Caturday: What is the Most Affordable Raw Cat Food?

I've been crunching some numbers to determine whether commercial premade raw cat food is cheaper than canned food. It seems plausible, cans are heavy and bulky, and feeding an all-canned diet becomes alarmingly expensive very quickly. I love collecting data, and I wanted to share my findings with you. Please keep in mind that this is not a complete list, it represents what is readily available either online or in my local stores.

Methodology

The foods included on this table are those for which I could find price, serving size, and servings per package. If I was unable to find the answer to those between the manufacturer's website, and various retail sites, I didn't add it. Serving sizes were determined using Solstice, a 13-pound cat that needs to lose some weight, and the feeding charts provided on the food packaging or manufacturer website. If they had a feeding amount calculator, I used it. Food prices were the lowest price I could find for the largest package available.

Freeze-Dried or Frozen?

My experience with raw dog food has led me to believe that freeze-dried pet food is super expensive, and that frozen raw food is much more reasonable. I was therefore quite surprised to see freeze-dried food as the three least expensive options. It's very interesting how the food prices cluster, first there's three freeze-dried foods at a similar price point, then five frozen foods followed by four freeze-dried foods. I'm sure these are coincidental though, since the price points for each cluster range quite a bit.

Conclusion

Is premade commercial raw cat food cheaper than canned cat food? Nope. Not even close. I am currently feeding primarily 4Health grain-free canned cat food at a cost of $0.79 per can, with some other brands mixed in when I can pick them up on uber-clearance for $0.30-.60 per can. Each cat eats one 5oz can per day, so their monthly feed bill is $23.70. It costs me $47.40 to fed The Hellions each month.

On Sojo's Complete, the most affordable raw cat food I could find, it would cost $0.98 per day to feed one of my cats. That's a monthly feed bill of $29.40 per cat, or $58.80 for both. Though the price difference between the various foods is just a few cents, it adds up really fast. Feeding Grandma Lucy's exclusively to two cats would cost me $67.80.

On the other end of the spectrum, I am truly amazed at how expensive raw cat food can be. Rad Cat is available at my local pet stores. It would cost me $4.25 per day to feed one cat. That's $127.50 to feed one cat for a month, or $255 to feed both. Yikes!

While crazy-expensive raw cat food is not going to be a staple of James and Solstice's diets anytime soon, I do like to vary their diets quite a bit. They aren't allowed to have frozen raw food because they can't eat it without making the entire house smell like a slaughterhouse, but I'd like to introduce them to the concept of freeze dried cat food.

What is the Most Affordable Daily Dental Treat?

I recently posted about Bright Bites daily dental treats, which had me pondering the actual cost of feeding dental treats every day. Little things like that really add up! I love collecting data, so I took a tour of the major online retailers to see how much, or how little, it would cost to feed my dogs a daily dental treat every day.

The Criteria

Photo by Erin Koski

For the purpose of comparison, I chose to include only products that were both marketed and packaged for daily use. Though I can find many individually-wrapped dental treats at my local pet stores, I only included those that could also be purchased in a larger quantity. Few people are going to buy 30 individually-wrapped Bright Bites for the month, but plenty will buy four bags of 8. A company that sells a bunch of dental chews in one bag is definitely taking that "daily dental care" thing seriously.

I also chose to specifically compare products intended for a size range that included both of my girls. So most of these are labeled for medium or regular-sized dogs. Sisci Godzilla weighs 28 pounds, and Zip weighs 36 pounds.

The Results

Cheap

The absolute cheapest dental chew marketed for daily use is Dingo Dental Sticks, at 17-cents each if you buy the bag of 48 sticks on Amazon. The next cheapest is Purina's DentaLife treats at 23-cents each if you buy the package of 40, followed by Pedigree DentaStix, Purina Beneful Healthy Smile Dental Twists, and Milkbone Brushing Chews, ranging from $0.33 to $0.41 per chew. Yes, these are all grocery-store brands, mostly made from by-products. I expected them to all be made in China, but surprisingly all but the Dingo treats are made in the USA.

Standard

Greenies makes the classic daily dental chew, before them I don't remember anything being marketed for daily use like that. Their price point is right in the middle of the pack at $0.81 per regular-sized chew in a package of 36. Bright Bites were slightly more expensive at #1 per chew, along with KaNoodles and Ilio TeethTreats.

Absurd

Every time I see Cloud Star's Dynamo Dog dental chews I am horrified by the price. In the largest package sold, these things will set you back a whopping $2.31 per bone. Yes, they are grain-free and potato-free, but they would also cost $70 per month to feed on a daily basis. Yikes!

Surprise!

Pretty much all of the dental treats (with one freakishly expensive exception) are made from wheat, rice, potato, rawhide, or a combination of these. Many of the more affordable ones are made with chicken by-products as well. I decided beforehand that my personal standards for a dental chew product was that it had to be made in the USA without by-products. I expected the least expensive daily dental chew that met these standards to be somewhere in the middle of the price range. 

Nope! It's Pedigree DentaStix, the third from the bottom at $0.33 per chew. Made in the USA. No by-products. Crazy.

I was also very surprised to see Missing Link's Once Daily dental chew towards the cheap end of the spectrum. This product also contains a daily dose of Missing Link's skin and coat supplement, and somehow it's only $0.52 per chew. I had dismissed the idea of daily dental chews as being too expensive, but it looks like they can be surprisingly affordable!

The Short List: Egg-Free, Poultry-Free, Grain-Free Kibble

Brisbane has some food allergies that we identified via a not-very-precise elimination diet. He is also allergic to fleas, and the vet thinks he has environmental allergies as well. I keep him happy and itch-free by avoiding his food allergens, giving him Zyrtec and Benadryl, keeping him on Comfortis flea preventative, and bathing him at least once a week in baby shampoo.

My half-assed elimination diet involved noticing that he was itchy shortly after consuming certain foods, attempting to cut those out of his diet for a long time, and then feeding him a bunch of said food to see what would happen.

Example: Briz had a huge hot spot. The previous day I was attempting to fry the perfect over-medium egg and slid all the failures into his bowl. We avoided feeding him anything containing eggs for a few months, and then I gave him a few fried eggs with broken yolks again. When he got another hot spot we cut eggs out of his diet entirely.

This entirely unscientific process has led me to believe that Brisbane is allergic to eggs, chicken, turkey, and duck. Since cutting these out of his diet he has been significantly less itchy, and stopped getting yeast infections in his enormous ears. Conveniently, he is not allergic to emu, ostrich, pheasant, quail, or pigeon.

THIS IS A SUFFOCATION HAZARD!
A dog can suffocate in a chip bag in five minutes or less!
Always supervise your garbage hounds!

Finding commercial pet foods and treats that Brisbane can eat is a little tricky, but I love research. I also love hiking and ultralight backpacking, where every ounce counts. I have amassed a list of kibbles that Brisbane can eat, and included the number of calories per cup so I can carry his food most efficiently on the trail. I thought this information would be helpful for anyone looking to put weight on a dog, or help a chunky pup slim down.

All of these grain-free foods are also free of egg, turkey, duck, and chicken, including chicken fat. I excluded some otherwise excellent foods because they used poultry fat as a preservative. I've been told that purified fat is not an allergen and could not possibly cause an allergic reaction, but my vet and I still would prefer to leave it out. Please pay attention to the specific variety of food, as most or all of the manufacturers also make varieties with poultry and eggs, and only certain flavors/recipes are safe. Some of these products are available around the world, others only in specific areas. Most can be purchased online.

I am madly in love with the Dog Food Advisor site, and recently used it to choose a new food for my dogs. Most or all of these foods will be listed there with a fabulous review and nutritional breakdown.

Update: Check out DogFoodWizard.com for custom food selection for any allergens!

The List:

Honest Kitchen Love 514 kcal/cup

Taste of the Wild Pacific Stream 360 kcal/cup
Taste of the Wild Pacific Stream Puppy360 kcal/cup (Note: Puppy food has the same calories.)
Taste of the Wild Sierra Mountain 338 kcal/cup Now contains egg!

Orijen Six Fish 456 kcal/cup

Natural Balance LID Sweet Potato and Fish 380 kcal/cup

Natural Balace LID Sweet Poato and Venison 360 kcal/cup

Natural Balance LID Sweet Potato and Bison 375 kcal/cup

Natural Balance LID Potato and Rabbit 350 kcal/cup

Wellness Core Ocean Formula 417 kcal/cup

Wellness Simple Salmon and Potato 446 kcal/cup

AvoDerm Salmon and Potato 360 kcal/cup

AvoDerm Trout and Pea 446 kcal/cup

Nature’s Variety Instinct Salmon Meal 448 kcal/cup

Nature’s Variety Instinct LID Lamb 433 kcal/cup

Nature’s Variety Instinct LID Rabbit 449 kcal/cup

Nature’s Variety Instinct Raw Boost Lamb and Salmon 436 kcal/cup

Canidae Pure Sea 496 kcal/cup

Canidae Pure Land 474 kcal/cup

Merrick Grain-Free Pork and Sweet Potato 460 kcal/cup

Merrick Grain-Free Texas Beef 422 kcal/cup

Castor and Pollux Grain-Free Poultry-Free 375 kcal/cup

Acana Pacifica 421 kcal/cup

Acana Ranchlands 422 kcal/cup (What my motley crew is currently eating.)

Acana Lamb and Apple 421 kcal/cup

Innova Nature's Table Grain Free Ranch-Raised Beef & Red Lentils 497 kcal/cup

Innova Nature's Table Grain Free Cold Water Salmon and Wild Herring 483 kcal/cup

California Natural Pork and Sweet Potato 431 kcal/cup

California Natural Salmon and Pea 435 kcal/cup

California Natural Kangaroo and Red Lentil 431 kcal/cup

California Natural Lamb 428 kcal/cup

California Natural Venison and Green Lentil 443 kcal/cup

Canine Caviar Wild Ocean 552 kcal/cup

Canine Caviar Wilderness 595 kcal/cup

Earthborn Holistic Meadow Feast 300 kcal/cup

Evanger’s Meat-Lover’s Medley 387 kcal/cup

Great Life Buffalo 431 kcal/cup

Great Life Salmon 442 kcal/cup

Dr. E’s RX Buffalo 429 kcal/cup

Pioneer Naturals Pork 426 kcal/cup

Pioneer Naturals Vension 434 kcal/cup

Pioneer Naturals Whitefish 451 kcal/cup

Pure Vita Grain Free Salmon 454 kcal/cup

Pure Vita Bison 438 kcal/cup

Natural Planet Rabbit and Salmon 448 kcal/cup

American Natural Premium Buffalo Meal 400 kcal/cup

American Natural Premium Ocean Fish and Potato 407 kcal/cup

Annamaet Aqualuk 426 kcal/cup

Annamaet Manitok 422 kcal/cup

Back to Basics Whitefish and Potato 273 kcal/cup

Back to Basics Lamb and Potato 297 kcal/cup

Back to Basics Pork 424 kcal/cup

Back to Basics Open Range 400 kcal/cup

Best Breed Grain-Free Salmon 437 kcal/cup

Nutrience Grain-Free Ocean Fish and Salmon 415 kcal/cup

Redmoon Lamb and Potato 476 kcal/cup

Victor Dog Food Salmon and Sweet Potato 402 kcal/cup

Wholesome Blend Grain-Free 406 kcal/cup

Wholesome Blend Grain-Free Small Breed 450 kcal/cup