Do we spend too much on cat food?

[MuddlingThroughMotherhood]

Hi, I've not posted in the litter tray before but have lurked for a few weeks.

Dh and I have today created a spreadsheet of our income and expenditure and after double checking we discovered that we spend an average of £80 per month on feeding our one cat. This shocked us as we tend to just buy a few boxes of food when needed and don't do a weekly/monthly shop for his food like we do for our own food. I plan to do monthly from now on.

So I don't drip feed I'll give a bit of background. Our cat turned up on the doorstep 3.5 years ago, at the time he was approximately 3 months old, he wouldn't go away and cried/meowed every night, we went door to door, put posters up, logged him on websites but luckily nobody claimed him as we had been to enquire about cat adoption only the previous week, it was meant to be Anyway...the vet we chose discovered lumps in his neck, they thought it was scar tissue from fighting/defending himself, after a biopsy and I can't remember what else the conclusion was that the lumps were an allergic reaction to food, a course of pitaton and only having hypoallergenic food and thankfully he hasn't had the lumps reappear.

Sorry if the above is filled with unnecessary info but I wanted to give a full picture. He has had shop bought hypoallergenic food since, he doesn't need the prescription stuff and the vet said that they could do loads of tests to determine exactly which ingredients he is allergic to but it'd be expensive, not covered by insurance and why put him through the tests if we are doing ok.

We tend to buy James well beloved wet, PAH own Seriously good wet, Arden grange dry, we try PAH own wainwrights but it's hit or miss if he'll eat it. He has a sachet am, a sachet pm and dry food is always out and he goes through stages of eating it or not, usually he does. He is not over weight. I avoid 'animal derivatives' as I have no idea what they are and dread to think. I also only like him to eat food which he could probably hunt himself, I bet that sounds crazy but I find it hard to get my head around my cat eating beef or pork, there is no way that he could kill a cow or pig. He tends to have fish, chicken and turkey (yes they are big but if you saw the size of some of the magpies he catches you'd be shocked ) . He also has some of the applaws tins which I think we will greatly cut back on but they really aren't much more expensive that his normal food. Oh and the occasional bowl of cat milk.

Does anyone have any idea where I could shop? Any tips on cutting down of the cost of feeding him? Any brands I could try which won't break the bank? Or is this a normal amount to spend?

Thanks if you've read it all, it's longer that I expected it to be

[Vinorosso74]

That is a lot just on food. Our cat is on hypoallergenic/alternative protein foods which we get from the vets and we spend nowhere near that.
No need to give cat milk so that's a start. Have you looked at the zooplus website? They are reasonably priced and often have offers.

[cozietoesie]

Gosh, that's a lot. Seniorboy is on Nature's Menu Country Hunter - which doesn't come cheap - and we only spend about half of what you do.

[9GreenBottles]

I use Zooplus too and they are very well priced for dry food (don't know about wet as I buy Whiskas and Felix from supermarket when on special offer). I've been offered a savings plan (paid less than £10 iirc and get 7% off till 2019) and I also use Quidco for further discount. Always spend more than £29 to get free delivery too.

I've been buying large bags of Applaws which has a high protein content but mixing it with James Wellbeloved, Natures Best etc to give a bit of variety (sometimes using the packets of food that are available through the free loyalty points scheme they run). I've got 4 cats and spend around £80 every 4 months on dried food and litter from Zooplus plus around £30 a month on wet food for two of the cats.

[MsMims]

I think your vet has misinformed you about the allergy testing and insurance. Our insurance (petplan) paid out without a quibble when our cat had an extensive allergy test costing circa £400 which covered food allergies as well as environmental ones. Btw the testing was all done from one simple blood sample. Our cat has a heart condition so wouldn't have put him through anything invasive.

I'd really recommend the test, cat turned out to be allergic to chicken (amongst other things) so really helpful to know to avoid that when it's such a common ingredient.

Difficult to recommend without knowing exactly what doesn't suit your cat but butchers classic is easily accessible at supermarkets and PAH, and a decent food. Zooplus has a whole host of brands with smilla, bozita, animonda carny being affordable but good quality.

[Weedsnseeds1]

Just to reassure you, animal derivatives doesn't mean anything sinister. Pet food legally is labeled differently to human food. They use category 3 animal derivatives, which means fit for, but not intended for, human consumption. So things like chicken backs and necks, pig liver etc. Animals don't tend to have allergies to the same things as humans. Chicken and lamb are quite common ones for cats, I believe. Picking a food based on an unusual protein like duck means less likely to be allergic.

[ememem84]

I spend around £20 every month/8 weeks on food for catface. I buy it on subscribe and save from Amazon. 2kg Royal canin biscuits and 80 pouches of felix wet food.

[picklemepopcorn]

Have you considered raw feeding? It's immediately obvious which foods cause problems then. Do research thoroughly and join a forum though, it needs to be done properly.

[Toddlerteaplease]

I spend £40 every 3-4 month on a 12kg bag of Royal Canin Persian. For my two. Looking at getting something else just to add in sonthey don't get bored eating the same thing day after day.

[UrethaFranklin]

I think £80pm is a lot as well.

Mine is a fatty so is on a diet, he gets 2x15g of Royal Canin Satiety dry food per day plus 1 pouch of Felix. The Royal Canin costs £25ish for a 3.5kg bag and last almost 3 months.

[MuddlingThroughMotherhood]

Thank you for the replies everyone I can't remember who wrote what, I'm on my phone so can't refer back whilst I'm replying but I really am so grateful. You've all confirmed what we thought, we spend too much

We've only ever bought from Pets at Home so will definitely be checking out zooplus, we are Prime members so will look into Amazon too. Thanks for those suggestions. I'll check out the other foods you suggested too.

I don't think I could feed him a raw food diet, we are vegetarian ourselves so I don't know how I'd be preparing him raw food.

I haven't sorted out his insurance, my dh did but I have a feeling that because food allergy was mentioned only the second time we took him to the vets, the first time was to check for a microchip after we found him, I think that anything to do with his allergy is not insured as we declared it when insuring him. Will check with dh.

Thanks again everyone, all suggestions are appreciated

[cozietoesie]

Don't buy the 'little' tins of things or the small treats such as cat soup. They're often violently expensive, frequently only complementary and generally last no time at all.

[Allergictoironing]

Another vote here for Zooplus. 12kg of the indoor dry kibbles £41 at Zooplus, 10kg £46.50 at Pets at Home. Mine have ordinary Felix AGAIL as their wet food, 88 pouches £20 at Zooplus, 88 pouches £24 at Pets at Home.

[Oldraver]

Have you checked how much dried food he is supposed to have ? You say dried food is always out so its possible you are giving him way too much