Has Anyone Tried Bobcat Raw Food?

[Show Me Your Kitties]

Hi, I'm new here (though I've lurked a few times).

I've become really interested in the raw diet, and was wondering if anyone has tried Bobcat Raw Food? Our Shop | Bobcat

I've seen it mentioned once, I think in the Rad Cat Alternatives thread but haven't seen anything about it since.

From everything I've learned here during my lurking days, it appears that too much bone can cause constipation, but many of the commercial brands have a high bone percentage.

I'd like to test the raw diet out first with a commercial brand before I jump head first into homemade.

Bobcat sounds really good, but I couldn't find any info on how much bone, if any, is in the food or if there are other red flag ingredients. Which is why I'm asking if anyone here has tried it and if so what they thought.

 

[mschauer]

Well, you don't have to worry about bone with the chicken product. It doesn't use bone. It uses eggshell powder as a calcium source instead.

I've never tried it but after just a quick check it looks pretty good. I like that it doesn't use bone. High bone content is one way I think some raw food manufacturers keep their costs down.

The rabbit formula does use bone. They say they use "whole rabbit". That would worry me because rabbit is frequently quite high in bone.

I also like that the Bobcat price isn't suspiciously low. The chicken is $10/lb and the rabbit is $18/lb. That is expensive compared to other options but is in line with what I would expect from a small manufacturer using truly high quality ingredients.

 

[mschauer]

Also, the chicken formula includes nutrient supplements that would appear to be adequate to make the food adhere to AAFCO nutrient recommendations. Some raw food manufacturers, especially the small ones, claim to be AAFCO compliant but the ingredients make that difficult to believe.

The rabbit formula is "prey model", meaning it is presumed to meet the nutrient needs of a cat by a belief that it mimics a cat's natural diet as opposed to by conforming to AAFCO recommendations.

 

[Azazel]

This looks really good actually. I like that it's pre-packaged in 3 oz containers. Too bad it has limited availability in different locations.

 

[Show Me Your Kitties]

Well, you don't have to worry about bone with the chicken product. It doesn't use bone. It uses eggshell powder as a calcium source instead.

I've never tried it but after just a quick check it looks pretty good. I like that it doesn't use bone. High bone content is one way I think some raw food manufacturers keep their costs down.

The rabbit formula does use bone. They say they use "whole rabbit". That would worry me because rabbit is frequently quite high in bone.

I also like that the Bobcat price isn't suspiciously low. The chicken is $10/lb and the rabbit is $18/lb. That is expensive compared to other options but is in line with what I would expect from a small manufacturer using truly high quality ingredients.

Thanks for your insight! I plan on researching as much as I can about cat nutrition and the raw diet before I even attempt to try a new diet, but you guys seem more experienced and knowledgable than me so I'm happy to hear your opinions on brands and such!

Is it not the best idea to feed cats rabbit because of how much bone is in them?

 

[Show Me Your Kitties]

This looks really good actually. I like that it's pre-packaged in 3 oz containers. Too bad it has limited availability in different locations.

That does pose a problem heck by the time I decide to go raw I might be in a position to just make my own.

 

[eeydelna]

Bobcat ships nationwide. And available in stores onlyvin TX.

 

[Tobermory]

Is it not the best idea to feed cats rabbit because of how much bone is in them?

I stopped feeding rabbit because while all three of mine would eat it, they didn’t love it. It’s expensive for me to buy, and I decided not to spend the money for something to which they were indifferent.

But when I was using rabbit, I bought it from two sources and managed the bone issue in the following ways:

First, I was able to find frozen boneless ground rabbit at a small butcher shop locally for $14.50/lb. The rabbit comes from a farm here in Oregon with a good reputation so I felt okay about using it. To that I added either individual supplements and liver using the catinfo.org recipe (with homemade eggshell calcium for the calcium source) or I used EZ Complete pre-mix supplement.

My other source was ordering from Hare Today in Pennsylvania. Their ground rabbit/bones/organs is 75% meat, 15% bone, 10% organ [liver, pancreas, kidney]. To that I added enough boneless chicken to reduce the bone content to 7% and then added liver to bring the organ percentage back to 10%. Cumbersome—and expensive with shipping cross country—but if the girls had loved it, I would have continued. But they’re “meh” about bunny so we don’t do bunny any more.

So if your kitty (or kitties) like rabbit, there are definitely ways to deal with the bone issue!

 

[Show Me Your Kitties]

I stopped feeding rabbit because while all three of mine would eat it, they didn’t love it. It’s expensive for me to buy, and I decided not to spend the money for something to which they were indifferent.

But when I was using rabbit, I bought it from two sources and managed the bone issue in the following ways:

First, I was able to find frozen boneless ground rabbit at a small butcher shop locally for $14.50/lb. The rabbit comes from a farm here in Oregon with a good reputation so I felt okay about using it. To that I added either individual supplements and liver using the catinfo.org recipe (with homemade eggshell calcium for the calcium source) or I used EZ Complete pre-mix supplement.

My other source was ordering from Hare Today in Pennsylvania. Their ground rabbit/bones/organs is 75% meat, 15% bone, 10% organ [liver, pancreas, kidney]. To that I added enough boneless chicken to reduce the bone content to 7% and then added liver to bring the organ percentage back to 10%. Cumbersome—and expensive with shipping cross country—but if the girls had loved it, I would have continued. But they’re “meh” about bunny so we don’t do bunny any more.

So if your kitty (or kitties) like rabbit, there are definitely ways to deal with the bone issue!

Thanks, I'll keep this in mind if I decide to try rabbit.

 

[mschauer]

Is it not the best idea to feed cats rabbit because of how much bone is in them?

For me, the big problem with feeding bone-in foods of any kind is knowing with reasonable accuracy how much bone there really is. When we make our own foods, we can control, within a smallish margin of error, how much bone we are including by using only ingredients for which we have bone amount data from a trusted source.

When we buy a food that already includes bone, we have to take the word of the manufacturer about how much bone there is. I've just seen too many bone amount claims by those manufacturers that just don't seem possible given the total ingredients. I think they know feeders are looking for about 10% bone and so too many of them just say 10%.

As for rabbit, the bone content of a whole animal varies tremendously by breed. They can be very high in bone or not so high.

I just don't trust the vast majority of claims about bone content of pre-made foods regardless of the protein source. I think rabbit is particularly problematic though.

But then, I don't use bone at all. I think there are benefits to feeding bone. I just think the risks and uncertainty out weight the benefits.

Just my opinion...