Meow - We'd love to share this portion of Catster with you, but first you'll need to login.
If you don't have a Catster account yet, you can register in about 60 seconds. Registering allows you to use all our free features while allowing us to create a safer, more meaningful environment for the community as a whole.
Registering is fast, free and lets you create your cat page(s), find adoptable cats, save your favorites, connect to your Feline Friends and more.
You don't have to answer this post if it invades your privacy, but I'm wondering how much Catsters in the U.S. spend feeding their cats. Obviously, there's going to be a difference according to the number of cats, the "quality" of the food being given, whether the food is canned or dry, etc.
Up until joining Catster, my cats were on eating Science Diet, Eukanuba, and canned tuna cat food as a snack. This was what my breeder had been feeding them, and seems to be a pretty standard diet for pedigreed kitties here. Anyway, even with four cats, three of them Maine Coons, the food bills never took my breath away. But now that I'm transitioning them to more canned food, I'm finding that my food bills are really making a dent in my pocketbook!
Well, after all, when I adopted four cats, it was with the understanding that there would be no begrudging the amount of money spent on food. But today's bill at the pet shop--and I go once every ten days or so--was over $100! That includes cans of (yes, yell at me because I serve Hills!) Prescription Diet a/d, which I started serving when Chibi had her URI and everyone was off their feed, and I wanted to give them something more nutritious than the ordinary cat food. They seem to like it, and while I'm still trying to transition them to foods on the recommended list, they're rebelling at foods they don't know, so a/d strikes me as a better thing to be giving them in the interim than mystery meat from Indonesia. Anyway, one of these cans goes for $4.00, and for a while there, they were getting two cans a day...you do the math.
Granted, everything costs twice as much in Japan as in the U.S., so if you halve what I spend on cat food, you'd get the U.S. equivalent. One thing I've noticed is that the "quality" cat foods don't necessarily cost any more than Science Diet and its ilk, which is good news.
Anyway, I'm not complaining. I'm just curious as to how big a hole your cat food bills make in your pocket every month.
There's two of us and we only eat quality canned food. Mommy budgets $100 for us for a two week period and spends every penny of it. That amount includes food, cat litter and any treats she buys. Food alone usually works out to be $40 week.
Sophia Marie I be a princess.- No touch! Just- admire
Purred: Wed May 7, '08 10:17am PST
This is a hard topic for us, cause we just bought a house, and cause our food bill (the people food) keeps doubling, not to mention our gas bill.
The 2 leggeds have had, in the last few months, to go from Pate to Steak, to Hamburger to Ramen. The kitties have gone from cans that range about 1.10, to grocery store brands and more dry than I'd like.
we know helth is important, but we've decided to disconnect our cable, we don't eat out any more, and we are eating things that aren't really on our "healthy diet". And yet still, with gas being 4 bucks a gallon, we worry about making our bills. (mommy vows never to be a credit card junkie like some people, so she doesn't buy anything she can't pay for right then and there).
It's hard making such choices. I wish the people in charge would figure out that unlike them, we can't lend ourselves 6.2 million dollars to get ourselves through the hard parts of the campaign (or just life in general).
sorry to rant. but it's a touchy subject in our house, just cause mommy wants to do what's best for her AND for us, and really - can't.
Thanks for your input, Sophia Marie. Sounds like things are getting pretty tight for all of you right now. Our Meowmy doesn't have a house or car and basically we're all she has to spend her money on (besides basics like electricity, her food, transportation, and the like). Even so, she's pretty surprised at how much more expensive a canned diet is turning out to be! Personally, we'd be just as happy with Friskies...
I'm sorry Sophia Maria..... I know how hard times can be. We are looking to buy a house soon or just rent one and with the rising prices it does get hard. Not to mention the other things like the car breaking down and your dog getting into a fight and wounds becoming infected.... long and expensive stays at the Vet ER and all the other things that happen when you are at your worst. If it's gonna happen it has been happening in the last month. Since right now I have no rent we can still pay for the best food out there. With two cats eating Instinct and EVO dry and canned foods and 3 dogs eating regular Innova dry and canned.... the Instinct is $13 per dry bag and the canned is about $2.00 each. The EVO dry is about $18 per bag and canned ranging from $1.10- over $2. (the small 5.5 oz cans) We spend about.... $90.00 when we stock up. That usually lasts for about a month, maybe a little longer. Then the dog food went up $10.00 per bag so that's like $50.00 per bag and $40.00 for the cans per month.... It's something like $200.00 to feed 5 animals. Right now that's ok but when we have to pay rent I don't know what's going to happen. I would hate to go lower quality because Rasha has herpes and any drop in nutrition and he's back with the breakouts. Not to mention the supplements I get to add to their food and all that stuff. We get Solid Gold Seameal for both the cats and dogs and The cats get Herbal Immune support with l-lysine for herpes. SO, in other words.... they are expensive. My self, I only make $200.00 per week so one of my weeks goes to animal food. My bf does help out a lot tho, but he isn't much better off than I am. I hope that the economy improves soon because so many people are suffering.
My Human buys cases of canned food every few months. Last time 7 cases (24 5.5oz cans in a case) cost nearly $300 I eat premium canned food, hence the huge bill I have highly sophisticated and expensive tastes
You think you pay alot Merlin? You have one cat. I have a zoo!
I have NINE cats,a rabbit, and an Eating Machine Dog.
Six of my cats eat Wellness Core $31.00 a 30lb bag and Wellness Canned $226.01,and their litter about $25.00.
The other three cats get Raw which is great because its only like $15 a month.
The dog eats Wellness 95% Meat Canned (She only gets canned) which is about $3.00 a can! I spend $178.00 on her food.
The bunny eats ALOT! I spend $29.95 a month for food for the bunny and her bedding about $12.00 a month.
Its about $730.00 a month. I'm serious,I'm not lying. Anyways,I don't have to complain about what I pay,I'm more than just happy that I feed what I feed and I have no money issues or anything.
My mom is really bad about keeping up with where her money goes. But, she probably easily spends $200/month on our food. She's kind of afraid to add it all up. Better to not know. Mommy buys lots of stuff for us and for her human girl, but not really anything on herself. The more she spends on us, the fewer times she gets her hair done, buys new clothes, etc. That's okay with her. Except that in the last year, she lost a whole lot of weight and actually HAD to go shopping. Apparently, having your jeans fall off in public is not a good thing for a human!
We have four cats and try to give quality food wellness core and the new Taste of the Wild with no grain or by product and we have two chuhauaha they eat diamond dry for small breeds food alone probrably with treats 150 not including fun stuff that I buy. I did pause this week and thought about the cost with gas prices. Morgage is fixed thank goodnes.
My Account
close
That includes cans of (yes, yell at me because I serve Hills!) Prescription Diet a/d, which I started serving when Chibi had her URI and everyone was off their feed, and I wanted to give them something more nutritious than the ordinary cat food. They seem to like it, and while I'm still trying to transition them to foods on the recommended list, they're rebelling at foods they don't know, so a/d strikes me as a better thing to be giving them in the interim than mystery meat from Indonesia. Anyway, one of these cans goes for $4.00, and for a while there, they were getting two cans a day...you do the math.
If it's gonna happen it has been happening in the last month. Since right now I have no rent we can still pay for the best food out there. With two cats eating Instinct and EVO dry and canned foods and 3 dogs eating regular Innova dry and canned.... the Instinct is $13 per dry bag and the canned is about $2.00 each. The EVO dry is about $18 per bag and canned ranging from $1.10- over $2. (the small 5.5 oz cans) We spend about.... $90.00 when we stock up. That usually lasts for about a month, maybe a little longer. Then the dog food went up $10.00 per bag so that's like $50.00 per bag and $40.00 for the cans per month.... It's something like $200.00 to feed 5 animals. 
We have four cats and try to give quality food wellness core and the new Taste of the Wild with no grain or by product and we have two chuhauaha they eat diamond dry for small breeds food alone probrably with treats 150 not including fun stuff that I buy. I did pause this week and thought about the cost with gas prices. Morgage is fixed thank goodnes. 