Freeze Dried Raw Diet Food

[lavlav123123]

My fiance and I are trying to decide what raw diet food to use for our new cat when we get him. I want to do freeze dried (I am looking at The Honest Kitchen.. it's within our price range and it seemed like it would be good.. was looking at Rad Cat but was too expensive) but my fiance wants to make it himself. I was wondering if anyone uses any freeze dried food (any brand) and I would love your thoughts about freeze dried food and any experiences with it. Thank you in advance!!

 

[paiger8]

I have used both Primal Freeze Dried and Stella & Chewy's. They both come in multiple flavors, and are easily available. You just crumble and rehydrate.

From what I've heard, The Honest Kitchen isn't super well liked by cats. Plus it contains a bunch of potato and sweet potato which are just carby fillers.

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/316066/has-anybody-tried-honest-kitchen-dehydrated-food​

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/259343/has-anyone-tried-prowl-by-the-honest-kitchen

Are you getting a cat or a kitten? Kittens eat more, so keep that in mind when you're figuring out cost. I figured out how many ounces my cats eat per day, and then broke everything down in cost per ounce to figure out how much I was spending. You can always supplement with 1/2 raw, 1/2 canned if that works better for your budget,

 

[lisahe]

We feed our cats the same freeze-dried foods that Paiger8 mentioned: lots of Primal (pork, turkey, chicken/salmon) with a little Stella & Chewy's. The cats love freeze-dried and it's very convenient. We also feed a small meal of Rad Cat every day--I get a good price on it (it really pays to check around to see how much your local stores might be willing to sell it for) and even a small amount keeps the cats satisfied for a surprisingly long time. It's been very cost-competitive for us.

I've never tried Honest Kitchen for the exact reasons Paiger8 mentions: the carbs. And one of our cats can't eat potato anyway.

We feed about 60% raw food, the rest high-protein, low-carb canned. One cat prefers canned food, plus canned is, of course, convenient! I'm about to start making cat food, too, using the EZComplete supplement. I think I'll start with cooked food but may branch out to partially cooked or raw. The supplement works for raw or cooked meat.

You may also be limited by what your cat will eat, particularly in the beginning: our cats had a strong preference for dry food when we adopted them so we first switched them to all canned, gradually adding in raw, too.

 

[LTS3]

The  Honest Kitchen is dehydrated raw food, not freeze dried. It's powder that you have to rehydrate in water for a couple of minutes before serving. Eating dry powder is messy and may result in a dehydrated cat. Freeze dried raw are little nuggets that can be fed as is or can be rehydrated.

Stella and Chewy's and Nature's Variety Instinct have good freeze dried raw as well as frozen raw. The NV freeze dried raw only comes in a 3 oz bag, basically one meal. Stella and Chewy's comes in a larger bag but depending on how old the cat is and how much food is fed, the bag might not last a week. I know the Stella and Chewy's freeze dried runs around $20 for a bag and you can only find it at independent pet stores or online. I know Petco sells NV but some stores may not have a great selection of raw products, if any.

I have never fed Primal freeze dried raw so I can't say how those products are.

There might be  other brand suggestions here:

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/295314/alternative-to-stella-and-chewys-raw-freeze-dried-food

Making raw at home can be easy if you use a pre-mix

Popular pre mixes include TC Feline, Alnutrin, EZComplete, and Better In The Raw. You basically add the raw meat, the pre-mix, some water, stir to combine and serve right away or freeze for later use. No grinding or chopping the meat needed if you buy a chub of ground raw meat from the pet store or a place like Hare-Today.com Pre-ground meat from the supermarket is not recommended as it may contain bacteria which might upset a cat's tummy.