The title pretty much says it all…these will be good from June 4 through 7 only, during PetSmart’s Friends and Family Appreciation Event. Consider yourself a friend, if not family 
Please read any fine print on the coupons to avoid any possible disappointment. There’s nothing better than saving money on any and all cat food, toys, and necessities!
Oh yes, here’s the direct link (it’s a PDF file).
In their latest (March 2009) issue, Consumer Reports has a very readable article , including quotes from a Cornell University vet, about whether it’s worth spending lots of money on fancy cat food (for those who don’t like clicking on links, here’s the answer: no). Unless your cat(s) have specific health or age issues, any decent generic food should do if their little cat tummies tolerate it.
And since wet food is 75% water, it costs a lot more per ounce of real nutrition, so the same rationale goes here: unless they need wet food for a specific reason, dry will do fine. What with the recession and all, it makes sense to save money on regular purchases (like food) to serve as a cushion in case of unexpected medical bills, or whatever.
Of course, none of this means you shouldn’t buy cans of salmon or fancy treats for your dear cats. Just use them as treats, not everyday meals!
With 8 cats to feed, plus the strays that other people discard in my area, I buy our high quality cat food in 20 lb. bags where possible to save money. Then we transfer it to special air tight food safe containers. I also check the expiration date before buying. Eight cats go through a 20 lb. sack in about one and a half months. Overall, buying high quality cat food such as Royal Canin, Eukanuba, Hills, Purina Pro Plan, Nutro, Blue Buffalo, Wysong, etc. can save you money — your cats will eat less and be healthier (thus saving on vet bills).
We are also supplementing with more canned food, especially for our diabetic cat Panther. The canned foods we chose are higher protein, fewer carbohydrates, thus straining his metabolism less.
When you are shopping be sure to check the expiration dates before you buy any pet food or treats.
To read the ingredients on some canned food bring your magnifying glasses (only half joking) — until someone pointed it out — I did not see that Wellness brand foods contains small amounts of garlic which damage the red blood cells of cats and dogs. The label print is tiny!
Be sure that taurine is in the cat food you buy, until it was intentionally added to cat foods, cats were having heart problems from a lack of taurine. The Canadian Journal of Veterinary Research’s article explains this better than I can.
The article “Cats Are Different“by T. J. Dunn, Jr. DVM subtitled “Find Out How A Cat’s Nutritional Needs Are Different From A Dog” is a terrific layman’s level explanation of our pet’s nutritional needs. Read and learn!
Lastly, I found this article and thought you might find it interesting, too: Pet Food Storage Tips, Part One: Dry Food
We not only have cats, we have reptiles and fish at our home. Since I work full time, time for shopping and especially for browsing is limited. My solution, like so many others is to surf the Internet. A lot of these places have email newsletters that I have signed up for, so I know about sales and special offers.
Some of my favorite commercial web sites for pet products are:
Amazon.com this is a direct link to Home and Garden, keyword cats
California Veterinary Supply over the counter remedies, treats, can also order with a prescription
Collections inexpensive, but of varying quality, too. Worth looking at.
Petsmart
Only Natural Pet Store A lot of good information and products. Warning: they carry Wellness which has GARLIC that is unsafe for cats and dogs. Garlic adversely affects red blood cell production.
Steps for Pets they donate money to shelters for each item your buy
See my previous post about Shopping While Helping Cats.
I can cruise the net with the best of them Anecdotal stories are often interesting. However, when it comes to caring for our precious family members — that includes my sons as well as our cats I prefer to get my medical advice and information from those whose jobs involve staying at the forefront of medical knowledge.
Cornell University Veterinary School’s Feline Health Center has quite a few free online brochures related to various health and behavioral concerns. You can read them as an article or download as a .pdf file. Where appropriate they cross reference their own videos. From the link above, you can also access a glossary of feline medical terms, articles from their newsletter CatWatch.
At this writing there are 8 articles about general health issues ranging from what to do if your cat is “going outside the box” to dealing with aggression. There are four brochures about feline infectious diseases including zoonotic (transferable to humans) disease. And there are six about specific feline health diseases.
The American Veterinary Medical Association has lots of feline health brochures in English and Spanish; printable .pdf files and online readable files. Veterinary clinics can order mix and match packages of 50 brochures to give to clients. They also have a huge number of .pdf files concerned with disaster preparedness, mostly for veterinary practices and state organizations, however there are a few that are of use to pet owners such as Saving the Family (including pets!).
Go and see for yourself!
Free Stuff Channel’s Pet Page
Cool Freebie Links Pet Page
There is a lot of information overlap between each of these sites, so I try to keep a record of the offers I have already taken advantage of.
Cool Savings requires you to “become a member”. Personally, I don’t often do this as it has led to spam in the past. If you try them out, let me know.
I recently wrote about free cat related craft activities for children (and parents!). Here are a few more good places to go.
Some sites with preschool age crafts:
Pre-school cat related lesson plan
Cat theme nursery rhymes, printable paper crafts, puzzles, mazes and word searches
Some sites with crafts for more than one age group:
Free craft projects and patterns
Listing of places for free crochet, knitting or sewing cat beds, toys, coats
Teen and adult level instructions for making cat usable beds, tents, toys and for drawing cats
For scrappy scrapbookers a few themes all built around the Karen Foster Designs Themed Kits:
Purrfectly Playful
Kitty Layout
The Cats Meow
Cat Nap Layout
Little Tiger Layout
Or try Diecuts with a View: Cat Theme Scrapbook Kit in a stack 8”X8” Pad) for something completely different
September is when I start my holiday gift shopping. I make handmade gifts year round (when I’m not sleeping, eating, blogging or at work… )
I bead, sew, embroider, needlepoint, macramé, decorate cakes, bake, cook and write. I use my bread machine to make a sweet bread dough that I then shape into a cat face. Bake and decorate with a chocolate kiss smile and frosting eyes and licorice whiskers. Yummy! Next time I make one I’ll put a picture up. Did I mention I have a creative streak?
Here are some more interesting books for multi-media crafty cat lovers:
Sassy Cats: Purr-fect Craft Projects interesting ideas
Cat Crafts (Kids Can Do It) Elementary school age cat theme crafts
Pet Crafts: 28 Great Toys, Gifts and Accessories for Your Favorite Dog or Cat some are child friendly. Toys or useful gifts for for your furry friend, or gifts of a feline theme.
A Year of Cats…in Hats: Crafts to Make You Smile a little cutesy, but interesting and fun
Cat Purr-sonalities in Cross Stitch I prefer needlepoint and embroidery, but the patterns in here are nice
For woodworkers and carpenters you can buy inexpensive plans for making cat trees from Cat Furniture Plans.
Or try these two patterns:
Scardy Cats Paper Woodworking Full Sized Plans Great for Halloween!
Cat’s Meow Scrollsaw Plaque Woodworking Plan a multi-depth pattern of jigsaw like cat silhouettes
For Quilters:
Two by the same author, I really like her realistic cats
Cats in Quilts: 14 Purrfect Projects
Kitty Capers: 15 Quilt Projects with Purrsonality
Also take a look at The Cat’s Meow: Purr-fect Quilts for Cat Lovers, 10th Anniversary Special Edition for lots of great ideas!
Cats On Quilts is quite different from some of the static feline representations in quilting. These cats are shown being cats!
For those in the Northern Hemisphere, winter is coming. So less playtime outside, and more creativity on the part of us parents to keep our children (and cats) amused inside. Here are some places that can help:
If you register (free) at Crayola.com, you can access their crafting ideas with cat themes. There were 51 such projects as of today.
National Geographic has a free printable animal coloring book, a kitty condo you can build together, and a very basic plant cat grass starting from seed, although I would get either cat grass or catnip seed from a pet store. Here is one type of kit you can buy, with all the components you need to get started.
This kit is a bit smaller.
National Wildlife Federation’s Kid Zone has projects like Kitty Pancakes (yummy!), a dual purpose hummingbird feeder (feed the hummingbirds and provide cat entertainment). You can sign up for a free parent email newsletter with activities and information, too.
Enature.com has fun quizzes to inspire learning about nature.
Enchanted Learning has cat-inspired crafts for young children.
On another note if you want to create and purchase high quality greeting cards from your photos, try Laughing Rhino.
Notice I am NOT including online games from these sites. I prefer hands-on creativity myself. National Wildlife Federation and National Geographic have such games.
We all like to save money. Keep in mind that this list is not exhaustive. Also some of the deals listed on any of these sites can expire while the site may still list it as active. Like the Romans said caveat emptor (loosely: let the buyer beware).
Some places to find grocery coupons or other good deals are:
Slick Deals go to Forums, then click on Hot Deals or Freebies. You can select offers from the last day or longer, use some pre-programmed subject searches (like pets) in the boxes on the lower left of the page. This place is huge, so focus!
Free Sample Forager click on Pets, Cats, Dogs or Horses for specific offers
Price Grabber.com search under Home and Garden, using keyword pets (or something even more specific)
Pet product coupons and deals from specific online vendors Petco, Petsmart, PetFoodDirect and PetCareRx at edealsetc.com
Amazon.com I search under Kitchen and Housewares or Health and Personal Care; Amazon is a good place for comparative product reviews.
Cafe Press for cat and other pet related stickers
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