I tried to find a thread on it but all three words come up with a zillion hits not related.
I am trying to decide a good homemade food since I have 10 foster failure cats, and have lost my job. At 63 it will be hard to find one where I live so am looking at cutting costs (I feed canned grain free) and thought to research making my own.
What do you do, if you do, and/or any links to previous threads?
Thanks!!!
There was a thread about high quality cat food on a budget. For canned, Friskies or store brand. I’ve since dumped Tractor Supply brand; they no longer eat it. I supplement with boneless chicken breast (buy on sale and freeze portions). Zap it a few minutes. Much much cheaper, by weight, than canned. One cat also eats raw chicken liver. The others won’t touch it.
I’m so sorry about your job. That really sucks.
I don’t know much about it but my vet told me about a site called “balance it”.
I would love to figure out what kind of kitty crack spices or flavoring they put in Fancy Feast. Especially the Chicken and Liver.
I would gladly buy and cook homemade kitty food if they’d eat it as well as FF.
so I’m following your thread here too.
Yeah Ive got some FF adicts! Right now it’s chicken feast, beef feast and some of the seafood flavors. To cut cost a bit as we have 3 young males, we feed Instinct Ultimate Protein which is the lowest carb in dry I can find but it is still high.
OP, I have never been able to make something the cats constantly like.
Honestly, I feed many cats and Fancy Feast remains a go to staple. I try other foods, but FF is the staple of many of my cat’s diet. The classic flavors are grain free. I doubt I could cook food for them for what FF costs, and I know they get basic nutrition, including taurine, in the appropriate amount. Funny, classic chicken and liver is a mainstay. 
In my area FF is over 70 cents for that little bitty can. I think I could cook fresh chicken and process it a little w/ broth for much cheaper. I get chicken quarters on sale here at .99 lb. I think I’ll try it and see how long it takes for them to slurp it up.
This isn’t going to be complete for a cat, and at the very least needs taurine. If you’d like to cook for your cats that’s great, but do make sure you’re hitting their dietary needs. Taurine deficiency = heart failure.
To help offset costs maybe become a coupon hound; supplement with your home made when you need to but try to get as much canned into them as you can. Right now my local grocery store has Wild Harvest canned 4/$1 so I stocked up. I always have the chewy brand dry food out but they get some canned every day. I feed mine chicken livers, hearts, canned salmon (not cheap) ect as treats/supplement. I’ve also soaked dry food in tuna juice to make a soft hydrated food. My eight cats go insane for Friskies in the big can (which I don’t seem able to find any more) which can cost the same as the itty bitty kitty crack can.
Thanks. The shelter I volunteer at gets a bunch of the “cheaper” canned foods donated. Since I just got a notice that American Journey canned cat food increased $5 per case, I have switched to Friskies since I found they are grain free 
and my cats do like it better.
We tried American Journey on a buy one get one at Chewy. They tired of it by the second case.
I wasn’t aware any of the Friskies flavors were grain free. Which ones have you found are?
None of my cats liked American Journey.
The Friskies canned is grain free. Now to find a replacement for AJ dried. I’ve cut my cost in half. Not crazy about all the other chemicals, but for now it’s what it is.
Edit to add: Purina has a 13 lb dry that is grain free for $10 less a bag than AJ. I like to mix the kibble with the wet.
Friskies has wheat gluten in it at the least. We feed some of it to our band of ferals. Mostly it feeds well, but it isn’t grain free.
I just looked closely at the salmon canned and it does not list wheat gluten but it does list rice. Same with the turkey. The dry does not list any grains on the label. What Friskies are you feeding?
They don’t all have the same grains. Rice is a grain. I’m not saying it is bad, but it isn’t grain free, and for the price, it works well.
I have given up on expensive cat food. My cats, which are all dumpees ,will not eat it. And yes Fancy Feast is like crack to them. So I feed Friskees canned food ( pate, no gravy canned food) and I supplement with treats - chicken livers, canned people salmon and if marked down at Walmart - boneless, skinless chicken thighs which I poach. I know they are not getting enough taurine from this so it is not their main food. So I am not expanding my cat cooking. If I did they would decide they didn’t like that either. On the other hand my horses wolf down anything I feed them. Sheesh!
To do it properly and follow a recipe, it could potentially cost you more to make your own food. Also there is time involved to put it all together. You need to get a recipe that has the right amount of calcium and phosphorus for a start. You also need the right amount of B vitamins, taurine and so on. I do make my own but I follow a recipe. If the cat food isn’t balanced you can do real harm.
Also, grain free is a good start, there can still be a lot of carbs in those grain free can food. Although they say the cheapest crappy can is still better than kibble. I’ve never looked into that though.
Since you are fostering all of these cats, and they aren’t really your own, could the shelter supply food for them? After all if you can no longer afford to feed the fosters and have to return them to the shelter, they will be feeding them anyway. Better they are with you in your home than in a cage at the shelter.
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