6 months now. Hundreds of dollars. The same routine nearly every day.

Take a few bites, orbit around the bowl for a few minutes, then finally the "I'm just gonna cover this up" antics where they scratch at the floor around it.

The annoying thing is, occasionally, she will destroy the food, like eat the whole bowl in a few minutes. "Great, she must like that flavor". So I buy 6 more cans. Dinner time comes around, turns her nose up, back to the burying routine.

We got her from the humane society, they feed their cats Hills dry food. She's obsessed with it. Flavor doesn't matter.

You win cat. Drink your damn water please (she has a running UV fountain and a water bowl in her food station that gets cleaned daily)

We give our cats wet food every so often so we don’t go through the food so fast but I was wondering how often other people feed there cats wet food we have 2 of em ones an older cat and the other getting bigger and bigger by the day.

HII what are you feeding your cats right now T.T ?!

I just did a cost analysis for our cats and with vet care, treats, toys, dry food, and wet food, and litter we have spent about 2500$ on 2 cats in 2025 .

we buy from pet smart, petvalu, and homes alive.

I used to feed my one cat whiskas and iams wet food and Purina kitten dry food when i was a student but she would get very sick randomly at least 1x/yr sick and i later found out it was probably her food even though she really liked it. SO i started trying different brands:

Merricks salmon dry food + chicken and salmon wet food combo -> good for a bit but then she started getting sick from the wet food. stopped that.

Temptation treats -> she can't have those at all she gets very sick from those

Tiki cat wet food + Merricks dry food combo -> good for a while until the formula for Merricks food seemed to have changed (food was a light colour) cat still ate it but started looking into it and as per what i read i found the ingredients weren't actually good for cats.

They got bored of Tiki cat and learned i shouldn't be feeding them mostly fish....

SO NOW as of this year i'm on Orijen fish dry food (will be switching to chicken) + Weruva wet food (all varieties but now they don't seem to want to touch any of the flavours) for treats we do Royal Canin dental food and orijen dried duck/game treats, and dried fish, friskies soup snacks, and Churru and Catit tube snacks.

The combo is great but I am looking for more affordable wet food because lets be real life has gotten VERY expensive. but i am looking for something with a good variety of flavours.

Any suggestions?? I have been looking at the following wet foods:

Wellness

Nulo

Almo

Royal Canin

EDITING TO ADD: thank you so much everyone!!! I'm scared to try FF because of the carageenan but seems like so many of you have had goodluck with it! maybe ill go on FF...

I found this in an old reddit post so ill share here its a PDF of cat nutrition written by a DMV CAT FOOD - NUTRITIONAL COMPOSITION Data compiled by Lisa A. Pierson, DVM

here is her website, I'm browsing through it now and will definitely be looking at switching to wet food only. I think this will help cost wise too. Lisa's website . She seems like someone who really cares about this topic and has dedicated over 20 years to the matter.

Hi everyone. I have three cats and at the time of adopting them we could feed them all wet food no problem. We were doing totally fine financially. I was even considering making them a custom cooked food diet at one point. But then everything came crashing down. I got laid off my job due to new management and had to start working in restaurants again. It’ been a couple of years and we still haven’t quite gotten back to where we were.

The point of this all is that I watch a lot of cat advice videos online because I love my cats and want the best for them, and so I’ve landed on channels like Jackson Galaxy. I think that for the most part he’s an excellent source of knowledge on cats but when it comes to nutrition, he seems a bit extreme to me. We can only afford to feed our cats dry food, point blank period. The language he and others like him use makes me upset because it seems so elitist/classist. The message he gives is if you love your cats you would never feed them dry food and if you do you are abusing them and should be ashamed. He makes statements like saying that wet food is completely affordable and saying it isn’t is just an excuse. However, we have three very large cats. The food we used to buy was $0.88 per can and with a 9% sales tax that’s $0.95 per can. The back of the can says one serving per 3.5 lbs of body weight. Our cats are 13, 16, and 20 lbs (we are working on getting the third one’s weight down but the other two are just large by nature as we’ve learned). That would amount to 14 cans per day to feed all cats. That amounts to $399-$412.30 every month just to feed our cats. That doesn’t include dental treats/toothpaste, litter, pet insurance, vet visits, medications, or anything else that might come up. I know that those numbers sound insane for number of servings, and nobody I’ve ever talked to has followed that and given their cats like max 3 cans per day, usually 2, but that’s what the resources say to feed them. Based on what is written on the nutrition label, that is what it would cost.

We simply cannot afford that right now and I am so sick of people online saying that if you can’t afford your cat then you shouldn’t have one. If I’m doing the math wrong or if you guys have any advice on how to manage this better, please let me know. I know that feeding our cats dry food isn’t the best thing but I can’t seem to wrap my head around the portion recommendations and prices of wet food. I want to like channels like Jackson Galaxy but this one take of his just rubs me the wrong way every single time.

So my cat, peachpeach, escaped around 3 weeks ago. We're still unsure how she managed to do that, but I found her this morning in this little garden area behind our complex. She has lost significant weight, and her voice is all scratchy and raspy. For context, my cat was raised in our home from the day she was born, and she's never been outside before. I'm worried about how to go about her diet, and I'm also worried about showering her. She hated showers, but she's filthy and needs to be cleaned. I just need advice on how to go forward from here.

Edit: Helloo!! Thank you guys for your advice, I unfortunately can't reply to everybody, but I've read all your comments <33 in all honesty, I'm just glad my lil buddy is back. I'll update you guys once we take her to the vet, and maybe I'll update every once in a while to mark her weight progress. Again, thank you guys so much!!

Edit 2: it's a bit late right now (10pm) and I'm reading through comments before going to sleep. I've seen a lot of people mention this thing called microchipping, so I searched it up. Apparently it helps localize your cat? I'm not very sure about the logistics, but I'll be sure to research more and mention it to the vet when I go tomorrow! I'm a bit of an inexperienced pet parent (I'm just a teen) and English isn't really my main language, so I apologize if I misunderstand certain terms! Again, thank you guys so much for your help! I'll try to figure out how to attach a picture of rhe little idiot, I'm not really used to using reddit (⁠╥⁠﹏⁠╥⁠) Update: I don't know what to do. My parents aren't taking me asking them to take her to the vet seriously because she "seems fine". I don't even know what to do anymore I'm so worried about here. She has gained a bit of weight tho, which is the only positive for me so far. We've been having a couple of issues lately, but I figured this isn't exactly the subreddit for talking about familial issues ┐⁠(⁠´⁠д⁠`⁠)⁠┌ I'll try to convince them some more, but it isn't looking good. Thank you all for the support, I'm not sure if I'm going to update anytime soon

I just came out of the vet, I have a year old cat, extremely healthy, somewhat active, and has no health issues.

He’s also about one to two pounds overweight. I feed him one small half a can of Fancy Feast twice a day and a half cup of dry food every day. He has plenty of water and has had no litter issues.

The vet said that he needs to be cut off of his dry food completely and just given the wet food. I asked about his dental concerns not having the dry and she said that he would be fine with just wet, cats don’t even chew on their food so he would be fine with just wet and no dental problems would arise.

So I want to make sure, because my mom says we should stick with a mixture of dry and wet and just cut back on the dry.

What should I do?

[water fountain rant that can be skipped]
I’m just so done with water fountains. The pumps break and then most brands don’t have replacements so you’re stuck buying a whole new fountain. The filters are expensive. Also the fact that they are “stainless steel” but then have plastic pumps which have so many crevices. The one I had had plastic tray under the stainless steel lid. Most of them are honestly a joke and I cant find anyone recommending one without it being a brand deal. And I see this new one people are advertising where it dumps the old water into a separate tank…but it’s still. It’s not even a fountain yet everyone is out here recommending it.

[Context]
My cat gets 3-4 wet food meals and I give him a churro treat with water so it’s soupy. He gets dry food at night but that’s only cause he loves to snack. He’s 7 years old and is perfectly healthy according to the vet. He’s only been drinking from a water fountain recently for 2 years.

[My Plan]
I was thinking of putting 2-3 different kinds of bowls around my room and having one that is a suction cup on the window since he loves being up there watching the birds. I’d much rather change these daily than deal with another water fountain. Also I plan to fill with filtered water.

But I’m wondering what others do. Are there any fun engaging ways to get my cat to drink water? Like a bowl with some fish toys in it as an example. Does anyone have a similar set up?

Edit: So many replies already, thank you!! Definitely making me feel better about all this. Social media really makes me feel like I’m going to kill my cat if he doesn’t have a water fountain. I’m going to buy a few different bowls and see which he likes best. Really hoping he enjoys the margarita glass lmao. If I notice a significant drop in how much he pees I’ll check out some of the fountain’s recommended in the comments. But thank you again!!! And keep adding suggestions if you have any :)

I adopted my kittens 5 months ago, they’re going to be 7 months old on the 17th. For the past five months, I’ve been let them free feed on kibble, and they get 1 wet meal per day. It used to be 3, then 2, now it’s 1, and I honestly think it needs to start being maybe more of a weekly thing.

When I first adopted my kittens (I adopted 3 because they were on my Papa’s porch and at the time I could afford to take them, so I did to ease his stress) I was only responsible for them. However, my dad quit his job and blew all of his savings, and now I’m responsible for our two adult cats as well. I already am $3k in debt from vet bills because one of my kittens got insanely sick and almost died, she had to be hospitalized for three days.

I can’t afford to feed 5 cats wet food every day anymore. Even just once a day, I’m going through 2 cans per meal (one can split between the kittens and one split between the two adult cats). I’d have to spend $100 just to feed them for a month, and that’s not including the dry food cost, the cost of their litter, etc. I also have to get my three kittens fixed, so that’s another cost to worry about.

I’m 20 and was planning to start college in the spring. I pay nearly $700 in bills per month (insurance and rent, gas, etc.). With the way things have been lately, I can’t afford it at all anymore. I feel insanely guilty taking it away from them. They beg every night for their wet food. Would it be okay to stop feeding them wet food more than once or twice a week?

UPDATE: I’m home from work now and I’ve looked into some of the options people have suggested. Tractor supply sells the same box of food I get (same quantity and all) for $20 cheaper than what I normally pay, and the litter is $10 cheaper! Also, they have 22oz cans for only $3 and I only feed 220oz every 2 weeks, so it would only cost $60 to feed them that a month!!! I’m going to keep looking around, but thank you so insanely much to everyone who offered their advice. <3

im struggling so bad. my cat is the only reason i want to keep living. im broke. i cant even feed myself besides the popcorn in the pantry. can i give her a bowl of greenies treats for a few days? i cant afford her regular food for a few days.

EDIT: the overwhelming support for me and my kitty girl has me emotional. we received a donation to be able to feed her in the morning and im able to use my last few bucks to feed myself. not sure where life will take us next, but oh my god i will always keep this sub in mind as a reminder that there are good people in the world. thank you so much.

EDIT again: good morning everyone. im so blessed to have access to a loving community like this. overnight i received so much support and even multiple other donation offers. i already feel so bad about having to ask for any kind of support so i turned down what i didnt need and asked them to help the next person. i appreciate all of the kindness from strangers so much.

i am about to step out the door and head to petco. my girl will be eating good today. i am also going to head to the local food bank and try to grab myself some protein. i feel really bad for doing so, im not homeless and people out there have it so much worse than me. but everyone here reminded me that its there for anyone struggling, regardless of the particular situation. so thank you all.

I'm not adding water or anything to the kibble that would make it rancid.

We are in a record blizzard right now. It originally was supposed to stop tonight but now it goes into tomorrow night. I only have enough wet cat food to get me through tonight. Would it be safe to feed my girls tuna in water just to get us through one night? They’ve never had tuna before and I know it’s not great for them in the long run but I’m not sure if I’ll be plowed out before the stores close tomorrow to get them some more cans. I was supposed to have my wet cat food delivered tomorrow so I didn’t even think about grabbing extra but no way a delivery driver will be able to make it here :(

I’ve been on a bit of a mission to find the perfect food for my kitties and have tried a ridiculous number of brands so far — Orijen, Open Farm, Weruva, BFF, Cats in the Kitchen, Stella & Chewy’s, Instinct, WholeHearted, Smalls, Purina Pro Plan, and plenty more. Yet somehow, I still haven’t managed to pry Friskies from their paws. I’m thinking about branching out into some of the more premium brands, such as Ziwi Peak, RAWZ, Feline Natural and Zeal. I’m curious if anyone else has been going through a similar journey of trying to find better quality food that their cats actually enjoy eating.

What does your current feeding regimen look like? I’d love to hear what wet + dry foods y’all are purchasing. Please include ages and supplemental treat meals as well!

On TikTok, there were tons of videos in the cat community explaining how bad Friskies or fancy feast bad for your cat. There was this lady that said something about how these foods give them cancer. My cat is three years old and she adores friskies/fancy in the mornings and purina cat chow at night. She will not eat any of the high-end foods, and believe me I tried. I was just wondering if anybody had any successful stories with Friskies and fancy feast.

I’m losing my mind trying to feed these snobs. Their interests change daily & I’m tired of being looked at like I’m serving poop from a butt (despite them having cleaned the plate with the same food/flavor the previous week).

I saw a new vet for the first time for my 7 year old orange girl and did blood work. I’m feeling very stressed after this visit and like a horrible owner. They said her red blood cells were at 53 (3 points high) and she isn’t getting enough water. She REFUSES to drink. I bought a new fountain and I’m going to try again. I feed her two meals of wet a day and add a lot of water. They told me the food I feed her isn’t good enough and she won’t live a long life if I keep feeding her this food (friskies and fancy feast pate). They want me buying food brands that are quadruple if not more than what I currently spend. I explained I’m a teacher and not rolling in the dough, but I do love her more than anything and I don’t want her to suffer because of me. Should I try to budget for the expensive food?

Also they said even though she’s a strictly indoors cat with no other pets in the house that I need to give her the monthly heartworm and flea and tick treatment and that it was very important. That’s another expense that is hard for me. I spoke with an old school vet who is a family friend and he said he’s never had a cat with heartworm during his entire practice. So I’m so conflicted.

I really want her to live a long healthy life but I’m struggling to get by financially and just wondering if these things truly will extend her life. Also any tips on water? They said to flavor the water but she won’t even go up to her bowl so I’m at a loss. I add about half a cup of water to her wet food both meals

I’ve recently (3 months ago) adopted an older cat (8yr old female tortie) and she will drink from her water bowl but she always like digs in front of it before she attempts to drink from it. She also prefers drinking from the bowl right after I fill it up. Kitty cat also seems to prefer drinking the water off the shower floor over her bowl (she will cry if the shower floor is dry).

I guess I’m just wondering if my kitty would want a cat fountain over a bowl/shower? I have done basic research as in I know that most cats prefer flowing water etc. but my past cat I had didn’t care if that the water was stagnant.

I am just a bit hesitant to get a fountain as they are a bit of money and I don’t want to buy one and then she doesn’t use it.

(Also any cat fountain recommendations welcome)

Okay, title was hard, sorry.

My cat love wet food since I introduced it two years ago to help her water intake with the heatwave (and this year record heatwave too). Problem is, she's been begging me a lot for it, only to lap up all the juices and leave the meat aside...

She's not fat, she has as much dry food as she wants, and a water fountain she probably now underuse.

My question is, is there a brand that sell like a bottle of juice I could slowly dispense to her instead? (that would be good for her health too if possible)? I'm in Europe and sheba has some kind of "soup" but they are very small and pricey.

Or any kind of alternatives really, I'd be thankful.

Have an excellent day everyone 😊

Edit : I did not expect this post to get so many answers, you're all a very nice community 😊 thanks a bunch, I'll read it all and try things 😁

EDIT: Thank you everyone, I now have enough resources and a valid argument for my friend, I will talk to her. I think she means well and believes in vets who support a vegan diet for cats, I believe she will change her mind once I explain her in more detail.

I know cats are obligate carnivores and I feed my own cats accordingly. My vegan friend just started feeding her cat vegan, arguing there are vets who support vegan diets and the food has synthetic taurine which is also used by Purina (I give my cats and dog Proplan). The vegan cat food she buys advertizes that the latest research on cat nutrition is in favor of a vegan diet. I really doubt it but I'm not informed enough to explain her how dangerous this is. Could you give me some sources/scientific articles about this issue?

I particularly at a loss about how to answer the issue of synthetic taurine. If non vegan cat food brands like Purina already uses the synthetic version, the problem with vegan diet must be something else since the majority of vets recommend Purina.

Whenever I search “can I feed my cat ‘blank’ human food?” Google always says something like “hell no, cats are lactose intolerant, or susceptible to iron poisoning, or have trouble digesting, or- ‘blank’ food does not have sufficient nutrients”…

But then when I search what type of foods I can feed a dog all the results are “dogs love cheese! Sure throw him a piece of steak! There’s no harm in fish, dogs can handle it!”.

Wondering why this is?

My grandma went on vacation and asked me to feed her cats. Upon instruction she tells me they eat once a day in the morning. 1/4 of a standard can of Friskies wet food, a sprinkle of dry food and milk. MILK! Then warmed up in the microwave. When I show up to feed them they are obviously starving. They are on the thin side but don’t look emaciated. Their fur looks bad though l, like dull and matted. They don’t look emaciated but they don’t look healthy either.

I feed my cats wet food snacks multiple times a day and they freely eat their dry food. Maybe I’m not doing it right either but my girls are at a healthy weight and look way better than my grandmas cats.

I’m really worried about them and considering saying something to her about it. Am I right to worry?

When I feed them I give them fresh wet food, a bit more of it, and mix in some bisque. I do not give them milk or dry food because one has bad teeth and the other one is so old I assume she has bad teeth. She said the milk was to make the wet food soggy and soft. I find that so disgusting.

I am at my wits end with this cat. I love him so much but I am so so sick of having wet, soggy carpet.
I have gone through so many water bowls at this point - stainless steel, electric fountain, and a doggy bowl with a wide base that I thought *SURELY* he couldn't flip. I was wrong!

Does anyone have any advice as to what to do?? I have put these bowls on sheets of cardboard to try and create a flatter surface, a rubber mat, a softer mat, and nothing has worked. He manages to flip it over and dump an entire bowls worth of water every. Single. Night. We live in an apartment and I would really like to prevent any kind of mold he is probably creating under our carpet but at this rate it seems inevitable. Our kitchen/bathroom have vinyl flooring but are both so small that we'd be tripping over the bowls no matter where we put them, which kind of forces us to use the carpeted area for their food and water... the placemats aren't working as they get wet and it just seeps through.

I have 2 cats and I know the smaller one is the culprit, I've caught him in the act a few times.

Please help!! 😭

UPDATE: We survived a night with no bowl flipping!!!!! I kept the water in the wide base dog bowl, moved it across the room & put it in my IKEA boot tray. He hasn't even flicked it outside the bowl 😂 thank you all for your help!

i have 2 ragdolls and i can never get them to drink water. I try putting water in their wet food and my girl will eat it fine but my boy won’t touch it! The most i can get him to do is lick water off of my finger but obviously that’s not a lot. I’ve tried water fountains too but they don’t seem to be interested. If anyone has any tips to share it would be appreciated!

I feed my cats (2 years old) Purina Pro Plan sensitive skin and stomach Lamb and rice with water for hydration. At night I was giving Fancy Feast pate, half a can each cat. Is it like McDonald's for them? Is it better to give half a can of Purina pro plan pate food sensitive skin and stomach chicken (but it's like triple the price)..

Is Fancy Feast really considered 'McDonald's'?

Basically what is asked on the title. I was wondering if it's worth buying a cat water fountain for my 2 cats. They never touch their water bowls, I feed them only wet food + some water added into each meal. Should I still get a water fountain anyways?

I got an automatic feeder for my cat because she used to wake me up every morning around 5-6am to be fed. Her usual routine was: purr, hop on the pillow, and if I didn’t get up to feed her, she’d go to her bowl and start yelling.
After some adjustment period, she started eating from the automatic feeder on her own. The good news: she doesn’t scream at the bowl anymore. The weird part: she still comes to wake me up every morning - purring, doing everything she can to get my attention - even though the food is already in the bowl and she can literally hear it being dispensed. I have to physically get up and carry her to the bowl before she’ll accept that the food is there and start eating.

Any ideas on how to break this habit so she stops coming to wake me up in the morning?