# Cat food - bulk buy?



## Embo (Jun 7, 2012)

Hi all, 

I've been trying to find somewhere that sells cat food in bulk at a discount but I'm having some trouble - nowhere seems to sell cat food in anything bigger than 48-pouches or 24-tins.

We've been using the Sainsbury's own brand pouches - 48 for £9-ish. The price is right but I'm not convinced on quality. My partner doesn't want to spend much more than this and I'm trying to convince him otherwise, but would rather find somewhere that sells the better stuff at a discount.

I will be honest, I don't know much about what the best brands are (apart from usual Purina or Iams etc, but they are far too expensive!!) Where do you all get yours from? What do you use? I would rather stick to pouches as it's better for us to moniter portion control - we have one very greedy puss who will eat whatever you put down. They are young cats (just over a year) with no health problems and no special dietary requirements. 

Any help/advice much appreciated!


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## selina20 (May 28, 2008)

With all pet foods sadly you get what you pay for.


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## garlicpickle (Jan 16, 2009)

I don't feed my cats tinned food anymore, but when I did I used to get it from zooplus. They have a lot of Euro brands in stock, I found my cats liked Bozita and the Cosma tins. They are both high in protein and low in other additives as well as being quite cheap.

One of my cats now has applaws dry food (she won't eat "real" meat) and the other is on a RAW diet because she has IBS and tinned food doesn't agree with her.


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## freekygeeky (May 25, 2007)

After not being able to afford enough good quality cat food, I turned to BARF/RAW diet about 5 years ago. Much cheaper, more filling, easy, hard poos etc.


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## Embo (Jun 7, 2012)

garlicpickle said:


> I don't feed my cats tinned food anymore, but when I did I used to get it from zooplus. They have a lot of Euro brands in stock, I found my cats liked Bozita and the Cosma tins. They are both high in protein and low in other additives as well as being quite cheap.
> 
> One of my cats now has applaws dry food (she won't eat "real" meat) and the other is on a RAW diet because she has IBS and tinned food doesn't agree with her.





freekygeeky said:


> After not being able to afford enough good quality cat food, I turned to BARF/RAW diet about 5 years ago. Much cheaper, more filling, easy, hard poos etc.


I was thinking about starting to feed raw but I thought this might cost more? But I suppose it would involve feeding more offal/tripe which is much cheaper... I think investigation is required! 

I will have a look and see if I can find more info on this. If either of you can link me to any pages you know off hand that would also be useful. Thanks!!


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## freekygeeky (May 25, 2007)

Embo said:


> I was thinking about starting to feed raw but I thought this might cost more? But I suppose it would involve feeding more offal/tripe which is much cheaper... I think investigation is required!
> 
> I will have a look and see if I can find more info on this. If either of you can link me to any pages you know off hand that would also be useful. Thanks!!


Thes a sticky on here. All about it.

Mine works out cheap, asi have 6 cats.

They get, a packet of commercial barf diet for breakfast. So, lamb, or chicken, or beef, etc. 80p for all 6. Then throughout the day they get a snack if I'm home, eggs, pilchards, off cuts of dinner/lunch. Then for dinner they get either chicken wings, thighs, livers, kidneys, hearts, fish. I have found that morrisons is best for this.

It works out as about £1 - £1.50 a day for 6.


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## Embo (Jun 7, 2012)

freekygeeky said:


> Thes a sticky on here. All about it.
> 
> Mine works out cheap, asi have 6 cats.
> 
> ...


Thanks very much! I've read some of the thread and it all seems pretty simple. The most complicated thing seems to be where to get all the meat from lol. 

Also been reading up on barfpetfoods.co.uk, the info they have on there seems to be really good. Will also have a word with the chaps on the butcher counter when shopping this weekend.

A problem for me would be freezer space, we can barely fit our own frozen foods in as only have a small fridge freezer... but if we can get what we need weekly, for 2 cats I can't imaging we'd need a huge amount, surely?

Thanks for your help so far.


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## 5plusmany (Sep 29, 2011)

I've fed mine on the raw food diet before and found it very cheap, unfortunately though I've now moved and the only place I can get the produce from round here is a very expensive butchers. I've now changed them to Lily's Kitchen, it's lovely stuff and as I buy in bulk they have allowed me to buy at wholesale prices. It's still pricier than the likes of Whiskas etc, but it's so much better quality I don't need to feed them five times a day lol


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## freekygeeky (May 25, 2007)

Embo said:


> Thanks very much! I've read some of the thread and it all seems pretty simple. The most complicated thing seems to be where to get all the meat from lol.
> 
> Also been reading up on barfpetfoods.co.uk, the info they have on there seems to be really good. Will also have a word with the chaps on the butcher counter when shopping this weekend.
> 
> ...



This is why we don't go to slaughter houses etc. most people buy in massive bulk to get costs down. Where as I can only use one draw in my freezer s I buy on a week by week basis.


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## mitsi (Feb 1, 2012)

we feed ours dry food and i get a big sack of it for £15 from home for pets, lasts us 6 to 7 weeks.


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## garlicpickle (Jan 16, 2009)

You can get packets of pet mince in various flavours from [email protected], the tripe one stinks :\

I get mine chicken wings (Asda smartprice) chicken liver (50p for a tub in the frozen section at Asda), diced turkey or white fish sometimes. You can try ox heart and beef mince but although mine loves them, they don't agree with her. I think she's allergic to beef tbh. For one or two cats it isn't going to cost much at all, probably no more than buying tinned food.

If you are feeding raw chicken portions, give the whole thing, bone as well, my cat is 15 and the vet says she has perfect teeth and couldn't believe she had never had a dental cleaning.

I've heard of people who feed their cats on RAW diets giving them frozen mice, but having seen the pile of puke which usually follows when they have caught mice outside and eaten them, I haven't tried this.


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## freekygeeky (May 25, 2007)

Mine have had mice when I bred them. Oh they eat chicks too, chicken wings, thighs etc


garlicpickle said:


> You can get packets of pet mince in various flavours from [email protected], the tripe one stinks :\
> 
> I get mine chicken wings (Asda smartprice) chicken liver (50p for a tub in the frozen section at Asda), diced turkey or white fish sometimes. You can try ox heart and beef mince but although mine loves them, they don't agree with her. I think she's allergic to beef tbh. For one or two cats it isn't going to cost much at all, probably no more than buying tinned food.
> 
> ...


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## Embo (Jun 7, 2012)

Thanks guys, I've really been looking into RAW and think we're going to try it. Gonna have a look and see what we can get at the supermarket and take it from there. Unfortunately we don't have a butcher locally (where have they all gone!?) so we may have to travel slightly further out or order online to get a good variety. 

I'm really looking forward to giving them a better diet!


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## freekygeeky (May 25, 2007)

Embo said:


> Thanks guys, I've really been looking into RAW and think we're going to try it. Gonna have a look and see what we can get at the supermarket and take it from there. Unfortunately we don't have a butcher locally (where have they all gone!?) so we may have to travel slightly further out or order online to get a good variety.
> 
> I'm really looking forward to giving them a better diet!


I dnt use my butcher, to expensive here..

Offal and chicken bits from morrisons I travel about 40 mins once a month. 
Fish in tins from Tescos.
Value eggs from Tescos.
Minced tripe etc from pet shop frozen blocks, also frozen turkey necks.
I also get salmon oil from health stores.
And taurine online. 
Chicks from pet shop.


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