Just a question about what commercial raw you guys use

[laralove]

Hmm... Maybe I can try that. I have a large plastic bowl. He weighed 8 and a half pounds last week, and my scale only goes to 11. Won't be able to do that for long!

 

[tiliqua]

 
I really wish I had more income. I live by several farms and from May through August, my neighborhood hosts a Saturday evening farmer's market. I'm also a minute walk from an organic/local market. It's just all so pricey! 

Yeah - it is pricey!  Don't feel bad if you can't afford it.  But it is worth checking to see if there is stuff that they can't sell or sell for really cheap - chicken feet, organs, etc might be things that they don't have a market for and will give you or sell for a really low price.  All of that is good for cats, in the right portions.  It might be a good way to stretch the budget. Can't hurt to ask about it at least!

 

[laralove]

 
Yeah - it is pricey!  Don't feel bad if you can't afford it.  But it is worth checking to see if there is stuff that they can't sell or sell for really cheap - chicken feet, organs, etc might be things that they don't have a market for and will give you or sell for a really low price.  All of that is good for cats, in the right portions.  It might be a good way to stretch the budget. Can't hurt to ask about it at least!

That's a good idea. I buy the chicken organs, but maybe I could get better variety. Or better quality for a good price. I'll have to check it out.

 

[mschauer]

Cats need a balance of muscle, organs, skin, fat, bones, etc. as they provide various vitamins, minerals, calories, and the rest. When they catch prey in the wild, they get all that and more. So when feeding raw, you can give 15% of the diet where you're just giving them whatever... breast meat, dark meat, liver, chicken wing tips, whatever! But when you're feeding more than 15% raw, you want to make sure they're getting that full balance of nutrients by either providing all the various parts in the correct ratios (called frankenprey/prey model raw) or by supplementing the meat with the necessary nutritional supplements (vitamins, taurine, fish oil, etc.). 

Just to expand on that a bit...

The "15% of the diet can be unbalanced" is based on the assumption that the remainder of the diet is made up of commercial foods which are believed to usually have at least a bit more supplementation than necessary. So the thought is that the excess supplements in the 85% make up for the missing nutrients in the 15%. If that assumption turns out to be incorrect feeding a 15% unbalanced diet would result in the overall diet being unbalanced. 

Just wanted to explain that because I've been seeing the 15% rule used a lot without explanation. Basically I think it is important to understand that because of the possibly erroneous assumption about the other 85% of the diet a 15% unbalanced diet should only be used short term.

 

[jclark]

You may want to consider the large patties of NV. If you go through 1 every 2 days it would save your some money. I have three cats (2 10mo and 1 Sr on Pred) which share a lamb patty every AM and they go nuts for it. If you go NV I would advise against the Rabbit as the second ingredient is pork fat which supposedly is not good for cats.

The NV Lamb is very dense from a nutritional perspective. Duck (Actually it's Duck and Turkey) is less so. I have not tried the Venison raw.

NV has decent size pieces of bone as I see my cats knawing every so many bites. Since you're used to their canned product you could use it as an alteranate in your PM feeding.

 

[ritz]

Regarding organs: I buy 'normal' organs from a lovely woman at the farmer's market who didn't blink when I said "I feed raw". I asked her if she had access to any 'unusual' organs, stating that Ritz was an adventurous eater. She did, and brought me some the next week: if it was inside a chicken, she included it. She could not charge me for the unusual organs; apparently it's a state/county law, but she accepted a donation. I simply paid her more for the liver/kidney I did buy from her.
So Farmers Markets are another source--and often fed organically.

 

[obzilla]

For 'unusual' organs, you might not have to venture as far as you think.

A lot of butchers can special order organs (secreting that aren't liver), they can be surprisingly cheap.

I'm able to order lamb kidneys (no one likes these, I have to grind them up and use small quantities in the food, but they are nutritious so worth it) and testicles (for some reason they like these) from my butcher.

I just have to ask about a week in advance and that's it. 

 

[obzilla]

 
I can't comment on the other brands, but I use Nature's Variety and I'm happy with it.  One thing to note is that it is quite high in bone - you may want to watch to see if kitty is getting constipated.  It is easy to add a few chunks of muscle meat in on occasion to dilute the bone a bit and very healthy for their teeth to eat chunks of meat. 

I used NV for a while as well, I agree that it is high in bone, but easy enough to dilute with a bit of extra meat, like you say.

I currently have one that is on a mix of Evo (canned) and Stella and Chewy's, he likes it quite a bit. I'll admit that rehydrating is much more convenient than thawing, but both these brands have veggies and stuff I don't care for in them. For now it's working though, and the plan is to phase the Evo out and work my homemade raw in until he is just on that like my other cat.

 

[tiliqua]

I'm able to order lamb kidneys (no one likes these, I have to grind them up and use small quantities in the food, but they are nutritious so worth it) and testicles (for some reason they like these) from my butcher.

Hmm - I have a wonderful butcher that I get lots of strange things from... but I haven't requested testicles!  I'll have to try those, my cats seem to eat most anything so those will likely go over well. 

I assume they are in the 'muscle meat' category, and not a secreting organ?  

I just recently got all sorts of hearts, gizzards and tongues from geese, duck, cornish hen, chickens and guinea fowl from the farmers market.  The hearts and gizzards are a huge hit, tongues aren't loved but will be eaten.  It's incredible the things you can find inexpensively (and that are healthy when added into the rotation!).  

I hadn't thought to ask about testicles from the butcher, so thanks for the tip!

 

[obzilla]

I assume they are in the 'muscle meat' category, and not a secreting organ?  

Secreting, actually. Remember their primary function....

"Note that for raw-feeding purposes, meat, fat, skin, sinew, connective tissue, hearts, lung and gizzards are all considered muscle meat. They count toward the muscle meat percentage, not the organ requirement. Liver has its own requirement and the remaining non-liver organ percentage can consist of kidney, spleen, testicles, brain, eyes, pancreas – any secreting organ in the body. As mentioned earlier, the more variety you offer, the better the nutritional profile you are offering your cat."

Quoted from catcentric.org (I can't include links yet, not enough posts, I guess)