The 16 oz can of economy 9 Lives at 89c suddenly shrank to 12 ounces. "New, low everyday price!"

Love those new, low everyday prices!

Found 70c differences for same items between Hannaford and Price Chopper (Hannaford wins).` 

That big bag of dry cat food is shrinking and shrinking.

Small tube of hairball remedy almost $4.00.

First human food not pet food... prices and sizes changing all the time... prices up, sizes down... what a rip.

I may have a helpful suggestion but first I'd need to know because I do not and have never had cats. I know you have like 7 or 8 cats? not sure if you are feeding more as well but does 1 cat require 1 can in a full day or more or less? how many 16 ounce cans would you need in a day to feed all the cats you are feeing? Let me know, I may have a suggestion but not sure if it's even doable and would need to know that info to do some calculations on my end to try to help with cost cuts.

I sgree pet food gone up  our babies all eat dry and if they eat wet it usually something home made with DB  recipe and instructions

I have two cats ages 11 & 12. They have been with us their whole lives. We feed them dry food, tuna is their treat no canned food. It gives my 18lb orange tabby (think Garfield, lol) really bad stinky farts. But my kids cats love all kinds of stuff including wet cat food. To save on those costs we buy organ meats from the locker plant and I can that meat for them. Not sure if the cost is comparable or not ... but it's better food!

 Ach I've tried for a good hour to get on the site.

BB, I am interested in your suggestions. My cats get about one tablespoon of wet food a day: several of them must be medicated, and I have to dissolve the medication in wet food.

Otherwise, I feed them a very high-quality (not on the open market) dry food. It is somewhat expensive - but not one vet bill for three years now except teeth cleaning, all have lost weight, are very healthy, so it pays off.

I don't like to give them meat or fish except for a very rare treat. They will just cry for more!

Before I switched them to this food, they had allergies, anal gland impactions, viruses, rolling skin syndrome...now that all the additives are out of the food, they are all acting like kittens (12 year-old cats). As it pays for humans to act preventatively to save money on health care, so I find it true with my cats.

Sea my suggestion did have to do with frozen fish in the frugal bulk bags but if you are not open to giving them real meat/fish then the suggestion is not even worth mentioning... It could be a frugalized option as an alternative to processed can food and would be mixed with the dry food. The dry food you do not pay for and is donated correct? I remember you get major assistance with the cats...so if you are left to buy the wet oriented food yourself without assistance my suggestion was on the lines of frozen bulk fish fillets as a much frugal option.

Ps. I don't have cats so I would not know, only thoughts and questions to follow as I learn. For you, if your dry food is so good then why even the need for a tiny bit of wet food added? is it to be used as a treat? or the dry food is stretching the wet? nutritional purposes? If fish fillets were a cheaper option and could replae the wet food, for example, why would this not work - because they cry for more and feel bad and don't want to deal with that or something else? Crying for more clearly means they like the real fish more than the processed wet stuff but I can see how that might be hard to have 7 or 8 cats crying/begging when cats really can't be trained to not do that like how you can train a dog easier to not beg. Easier said for me I guess since I have a dog and he is trained to do things and also wait before he eats. He is trained on command and very loyal and obedient in that sense.

PS - I wanted to add: don't forget that cats must have taurine, so it's never a good idea to use solely fresh (non-organ) meat or dog food. The cat could die. But as suggested, in treat-style amounts, it is okay. I like to feed my guys the dark meat from whole chickens as a treat; I mince it and put it in ice cube trays with a little water or broth, and freeze the cubes. Then I just thaw one out and give it to them, juice and all. They love this, and the cost is pretty minimal, for a treat (we don't eat the dark meat, anyway).

When I got my husky the vet recommemded a meat only food, I get it at the local feed store for $40 for a #40 bag.

Not as cheap as the grocery store stuff, but if it pays for itself in savings on vet bills I'm all for it!

Hi Sea,

As someone else said, yep they need taurine, so people food isn't an option other than for treats. I kind of liked the idea of fish, but as a rare treat, maybe to lure the cat into the carrier to be taken on trips to the vet, for folks that have trouble with that. I used to have a cat like that. I have one cat now, but have had multiple cats in the past and it does get pricy. I'll happily share the little I've learned over the years. One is that I buy a fairly good quality dry food, a hairball formula. I tried the hairball remedy gel years ago and it wasn't effective at prevention, it just brought them up then, to be dealt with at that time. The dry food hairball formula we use is a preventative, that allows the hairball to be broken up and go the other direction, as it were :)   So that's a bit of savings there.  If I were going to use something like that instead of a hairball formula food, I would use something much less expensive. According to the ingredients it is flavored petroleum jelly. I didn't like the idea of giving my cat that once I read it, so would give the cat a bit of oil from a can of oil packed tuna, instead.

Also, we dont buy enzyme cleaner now because she never brings up hairballs anymore since we switched. We used to have to deal with them once or twice a week, so we're saving that cleaner plus the paper towels used on them.

Another benefit to the decent quality dry food is the waste is much smaller, so we use less cat litter.

I'm not saying dry is better than wet. Wet may be better for some, but this has worked out well for us. Also, she hasn't had any stomach upset and no mess of that kind to deal with since we switched.

When we used a pretty cheap food many years ago with another cat, we had to take her to get her glands expressed regularly, and the vet kept telling me it was the poor quality of food, but I didn't listen. He said that isn't needed with cats on a good diet. I finally listened!

Hope this helps, my heart goes out to anyone who gives a home to fur-babies :)