Raw Cat Food Questions

[fureverloved]

Hello All,

I am new to this community, and I'm thrilled to have found such a helpful resource. I have 6 cats, and have been feeding them raw for the past two years. Most of that time I've spent worrying about my cats' nutrition, and feeling alone without anyone to turn to for definitive answers. With six cats (7 cats up until this past N.Y.E.), and three with health issues, my selection of feeding options is limited, but I am doing my absolute best for my furbabies. There should be a such thing as a cat therapist - someone who would listen to me talk for hours about all my cat related stress, and joys of course, and give advice.

Up until now, I have mostly been feeding the cat-nutrition.org recipe with chicken thighs and chicken liver(both Sanderson Farms brand), which I grind with my Tasin 108. They also occasionally get boneless pork and beef from the grocery, with the cat-nutrition recipe, and bone meal. My cats have grow very tired of the chicken, and never were really thrilled with it. I have found the Sanderson Farms thighs to be very fatty(especially with leaving on half the skin as the recipe calls for), so I'm wondering if this could cause them to not like it, and if this seemingly high fat content could cause health issues?

I am considering purchasing a selection of meats from Hare Today so that all varieties of meat I offer my cats will have bone as the calcium source. Two of my cats have irritable bowel, and seem to not tolerate the meats without bone. I am hoping to keep using the Sanderson Farms chicken thighs as well, since it is the most affordable. My question is - when diluting the bone ratio in HT mixes with boneless meat and organs (as calculated from the raw food dilution calculator), what organs should be used? Would it be acceptable to add in the "organ mixes" from HT? For example, their chicken organ mix contains an even mix of liver, heart and gizzards, but aren't hearts and gizzards considered a muscle meat?-I read that somewhere. So should I only add in livers (for the organ addition) to dilute the bone ratio? I hope these questions make sense!

Thanks so much for any input.

 

[missmimz]

 
Hello All,

I am new to this community, and I'm thrilled to have found such a helpful resource. I have 6 cats, and have been feeding them raw for the past two years. Most of that time I've spent worrying about my cats' nutrition, and feeling alone without anyone to turn to for definitive answers. With six cats (7 cats up until this past N.Y.E.), and three with health issues, my selection of feeding options is limited, but I am doing my absolute best for my furbabies. There should be a such thing as a cat therapist - someone who would listen to me talk for hours about all my cat related stress, and joys of course, and give advice.

Up until now, I have mostly been feeding the cat-nutrition.org recipe with chicken thighs and chicken liver(both Sanderson Farms brand), which I grind with my Tasin 108. They also occasionally get boneless pork and beef from the grocery, with the cat-nutrition recipe, and bone meal. My cats have grow very tired of the chicken, and never were really thrilled with it. I have found the Sanderson Farms thighs to be very fatty(especially with leaving on half the skin as the recipe calls for), so I'm wondering if this could cause them to not like it, and if this seemingly high fat content could cause health issues?

I am considering purchasing a selection of meats from Hare Today so that all varieties of meat I offer my cats will have bone as the calcium source. Two of my cats have irritable bowel, and seem to not tolerate the meats without bone. I am hoping to keep using the Sanderson Farms chicken thighs as well, since it is the most affordable. My question is - when diluting the bone ratio in HT mixes with boneless meat and organs (as calculated from the raw food dilution calculator), what organs should be used? Would it be acceptable to add in the "organ mixes" from HT? For example, their chicken organ mix contains an even mix of liver, heart and gizzards, but aren't hearts and gizzards considered a muscle meat?-I read that somewhere. So should I only add in livers (for the organ addition) to dilute the bone ratio? I hope these questions make sense!

Thanks so much for any input.

I use HT organs mixed with boneless varieties, but when i dilute their meat/bones/organs I just add muscle meat (like boneless chicken breast or turkey thighs), not organs, but that's just my cats preference. I don't buy any HT meats that have a really high bone content (which is mostly their poultry) because you typically need to add a LOT of boneless meat to lower the content properly. I buy rabbit, which is only 15% bone, and i usually mix it with something boneless that i batched up separately. I also feed a lot of their beef varieties because my cats love beef. I'm pretty sure that only heart is considered muscle, while liver and gizzard are organs. 

 

[fureverloved]

Thank you for your reply, missmimz You bring up a very good point about the HT poultry. I will have to price out what the total cost of a batch of chicken would be, with all the additions, as well as for other meat varieties. I sent an email to Medora Schauer, who made an online calculator for figuring out how much meat and organs should be added into a mix in order to dilute bone content, and she says that gizzard and heart are considered muscle...they are non-secreting organs, unlike liver, spleen, kidneys, etc. BUT most people don't have access to much else except liver so that is the only organ they use to dilute. She also says to keep the liver to 10% max of the total batch of food (by weight) to avoid vit. A toxicity. ---Interesting stuff so thought I'd share.

Has anyone here who uses chicken thighs (non organic brands) from the grocery store experienced their cats not liking the chicken, or find that the meat seems like it has too much fat? Does anyone use Sanderson Farms thighs? I am wondering if this is safe chicken to use for a raw diet. Any input is greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

 

[nuieng]

 
Thank you for your reply, missmimz You bring up a very good point about the HT poultry. I will have to price out what the total cost of a batch of chicken would be, with all the additions, as well as for other meat varieties. I sent an email to Medora Schauer, who made an online calculator for figuring out how much meat and organs should be added into a mix in order to dilute bone content, and she says that gizzard and heart are considered muscle...they are non-secreting organs, unlike liver, spleen, kidneys, etc. BUT most people don't have access to much else except liver so that is the only organ they use to dilute. She also says to keep the liver to 10% max of the total batch of food (by weight) to avoid vit. A toxicity. ---Interesting stuff so thought I'd share.

Has anyone here who uses chicken thighs (non organic brands) from the grocery store experienced their cats not liking the chicken, or find that the meat seems like it has too much fat? Does anyone use Sanderson Farms thighs? I am wondering if this is safe chicken to use for a raw diet. Any input is greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

Hello FureverLoved:

I transitioned my cats from dry/canned food to raw diet by using recipe from catinfo.org. It is similar to cat-nutrition.org recipe. I used chicken thighs from grocery stores as you did. After a few months, my cats were bored of this food. So I also fed them freeze-dried raw once per day and tried to transition them to frankenprey. Unfortunately, frankenprey does not work out well because they don't eat organs but they can eat chicken thigh chunks, turkey thigh chunks, beef chunks, and bone-in game hen wings. At that point, they decided not to go back to catinfo recipe as well. (Oh well, it's their decision!)

Now I end up using Alnutrin with boneless meat. They still eat chicken thighs but only with Alnutrin premix, not the catinfo recipe. I guess they hate the supplement smell in the catinfo recipe.

To answer your question, I have read somewhere that cats can handle fat better than human and thighs (dark meat) is better than breast because thighs have more taurine.

In addition to chicken thighs, I also feed them: beef, lamb, turkey, game hen, and pork. I source all meats from the grocery stores and always get the ones that packed on the day I buy or the frozen ones. I also check that the meat are not enhanced in a sodium solution (contains less than 100 mg of sodium per serving).

I also tried using Alnutrin for meat with bone. I mixed it with 80% meat chunks, 5% liver, 5% non-liver, and 10% ground bone. My cats don't like it for some reasons. I also tried various toppers (freezed-dried beef, cheeze, chicken powder, bonito flakes) but my cats are not a big fan of them. Now they just stop eating freeze-dried. Urgh...they are such a picky creature.

Hope this helps.

 

[fureverloved]

Hi nuieng,

Thanks so much for your input While I am sorry to hear about your cat food struggles, I must say it makes me feel better to know I am not alone. It's a lot of work, money, and research we cat parents devote to providing the best food we can for our furbabies, which makes it that much more frustrating when they won't eat the food we make! 

A few days ago I made a large batch of the catinfo.org recipe, leaving half the amount of skin on the meat (chicken thighs), and my cats will barely touch it. I also use the feline-nutrition.org recipe a lot, with the same uninterested response from my kitties, but I honestly think it could be the chicken itself that causes my kitties to not really like it.  I did read somewhere that too much fat may turn kitties off. And to me, the food has a different smell all together- a fatty, buttery smell. I bought some "natural" cut up chickens today, so I am hoping that my kitties will like this chicken better.

Regarding supplements - I have found that the only vitamin addition I use that causes a nasty vitamin smell is vitamin B, and it is a very strong smell at that. I am thinking this could be a huge turn off for my kitties as well. 

DVM Sandy Arora (of the book Whole Health for Happy Cats, and her website holisticat.com) recommends using one of two types of vit. B - " Thorne B-Complex Formula #12 (least stinky cat-safe one on the market) OR Jarrow B-Right "Low Odor" (be watchful for nausea)" in a pork chunk recipe here-->  http://www.holisticat.com/en/raw-feeding/19-chunk.html    My kitties love this recipe( I use the Thorne B complex), but good quality pork loin here is $4.08/lb., and my kitties go through it sooo quick. I think I'll need to get a second job just to pay for their food!