Cheap Cat Food 2023

How To Find Quality Affordable Cat Food

Just like any other cat parent, you want what’s best for your cat. So naturally, you want to give them a healthy, nutritionally balanced diet to enable them to live a long, happy and healthy life. Cats are obligate carnivores, meaning that they have a biological need for meat. Hence, they generally require a lot of fat and protein in their diet to be healthy.   

Although a cat is able to digest other types of foods, protein is the main focus in its diet and should be sourced from premium animal sources. Therefore, it is crucial that food that is rich in those nutrients.   

Best Affordable Cat Food – Our Top 10

Unfortunately, this can quickly become expensive as cat food that is made out of the best ingredients tends to be pricey. 

Even so, you don’t have to buy expensive cat food to find these nutrients. There are many affordable cat food brands that are ethically farmed to provide quality, nutrient-rich cat food.   But how do you navigate the long aisles of cat food brands to find the best one for your pet? 

Here are a few tips to help you find affordable cat food for your furry friend: 

What Makes The Best Value Cat Food  

Important factors to consider, other than price, when shopping for healthy cat food:

• Natural, whole-food ingredients  
• No less than 30% quality animal protein  
• 15-20% healthy animal-based fats  
• Digestible carbs and fiber  
• Essential minerals, vitamins, fatty acids and enzymes  
• No fillers, artificial additives, coloring, flavors or by-products 

Understand your feline’s nutritional needs 

Feeding your cat with low-quality food can result in unintended consequences like vitamin and mineral deficiencies or even unhealthy weight gain. In turn, these deficiencies can lead to clinical health issues that require medical care.   

This is why it is important that you have a thorough understanding of your cat’s dietary needs. You need to be able to make healthy choices for your cat, but at the same time affordable for you. This is where our list of best cheap cat food can help.   

Shopping for cat food on budget for your pet can be challenging, especially because of the many options available in the market. Therefore, you need to have a thorough understanding of your cat’s nutritive needs. This will help you choose the best cat food wisely.   

Tip: affordable way to improve your cat’s digestion is to grow cat grass. Learn about cat grass benefits.

Understand the factors that influence the price 

Other than having a clear understanding of what to look for when buying high-quality affordable cat food, it is important that you understand which factors influence the price. Usually, animal protein is more expensive than wholesome, natural ingredients and plant-based protein. This is why best cat food, even when on budget, will offer animal sourced proteins for prices that are acceptable to most people.

Dry food is usually cheaper than wet food. Fresh, freeze-dried and frozen cat food is usually the most pricey. Hence, the price of the product you buy will mostly depend on what you choose. Ideally, you want to strike a great balance between quality, quantity, and affordability.   

High Quality Ingredients on a Budget

Quality animal protein should be listed as one of the first two ingredients, for wet food or dry food.

When buying cat food, make sure to buy one with a full list of its ingredients on the pack. Meats provide cats with the protein they need to maintain their muscles. It also supplies nutrients for optimal coat and organ function.   

Even inexpensive cat foods will list a source of animal protein such as beef, lamb, fish or chicken as the main ingredient with plenty of healthy animal fats and limited carbohydrates. This should be followed by fat sources such as tallow, lard, and oil.  They will also list vitamins and minerals in some cases.

Here is a short guide – few pointers on what to be mindful of:

• Stay away from toxic ingredients like onion, chives, and garlic!
• Avoid unspecified meat sources!
• Avoid artificial colors, preservatives and added flavoring 
• Do not buy cat food made with wheat, corn, soy ingredients or those that have artificial additives like flavors, colors and artificial preservatives. 
• Try to buy grain free cat food.
• If your cat is overweight, consider buying cat food for overwight cats.

Cheap Cat Food Reviews – Our Top 10 List for 2020

Keeping in mind all the information provided above, which was sourced from credible sources with scientific background. We have worked hard to discern marketing from the facts about cat nutrition in order to provide you with the list of quality inexpensive cat food – dry and wet. We have looked at many products and recommend following products:

1. Tiki Cat Wet Cat Food 

Tiki is a popular cat food company that aims to provide your cat with the highest quality food at an affordable price. Its shredded chicken breast recipe is their most popular product and is loved for its highly nutritious canned cat foods that are also flavorful.   

Chicken, which is its main ingredient is slow simmered in real chicken broth and then shredded up. The chicken broth helps to keep the food moist to prevent dehydration. 

This cat food offers 44% more high quality protein than most more expensive brands on the market.  Also, the food is grain free and comes with no rice, corn, wheat or soy. In our opinion this makes it one of the best budget cat foods.

2. Meow Mix Wet Cat Food

Meow Mix offers the best wet cat food on a budget. This cat food brand is made with high-quality proteins and all the vitamins your cat needs to grow strong and healthy. The recipe is balanced, savory and your furry friend will be begging for more.   

Meow Mix Savory wet cat food has 3 different varieties for your furry friend to enjoy. The food combinations include:

• Tuna and Crab in gravy  
• Ocean fish n Salmon in gravy   
• Whole shrimp and Tuna in sauce  

3. Nature’s Variety Instinct Dry Cat Food 

A kitten’s diet should be built around premium animal protein like meat, fish, and poultry with essential fatty acids for energy and coat Support. This is why Nature’s Variety Instinct cat food is a great choice.   

This whole food is made of 80% animal ingredients. This is one of the best cheap cat food for kittens. This grain-free cat food delivers protein-packed food that is highly digestible and loaded with all the necessary nutrients for your cat to develop strong, healthy muscles 

4. Purina Beyond Natural Grain Free Ocean White and Egg Recipe

This is one of the best cheap dry cat food products in the market. This Purina product contains real fish and poultry as its first ingredients and zero corn, soy, wheat, gluten, poultry by-product meal, artificial colors, flavors or preservatives.  

Purina is a renown pet food producer, having served in the industry for over 8 decades. It’s known and loved for its high quality and nutrition-dense cat foods which come at affordable prices. This grain free canned cat food features Salmon as its main ingredient and chicken meal as a supplementary source of concentrated protein. Purina’s Beyond Natural cat food also contains carbs and beneficial supplements, however, as mentioned, its grain free, so carbs are from other sources.

5. Rachael Ray Nutrish Wet Cat Food 

This cat food by Rachael Ray is made with simple and 100% natural ingredients. Real chicken is the first ingredient listed on tits packages and it comes combined with wholesome vegetables, brown rice, and essential minerals, taurine, and vitamins, which is everything your cat needs.   Additionally, there is no wheat, soy, corn, by-products or fillers added to the food. This dry cat food is kept simple and natural to deliver a balanced diet and natural flavor for your cat without needing to use of artificial flavors or additives 

6. Nutro Max Indoor Dry Cat Food 

This high quality food is made with select ingredients and omega fatty acids for balance and overall wellness on a budget. Its ingredients comprise of real proteins, cranberries, blueberries, and vitamin E, and C to provide an excellent source of antioxidants for a healthy cat diet. Its first ingredient is a chicken meal, which is made from real chicken with most of the fat and water removed. The chicken is combined with easily digestible brewers rice and is available in weight control option for cats that are a little less active. It is one of the best cat foods for indoor cats out there.

7. Friskies Shreds Variety Pack 

This is another popular and affordable cat food option when it comes to affordable, high-quality products. This massive variety pack comes with 4 totally different flavor combinations that are sure to make your cat’s taste buds happy. These flavor combinations include: 

• Beef in gravy
• Ocean whitefish and tuna in sauce
• Turkey and cheese in gravy
• Chicken and salmon in gravy

All these recipes are made using real meat and fish, so you know what you are getting is healthy. The food is shredded to make it easy for your cat to chew and enjoy the food. It is also grain free.

8. Weruva Classic Cat Food 

Weruva is one of the best grain-free cat foods on the market today. This product is especially loved as a source of high-quality protein, low carb (grain free) and healthy fat

Its main ingredient is chicken, which is combined with other kinds of ingredients, including pumpkin soup, great tasting shredded meat and vitamin supplements 

9. Wag Chicken and Giblets Cat Food 

This Amazon in-brand cat food offers a wide variety of affordable options in both dry and wet food for cats. This food features fresh chicken as its main ingredient, combined with wholesome fruits and vegetables 

This food has been listed primarily because it offers a great value for a very low price, however, we are placing it a bit lower on the list for the pure reason that our cat did not like it. Sometimes you have to ask the true cat food experts. This does not mean every cat will dislike it naturally, as the reviews on the website show. As long as your healthy cat likes the food, you have both ends of the equation satisfied.

10. American Journey Salmon Dry Cat Food 

This food brand offers affordable and nutrient dense composition that is necessary for growing and adult cats. The American Journey Salmon dry cat food contains salmon as its main ingredient, meaning cats that love fish will not be able to resist it.   

It offers balanced omega fatty acid components, the right ration of protein to fat to provide one of the highest quality dry cat foods on the market.

Budgeting your money when it comes to buying wet or dry cat food is a great way to save for other expenses. However, you always need to consider quality AND quantity. Read carefully through the cat food products above to choose the best one for your cat’s needs. These are some of the best quality, affordable cat food that contains all the nutrients and minerals needed to greatly improve and maintain your cat’s health.

Good Cheap Cat Food on a Budget FAQ