Discussion in another thread got me wondering - if you're making home made food, what supplements do you use and why?
Right now, I'm feeding a boneless frankenprey kind of diet. Sort of. :lol3: I was feeding commercial raw, balanced foods, but a number of my cats decided they'd rather eat chunks than ground. And I'm still not comfortable with bones. It's not clear to me that the benefit of feeding raw bones outweighs the risks.
I know a lot of people feeding frankenprey don't supplement at all... but I'm not comfortable with that.
In the end, I basically follow Dr. Pierson's recipe for raw, I just feed it "not ground." :lol3:
I supplement calcium with either eggshell or MCHA (microcrystalline calcium hydroxyapatite - freeze dried bone, not bone meal) at each meal. The reason for supplementing a meat and organ diet with calcium should be obvious, I think. :lol3:
I split 1000mg of taurine between 8 cats once a day. (I think the diet provides sufficient taurine, but as it's water soluble, there's no harm in just making sure there's enough...)
I split a 1000mg capsule of salmon oil for the Omega 3s between the 8 cats at each meal.
I provide 40 iu per day of Vitamin E (2 drops in the AM meal).
I trim the meat really well, and I do not include any skin in the food. My thinking here is that because I feed chicken, turkey, pork, lamb, goat, and venison meats (in addition to rabbit), and (rabbit), chicken, and beef organs ... meats and organs that have nutrient profiles that are nothing like small rodents (much higher in fats), I need to balance the higher omega 6 profile of this diet with the E and Omega 3s. I do feed some rabbit, and I do try to buy organic or pastured meats when possible. But the kitties definitely wind up with factory farmed meats in their meals. :nod:
I also provide a probiotic daily. This I would provide if they were eating a commercial canned diet. Commercial canned and kibble may be "balanced nutritionally," (well, given what understanding there is of a cat's nutritional needs), but very few contain active probiotic cultures. Again, my thinking here is that cats in the wild eat the guts of their prey - and so essentially receive probiotics from a live, whole prey diet. I want to ensure my kitties have a healthy gut flora, so they'll be on probiotics for life, as they would be if they were hunting whole prey. :nod:
And I do feed them eggs twice a week - half an egg each, so one whole egg a week. It's not a meal, it's a "snack." :lol3:
I also feed a whole sardine (canned, in water, no salt) to them as a "snack" once a week. I could have bumped my Omega 6: Omega 3 ratio by increasing the amount of sardines I feed, but I wasn't comfortable with that.
Otherwise... basically they get 90% meat, 5% liver, and 5% other secreting organs - which include beef pancreas and beef kidney. Their "90% meat" includes a meal of hearts three times a week (duck, turkey, and chicken each once a week).
Since they don't hate ground if I feed it infrequently, they do probably get one meal a week of ground raw, supplemented with the Alnutrin premix (which, again, is basically Dr. Pierson's recipe).
Right now, I'm feeding a boneless frankenprey kind of diet. Sort of. :lol3: I was feeding commercial raw, balanced foods, but a number of my cats decided they'd rather eat chunks than ground. And I'm still not comfortable with bones. It's not clear to me that the benefit of feeding raw bones outweighs the risks.
I know a lot of people feeding frankenprey don't supplement at all... but I'm not comfortable with that.
In the end, I basically follow Dr. Pierson's recipe for raw, I just feed it "not ground." :lol3:
I supplement calcium with either eggshell or MCHA (microcrystalline calcium hydroxyapatite - freeze dried bone, not bone meal) at each meal. The reason for supplementing a meat and organ diet with calcium should be obvious, I think. :lol3:
I split 1000mg of taurine between 8 cats once a day. (I think the diet provides sufficient taurine, but as it's water soluble, there's no harm in just making sure there's enough...)
I split a 1000mg capsule of salmon oil for the Omega 3s between the 8 cats at each meal.
I provide 40 iu per day of Vitamin E (2 drops in the AM meal).
I trim the meat really well, and I do not include any skin in the food. My thinking here is that because I feed chicken, turkey, pork, lamb, goat, and venison meats (in addition to rabbit), and (rabbit), chicken, and beef organs ... meats and organs that have nutrient profiles that are nothing like small rodents (much higher in fats), I need to balance the higher omega 6 profile of this diet with the E and Omega 3s. I do feed some rabbit, and I do try to buy organic or pastured meats when possible. But the kitties definitely wind up with factory farmed meats in their meals. :nod:
I also provide a probiotic daily. This I would provide if they were eating a commercial canned diet. Commercial canned and kibble may be "balanced nutritionally," (well, given what understanding there is of a cat's nutritional needs), but very few contain active probiotic cultures. Again, my thinking here is that cats in the wild eat the guts of their prey - and so essentially receive probiotics from a live, whole prey diet. I want to ensure my kitties have a healthy gut flora, so they'll be on probiotics for life, as they would be if they were hunting whole prey. :nod:
And I do feed them eggs twice a week - half an egg each, so one whole egg a week. It's not a meal, it's a "snack." :lol3:
I also feed a whole sardine (canned, in water, no salt) to them as a "snack" once a week. I could have bumped my Omega 6: Omega 3 ratio by increasing the amount of sardines I feed, but I wasn't comfortable with that.
Otherwise... basically they get 90% meat, 5% liver, and 5% other secreting organs - which include beef pancreas and beef kidney. Their "90% meat" includes a meal of hearts three times a week (duck, turkey, and chicken each once a week).
Since they don't hate ground if I feed it infrequently, they do probably get one meal a week of ground raw, supplemented with the Alnutrin premix (which, again, is basically Dr. Pierson's recipe).
So I didn't have much laptop use the last few days, and I'm back in business so to speak. :lol3:
No way I can risk her giving up on raw because of fish oil - that would be awful 
