The best cheap cat foods, according to veterinary experts and pet owners

Every cat owner wants good value for money from their pet's food, which means finding food they will love and that is well-priced.

To identify the foods cats prefer, we surveyed 1,441 cat owners about the brands their pets have tried.

We asked them to rate things such as their cat's reactions to the food when they eat it and the brands that their cats refuse to eat.

Once we had the most popular brands, we analysed three months of price data from Pets at Home, Zooplus and eight of the UK's major supermarkets – Aldi, Asda, Lidl, Morrisons, Ocado, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose – to find out how much they cost a day. 

All of our prices are for a medium-sized (4kg) outdoor cat. 

We've selected the top-rated brands that were cheapest overall. Read on to see which popular brands offer the best value for money. 

 To see the full survey results, plus feeding advice from independent veterinary experts, see our best cat food brands

Best cheap dry cat foods

Because wet foods tend to be more expensive than dry foods, we've split the results of our analysis. 

If you give your cat dry food, make sure they have plenty of water available, as they won't get much hydration from it.

Whiskas Dry Food, Chicken/Tuna, 7kg

Price: 15p per day

Available from: Pets at Home

Whiskas makes food in larger pack sizes than most other brands, which tends to be more economical. 

However, when buying cat food in large quantities, ensure that your cat can finish the pack before it expires.  

Iams Advanced Nutrition with Lamb, 2 x 10kg

Price: 22p per day

Available from: Zooplus

 

Iams scored highly in our survey, doing well on ratings such as the cat's wellbeing and reaction to the food. 

It also makes large pack sizes, which are perfect for households with more than one cat. 

Pro Plan Vital Functions, Salmon, 10kg

Price: 28p per day

Available from: Zooplus

 

Pro Plan is a brand produced by Purina, one of the largest cat food brands in the UK.

It's marketed as a premium, science-backed range. 

However, our analysis suggests that it also offers good value for money. 

Do you have a dog? We spoke to veterinary experts about why yours probably doesn't need grain-free food

Best cheap wet cat foods

The cheapest of our wet foods costs roughly £1 more per day than the cheapest of our dry foods. 

However, they are a great way to add variety to your cat's diet and ensure they get enough hydration. 

You might choose to mix wet and dry foods to give your pet the most balanced diet while keeping costs lower.

Iams Land & Sea Collection in Jelly/Gravy, 96 x 85g

Price: 90p per day

Available from: Zooplus

 

This mega-pack of Iams was the only highly rated wet food to cost less than £1 per day. 

It works out at roughly £27 per month to feed a medium-sized cat. 

Whiskas Ocean/Farm/Meaty Menu in Jelly, 6 x 400g

Price: £1 per day

Available from: Ocado, Sainsbury's

 

In our analysis, we found that supermarket brands tend to be more expensive than those of specialist pet retailers. 

This is partly because they don't tend to sell products in larger pack sizes. 

However, this range is available at both Sainsbury's and Ocado, making it good value and convenient if you already use these stores. 

Sheba Fine Flakes in Gravy, 80 x 85g

Price: £1.20 per day

Available from: Zooplus

 

Sheba Fine Flakes in its largest size (80 x 85g) was one of the cheapest wet foods in our analysis. 

It's available across multiple supermarkets in its 40 x 85g size, which is only marginally more expensive, making this a great product to look for if you prefer to buy pet food with your weekly shop. 

Price per day for all brands 

Our survey covered 31 of the most popular cat food brands in the UK. 

This table shows the cheapest product each brand makes, plus the average price of their wet and dry foods. 

Bear in mind that some of these brands received middling or lower ratings in our survey. Listed in alphabetical order. 

Dry food tends to show less variation in price than wet food, with averages ranging from just 10p to 89p per day. 

In contrast, wet food prices start from 67p, but two brands cost more than £4 per day. 

Non-supermarket brands

Two brands from our survey are not available in the supermarket: Canagan and KatKin

We visited their websites in January 2026 to collect the prices of their standard foods.  

• Canagan's cheapest food is the dry food (chicken), which costs 54p per day. It costs an average of 76p per day to feed your pet the dry food using a variety of flavours. The wet foods start at £2.39 for a 12-pack of pouches and average £3.74 per day. 
• KatKin does not sell dry or wet food; it sells 'fresh' food, which the marketing claims is more similar to human food. It is a subscription service that, instead of selling separate meals, delivers a box of mixed foods to your home. They quoted us £2.25 per day to feed a 4kg outdoor cat. 

Do you have a dog? See the best dog food brands according to our expert survey  

How to choose the best food for your cat

The internet contains a huge amount of conflicting advice around feeding your cat, so when we ran our survey, we spoke to three independent veterinary experts about what actually makes a healthy food for your pet. 

All three gave us the same advice: finding a food your cat enjoys and is beneficial to their health is crucial.

Dr Teresa Hollands, senior lecturer in veterinary nutrition at the University of Surrey, says: ‘The most important part of choosing a food is actually monitoring your pet. 

'If you're feeding your pet a particular brand of food, and they have plenty of energy and seem well in themselves, then you're on the right track.'

You should also ensure you're feeding your pet a complete food – one that contains all the nutrients they need in a day.

You can read more of their expert advice on finding the best feeding routine and maximising their nutrition in our guide to the best cat foods. 

How we analysed the best cheap cat foods

We conducted our survey of 1,441 cat owners online in October 2025. 

We asked them to rate different brands on factors like their cats' reactions to the food and their cats' wellbeing when eating it. To find out more, including sample sizes for each brand, see our round-up of the best cat foods.

To find the cheapest foods, we downloaded price data for all the brands in our survey from Pets at Home, Zooplus and eight of the UK's major supermarkets: Aldi, Asda, Lidl, Morrisons, Ocado, Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Waitrose. 

We downloaded weekly prices between 7 October 2025 and 7 January 2026. We excluded any product that was not on sale for more than 20% of that time.  

Then we identified the standard ranges for each brand (the ranges the brand recommends for a typical cat with no specific dietary requirements) and how much of that food you need to give a 4kg, outdoor, neutered, four-year-old male cat per day. 

We averaged the price of each product over the three-month period and used the feeding volume to calculate the price per day for each food.

We averaged these prices to obtain the daily dry and wet food prices. We didn't report a dry or wet food price if we had fewer than two products in that category. 

Two brands weren't available from supermarkets: Canagan and KatKin. We visited their websites on 21 January and collected prices for their standard ranges and feeding guidelines to calculate the price per day of their foods. 

Then we compared prices across the top-rated brands in our survey to find the best cheap cat foods. 

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