I've been thinking about raw feeding Asha since I rescued her a month ago (dumped at a farm as a kitten, only showed herself a month ago. Approx 9-10 months old). I'm confused, anxious and have lots of questions.
The biggest anxiety is that I tried partial raw feeding with my dogs 4 years ago (commercially frozen tripe and the odd fresh lamb bone from the butcher as a supplement to a good quality kibble - just to see what they made of it). Both dogs ended up with raging diarrhoea, one was vomiting too, and it really freaked me out.
That aside, I'm finding it hard to know where to start. It seems sensible to start out with a ready made complete raw food to see if Asha likes it. Unfortunately, I'm in the uk and the choice of ready made raw is very limited - made more so by my desire to avoid fish and large animals (trying to stay closer to what a cat would naturally eat...also Asha reacts badly to beef, which makes me wary of lamb too). Most of the ready made foods are chicken based (often chicken and...), with some duck, turkey and rabbit available too. I read somewhere that chicken isn't ideal due to lower taurine levels than other meats - does that actually matter in a 'complete' food? The easiest brand to get is nature's menu (can buy locally), with purrform and nutriment being the other brands I can find online. Does anyone have any knowledge/experience of these brands? Freeze dried raw is non existent except for treats.
I can find a wide variety of high quality made for pet food ground meats (ground with the bone and pretty much any poultry or game bird you can name,as well as rabbit and hare...both with and without organ meat), frozen raw chunks of poultry, hearts and liver, and supplements are easy to get hold of. I can also source a frankenprey type diet but I'm definitely not ready to go that far (committed veggie with vegan tendencies )
I suppose I'm just saying I don't know where to start!
Currently, Asha is fed 100% wet (she doesn't recognise kibble as food ), and the food is all grain free, and typically 89-95% meat, so raw shouldn't be too big a shock to her.
Thanks for reading. I'm sorry if this isn't very clear..it probably reflects my state of mind
The biggest anxiety is that I tried partial raw feeding with my dogs 4 years ago (commercially frozen tripe and the odd fresh lamb bone from the butcher as a supplement to a good quality kibble - just to see what they made of it). Both dogs ended up with raging diarrhoea, one was vomiting too, and it really freaked me out.
That aside, I'm finding it hard to know where to start. It seems sensible to start out with a ready made complete raw food to see if Asha likes it. Unfortunately, I'm in the uk and the choice of ready made raw is very limited - made more so by my desire to avoid fish and large animals (trying to stay closer to what a cat would naturally eat...also Asha reacts badly to beef, which makes me wary of lamb too). Most of the ready made foods are chicken based (often chicken and...), with some duck, turkey and rabbit available too. I read somewhere that chicken isn't ideal due to lower taurine levels than other meats - does that actually matter in a 'complete' food? The easiest brand to get is nature's menu (can buy locally), with purrform and nutriment being the other brands I can find online. Does anyone have any knowledge/experience of these brands? Freeze dried raw is non existent except for treats.
I can find a wide variety of high quality made for pet food ground meats (ground with the bone and pretty much any poultry or game bird you can name,as well as rabbit and hare...both with and without organ meat), frozen raw chunks of poultry, hearts and liver, and supplements are easy to get hold of. I can also source a frankenprey type diet but I'm definitely not ready to go that far (committed veggie with vegan tendencies )
I suppose I'm just saying I don't know where to start!
Currently, Asha is fed 100% wet (she doesn't recognise kibble as food ), and the food is all grain free, and typically 89-95% meat, so raw shouldn't be too big a shock to her.
Thanks for reading. I'm sorry if this isn't very clear..it probably reflects my state of mind
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