The price of raw feeding in 2023
A recurring question about raw feeding is how much it costs. In 2019, I wrote an article on this subject, listing the detailed expenses of 5 months of raw feeding for my cat Néline. However, since then, the price of meat has significantly increased and I also changed the way I feed a raw diet. For example, I’m now adding supplements to fulfill any nutritional gaps.
Recently, over the past Christmas holidays, I traveled to Italy for 13 days with my two cats. I noted the price of everything I bought to feed them to give you an idea of how much a raw diet can cost.
The diet
I bought all the ingredients at two Italian supermarkets: Famila, and Lidl.
The diet for the holidays was composed of the following ingredients:
Quail, from Famila. They are the raw meaty bones in the diet: they provide calcium and phosphorus.
Beef chuck for stew, from Famila. Beef is rich in zinc, it’s a source of protein and fat in the diet.
Turkey thigh, from Famila. Turkey thighs are particularly rich in taurine, it’s also a cheaper cut of meat than beef.
Veal liver, from Famila. Veal liver is a source of vitamin A, copper, and other vitamins.
Blue mussel, from Lidl. Blue mussels provide manganese as well as omega-3 to the diet.
Canned mackerel in water, from Famila. Canned mackerel provides omega-3 and vitamin D. I used canned fish as fresh fish needs to be frozen for one week and it would have been impractical in my situation.
Wheat bran, from Famila. Wheat bran is a source of fiber in the diet.
I then added a few supplements that I had brought from home.
Kelp, bought on Amazon. It’s a source of iodine.
Vitamin E, from NOW supplement, bought on iHerb.
Iron, from Solgar, bought on iHerb.
Calcium Carbonate, from NOW supplements, bought on iHerb.
Finally, I should have added nutritional yeast but I couldn’t find it in the supermarkets in Italy: I added it to the price calculation to have an accurate result for a balanced diet.
The price
To have an accurate price for the recipe I have calculated how much of each ingredient I actually used in the recipe. For example, I bought 250 g of wheat bran for 1.08€. However, I used only 26 g so the cost for the wheat bran in this recipe amounts to 0.11 €.
| Ingredient | Price | Quantity in the recipe | Price for the recipe |
|---|---|---|---|
| Turkey thigh | 5.89 €/kg | 1.242 kg | 7.32 € |
| Beef chuck for stew | 9.98 €/kg | 1.330 kg | 13.27 € |
| Quail | 9.29 €/kg | 1.04 kg | 9.66 € |
| Veal liver | 14.89 €/kg | 80 g | 1.19 € |
| Blue mussel | 8.99 €/kg | 130 g | 1.17 € |
| Canned mackerel in water | 19.88 €/kg | 260 g | 5.17 € |
| Wheat bran | 1.08€ / 250g | 26 g | 0.11 € |
| Kelp | 10.49€ / 100g | 1.17 g (13 scoops) | 0.12 € |
| Vitamin E | 12.24€ / 30 mL | 1.04 mL (26 drops) | 0.42 € |
| Iron Bisglycinate | 12.37€ / 90 capsules | 3 capsules | 0.41 € |
| Calcium Carbonate | 3.85€ / 340g | 13 g | 0.15 € |
| Nutritional yeast | 2.75€ / 150g | 26 g | 0.48 € |
| Total | 39.48 € | ||
| Equivalent for one cat for a day | 1.52 € | ||
| Equivalent for one cat for a month | 45.55 € |
The total price for the 13 days for my two cats was 39.48€, which is equivalent to 1.52€ a day and 45.55€ a month for one cat.
For the same diet but without the supplements, the cost for a month and for one cat is 43.73€, so a difference of only 2€ per month: this price difference shouldn’t deter you from adding supplements to the diet of your cat.
To put the price in perspective, my cats weigh between 3 and 4 kg and eat around 220 kcal, so they are quite “average” cats.
Putting it in perspective
This price isn’t totally reflective of what I would pay at home to feed my cats. I generally buy meat in big quantities when there are discounts at my local supermarket. In the previous example, I just bought what was available. I also buy meat in bulk on a specialized website for raw feeders. Examples of prices I can usually find are 2.37€/kg for guinea fowl neck, 3.40€/kg for sprats, or 3.90€/kg for chicken hearts.
My local supermarket sells “meat for animals” at a reduced price, which is the offcuts from the butchery. This requires a bit more work on my side to inspect, select, and cut the meat but it’s another way to reduce the costs.
To have a term of comparison, I calculated how much it would cost to feed a cat like mine, eating 220 kcal with some wet food brands.
For the brand Ziggy, a high-end French brand, when considering their cheaper canned food and with a subscription, the price for a month is 79.78€, or 2.66€ a day.
For the brand Ultra Premium Direct, which is a mid-range brand, the price of their canned food is 50.25€ a month or 1.67€ a day. The price of their pouches for a month is 64.13€ or 2.14€ a day.
A raw diet is comparable in price with wet cat food and can actually be cheaper.
A final thing to take into account when you compare the price of the food that you give your cat is quality. When you feed a homemade diet to your pet, you use high-quality fresh ingredients and you can adapt it to their specific needs. Commercial pet food such as kibbles or canned food, while having the merit to be complete and convenient for the owner, does not contain ingredients of the same quality as a homemade diet.
That’s why I don’t think it’s worth comparing the price of dry cat food with the price of a homemade diet.
To conclude, price is definitely something to consider when feeding a raw diet, especially if you have a small budget. However, it may not be as expensive as you think it is, and in most cases, it will be cheaper than high-quality wet food.
If you can’t afford to feed a homemade raw diet, this shouldn’t deter you from improving the diet of your cats. You can swap 10% of the calories of the diet of your cats like kibbles or wet food with fresh meat. That’s an easy and straightforward way to bring fresh food to the diet without having to worry about balancing it.
In this video, you can see me preparing this diet: