Are My Recipes Balanced?

[arabellie]

I've been doing a lot of reading recently and am preparing to start making my own raw food. I am planning on using the supplement recipe from catinfo.org and variations of the 80:10:5:5 rule.

Here's what I have so far, if anyone has the time to let me know if this will be a balanced diet or if there are any glaring issues I would greatly appreciate it.




Supplements Per Pound for Non-Whole Carcass Recipes

1/3 c water

1.5 raw eggs (slightly cook the whites but yolks should be raw)

1,700-3,300 mg fish oil (some cats do not enjoy the taste of fish oil)

90 mg (133 IU) Vitamin E

8-16 mg Vitamin B Complex (some cats do not enjoy the taste of vitamin B complex, start on the low end and increase if possible)

700 mg taurine powder (double for rabbit meat)

1/3t Morton Lite Salt with Iodine (omit if whole carcass with thyroid gland)

½ t psyllium husk powder per feeding (one of my cats may have issues with slight constipation and is also a picky eater so I'm hoping this will help)


Turkey Recipe

5# ground turkey/bone/organ mix (68:27:0:5)

6# boneless turkey thigh chunks

1.4# turkey hearts

0.68# organ (kidney or pancreas)

0.43# turkey liver

Total weight: 13.5#

Final Ratio: 80:10:5:5


Mutton Recipe (I'm waiting on clarification from Hare-Today on the % of liver in the mutton mix)

5# ground mutton/bone/organ mix (73:17:10 (liver, pancreas, kidney))

3.15# misc. boneless meat (chicken thighs or breast?)

0.43# organ (kidney or pancreas)

0.43# liver

Total weight: 8.5#

Final Ratio: 80:10


Duck Recipe

5# ground duck/bone/organ mix (71:22:0:5)

4.45# misc. boneless meat (chicken?)

0.4# organ (kidney or pancreas)

0.15# liver

Total weight: 10#

Final ratio: 80:10:5:5


Rabbit Recipe

Ground Whole Carcass Rabbit supplemented with double taurine from supplement recipe, no iodized salt)

 

[valentine319]

I think you want to pull the egg whites. Someone else can confirm if cooked the item in it that blocks B vitamin is neutralized. I'm using feline nutrition recipe so I'll let someone else chime in. I see that recipe keeps egg whites.

 

[orange&white]

It's ok if the egg whites are cooked. Avidin is the "thingy" (don't know the technical term) in raw egg whites that binds biotin (a B-vitamin). Cooking the egg white deactivates/kills the avidin.

However....Neither one of my cats can stand the smell of cooked egg whites, so I would test them first to see if they'll eat cooked whites before mixing it into a batch. I thought I was going to have to throw out a whole batch awhile back, but by the second day, the cats started picking around the pieces. The dog (or I) get the cooked whites now. The cats get the raw yolks.

(Haven't taken time to analyze your mixes.)

 

[dorimon]

While there is no harm in lightly cooking the egg whites, it isn't necessary. There is more than enough biotin in the egg yolk so that the avidin in the egg whites is not an issue. The white is okay to feed so long as you feed the yolk along with it. I mix whole eggs into my batches.

The yolk is very nutritionally dense, which is why it is included in recipes. The white is mostly just protein. Some people even replace some meat-based protein with egg white to lower the phosphorous in the food, for cats with CKD.

 

[sophie1]

I also crack whole eggs right into the supplement mix. The whites are a great low-phosphorus protein source, and I also think the avidin issue is over-emphasized. I have to cut back on the water though.

Few other comments. First, you might be overthinking the non-poultry recipes. On the catinfo.org website, any boneless meat or hearts are suggested, and it won't knock down the organ percentage enough to be a problem. It's fine to add the extra organs, but your plan will be a lot easier to sustain if you keep it simple. You can also feed fresh or freeze dried chicken liver as treats.

One point of confusion for me has been how much vitamin B to add. The catinfo.org recipe indicates half the dose that the companion recipe on catnutrition.org uses. Vitamin B is water soluble so it may not matter much, but it is possible to overdose. Also, to the basic recipe I've added manganese, after mschauer's research indicated that chicken recipes fall a bit short of the AAFCO recommendation for that element. I throw a 10mg capsule into about every 3rd batch, to keep things simple.