug:


Mogs
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Of course!!!! He's completely crazy about the wet food with rabbit!!!!
And he plays, he plays, he plays all day long!!!! With a tennis ball, with a ball of paper, with his tail.... He looks like a kitten even if he's 12 years old!
 
Capoo said:
Of course!!!! He's completely crazy about the wet food with rabbit!!!!
And he plays, he plays, he plays all day long!!!! With a tennis ball, with a ball of paper, with his tail.... He looks like a kitten even if he's 12 years old!
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Formidable!

:bighug::bighug::bighug:


Mogs
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The estimates on the amount to feed on pet food cans is notoriously too high

A good place to start is with this formula [13.6 x ideal weight in pounds] + 70.....so for a 21lb cat, that's 355 calories per day...Most FF foods are about 85-90 calories per can so that'd be about 4 cans per day

11lb cat would be about 220 calories...about 2.5 cans

9lb cat would be about 192 calories, so about 2 1/4 can

So that's a total of about 9 cans per day

Weigh once a week and adjust as necessary.

What I did to save a little bit was feed my civvies Friskies and my sugarcat got Fancy Feast (until I switched her to mostly raw) ...and if she happens to get into their Friskies, it's still low carb so it's no big deal

Special Kitty pates from WalMart are even cheaper than Friskies
 
Friskies is a more economical option. I have 7 cats and they average 1 1/2 cans (5.5 oz) per day. I said average because they constantly switch bowls while eating so I am not sure how much each one actually eats.
 
I started homemade cooked food a couple of weeks ago. It is much cheaper especially when you get the meat on sale. The canned food I was giving changed. It smelled fishy and color changed. Two cats started walking away from it and it was their favorite.

I'm in PA. I got a family pack of boneless, skinless chicken thighs for $1.89 lb. Turkey thighs $2.68 lb. Gizzards and hearts are smaller packages but about the same cost per lb.

Beef I just got stew meat for $2.49 lb. Ground beef I get in family pack or the "log" which is cheaper. I'm thinking about the meatloaf mix which is also cheaper.

2 lbs will yield enough for 2 weeks. The expense is the EZ premix of necessary nutrients so far the small package has let me make 3 batches. You can buy the supplements individually and add yourself. I wanted it simpler.

With homemade the cat does eat less than commercial cat food. Only one of my cats(thank goodness it's the diabetic) will eat it, the other 2 taste it but won't eat exclusively.

Hope this helps you.
 
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Thank you everyone! I bought some Friskies at WalMart today to start with while I was there getting my ReliOn but I will probably start researching the homemade further.

Does anyone know if Friskies/FF is any cheaper at a bulk store like Costco?
 
Mogs tagged me re cost of homemade food.
I find making my own is much cheaper than buying the canned food and I think Sheba is much healthier since swopping to homemade food.
Woodsywife has given you some good examples of the cost of the food.
I don't know which country you live in so costs could be quite different to here in Australia.
I have been making homemade food for more than two years.
I use a combination of chicken, red meat, liver and heart. There are other meats such as rabbit which some people use which I would imagine would be fairly cheap.
You could try feeding your cats with some raw or cooked meat to see if they will eat it.
Another option is to feed some canned and some homemade.
If you go the homemade way you will need to add the supplements but that is not hard at all.
 
Woodsywife said:
A bit to much work for me, but love that knife with the carved designed.
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It's a Japanese knife, the best in the World (and the more expensive too....).
Yes, the cat is supervising the whole process, but I also admire the caregiver...
It seems that he knows a lot of good recipes, and recipes that his cat is found of.
 
For anyone interested, I found that there's a 48 count box of Friskies classic pate variety pack at Sam's Club for about $21. And my trio will need about 5 a day of these, so I think I can afford that. :)
 
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