Answer:
Jack: The best of the less expensive pet foods is Petsmart's Authority. It's about 89 cents per can (5.5 ounce) and frequently goes on sale. No by-products, and low on grains. Most cats like it very much. "Cheap" isn't necessarily good as you know. The Authority is cheaper (and better quality) than Fancy Feast. Their poo smells bad from eating the by-products and cheap fillers in the Friskies. The by-products are scraps, and often hard to digest. Undigested food means smelly poo.
Continue to feed canned - dry food is not good for cats at all, as Nature created them to eat meat, not dry, carbohydrate filled kibbles. It's a false economy to feed dry as an all dry diet leads to health issues like diabetes, constipation, obesity, urinary tract disorders and kidney disease. Read about proper feeding of your cat here, it was written by a vet who has actually researched feline nutrition: http://www.catinfo.org/. As a poor college student you don't want the vet bills associated with an improper diet.
Try the Authority. Max cat is good too, but is about 15 cents a can more. Avoid Sheba as it's not a 'complete' food (many flavors) and so lacks Taurine. The Fancy Feast classics (not the ones with gravy or sauce) are decent, as by-products are farther down the list of ingredients. But those are between 55 and 65 cents per 3 ounce can.
Rae: Canned food is far better for cats than dry food. My cat has eaten it his whole life and his poop never smells. I would try Authority (petsmart exclusive brand), Canidae I believe is cheaper and decent, Sheba, Nature's Logic (not sure on the price of it), Impulse by Halo. Stay away from fish, its not good for cats. The chicken or turkey formulas will usually be cheapest. Maybe go to the pet store and just read some labels of the foods in your price range. Every cat I've ever met that ate a cheap dry food diet had awful smelling feces. I can't even smell my cats when I scoop the box. The only time my cat had foul smelling loose stools was when I fed him a food with agar agar in it, which is very similar to carageenan. I've heard a lot of cats have issues with carageenan.
