I don't even know where to begin.

[romanandlilith]

I am going to apologize in advance as this might be more of a rambling post than a specific question.

Some background: I am currently caring for three kittens that I found at 6 weeks old that had to be separated from their mother young due to a lot of factors. However thankfully they transitioned to eating kitten food and canned food very easily. The kittens are now three months old and they are all doing great. I am moving in August into an apartment with three other people(I'm a college student). I am taking two kittens with me and my parents are keeping the third. I had a cat while I was in high school but unfortunately it had to be an outside cat and was eventually killed due to feline leukemia( she got in a fight and a wound got very infected). It completely shattered my heart. Now with these kittens I am so over protective and I want to do absolutely everything possible to keep them healthy and happy. I have spent many nights staying up late doing research on cats and kittens.

Recently I started looking into home cooked cat feeding and raw food diets. However I am utterly confused. Somehow it seems there is not enough information and too much at the same time. 

What exactly is the difference between home cooked and raw? 

Is it even safe to feed raw food to kittens? I would imagine their would be a lot of bacteria on raw meat even kept in a fridge or freezer?

How do you know how much/what kind/how often to feed cooked meat?

I've read that fish is bad for cats but i have also read that some fish is necessary??

Is it even financially possible for a college student to feed two cats raw or home cooked?

If anything I think I am leaning towards home cooked because raw meat makes me extremely nervous( I love to cook but I am always weary when handling raw chicken). But I have also read that cooking the meat takes out nutrients?

Thank you to anyone who read this mess. I am just so confused and I want to do what is best for my kitties but I just have no clue where to start.

 

[missmimz]

What exactly is the difference between home cooked and raw? 

Is it even safe to feed raw food to kittens? I would imagine their would be a lot of bacteria on raw meat even kept in a fridge or freezer?

How do you know how much/what kind/how often to feed cooked meat?

I've read that fish is bad for cats but i have also read that some fish is necessary??

Is it even financially possible for a college student to feed two cats raw or home cooked?

If anything I think I am leaning towards home cooked because raw meat makes me extremely nervous( I love to cook but I am always weary when handling raw chicken). But I have also read that cooking the meat takes out nutrients?

Thank you to anyone who read this mess. I am just so confused and I want to do what is best for my kitties but I just have no clue where to start.

Homecooked is cooked, raw is raw. 

Yes it's safe to feed kittens raw. Cats process bacteria differently than humans, so what is dangerous to us isn't dangerous to them. There TONS of info in this forum and online about it. 

Kittens should eat as much as they want, which is usually a lot of food. The average cat eats about 2-4oz of raw food a day, kittens can easily eat double that. 

Most people agree you shouldn't feed fish regularly. 

Sure it's possible to do it on a tight budget, you just have to shop smart. 

Homecooked is good, better than anything you can buy, but raw is ideal. You must supplement though. You could use something like EZcomplete, which is made to be used on cooked or raw, or alnutrin, which is made for raw but you can adapt to cooked (tons of info in this thread about that). 

Poke around on Food Fur Life's website (they make EZcomplete) they have a lot of good information that will help you. 

http://www.foodfurlife.com/

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

Exactly that....cooked is cooked and raw is uncooked.

I've fed my cats both.  And, yes, it can be daunting at first because if you don't get it balanced, you can actually harm your cats. That's where using a premix supplement can come in handy (like Alnutrin, etc.)   What I did was started out by buying 100% nutritionally complele commercial raw food, just to make sure my cats would even like it.  There are several brands out there...Primal, Stella and Chewy, Radcat, Natures Variety.  All of these are frozen and can usually be found in Natural Pet Food stores and even on-line.  But they are fairly pricey. 

Anyway, there are resources out there that are pretty cheap for buying your meats/liver, etc.  If you live anywhere near a large metropolitan area, there is probably a B.A.R.F. coop, and they get great deals on all kinds of meats, some ground, some whole. 

Plus, have you already seen this resource thread?  http://www.thecatsite.com/t/263955/helpful-resources-raw-home-cooked-cat-food-forum

 

[romanandlilith]

I still think the raw food diet might be too much for me and it does make me incredibly nervous. I have read that even though cats eat raw food in the wild its after a fresh kill and raw food that you buy still has a layer of a bacteria that can only be killed by cooking it. 

I might try to start cooking some of their meals and still keep them on the wet food as well. The other day I was cooking some ground beef and had a little extra so I gave it to them(plain) as a treat and they ate it right up! licked the plate clean! 

 

[lisahe]

 
I still think the raw food diet might be too much for me and it does make me incredibly nervous. I have read that even though cats eat raw food in the wild its after a fresh kill and raw food that you buy still has a layer of a bacteria that can only be killed by cooking it. 

I might try to start cooking some of their meals and still keep them on the wet food as well. The other day I was cooking some ground beef and had a little extra so I gave it to them(plain) as a treat and they ate it right up! licked the plate clean! 

I understand your nervousness about bacteria, romanandlilith: my mother's a dietitian so I grew up with her food safety training! We feed our cats quite a bit of raw food and I feel comfortable with that because much of it is treated for bacteria and most of it is tested for bacteria, too. Beyond that, cats' digestive systems are, according to Dr. Lisa Pierson (here's her site), very different from ours, making them able to handle bacteria better than humans. Dr. Pierson also notes that dry foods are often significantly contaminated with bacteria and molds that can make cats sick. Dr. Pierson's site has a homemade food recipe that uses partially cooked chicken; I made that once and the cats loved it.

Although I now make homemade cooked food using the EZcomplete supplement, I don't make homemade raw food. There are lots of reasons for that, but the biggest is that I trust the companies that make the raw food more than I trust myself since I'm careless and distracted about things like using meat right away (a particular issue!) and kitchen hygiene.

I have enough to think about to just get my work done and cook for humans and cats!

We feed our cats a combination of commercial raw foods, homecooked foods, and canned foods. That keeps the cats and humans happy. Good luck!