Has anyone tried Raw Advantage?

[jo singer]

Hi there,

I have been wanting to switch our two Oriental Shorthair seniors to a raw diet.  My veterinarian carried a frozen turkey raw species specific complete diet but one of my cats thought I was trying to poison him, and the other cat just picked at it and then quickly decided it was unacceptable.

Someone suggested Raw Advantage to me. Has anyone used this product?  I am eager to hear any feedback (pardon the pun) about this product before I order some for the kitties.

Thanks so much for your help!

 

[ldg]

I went to the main page of the website. I loved that the foods are organic! I find their "rotational" feeding schedule to be a little confusing. It's unclear to me if any of the foods are already nutritionally balanced in an of themselves, of if one has to feed the foods in rotation. I *think* the "dinners" are balanced, but I'd want to contact the company to find out.

I'm not sure if it's worth that trouble though. When I click on cat products, it takes me to this page: http://www.rawadvantagepetfood.com/forcats.html

Yet when I click on the organic chicken dinner, it says "Organic Chicken DINNER for Dogs - 1lb Chub"

And I am not in love with the ingredients.

Here's the page on it (in black) and my comments (in pink).

Key benefits:

Pesticide Free with No Added Preservatives

Flax Provides Vegetable Fat Source Cats do not need a vegetable fat source. Only animal sources of fat provide the essential fatty acids cats need. Cats lack the digestive enzyme necessary to convert LA into AA, they must have AA preformed. As for the omega 3s, which is why flax is in food, cats need EPA and DHA preformed, as they cannot convert ALA (the form of omega 3 in plant sources) INTO EPA and DHA. So flax, as a source omega 3s, doesn't help cats from that perspective.

Wheat Grass for Chlorophyll & Plant Enzymes I don't know that cats benefit from the antioxidants in these. I use plant-based digestive enzymes, because these work in a wider pH environment, but I don't know if papain and bromelain (sources of protease that aid protein digestion) equivalents exist in wheat grass. ??? I do know wheat can be a GI irritant for some cats, and that they cannot break down the cellulase. Cats either throw up "grass" or pass it undigested, as they do not chew it. Perhaps it's ground, making some aspect accessible via digestion???

Lecithin is Great Source of Essential Fatty Acids "Lecithin" is soy-based. Soy, and anything sourced from soy, is something I personally try to avoid at all costs. I DO, however, give my cats EGG YOLK lecithin. This helps emulsify fat and helps prevent hairballs.

Kelp is Super Food High in Minerals & Plant Enzymes It is, and it is a source of iodine. But it has varying amounts of minerals and iodine. Unless one uses a standardized iodine kelp-based supplement, you really don't know how much iodine you're adding.

Garlic Promotes Internal Disinfecting & Helps to Boost Immune System This is a very contentious ingredient. Some claim that in small amounts, garlic or onion is not harmful to cats. But garlic *can* trigger Heinz Body anemia. Obviously in small amounts, it doesn't happen often, or cat food manufacturers would not continue to use garlic. Does it happen from small amounts? I don't know.

Millet & Oats are Slow Cooked to mimic herbivore prey stomach contents I'd have to look at the guaranteed analysis. But there is a meta-analysis of feral cat diets published in 2011 (cats that did not have access to human garbage). So there's no more guessing at how much the stomach contents contribute to the diet. On an energy basis, it is just 2%. So those that include 10% or more aren't up on current science as regarding how cats naturally eat.

Organic Vegetable Provide Extra Vitamins, Minerals and Digestive Enzymes and Fiber If ground or powdered, cats can derive some nutrition from them. They also get everything they need from diets that contain no vegetable matter. IF the product includes carrot or pumpkin as a source of vitamin A, and "counts" that toward the vitamin A in the diet, cats are incapable of converting beta carotene to vitamin A as they lack the digestive enzymes to do it. That would be of concern.

Ingredients: organic chicken, organic millet, organic oats, organic carrots, organic zucchini, organic kale, organic beets, organic ground flaxseed, organic dried kelp, organic wheatgrass, organic garlic powder and organic lecithin.

Chicken is ground, including bone, for a natural source of minerals.

There is an analysis, I'll take a look at it. But with all veggies - *especially* the grains - I would be concerned about feeding this to my cats. I did start with Nature's Variety commercial raw for mine, and they contain a long list of fruits and veggies - but it's limited to 5% of the total diet. This, I don't know. I think this diet was designed with dogs in mind and then just expanded to include cats, without much actual consideration for their natural diet as obligate carnivores.

The problem with kale and carrots is that they are high in oxalates. Never a good addition to a cat diet.
Beets are high in sugars. Cats do better with complex carbs than simple ones IF carbs are going to be fed at all.
Flaxseed - unusable as an omega 3 for cats, though it does provide fiber (which cats don't need).

Actually - forget bothering with the analysis. Now that we've gone through the list, it's apparent there are just too many ingredients in this food that just aren't good for a cat. I MUCH prefer Nature's Variety frozen raw foods or Primal.