🐱 Cat food in 2025 is cheaper than you think: a new era of feeding with win-win quality and price
Have you ever had this experience: seeing a bag of "high-quality cat food" in a pet store, the price is ridiculously high, but you are afraid that the cheap food will spoil your cat? Whether the cat eats well directly affects its health, life span and your wallet. Many people think that "high-quality cat food = high price", but in 2025, the United States has entered an era of pet raising that can both guarantee nutrition and save money. Especially with the support of large retail platforms such as Costco and Amazon, good cat food is actually not expensive.
📘 What is cat food? What are the types and formulas?
Cat food is not a "dry noodle" type of filling. It is a nutritional formula food specially formulated for cats. According to the appearance and ingredients, it can be mainly divided into:
🔹 Dry food
- Low water content (about 10%), easy to store and cheap.
- It can grind teeth and help dental health.
- Representatives: Kirkland Signature Maintenance Chicken & Rice, Purina ONE Dry Cat Food
🔹 Wet Food
- High water content (more than 70%), good palatability.
- Suitable for cats with poor appetite, old age or poor teeth.
- Representatives: Fancy Feast, Sheba, Friskies canned food
🔹 Raw bone meat / freeze-dried
- Simulates the wild hunting behavior of cats, rich in protein.
- Retains complete nutrition, but high price and difficult to preserve.
- Representative brands: Stella & Chewy’s, Primal
🧬 Do cats of different ages need different formulas?
Just as babies and adults cannot eat the same milk powder, cats' diets should also be adjusted in stages:
🐾 Kittens (0–1 years old)
- High calories, high protein
- DHA needs to be added to promote brain and visual development
🐾 Adult cats (1–7 years old)
- Balanced nutrition, proper fat control
- Pay attention to prevent obesity and keep hair healthy
🐾 Elderly cats (over 7 years old)
- More susceptible to kidney disease, arthritis, etc.
- Diet should be low in phosphorus, easy to digest, and enhance immunity
💡 TIPS: Sterilized cats and cats prone to urinary stones also need special formulas, such as low-magnesium formulas and urinary tract health food with controlled pH.
💸 Costco/Amazon and other cat food are so discounted?
🛒 Costco official cat food recommendation
| Product name | Weight | Price | Price per pound | Features |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kirkland Signature Chicken & Rice (Adult Cat Dry Food) | 25 pounds | $26.66 | $1.07/pound | Private brand, high protein content, extremely cost-effective |
| Kirkland Nature’s Domain (Salmon & Sweet Potato) | 18 pounds | $24.96 | $1.39/pound | Grain-free formula, suitable for sensitive stomachs |
✅ Advantages summary:
- Large packages are super cost-effective, a must-have for long-term cat raising
- Excellent reputation, private brand endorsement (co-produced with Diamond Pet Foods)
- Clean ingredients, high protein quality, cost-effective and known as the "poor raising artifact"
📦 Amazon cat food recommendation
| Product name | Weight | Price | Price per pound | Features |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Purina ONE Natural Dry Cat Food | 16 pounds | $30.94 | $1.93/pound | Contains real chicken, widely available |
| Blue Buffalo Indoor Health | 15 pounds | $44.98 | $3.00/lb | High-end cat food brand, added prebiotics and fruits and vegetables |
🛑 Tips:
- Some products on Amazon support "Subscribe & Save" regular delivery discounts (5–15%); but even so, the unit price is generally higher than Costco
- There are rich categories but the price difference is large, so you need to compare prices carefully
🔍 Costco vs Amazon: Where is it more cost-effective to buy cat food?
| Dimension | Costco | Amazon |
|---|---|---|
| Average price per pound | $1.07–1.39 | $1.90–3.00+ |
| Packaging specifications | Large package (18–25 pounds) | Mainly small and medium packages (5–16 pounds) |
| Formula quality | Kirkland has a clear formula, containing chicken, sweet potatoes, etc. | Many brands, and many high-end brands |
| Is it suitable for long-term feeding? | ✅ Suitable (stable + cost-effective) | ✅ But you need to control the budget |
🐾 Conclusion: Don’t be fooled by the brand "packaging" anymore. Good cat food is actually not expensive in 2025!
Raising a cat does not necessarily mean spending a lot of money. The key lies in looking at the ingredients, comparing the unit price, and choosing the channel. Whether you pursue high-end food or just want "the cat is full and you are not poor", Costco's Kirkland cat food is the most cost-effective choice worth trying in 2025. Of course, if you have a preference for a specific brand, Amazon is still an alternative with rich choices and convenient delivery.
❤️ Warm Tips:
🍽️ 99% of people ignore these points when feeding cats
- Timed and quantitative: adult cats only need to be fed twice a day. Don't feed unlimited food, be careful of obesity.
- Dry food + clean water: Dry food is durable but you need to drink more water. Lack of water can easily cause urinary stones.
- Don't feed human food randomly: milk, bones, onions, and dog food cannot be fed, otherwise something will happen.
- Choose the right food for the right age group: kittens, senior cats, and sterilized cats eat different things, don't buy them randomly.
- Dietary changes = health signals: be alert if you don't eat or drink a lot of water, it may be a sign of disease.
👉 Remember this: Always check the ingredients list when buying cat food!
