Darwin Select Raw Food

Kgraham1511

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Well I have finally been forced to feeding raw food.

For the past month my 1.5 year old Maine Coon has had off and on diarrhea, constipation, and not eating.

The vet gave us steroids that started at 2 a day and down to every other day half a pill.

Now that the round of steroids is done the loose stool and not eating is back.

We don't really have a butcher that will grind down meat with heart and kidney to feed raw.

Has anyone tried Darwin raw food? I have seen a lot of recalls for them.
 

Furballsmom

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Hi!
I haven't used Darwin but you might consider Primal also, I've used it previously :)

In case this helps, it's from 2019 but could be useful
 

She's a witch

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Im feeding Darwin’s as a part of rotation and my cats really like it - most of the time. You have to order a big batch and I noticed they like some batches more than the other; with the current one I had to stop feeding it to them for 2 months for them to enjoy it again after the break. It takes space in my small freezer.

just be aware that their Turkey and Chicken formulas contain bones (they say 10%) which is not preferable for some cats, but since yours is young, maybe it won’t cause any issues (constipation being one of them). Lamb is the only boneless they carry, but some cats don’t do well on red meat.

as for recalls...you can read about FDA “targeting” raw food companies and their testing methods and form your own opinion if feeding commercial and/or homemade raw is worth taking a “risk”. For me, feeding kibbles is way riskier than raw.

you can also order raw food for further homemade preparation from companies that specialize in meat for pets, like Hare Today.
 
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LTS3

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Some people buy a grinder and just grind their own meat and stuff for their pet's raw food. That might be something you can look into. Dr. Lisa of Catinfo.org has recommendations on her web site: Making Cat Food:

Chopping meat and organs yourself is another way but time consuming. Some people set aside a day to do this and make up a huge batch of food which is then frozen into portion sizes.

Another way to feed raw is to buy chubs of already ground meat from a pet store or a supplier like Hare-Today.com Some chubs may have organs and bone included, others do not. Read the label carefully and use the one your specific recipe calls for. If a recipe calls for boneless meat, don't use a chub that contains bones and organs as well because the end result will not be nutritionally balanced (too much calcium for example).
 
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