Half Wet Food, Half Raw - Good Or Bad?

[catsins]

I have two cats (1.5y and 2y old) that I adopted almost a year ago, I am feeding them with grain-free complete wet food (Animonda Carny, Weruva, ZiwiPeak etc.). I rotate the wet food (brands and "tastes") to keep it interesting and more nutritious and they seem to be happy about it.

Recently I talked to my vet and she praised me for how well I feed my cats (meaning quality foods) and asked me why I don't feed them a raw diet instead since that would be cheaper than expensive wet food. I have my reasons (I am not fond of handling any raw meat (makes me sick, to be honest) and my freezer is so tiny I couldn't store much in there, and since I don't have a car, getting quality meat on a regular basis would be hard), but just for the sake of it, I tried buying a little piece of chicken today (it was only about 30g for each cat), I put it into a hot water for a few seconds (internet told me it helps with bacteria and my cats like their food warm anyway) and served it, and never have I ever seen my cats so happy about their meal! I mean, they will swallow down their wet food and lick their paws on a daily basis, but this time they were meowing and begging me for more, sniffing the kitchen and trying to find if the delicious food is hidden somewhere. And now every time I go to the kitchen, they run after me and meow (which they don't do usually).

I know realistically I am not ready to try raw diet yet (I haven't even researched it properly), what I wanted to ask, is it a good idea to give them meat for one meal and wet food for the second or will that make their diet incomplete? I know a small piece of chicken won't have everything they need so I am worried that by giving them some meat instead of a complete wet food meal I might make it worse? Should I leave the meat for a treat instead?

 

[sarah430]

Last week I asked a similar question over in the Raw/Home-cooked sub forum and got some good answers about how much plain grocery store meat I could add to their diet and it still be complete.

Rotating Raw And Canned Wet Foods

 

[LTS3]

Yes, leave the meat for treats only if you do not plan to supplement it in any way. Plain meat can be no more than 10% of the diet to avoid unbalancing the nutrients. A few pieces of meat as a topper on canned food is fine but maybe do it every other meal or a few times a week instead of every single meal.

If you want to make meat a main part of the diet along with canned food, you must supplement it properly. There is a forum here on TCS where you can ask for more help and European sources for supplements. A pre-mix such as TC Feline makes is really easy to prepare a complete balanced raw diet. You basically mix together boneless meat, the pre-mix, and some water and serve or freeze.

 

[lisahe]

Another option for people who don't like handling raw meat is commercial freeze-dried raw food: our cats love freeze-dried and we feed quite a bit of it. It's around the same price per meal as more expensive canned foods but our cats eat it more consistently and it's super-convenient than canned foods so it makes it a better value for us. The best value, though, is probably the homecooked food I make with the EZcomplete supplement. You can use that for either raw or cooked boneless meat. Our cats love it.

Though I eat and cook meat, I don't especially like handling raw meat so appreciate the freeze-dried food for being, well, dry!

 

[catsins]

Last week I asked a similar question over in the Raw/Home-cooked sub forum and got some good answers about how much plain grocery store meat I could add to their diet and it still be complete.

Thanks, Sarah! I read the thread and learned quite a lot, I really don't know much about raw diet so it's nice that there are people who know much more than I do.

If you want to make meat a main part of the diet along with canned food, you must supplement it properly. There is a forum here on TCS where you can ask for more help and European sources for supplements. A pre-mix such as TC Feline makes is really easy to prepare a complete balanced raw diet. You basically mix together boneless meat, the pre-mix, and some water and serve or freeze.

That's what I thought... for now I will give them meat as a treat only to be on the safe side. As for the pre-mix, if I find one that I can get where I live, I can only mix together that mix with boneless meat and I don't need to worry about all the percentages of organs and livers and stuff? The premix would take care of necessary minerals/vitamins that are not in boneless meat? If so, I think I could do that.

Another option for people who don't like handling raw meat is commercial freeze-dried raw food: our cats love freeze-dried and we feed quite a bit of it. It's around the same price per meal as more expensive canned foods but our cats eat it more consistently and it's super-convenient than canned foods so it makes it a better value for us. The best value, though, is probably the homecooked food I make with the EZcomplete supplement. You can use that for either raw or cooked boneless meat. Our cats love it.

Yeah, I read about something called the Rad Cat in raw diet forum, but as to my knowledge there are no pet stores that sell anything like that in Latvia (where I come from), and I couldn't find any European online store that would deliver it to Latvia (probably because it needs to be frozen during delivery process). If I could find a commercial freeze-dried raw food, I would switch to that one from canned wet foods, so far no luck. :/

 

[lisahe]

Yeah, I read about something called the Rad Cat in raw diet forum, but as to my knowledge there are no pet stores that sell anything like that in Latvia (where I come from), and I couldn't find any European online store that would deliver it to Latvia (probably because it needs to be frozen during delivery process). If I could find a commercial freeze-dried raw food, I would switch to that one from canned wet foods, so far no luck. :/

Freeze-dried food is shipped at room temperature: it's only frozen to process the meat. It removes the moisture and makes it nonperishable. (That's one reason I love using it: it doesn't need to be frozen or even refrigerated.) Rad Cat isn't freeze-dried, it's just ground/mushy raw meat with supplements. It can be really confusing to learn about all the commercial raw foods!

You are right about a premix: it would basically make raw meat (with or without bone, depending on the premix itself) into a complete/real meal for cats. Giving a little occasional raw meat as a treat is a good idea for now.

I understand about the difficulty of getting commercial raw food (and perhaps even premixes?) in Latvia. (A place I have never been and hope/would love to visit for many reasons!)

Good luck!

 

[LTS3]

That's what I thought... for now I will give them meat as a treat only to be on the safe side. As for the pre-mix, if I find one that I can get where I live, I can only mix together that mix with boneless meat and I don't need to worry about all the percentages of organs and livers and stuff? The premix would take care of necessary minerals/vitamins that are not in boneless meat? If so, I think I could do that./

Yes, if you use a pre-mix you do not need to worry about percentages. The pre-mix contains all the vitamins and minerals a cat needs. Follow the instructions on the package. Some pre-mixes may require the addition of fresh raw liver or raw eggs.

Some pre-mixes are for boneless/skinless/organ less meat only and others are for meat with bones and organs. It's important to use the correct pre-mix for the meat you are using to avoid under or over supplementing the cat.

TC Feline is sold in Europe. There are two suppliers as listed here TCPremix® - Resources The web site for TC Feline is Home

Commerical raw pet foods are available in Europe but I'm not sure about your country. Zooplus is a popular UK / European web site for pet food and supplies.

 

[catsins]

@lisahe omg, you learn something new every day. I knew there are freeze-dried kibble types (like Orijen) and treats but did not know it's possible to get freeze-dried raw food (I assumed it's the same as frozen raw meat), I have to look into that and see if I can get anything shipped to Latvia from UK's zooplus, pretty sure our local stores don't sell it. How do you serve it? Just like kibble or do you add water to it to make it moister?

@LTS3 I will look into those mixes, thank you so much! It looks like I can get TC Feline delivered to Latvia so that would be a great option to try, even if not for every meal, then every other could be a raw one. And yes, I found multiple commercial raw cat food stores in UK and Germany, but none of them ship to Latvia. Will keep looking, my vet recommended me to check reptile food as well, since I could get some frozen mice this way (sounds super scary to me, but what won't I do for my cats... )

Thank you for all the advice! I feel much better about knowing what my options are and what I should and shouldn't do.

 

[lisahe]

Freeze-dried raw food is rehydrated with water, it's all very easy! We also mix various kinds, to give the illusion of more different kinds of foods. It sounds like some cats don't especially like freeze-dried... but others, like ours, just love it. (Oddly, when we used to feed them Primal raw food, which is made in freeze-dried and frozen versions, they much preferred the freeze-dried over the frozen. Cats!)

If you would use Zooplus, perhaps Columbine , who lives in the UK, has some ideas about foods for you.

 

[Columbine]

Zooplus doesn't have a much in the way of commercial raw. Your best option for a complete raw food is to get a raw premix called Felini Complete from Zooplus, and combine that with the proCani raw meats from their dog raw feeding section. That's the easiest choice I can think of. If you can't get the raw meats from Zooplus, try looking for dog raw feeding suppliers locally, and get pre ground meats from them.

Do NOT use ready ground 'human' meat. There's a far higher risk of bacterial contamination, as the expectation is that this meat will be cooked. If you have to buy 'human' meat, get whole cuts and grind it yourself

Sorry I can't be of more help.

 

[lisahe]

Thank you, Columbine ! Sometimes help that doesn't feel helpful is best of all because it can save some time and wondering.