Best Raw/semi Raw Food?

[cryptic]

Anyone have any experience with not pure raw (tried that, girls didn't like it) but semi raw... like Instinct? They come in frozen or refrigerated nuggets. Figured I may try that instead of dry twice a day... Dry/canned in the morning, raw at night. Just want them on a decent diet!
Brands I've seen and am considering:
Instinct Raw
Vitacat by Freshpet

They're currently on a mixture of Royal Canin/Blue Buffalo dry with a whole plethora of different wet foods to mix it up. I am certainly aware that their food isn't the best but I can only seem to get Jinx to eat Royal Canin unfortunately. (Which is crap... very expensive crap.) I tried Rad Cat raw diet, bought it at a family owned store. Tried the grass fed beef and Jinx refused it after the first few days... even when mixed with other stuff.
Price is of no object, but Jinx is picky. Java will eaten anything.
Thanks in advance -
Alissa

 

[Neo_23]

I'm not sure that the Instinct frozen nuggets would be considered "semi-raw." I was under the impression that these are fully raw foods. Even freeze-dried raw would be considered fully raw. Maybe "semi-raw" would be something like dehydrated foods (Honest Kitchen?) or air-dried (Ziwipeak?).

If you're looking for freeze dried I highly recommend Northwest Naturals. Ingredients are great, it's 98% meat, and my kitten loves it!

 

[cryptic]

Oh - I guess my impression of raw was Rad Cat... which is basically pureed meat in a container... Oops.
Hadn't considered freeze-dried.

 

[Neo_23]

Oh - I guess my impression of raw was Rad Cat... which is basically pureed meat in a container... Oops.
Hadn't considered freeze-dried.

I think the frozen food is typically more expensive and considered "better" because it retains more nutrients and is more in its "natural" state, but freeze dried just means that the raw food has gone through a freeze drying process (still retains a lot of the nutrients and you still have to handle it like raw food).

 

[NewYork1303]

We use Instinct Raw. Our cats love it. They eat it at night and eat wet and dry as well.

 

[maureen brad]

I make most of my own food. My cats do love Radcat ( especially the Pork & Venison) I just can't afford to feed 3 cats Rad Cat all the time.They have liked various Freeze dried raw but, they eventually got sick of it.

 

[cryptic]

I got the Freshpet stuff, we'll see how the ladies like it!

 

[MeganLLB]

Is there a big difference between the instinct raw for dogs vs cats?

 

[cryptic]

I wouldn't imagine so, other than a few ingredient/flavor changes. I can always look them up.

 

[MeganLLB]

The dog one comes in a bigger bag. I imagine that you'd get more for a better price.

 

[NewYork1303]

The main problem is the dog raw does NOT have Taurine. And cats must must must have that in their diet.

 

[sophie1]

Adding taurine is easy enough that I often get the dog version of Instinct - it's exactly the same recipe otherwise and I verified that by emailing Nature Variety. Not only is it cheaper, but it comes in 8 oz patties and 5 lb blocks. These are much less prone to freezer burn, which is such a problem with the nuggets that I never buy them.

Of note, all the raw food companies except Rad Cat and maybe Primal have stopped production of raw cat food without warning. Nature Variety reintroduced cat food but with far less variety than they used to offer. I wouldn't trust any of them to continue producing frozen raw for cats, but the dog version is probably reliable.

 

[Neo_23]

Adding taurine is easy enough that I often get the dog version of Instinct - it's exactly the same recipe otherwise and I verified that by emailing Nature Variety. Not only is it cheaper, but it comes in 8 oz patties and 5 lb blocks. These are much less prone to freezer burn, which is such a problem with the nuggets that I never buy them.

Of note, all the raw food companies except Rad Cat and maybe Primal have stopped production of raw cat food without warning. Nature Variety reintroduced cat food but with far less variety than they used to offer. I wouldn't trust any of them to continue producing frozen raw for cats, but the dog version is probably reliable.

Wait, are you saying that the only companies providing commercial raw for cats are Rad Cat and primal? That can’t be right...

 

[LTS3]

Is there a big difference between the instinct raw for dogs vs cats?

The NV frozen dog food no longer contains taurine. Technically you can feed it to a cat but you need to add in a taurine supplement to each serving.

NV used to make one frozen diet for both cats and dogs but a couple years ago they decided to make dog-specific raw and cat-specific raw.