Full Raw Vs Partial Raw

[helenks]

Hello! I have been feeding my two cats raw food for the past 2 months according to the recipe from catinfo.org. Since then I have read many forums and articles, mostly on this site, about raw feeding. According to catinfo.org you should partially cook the chicken as to kill off the bacteria, however I have seen forums with owners just feeding their cats the chicken/meat completely raw without any partial cooking prior. Which brings me to the question, is it necessary to partially cook the meat prior to feeding? Or is freezing the meat for 1-2 weeks and feeding as is sufficient for killing off any harmful bacteria that may be present?

And as a side note, once in a while my cats get really stinky poop, even though they only eat raw. Any ideas as to why this could be?

 

[lalagimp]

The partial bake on the thighs doesn't really cook the meat at all. It's like searing a steak and eating it rare, only the outside doesn't get a crust on it. It's meant only for surface bacteria... the part of the poultry that's been handled and exposed to air.
I buy my thighs a month or two ahead and stock my freezer, thaw in the fridge for about 3 days as needed for a batch, load up my roasting pan after I debone them, and parcook for a half hour because the thighs are HUGE.
I've been doing this for about 13 months. It's just an additional food safety precaution.

 

[abby2932]

I don't cook the meat at all, I leave it fully raw. If my cats were health compromised, I would probably rethink that but for healthy cats I believe raw is best.

One of my cats had bad, stinky poop when I feed red meat (beef, lamb, venison) and I realized that he may be intolerant to it so I don't feed red meat anymore. If I were you, I would try feeding a different protein to see if it helps with the poop. Maybe chicken doesn't agree with your cat. I would try pork or rabbit.

 

[helenks]

lalagimp Okay, I understand now that it is just a precaution. I was just curious if anyone feeds their cats raw meat (without any partial cooking) and if there were any consequences to that route. Thank you for your input!

abby2932 This helps answer part of my question, whether feeding fully raw can be done without any negative impacts on our cats' healths. Do you use add a probiotic or digestive enzyme to their meals? I've been keeping an eye on her stools and they are back to normal. She may have just eaten something off the kitchen counter or something she wasn't supposed to that day! I will try a different protein to see where that leads me. Chicken is just the most accessible and most cost efficient option. I would like to try rabbit though. Hopefully one of my supermarkets sells it.

 

[abby2932]

I do add raw, fermented goat milk or raw kefir(cow kefir or sheep kefir) to my cat's ground food for natural probiotic nutrition. I don't think it is necessary but it is very healthy.

Here is some information about kefir:
Kefir for Pets

And the raw, fermented goat milk:
Additional Formula

In regards to your question about if feeding raw food could be detrimental to your cats health, the answer is no. What I meant was if I had a cat that was immunocompromised (such as if they had FIV or some ailment where any small bacterial load could throw their system into a bad place) then I would probably partially cook the food first to reduce the amount of surface bacteria on the food. Healthy cats do not need this special attention.

 

[Tobermory]

lalagimp Okay, I understand now that it is just a precaution. I was just curious if anyone feeds their cats raw meat (without any partial cooking) and if there were any consequences to that route. Thank you for your input!

abby2932 This helps answer part of my question, whether feeding fully raw can be done without any negative impacts on our cats' healths. Do you use add a probiotic or digestive enzyme to their meals? I've been keeping an eye on her stools and they are back to normal. She may have just eaten something off the kitchen counter or something she wasn't supposed to that day! I will try a different protein to see where that leads me. Chicken is just the most accessible and most cost efficient option. I would like to try rabbit though. Hopefully one of my supermarkets sells it.

If you can't find rabbit in your local supermarkets (one specialty meat store in my area carries whole skinned frozen rabbit but that's a step too far for me) and you don't want to splurge by buying it online until you know your kitties will eat it, you might try a locally owned pet store that would probably carry quality raw food. I went that route with rabbit and bought a two-pound frozen "log" of the Smallbatch brand rabbit blend. It's whole rabbit including bones, rabbit livers, rabbit hearts, rabbit kidneys, rabbit lung. I emailed the company about bone percentage and they responded that it's 10%. To the two pounds I added a pound of boneless chicken thighs and all of the necessary supplements. Two of my three loved it. The third wouldn't touch it, but that's pretty much her normal reaction to anything that isn't chicken. I do add a probiotic to their food once a day.

 

[helenks]

I do add raw, fermented goat milk or raw kefir(cow kefir or sheep kefir) to my cat's ground food for natural probiotic nutrition. I don't think it is necessary but it is very healthy.

Here is some information about kefir:
Kefir for Pets

And the raw, fermented goat milk:
Additional Formula

In regards to your question about if feeding raw food could be detrimental to your cats health, the answer is no. What I meant was if I had a cat that was immunocompromised (such as if they had FIV or some ailment where any small bacterial load could throw their system into a bad place) then I would probably partially cook the food first to reduce the amount of surface bacteria on the food. Healthy cats do not need this special attention.

Thank you for the links! I never really knew what kefir was, but I have started reading into it and it seems like a good alternative to feeding probiotics from capsules. I might even start making my own cow kefir! I would use raw goat milk but I don't live by any farms and none of the supermarkets or pet stores within 1 hour of me sell it.

And thank you for clarifying. It is an extra step to take when I have to partially cook the food, and then I have to wait for the chicken to cool down before I can start deboning it. By then my cats can smell the chicken and start begging for food haha. It would save a lot of time if I could do otherwise.

 

[helenks]

If you can't find rabbit in your local supermarkets (one specialty meat store in my area carries whole skinned frozen rabbit but that's a step too far for me) and you don't want to splurge by buying it online until you know your kitties will eat it, you might try a locally owned pet store that would probably carry quality raw food. I went that route with rabbit and bought a two-pound frozen "log" of the Smallbatch brand rabbit blend. It's whole rabbit including bones, rabbit livers, rabbit hearts, rabbit kidneys, rabbit lung. I emailed the company about bone percentage and they responded that it's 10%. To the two pounds I added a pound of boneless chicken thighs and all of the necessary supplements. Two of my three loved it. The third wouldn't touch it, but that's pretty much her normal reaction to anything that isn't chicken. I do add a probiotic to their food once a day.

That's true. I have looked through what I feel like is every online store that sells frozen rabbit (or any other protein). It can get pretty expensive so I will definitely try to find and visit any local meat stores in my area. The only pet stores by me are Petco and Petsmart. The closest they have to raw is frozen mice, and those are mainly used as snake food, and even then a pinkie is a whopping $2.

What probiotic do you add to their food? I am just discovering cow kefir thanks to abby2932 and am leaning towards that route, but I might still be to new to this and will settle for making my own after I have done more research. That being said, I am currently looking at Natural Factors for probiotics.

 

[Tobermory]

That's true. I have looked through what I feel like is every online store that sells frozen rabbit (or any other protein). It can get pretty expensive so I will definitely try to find and visit any local meat stores in my area. The only pet stores by me are Petco and Petsmart. The closest they have to raw is frozen mice, and those are mainly used as snake food, and even then a pinkie is a whopping $2.

What probiotic do you add to their food? I am just discovering cow kefir thanks to abby2932 and am leaning towards that route, but I might still be to new to this and will settle for making my own after I have done more research. That being said, I am currently looking at Natural Factors for probiotics.

I'm using Proviable-DC. My vet carries it and charges less than I can get it online. You can search the forums, though, and find that people use a lot of different ones! Many people really like Nexabiotic, for example.

 

[entlaufene]

Stinky poop once in a while could be there was gross bacteria in that particular meal. But not enough to make your cat sick. Ever eat a salad that was a little too old and the next day (or later that same day) you get some extra smelly butt but you're not food poisoned or anything?

 

[CoconutCookie]

How about microwaving the raw food prior serving, does it help to kill some of the surface bacteria? I read on The Conscious Cat by Ingrid King that she microwaves for few seconds prior serving to bring the raw food to room-temp. I personally poured 5-6tbsp of boiled water to the raw food, I noticed it kinda very lightly cooked the meat (Cat Lady Fitness on YouTube suggested this method to warm the food), but I'm a bit concerned with loss of nutrients from the boiling water. Any thoughts?

 

[Azazel]

How about microwaving the raw food prior serving, does it help to kill some of the surface bacteria? I read on The Conscious Cat by Ingrid King that she microwaves for few seconds prior serving to bring the raw food to room-temp. I personally poured 5-6tbsp of boiled water to the raw food, I noticed it kinda very lightly cooked the meat (Cat Lady Fitness on YouTube suggested this method to warm the food), but I'm a bit concerned with loss of nutrients from the boiling water. Any thoughts?

I would not do this. Microwaving can potentially kill nutrients and might create an environment for bacteria to flourish. Would you cook your own raw meat in the microwave?

 

[Tobermory]

How about microwaving the raw food prior serving, does it help to kill some of the surface bacteria? I read on The Conscious Cat by Ingrid King that she microwaves for few seconds prior serving to bring the raw food to room-temp. I personally poured 5-6tbsp of boiled water to the raw food, I noticed it kinda very lightly cooked the meat (Cat Lady Fitness on YouTube suggested this method to warm the food), but I'm a bit concerned with loss of nutrients from the boiling water. Any thoughts?

I don’t think microwaving would kill surface bacteria since a microwave doesn’t heat from the outside in. It heats through, and unevenly at that!

I was carefully microwaving my refrigerated raw food for awhile in brief five second bursts before giving it to the kitties. I follow Dr. Pierson’s recipe at catinfo.org and here’s what she says about warming the food:

“You will note on Anne’s site that she prefers not to warm the food in the microwave. Instead, she heats it in hot tap water. This method would never work for me since it takes forever to get hot water at my sink and I hate wasting water. Plus both my cats and I are impatient so all of my cat food-warming is done in the microwave. Depending on the level of thawing, I may heat it for 5-10 seconds then stir. I repeat this several times so that the food is not cooked but is just warmed to ‘mouse body temperature.’”​

I found it to be more trouble to do it this way, plus I was worried about nutrient loss in the hot spots. Now I run hot water in the sink and let my container sit in the hot bath for 10 minutes to take the chill off the food. Some of my batches are drier than others and to those I also stir in some warm water before serving. I’d want to do more research to see if boiling water damaged the supplements before I used it.

 

[jclark]

The partial cooking is for YOUR safety. For example if there's salmonella in the raw food your cat will get it in his/her mouth and transfer it to their coat when they groom where you'll pick it up when you pet/carry them OR they'll transfer it to your counter-top as they walk across it OR they'll give you a dose when they drink your glass of water when your head is turned.

 

[jclark]

I don’t think microwaving would kill surface bacteria since a microwave doesn’t heat from the outside in. It heats through, and unevenly at that!

I was carefully microwaving my refrigerated raw food for awhile in brief five second bursts before giving it to the kitties. I follow Dr. Pierson’s recipe at catinfo.org and here’s what she says about warming the food:

“You will note on Anne’s site that she prefers not to warm the food in the microwave. Instead, she heats it in hot tap water. This method would never work for me since it takes forever to get hot water at my sink and I hate wasting water. Plus both my cats and I are impatient so all of my cat food-warming is done in the microwave. Depending on the level of thawing, I may heat it for 5-10 seconds then stir. I repeat this several times so that the food is not cooked but is just warmed to ‘mouse body temperature.’”​

I found it to be more trouble to do it this way, plus I was worried about nutrient loss in the hot spots. Now I run hot water in the sink and let my container sit in the hot bath for 10 minutes to take the chill off the food. Some of my batches are drier than others and to those I also stir in some warm water before serving. I’d want to do more research to see if boiling water damaged the supplements before I used it.

Microwave is radiation. It'll kill surface bacteria.

 

[jclark]

I don’t think microwaving would kill surface bacteria since a microwave doesn’t heat from the outside in. It heats through, and unevenly at that!

I was carefully microwaving my refrigerated raw food for awhile in brief five second bursts before giving it to the kitties. I follow Dr. Pierson’s recipe at catinfo.org and here’s what she says about warming the food:

“You will note on Anne’s site that she prefers not to warm the food in the microwave. Instead, she heats it in hot tap water. This method would never work for me since it takes forever to get hot water at my sink and I hate wasting water. Plus both my cats and I are impatient so all of my cat food-warming is done in the microwave. Depending on the level of thawing, I may heat it for 5-10 seconds then stir. I repeat this several times so that the food is not cooked but is just warmed to ‘mouse body temperature.’”​

I found it to be more trouble to do it this way, plus I was worried about nutrient loss in the hot spots. Now I run hot water in the sink and let my container sit in the hot bath for 10 minutes to take the chill off the food. Some of my batches are drier than others and to those I also stir in some warm water before serving. I’d want to do more research to see if boiling water damaged the supplements before I used it.

Microwave is radiation. It'll kill surface bacteria.

 

[CoconutCookie]

The partial cooking is for YOUR safety. For example if there's salmonella in the raw food your cat will get it in his/her mouth and transfer it to their coat when they groom where you'll pick it up when you pet/carry them OR they'll transfer it to your counter-top as they walk across it OR they'll give you a dose when they drink your glass of water when your head is turned.

Yeah that’s my concern too actually haha. Plus I think even if the small amount of boiling water I add destroys some of the nutrients, the food is still much better nutrition-wise compared to commercial dry and wet food.

 

[Azazel]

I’m not recommending anyone do this, but I have one cat that loves to kiss my lips and face. I let her do it after she eats raw food and I haven’t gotten sick.

Just thought that might make some people a little less anxious about bacteria transfer.

 

[Tobermory]

I was wrong. Microwaves do cook from the outside in. But during the process of microwaving, there are often cold spots that allow bacteria to grow. Studies show that microwave users often ignore recommendations like stirring and rotating food for even cooking and checking its temperature. (Info courtesy of a short article in The New York Times.)

 

[jclark]

I’m not recommending anyone do this, but I have one cat that loves to kiss my lips and face. I let her do it after she eats raw food and I haven’t gotten sick.

Just thought that might make some people a little less anxious about bacteria transfer.

One of mine constantly drinks out of my water cup. In any case there's always a chance with raw and a lot depends on how sanitary one is.