Raw Beginner

[xx18xx]

I am in the very early stages of looking into raw feedings. I'm just looking for some tips on where to start as in which articles, websites, etc. What helped you start a raw diet?

I have 7 cats that I will be potentially feeding a raw diet. They range in ages from 15yrs to 1yr and weights of 8lbs to 11lbs. As I am just starting my research I have no idea on portion size for each cat. Should it be determined by weight, age or am I completely off track. Don't be alarmed I'm just trying to gain knowledge on raw diets & I don't plan on starting this type of diet tomorrow. I know I need to understand more about this before I dive in.

If I do intend to feed raw it will be a ground meat diet with premixed supplements. Can I go to my local grocery store or butcher shop and buy the meat? Do I actually need a meat grinder or can I buy already ground meat?

I guess that is all I had thought of right now. Any help or tips on where to start researching will be much appreciated!

 

[LTS3]

These are helpful:

Raw Feeding Resources
Helpful Resources: Raw & Home-Cooked Cat Food Forum
Making Cat Food
Home
Feline Nutrition

You typically feed around 2% to 3% of the body weight daily but it can vary for each individual cats. I think 4 to 5 oz of food for an average 10 lb cat is typical. Some cats might eat more like 6 or 8 oz daily.

You can buy meat from a grocery store or butcher shop but only whole cuts of meat, never already ground meat. Ground meat may have bacteria mixed throughout it (who knows how clean the store grinder is?) and grinding can result in loss of nutrients. A whole cut like a entire chicken breast is fine as long as you make sure that is has not been treated / enhanced with anything like flavorings, sodium solutions, preservatives, broth, etc. You can chop and cut meat into small easy to eat pieces if you don't want to invest in a grinder. Small chunks gives a cat's jaw a good workout and some people say it's also good for dental health. For 7 cats, though, chopping and cutting a huge batch of meat would be time consuming so a grinder would be the best way to go.

Independent pet stores often sell chubs / rolls of raw meat for pet food use. Some brands you can find are Primal, Bravo, and Blue Ridge (web site doesn't seem to be working at the moment). The meat in the chub is already ground up. Some are just boneless organ less meat and others are with bone and organs. Some chubs include veggies and other stuff which you don't want. If you plan to use a pre-mix such as Alnutrin or EZComplete, be sure to use the correct type of meat to avoid under or over supplementing the cat. EZComplete, for example, is for boneless organ less meats only.

Hare-Today.com is a popular place to buy a wide variety of meats and organs and such for pet food use.

 

[dhammagirl]

Hi!
I, and many other raw feeders, highly recommend Hare-Today.com. for quality ground meats. My cats favorite is the ground whole carcass rabbit. You can get ground meats with bones, without bones, ground organs, whole prey, meat chunks, and more. I use the Alnutrin supplement which I get from the manufacturer, knowwhatyoufeed.com because it's cheaper. There's a different supplement for meats with bones or meat without bones, because you want to make sure they get enough calcium, but not too much. The Hare Today site and the knowwhatyoufeed sites both have info about raw feeding; amounts to feed, etc. Feline-nutrition.org also has good info.
Most folks don't recommend using meats from the grocery store, mainly due to potential bacteria issues, questionable freshness, and it often has flavorings or brine or preservatives added. I found that to be the case with ground turkey. When I finally found grocery store ground turkey without additives, it was so pricey, it's turned out to be more cost effective to get it from Hare Today, even better than if I got boneless turkey thighs from a small butcher shop and ground them myself. Grocery store meats are intended to be cooked, which mitigates some of the bacterial issues. But we're not cooking it, so it's better to get the meats from a raw pet food supplier. The meat is frozen right away, not sitting in a display case.

Wow, 7 cats! I've got three, and they barely tolerate each other! Two are totally raw, my little kittygirl Chloe is still insisting on some can Fancy Feast pate with her raw.

I initially heard about raw feeding from my vet, who directed me to Dr. Lisa Pierson's site, catinfo.org
I have an overweight cat who's lost almost 4 pounds since last year, and he seems more satisfied with the raw food. Before, when feeding them kibble, he'd act like he was always starving.

It can seem overwhelming at first, there's a lot of information and options, but once you determine what meats they like, how you'll prepare it, store it, etc, you'll get the hang of it.

 

[lalagimp]

I worked out the math and I can save $50-75 if I just pull out my grinder and grind my own chicken or turkey + liver and supplements instead of getting the ground rabbit from Hare-Today and then doing the turkey chunks. We may learn to use the grinder when the kids are gone this summer while we're short of money because the university doesn't pay housing allowance when school isn't in session. I use catinfo.org

 

[xx18xx]

I use the Alnutrin supplement which I gethg from the manufacturer, knowwhatyoufeed.com because it's cheaper.

Wow, 7 cats! I've got three, and they barely tolerate each other! Two are totally raw, my little kittygirl Chloe is still insisting on some can Fancy Feast pate with her raw.

It can seem overwhelming at first, there's a lot of information and options, but once you determine what meats they like, how you'll prepare it, store it, etc, you'll get the hang of it.

Alnutrin supplement is the premix I've started looking at. Do you use the pre-measured or the one you measure yourself? About how many meals would you say you make per package(whichever one you use pre-packaged or self measure)?

I only had 3 for several years but this past year I took in a stray who had 2 litters of kittens before I could get her spayed. I ended up keeping the mother plus 3 kittens. I wasn't sure I could handle it at the time but now I couldn't imagine not having them!

 

[xx18xx]

Thank you everyone so far this has definitely helped a lot & now I have a good starting point!

 

[orange&white]

Best made-from-scratch recipes: catinfo.org and feline-nutrition.org. Made from scratch with grocery store meats is the most economical, and most time consuming. I'm approaching a total of 6 years raw feeding with from-scratch and no grinder.

Second most economical: Pre-grounds and cuts from Hare Today or similar raw pet food supplier/shipper. Hare Today does have a great reputation, and/or you may find a regional supplier with lower shipping costs. If you can find a local or regional meat buying co-op, you can save on shipping with the advantage of bulk/volume ordering.

Most expensive (and most convenient): Nutritionally complete premixes such as Rad Cat. Open the container and serve. While you are doing your research, you might want to pick up a chub (or tub) of raw just to test which of your kitties are going to go crazy over raw, and which kitties may be hard transitioners.

7 kitties...Good for you! Consider an extra freezer for storage space. Not for storing cats; for storing cat food.

 

[valentine319]

there's usually a raw cat feeding app on phones. The iphone one is called Raw Pet (the limit is 5 pets on it). It can give you an idea of how much to feed at what meals and amounts for the day.

 

[mschauer]

Most expensive (and most convenient): Nutritionally complete premixes such as Rad Cat.

Just a note to avoid confusion : Here at TCS we commonly use the term "pre-mix" to refer to products, such as Alnutrin, that can be added to a meat and possibly organ mixture to make them nutritionally complete. I wanted to point that out because "pre-mix" has been used in this thread in the more common usage and given the OP is a newbie I didn't want there to be confusion. You can search other posts if you like to verify this.

I believe "pre-made" is the more common way to refer to a product like Rad Cat that is already nutritionally complete and ready to feed.

 

[orange&white]

Sorry for the misnomer. Hopefully I didn't cause any undue confusion by using the wrong term.

Yes, not only at TCS, "premix" is the universal raw feeding term for any of the vitamin/mineral supplement products added to raw meats to make them complete. I did mean "premade".

Thanks for the proofreading and correction, mschauer. Nice catch!

 

[valentine319]

Please remember to check the solutions that are usually injected into meat if you are buying form a grocery store. Some places the meat is being HPP'd so that would give a viable option.
A quick explaination of HPP. HPP Meat and Poultry Processing | Avure