Going Raw, Questions!

[sweetthang07]

Hi All,

After many attempts to get Plushy's IBD under control, I am going to try a raw diet. I researched it and decided to try it. I plan to buy the raw meat from mypetcarnivore.com as they do local delivery with low fees. I am about to place the order but have a few questions.

1.) The products I am interested in are whole carcass products. Is this wise? I read about bone to meat ratio and don't want to overdo it one way or the other. It's my assumption that if it's the whole carcass, the proportions are natural and should be fine but please tell me if I am wrong.

2.) I have read good and bad about supplements. What are your opinions on that?

3.) I am also trying to figure out how much I need for a month as they only do monthly trips to my state. I have 2 adult male cats. One is 15 pounds and the other is about 6. Any scale of how much I should feed them each per day?

4.) How long can I keep the food in the freezer before it expires?

Thanks for all of your help. I hope this is the start to something much more healthy for my kitties.

 

[goingpostal]

Whole carcass? I looked on there and the only whole stuff I found was chicken and fish, unless you are meaning the whole ground items. If it's ground it should be complete, but obviously you are missing out on the chewing and teeth cleaning. When I feed bone in, the cat can pick whether she wants to eat the bone or not, sometimes she leaves a bit, sometimes she just eats the meat off it or chews the bone later, I leave it up to her and usually feed a boneless meal once a day, either take some meat off the bone, gizzards, hearts/liver, beef, pork, or larger prey if they'll eat that is good for boneless. The only "whole" carcass she'll eat is mice but I do try to make her meals complete over time in varying the part of the carcass she gets (neck, legs, ribs, back, gizzards)

Supplements, I add some fish oil sometimes and added taurine before I got her eating hearts consistently but that's it.

Amount, my cat is 10 pounds and she eats about 4-6 ounces a day, I don't really measure too great, she seems to regulate herself well on it. If you know how much they eat canned, that's a good starting point.

Storage, depends if it's a cold chest freezer or your fridge one, how they are packed, temps, etc but most things are fine 6-12 months, although less is better IMO. Limit exposure to air and if you can vacuum seal that is the best. I chop and bag everything into daily sized portions when I buy it so it's ready to go.

 

[sweetthang07]

Thanks! Yes, I planned on buying the pre-ground stuff. They freeze it right away and it stays frozen until I am ready to thaw it out. I am planning on buying 4 different types of finely ground meat to give plenty of variety. I found a recipe on http://www.catinfo.org/?link=makingcatfood#Introduction that I plan to use. That recipe calls for adding water, eggs, and supplements. I am wondering now if that's even necessary to add the additional items if I am buying the whole carcass ground up...

I am crossing my fingers. I hope this will work

 

[goingpostal]

No, if the ground has organs and bone you don't need to add anything, you can certainly feed eggs here and there if you like, my cat won't eat the shell so I add powdered eggshell, that's usually when I throw in some fish oil as well. You might want to see if your cat will take raw to begin with, pick up some ground chicken or turkey or whatever proteins you were going to order, I haven't had any luck getting mine to eat meats she doesn't want to, she either eats or refuses which isn't a huge problem for me since I have ferrets or dogs that will eat it but would be a waste if I didn't have those other animals.

 

[auntie crazy]

Originally Posted by sweetthang07

1.) The products I am interested in are whole carcass products.

2.) I have read good and bad about supplements. What are your opinions on that?

3.) I am also trying to figure out how much I need for a month as they only do monthly trips to my state. I have 2 adult male cats. One is 15 pounds and the other is about 6. Any scale of how much I should feed them each per day?

4.) How long can I keep the food in the freezer before it expires?

Thanks for all of your help. I hope this is the start to something much more healthy for my kitties.

1. Can you define "whole carcass"? Unless you're purchasing pre-killed whole prey, it's quite likely you're not really buying an entire carcass but rather one that's had the skin and all the chest and abdominal contents removed. That's going to make a bit of difference in the percentages and you'll need to add more meat and / or organ to account for it.

2. If you grind the food, you'll need to supplement with taurine for sure and maybe other stuff ... if you're using a recipe, it's probably best to follow it until you have enough information to make your own choices. Of course, you should do some research on the background of the recipe and/or author as well as raw feeding in general so you know what you're doing and why.

If you feed a balanced frankeprey diet or whole prey products, you probably don't need supplements. I don't supplement at all, but I do offer a sardine a week specifically for the omega 3.

3. Check out this thread for what to feed measurements: Natural Diet Information Resources

4. I have no idea.

With six cats, the freezer doesn't stay full long!

Best regards! And welcome to raw feeding!

AC