Ingredients in premixes

Telstar

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I've been looking into the vitamin premixes to make a boneless meat meal (let's assume raw but I wanna use it with some canned food as well) "complete".
Now the 2-3 most famous powders have eggs and whey proteins, and also the recipes for home-made: why?

About eggs, I'm not considering the shells for calcium, but the insides as additional source of nutrients. Are they used to mimic the few quail or bird eggs a feral cat would eat? Or the intestine content of small prey?
My cat doesn't like the taste of eggs in general, and I am a little worried that using one of these premixes with raw or cooked meat could change the taste too much.

About whey protein, I really don't understand why is added. Overall protein content should be fine without (to mimic the mice figures in the overall meal). Correct me if it's not.

TCfeline which is the one I can get from Germany comes in various formulas, and I was eyeing the "no ovo" version. I can always add fresh yolks, IF he tolerates the taste.
Then, digging more into the site that sells TCpremix I found some natural alternatives, in particular:
Brewer's yeast for B-vitamin complex. Why then use syntetic ones in the premix? Bs taste just bitter and should be fine for the cat, but well a natural alternative is always better. Perhaps yeast cant be frozen?
 

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Azazel

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I don’t think those premixes are supposed to be added to canned food. You may end up with excessive nutrients or an imbalance of calcium to phosphorus.
 

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I've been looking into the vitamin premixes to make a boneless meat meal (let's assume raw but I wanna use it with some canned food as well) "complete".
Most canned foods are a complete diet with all the necessary vitamins and minerals. It does not need additional supplements. Check the label. A general rule of thumb is that if vitamins and minerals are listed in the ingredients, the food is nutritionally complete. There may be a teen tiny statement as well that will indicate if the food is a complete balanced diet or a supplemet / complement (ie, treat only) food.

Adding extra supplements to an already complete balanced food will result in your cat getting too much of some vitamins and minerals which can result in health issues, such as too much calcium which can cause constipation.
 
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Telstar

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Most canned foods are a complete diet with all the necessary vitamins and minerals. It does not need additional supplements. Check the label. (…)
The only complete wet food my cat eats is Thrive (which is low on fat, but i wont touch the other nutrients balance). He does not eat patés, which excludes most single protein cans (sigh).
I'm also thinking home made to make the other proteins the way he wants, I'm going to buy some duck breasts, boneless rabbit and chicken liver to do some appetibility tests (raw, light cooked, etc - i know to pre-freeze 48h ty). I want to reach 4 different proteins to rotate during the week and commercial is chicken or 90% chicken.
I have just bought single-portion glass freezer-oven containers. Need to solve on the supplementation before I can properly start.
 
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Telstar

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Hi, I do not know answer but your question made me curious, thought I'll share (sorry if you already read!)
I have lot to read, or re-read ty.
 
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Telstar

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While reading the links above, I did find an old interesting thread on the yeast topic here:

I'm still undecided whether to add it, but I understand now that it cant be a plain replacement for b-complex and that is why the premixes uses the latter (not just cost i think).
 
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Telstar

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I don’t think those premixes are supposed to be added to canned food. You may end up with excessive nutrients or an imbalance of calcium to phosphorus.
No, but the uncomplete wet food are imbalanced to start with. You can assume that what my cat likes is mostly boiled chicken breast. Calcium, fat and organs are the main things missing.
Then there is the issue of digestive enzymes, which helps assimilate cooked meat - that seems the main difference to me.

I decided to include eggs, i.e. get the TCpremix with eggs and thinking what to add to cooked food. I think the two most important things are additional fat (animal) and digestive enzymes (vegetal).

With raw, just the premix will do, yeah. EZ complete seems a little better looking at ingredients list but importing it from US could be a hassle.
 

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No, but the uncomplete wet food are imbalanced to start with. You can assume that what my cat likes is mostly boiled chicken breast. Calcium, fat and organs are the main things missing.
Then there is the issue of digestive enzymes, which helps assimilate cooked meat - that seems the main difference to me.

I decided to include eggs, i.e. get the TCpremix with eggs and thinking what to add to cooked food. I think the two most important things are additional fat (animal) and digestive enzymes (vegetal).

With raw, just the premix will do, yeah. EZ complete seems a little better looking at ingredients list but importing it from US could be a hassle.
If you’re not too happy with the available pre-mixes or they’re difficult to get, why not just make your own?

The problem with incomplete canned foods is that you don’t know what’s really in them and their nutrient profiles, so you don’t know how much premix to add and I wouldn’t want to risk having an imbalanced calcium to phosphorous ratio.

Boiled chicken breast is also not a good source of iodine. Premixes should also have this added. And, importantly, taurine!
 
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Telstar

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If you’re not too happy with the available pre-mixes or they’re difficult to get, why not just make your own?
Oh, I absolutely need to simplify, cooking/preparing is already gonna take much time. I'll defo stick with a premix.

The problem with incomplete canned foods is that you don’t know what’s really in them and their nutrient profiles, so you don’t know how much premix to add and I wouldn’t want to risk having an imbalanced calcium to phosphorous ratio.

Boiled chicken breast is also not a good source of iodine. Premixes should also have this added. And, importantly, taurine!
Yes, of course. So I want to use a premix, and on top of it, in case of cooked meat, add digestive enzymes and perhaps some fat.
I will ask the manufacturer of the canned food for nutrients breakdown, but as I said it's mostly boiled chicken breasts, with or without 5% of a second meat (pork, beef, turkey) for variety and 1% rice (yes my cat and I would do without). I do not buy strange food which contains fish and/or silly plants.

About iodine, my cat pretends tuna at least twice a week, and is still eating some kibble (pork), so that does not worry me. What I'm worried is that he is eating less since this anticipated spring started here two weeks ago. He decided that chicken kibble are crap, and I obliged.

I also triple-checked articles like this one:
 

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Oh, I absolutely need to simplify, cooking/preparing is already gonna take much time. I'll defo stick with a premix.
I make a supplement slurry that I add to raw meat and organs and the slurry is the easiest part. It takes about 5 minutes to measure out the supplements and mix them.
 

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No, but the uncomplete wet food are imbalanced to start with. You can assume that what my cat likes is mostly boiled chicken breast. Calcium, fat and organs are the main things missing.
Then there is the issue of digestive enzymes, which helps assimilate cooked meat - that seems the main difference to me.

I decided to include eggs, i.e. get the TCpremix with eggs and thinking what to add to cooked food. I think the two most important things are additional fat (animal) and digestive enzymes (vegetal).

With raw, just the premix will do, yeah. EZ complete seems a little better looking at ingredients list but importing it from US could be a hassle.
This sounds familiar ... before we transition to homemade raw, all :caticon: :caticon: were eating were basically shredded chicken plus something - (they did not eat pate). Even the can says " chicken and turkey", "chicken and quail", etc etc, those are basically 90% chicken plus a little bit of other protein... (IMO). I really wanted to give them something other than chicken, but was not able to find "non-pate" "non-fish" "non-beef" "shredded" commercial food. That was one big reason why I decided to start making food!

Speaking of pate, both kitties eventually learned to eat. I don't remember when and how that happened, but they are OK eating pate when I am gone somewhere (they eat 50/50 - raw/canned when I travel).

If you did not read yet, there are a lot of good information (and recipe) on links below. I made cooked food only twice (? or 3), but also thought that using "raw" recipe is not quite right, decided to use one listed on 2nd link.
Home-Cooked Cat Food Resources
Cooked Recipes Thread

Good luck!!:goodluck:
 
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Telstar

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This sounds familiar ... before we transition to homemade raw, all :caticon: :caticon: were eating were basically shredded chicken plus something - (they did not eat pate). Even the can says " chicken and turkey", "chicken and quail", etc etc, those are basically 90% chicken plus a little bit of other protein... (IMO). I really wanted to give them something other than chicken, but was not able to find "non-pate" "non-fish" "non-beef" "shredded" commercial food. That was one big reason why I decided to start making food!
Exactly!
Although there should be something in gravy nowadays, I found a couple, I'd have to order 6cans min per type, which is usually 1 thrashed and 5 gifted to the kennel :D Thrive "beef and vegetables" flavour arrives tomorrow, but I'm not very optimistic on the taste.
Anyway, I found a sort of farmers maket that delivers quality meat: duck, quail, rabbit and organic beef, all boneless. Will freeze most and do some recipes for me and for the cat.
I need do luck, yes :)
 
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