Best commercial raw food since no more RadCat?

movinintime

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I know EZComplete, Hare Today & Alnutrin are powders to mix but I was used to RadCat for 7 yrs. I worry that if my cat does not finish her food, since I used to store it & give her it the next morning, that NOW I will add too much or too little as the batch may be added to -- when some of the last days mix is still uneaten. In essence; piling on another dosage, on top of perhaps a significant amount of mix leftover -- yet still in the bowl.

I hope someone can understand what I mean. I know many may say, 'redo the whole bowl daily', but.. it'd be costly throwing away alot of food should kitties not all eat their bowls daily & entirely.

W/ RadCat I knew it was entirely made up thruout the portion, of key nutrients a cat needs but w/ mixes I'm not sure I'd know, if I was under or over depending on how much cat ate or-- if reused as a leftover & w/ yet more then added food into the bowl.

TY for advice as have no idea what brand/s, as high bone & phosphorous levels are my concerns -- as lowering these helps prevent any kidney damage should a cat be prone to kidney failure or kidney function.
 
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Azazel

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I think it would be fine to store leftovers from the meat plus pre-mix serving in the fridge and use it for the next feeding. Same way you would store Rad Cat.
 
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movinintime

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My worry tho is; overdoing the amount, as if I use per serving but there's leftover foods won't it add to the supplement & thus overtax the cats? That's my big worry & also somehow not knowing there's a deficiency, & therefore, maybe even creating a problem as in too little taurine for example & then the cat eyes suffer.

I know this sounds nuts but these are why I'm reluctant to go w/ a 'prepare at home & as you go' version -- rather than, safely, a prefab version like Stella & Chewy's, Wysong, Northwest Naturals or Primal, etc.
 

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There’s no difference between how commercial diets are formulated and the premixes. Both add a certain amount of supplements per an amount of food. The difference is that you add the supplements yourself with the premix which gives you more flexibility to use local fresh meats, whereas the supplements are added in advance to the food in pre-packaged products.

Just add the correct amount of supplements that the premix calls for to the weight of the food and serve. If there are leftovers, you can put it in the fridge and then feed it later. You don’t need to add more supplements again.

I don’t do premixes but maybe someone on here who does can give some advice based on how they portion it into servings. I do my own homemade raw though and I just add the supplements needed for the amount of food I’m making in a batch and then freeze the batch. It ends up being like I’m making my own Rad Cat. I just defrost the amount I need in advance and serve.

There is no guarantee that a commercial food will be nutritionally balanced either. We take their word for it and sometimes the companies mess up. There have been plenty of recalls due to this issue. Thats exactly why many of us choose to make our own food. We know exactly what goes into it.
 

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When I make homemade food with supplements, I freeze most of it in small food storage containers. When I make Alnutrin food, I use a pound of meat and one packet of Alnutrin; the batch goes into 10 containers. (Each container contains two servings.) When I make EZ Complete food, I use whatever amount of meat I'm cooking up and add the needed amount of supplement. Each container is about 1.5 ounces, also two servings.

I also feed commercial foods: Primal and Northwest Naturals freeze-dried, both of which have bone, plus Stella & Chewy's Selects, which do not have bone. The S&C Selects are about the closest to Rad Cat that I've found since they're about the only boneless food I know of. Our cats like them pretty well but don't absolutely love them the way they absolutely loved Rad Cat.
 
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movinintime

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As of tomorrow I'll try; Stella & Chewy's Selects (both turk & chick), possibly too, 'Savage' brand?? (a food I know zero of but my feed store carries it so they say, so may look it over) & maybe Stella's Freeze Dried Rabbit? But unsure who's Rabbit brand, that is sourced best; from either N. Zealand or..? I'm unsure if Rabbit is able to be sourced from USA? I think it wasn't last time I looked but it has been a couple yrs tho.
 

Azazel

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Pretty much all rabbit brands in the USA are sourced from France. Not sure about New Zealand.
 

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The closest commercial food I've seen to Rad Cat is Rawr.

RAWR

Our cats liked it, but it was way too expensive. We are lucky to live in a place with easily available fine grinds of whole rabbit, turkey, chicken and others (Meat for Cats and Dogs), so preparing our own raw food is pretty easy. The whole animal grinds negate the need to calculate calcium/phos ratios, add lots of additional organs, etc.
 

daftcat75

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The closest commercial food I've seen to Rad Cat is Rawr.

RAWR

Our cats liked it, but it was way too expensive. We are lucky to live in a place with easily available fine grinds of whole rabbit, turkey, chicken and others (Meat for Cats and Dogs), so preparing our own raw food is pretty easy. The whole animal grinds negate the need to calculate calcium/phos ratios, add lots of additional organs, etc.
Rawr has bone. I wanted to like Rawr because I live an hour away from them.

I wanted to like Stella and Chewy’s Selects, one of only two commercial boneless options I know of. (Darwin’s Lamb is the other but lamb and other red meats are a non-starter with Krista.) But S&C was tough for a toothless cat to “chew”. More importantly, after we finished the first bag, she turned her nose to two different bags after that. That’s what I consider inconsistent quality.

I have tried Hare Today and also local boneless meat grinds and supplement from there. Krista doesn’t like those grinds. I don’t think the grinds are as particular about the cut as she is. She likes turkey thigh meat which was what Rad Cat used.

I have found the closest to Rad Cat is nothing off a shelf. The boneless recipe at feline-nutrition.org has the same slurpable texture that Rad Cat did and when made with Krista’s favorite thigh meat, it smells very much like Rad Cat too. She sings and dances for it like she did with RC too. At the moment, she only eats an ounce of it daily (spread across three of her meals) with the other six or seven ounces she eats coming from canned. But those raw portions are her favorite portions of the day.
 

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What daftcat75 daftcat75 said is so true. Rad Cat to me was far closer to homemade food than any other commercial food. It’s a shame they shut down, I really hope that something like them fills the gap in the industry soon because there are a lot of people and cats who would benefit from it.
 

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What daftcat75 daftcat75 said is so true. Rad Cat to me was far closer to homemade food than any other commercial food. It’s a shame they shut down, I really hope that something like them fills the gap in the industry soon because there are a lot of people and cats who would benefit from it.
Yes, it is all too true! The cats and I still miss Rad Cat, too. The best I've seen so far are the Stella & Chewy's Selects but they're not even close to being a replacement, despite being boneless and decent. The cats don't love them nearly as much and the portioning (medallions) may be convenient for me but it also seems to increase the possibility of freezer burn, which is a serious downside.
 

lisahe

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I wanted to like Stella and Chewy’s Selects, one of only two commercial boneless options I know of. (Darwin’s Lamb is the other but lamb and other red meats are a non-starter with Krista.) But S&C was tough for a toothless cat to “chew”. More importantly, after we finished the first bag, she turned her nose to two different bags after that. That’s what I consider inconsistent quality.
I thought of you just now, daftcat75 daftcat75 when I cleaned up Edwina's immediate barf after she ate part of a S&C Select medallion from a brand-new bag! They looked a bit freezer-burned when I served them up; neither cat finished hers. This batch seemed tougher than the last, which was quite soft. It's seems like there's always inconsistency in commercial (and, truth be told, my homemade) cat food but the cats seem to notice the inconsistencies in S&C Selects far, far more than in anything else. [Edit: Given all the surface area on pre-portioned medallions like these and the freezer burn, I wonder if storage/transportation is more to blame than anything else.] The cats really like the Selects when they're deemed good so I'm going to give them another chance, though only one store sells them and even if it's the friendliest, it's not the most convenient!

Okay, now to feed them a replacement meal!

Happy New Year! 🎆 🎉
 
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darg

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Last bag of S&C we bought also looked off and so did the replacement the store gave us. It was dissapointing because Gizmo liked them ok as a small meal substitute to his homemade, here and there. I ended up giving them to the outdoor strays. I haven't been inclined to try them again. I may or may not in the future.
 

daftcat75

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Lotus Raw looks like a good alternative. But Krista is having gut and butt "inconsistencies" at the moment. I'm trying to narrow it down rather than adding an extra unknown or two (like whether grass is a good idea in her food.)
 

Time 2 Recognize

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I saw Tiki came out with some raw products? Curious if anyone has tried or seen it. I haven't yet really dabbled in raw for my girl but would be interested in switching or incorporating some raw meals. I was close to trying Radcat but they closed before we could :/
Is Darwins a good place to start maybe? I see mention of no bone being positive...I thought some bone was a good thing for them?
 

daftcat75

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I saw Tiki came out with some raw products? Curious if anyone has tried or seen it. I haven't yet really dabbled in raw for my girl but would be interested in switching or incorporating some raw meals. I was close to trying Radcat but they closed before we could :/
Is Darwins a good place to start maybe? I see mention of no bone being positive...I thought some bone was a good thing for them?
Some bone is good. The problem is there is no way of knowing how much is in a food because they don’t have to label that. Some cats like older cats and those with IBD can’t digest bone like younger and healthier cats. Until there’s a way for me to know how much bone is in each food and thus to possibly know from trial how much is too much for Krista, it’s just easier to avoid it altogether.

Krista liked the taste of Tiki Cat Raw well enough. But it does have bone. And predictably, she couldn’t have very much without either vomiting it back up or getting constipated.

Of the nationally available brands that I’m aware of, only Darwin’s Lamb (not the other Darwin’s) and Stella and Chewy’s Selects in Chicken or Turkey are boneless offerings. Lotus will have a boneless raw line. I don’t know when that will be available though. There may be more regional or locally available foods that I’m not aware of.
 

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Some bone is good. The problem is there is no way of knowing how much is in a food because they don’t have to label that. Some cats like older cats and those with IBD can’t digest bone like younger and healthier cats.
Hm I wish they would label that on products then. Seems like it would be a good thing to know for the owner and kitties.
Would you think it's worth it then to try something like Lotus (the currently available kind) with a young kitty? Is the calcium in the non-bone recipes replaced with something else like eggshell? I should probably go read through the resource threads. I've known about raw for a while but want to be knowledgable before I start introducing it.
 

daftcat75

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Hm I wish they would label that on products then. Seems like it would be a good thing to know for the owner and kitties.
Would you think it's worth it then to try something like Lotus (the currently available kind) with a young kitty? Is the calcium in the non-bone recipes replaced with something else like eggshell? I should probably go read through the resource threads. I've known about raw for a while but want to be knowledgable before I start introducing it.
If you can find Lotus Raw, that sounds like the best place to start. Here's more information:

Homemade is also an option. Check out EZ Complete at Food Fur Life - EZ Homemade raw food for pets!

You can add it to boneless meat and make a 1 lb batch. Or you can even balance it out to a single 45 gram serving at a time. You can order a sample to balance out a single 45 gram meal. But I would feed about a quarter of that the first time, apart from any other meals, and give it a poop before deciding to give more. A little soft stool might not be unexpected since it's a new food. But a blowout, especially with a small portion, rarely resolves with repeated feedings.

EZ Complete has digestive enzymes. Not all cats handle those well. My Krista looks like she's the one being digested when I give her enzymes. Also chicken is an IBD no-go protein with her and EZ is made with chicken liver. If EZ is problematic with your kitty, there are other powder premixes like TCFeline, Alnutrin, Better In The Raw/U-Stew, and probably more. Most of them have a samples program if you dig around their site or ask them.

Whichever way you go, I recommend starting one meal at a time or even a small snack outside normal meal times. Start slow and small portions so you'll know how it treats your kitty without ditching the food s/he has already been eating.
 

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I saw Tiki came out with some raw products? Curious if anyone has tried or seen it. I haven't yet really dabbled in raw for my girl but would be interested in switching or incorporating some raw meals. I was close to trying Radcat but they closed before we could :/
Is Darwins a good place to start maybe? I see mention of no bone being positive...I thought some bone was a good thing for them?
I started by giving my cats pieces of raw meat as snacks. If you eat meat and have some at home, you can give them some, provided it comes from reputable source and has no additives, is hormone/antibiotics free, and it's not pre-grounded. Or you can simply buy some especially for them. It could be a good test how easy it would be to transition them if you decide to go that route. Be aware that he can have some problems eating the meat chunks if he's never learnt it, you can either grind it or cut in very small pieces if that's the case.

I like Darwin. My cats really like it and it's cheaper than my other options. My cats eat Lamb as part of their rotation, but note that some cats are sensitive to red meat more than the others. When I was giving them the other flavors regularly, my boy got slightly constipated, so now I give them that occasionally only and it's ok. They say it's 10% bone but I remain suspicious especially of Turkey flavor as they also add necks. ANyway, every time when I deal with their customer service I almost beg them to introduce other boneless options; they actually sent out a survey to customers several weeks ago so I'm hoping more customers begged for it too :) I'm not sure if they still offer the introductory package, but that was a bargain - lots of food for $15 if I remember correctly.

You may also look for some local options, if you have any independent pet shop in your area, they are a good place to ask, who knows, maybe they have freezers full of great local selection. My best raw options are available locally only and I hope it'll never change, as I don't want them to be more exposed=targeted by raw food haters.
 
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