What is a good wet food that I can buy a lot of(cheap)?

Question

I have 5 dollars and my kitties are out of there dry food but I did have some left from my male cat so I gave them that. But I still need to get my kitties something they like. They are eating the dry food. But my male cat is not. He never liked it but my 9 month kittens do.

Answer 1

No such thing as good and cheap. You get what you pay for. Felidae is a pretty reasonably priced high quality food.

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 dump cheap leftovers in. 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, Nature's Variety Prairie, Nature's Logic, Artemis Fresh Mix, Timber Wolf Organics.

Although the high quality foods are more expensive, you're getting what you're paying for. Less filler material 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 p**p!

A great option is to go with an entirely grainless diet. Diets high in grain 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 grainless formulas. Some good grainless diets include: Innova EVO, Wellness CORE, Blue Wilderness, Nature's Variety Instinct, Orijen, Horizon Legacy, Merrick Before Grain, Fromm Surf & Turf, Now!, and Sold Gold Indigo Moon, 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, Blue Buffalo, Castor & Pollux Organix, Pinnacle, and Halo. If you can't find a food, most of the high quality food brands have websites with store locators on them.

Remember that foods should be switched gradually, especially when switching to a higher quality one, so as not to upset tummies.

Another option for feeding cats is to feed raw. This is something that should be thoroughly researched before being attempted:

http://www.barfworld.com/

http://www.rawfedcats.org/

http://www.rawfed.com/

http://www.wysong.net/controversies/rawm...

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 don't 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. Canned/wet food is better because it more closely mimics the cat's natural diet. More on why canned food is best:

http://www.catinfo.org/  (Excellent cat nutrition information by a vet)

http://cats.about.com/cs/catfood/a/canne...

http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.php?ac...

http://www.felinefuture.com/nutrition/bp...

http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.php?ac...

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.

More:

http://www.dogfoodanalysis.com/dog_food_... (Dog food reviews. It's for dogs, but most of the high quality brands also put out excellent cat foods. Four stars is a decent food, five stars is a great food, and six stars is an excellent food.)

Answer 2

friskies in the can is the best, do not get 9lives bcause I have found ground up bones and c**p in there,  just enough for the cat to swallow and possibly cut his throat.  Where I live in Southern Indiana they are 50 cents at Walmart.

Answer 3

GOOD and CHEAP often don't go together.

What makes a good wet food is the protein content, it needs to be over 10%.  You need to look at ingredients--corn can't be digested by cats so if it's in the first 4 ingredients, you're paying for filler that the cat can't even use.  There should be no by-products listed.  And out of the first 5 ingredients at least two should be meat sources, not broth, by-products or corn.

You're looking at nutrition, so reading the label is very important.  Grocery stores carry 'cheap' but you end up with more vet problems down the line.  Using a pet supplies store who orders food from the smaller manufacturers who do make better quality food is the safer way to go.  

EVO has a great canned food for $1.50 for their large 12 ounce cans.  You don't have to pay a fortune for 3 or 5 ounce cans, just look at the labels and see what choices you have.

Answer 4

Purina Pro Plan selects actually has some good canned foods surprisingly.  

Answer 5

Well nine lives is an inexpensive alternative for short term use but for for long term consideration you will want something like Fancy Feast-  they have a good list of varieties that are wheat gluten free and that is what you want- look for Turkey and Giblet Feast, Gourmet Chicken Feast, Tender Beef Feast, Chopped Grill Feast, Tender Liver and Chicken Feast, Beef and Liver Feast, Tender Beef and Chick Feast, Chunked Chicken Feast, Chunked Turkey Feast and Flaked Fist and Shrimp Feast.  These are low in carbs and reasonably priced- about $13 case (24 cans)- you can do better than that if you take some coupons - they are usually offered on the top of the cans and gives $1 discount for every six cans- that's $8 case. Also Wal Mart seems to have the best prices on Fancy Feast.   Whatever you chose, do try to stay with a grain-free, low carb food for kitty- This will eliminate health problems later like diabetes.   You can find a list of the carb values at Janet and Binkie's food chart- search this and it will lead to to a diabetic cat owner's web site- there you will find a list of foods - even cheaper ones - with their carb values- they have just about every brand of cat food you can think of - good luck- do look up this site.