Raw diet for poor person?

[ayeshajae]

I feed my kitties dry kibble and was looking to switch them over to canned food but it's too expensive, someone pointed out to me that raw is cheaper than canned food so here I am.

I'm looking for a raw diet that doesn't cost more than 20$ a month for 2 kitties and also doesn't require me to own a high powered food processor/bone crusher or other gizmo I would need to buy.

I don't want to give them bones because those are a choking hazard and might tear their innards up, like when I once gave my dogs fried chicken bone scraps they ate the bones and got diarrhea and whatnot

Also don't suggest things like beef or red meat as I can't even afford that for myself, thanks

 

[ayeshajae]

I should also say any diet plan that requires me to buy nutritional supplements is not feasible because they cost a fortune and I'm not up to tricking kitties into eating vitamins every day, would be bad for my mental health

 

[goingpostal]

COOKED bones should never be given.  Raw bones are perfectly fine to give, my cat, ferrets and dogs have eaten bone in meals for several years.  To feed raw properly you would need to either use vitamins/grinder if you don't want to feed bone in, or feed bones.  You can get premade raws with ground bone but they are more expensive.  You also need to feed a variety of meats, you can't just use chicken or just turkey.  Buying in bulk and cheaper cuts you can keep it around $1 a pound usually but you would need a freezer.  Raw takes effort, there's a lot of research that needs to be done on your part to feed correctly and not all cats take right to it. 

 

[ayeshajae]

What I don't get is why cookies bones is unsafe

I feel pretty overwhelmed by all this tbh. I do like the idea of 1$ a pound but I have the worlds smallest freezer that I want to use for other things besides storing cat food

But what depresses me is the idea of spending 100$ on a gizmo that is actually mandatory is that true? Is there any way I can avoid buying expensive whatchits/doodads

 

[vball91]

A grinder is not necessary. It sounds like Prey Model Raw (PMR or "frankenprey") is your best bet. This method feeds diced/sliced pieces of meat, organ and bone in proportions of 80% muscle meat (which includes heart and gizzards), about 7-10% bone, 5% liver and 5% other secreting organ (like kidney, pancreas, spleen, etc.). There are plenty of PMR feeders who do not supplement this with additional supplements. Some do add eggs and sardines once in a while which I would recommend. If your cats won't eat bone, you can supplement with eggshell instead very cheaply.

Here's some additional info for you. http://www.thecatsite.com/t/264154/raw-feeding-resources

In particular, check out this section.
 

~~CatCentric.org: A raw feeding, feline nutrition, health and general cat care blog, article and resource site created by Tracy Dion. Extensive resources and information on Prey Model Raw (PMR) (otherwise known as "frankenprey") style of feeding, including information on whole prey diets, commercial raw, and canned products. PMR resources not found elsewhere include a weekly menu sample and a feeding calculator based on the 80% / 10% / 5% / 5% guideline.

The easiest thing to do is start with chicken. You can get chicken pretty cheaply. I would start with boneless pieces at first. Most cats need to work up to bone-in meals.

 

[ayeshajae]

Hey ball that sounds pretty awesome! My kitties always seemed interested in eating egg shells but I never let them because I thought it would cut their innards up is this nothing to worry about? All in all sounds very doable for me, now I just need to convince my husband to look Into the diet, he might not be completely thrilled at first since we feed them in the bedroom :lol3:

Would you know any good places to look for this diet and how I can try it out

What would be really helpful is something I can show my husband as to why we would do the diet since he's a very practical guy I know he'll need substantial reasons I would want to change the diet our kitties have been eating forever

 

[vball91]

Read here: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/264154/raw-feeding-resources  

Then here: http://catcentric.org/

 

[ayeshajae]

This looks good, I see lots of reading in my future

 

[ayeshajae]

From reading the articles I notice that the important thing is to try and mimic the diet in the nature like a cat eating rats and mice

Is it possible to feed my kitties kibble and also give them feeder mice from the pet store?

 

[red top rescue]

You can buy "Arctic Mice" and "Arctic Chicks" which are FROZEN and raised specifically for food.  A friend of mine uses these in her cats raw diet and has never had any problems with them.  She orders them from a supplier and keeps them in their packages in her freezer.

 

[Willowy]

Mice are expensive. But yeah, if you can get them it would be a good treat.

Now, prey model raw would probably be the way to go IF your cats will eat raw meat and bones. IME, it can be hard to get a cat who has alway eaten kibble to realize that bones are edible. It would take a lot of work to get them trasitioned if they aren't naturally inclined to eat raw meat and bones.

You could try the boneless variation of the www.catinfo.org recipe, using crushed eggshell as the calcium source. For such a limited diet you do need the supplements mentioned, but fortunately those used in the recipe are fairly cheap. I'm told this recipe can be done quite affordably if you can find the right source for chicken.

 

[ayeshajae]

I was talking to my husband about the idea of feeding bones and he thought the same thing about them not knowing what to do with it

But he was interested in trying it, just skeptical about sanitation

The more I thought about feeding them mice the more I realized it wouldn't work out as I doubt they would ever even look at it as a toy let alone food

But he tells me that with the raise he got last week we should be able to afford at least canned food, and not the cheap kind, I'm hopeful that we can eventually transition from canned to raw too

 

[ayeshajae]

Me and husband gonna try going to a butcher hopefully they can give prices on chicken innards lol

 

[goingpostal]

You can google raw meat co-ops in your area, there are a lot around these days, also watch craiglist/local sites for cheap freezers, if you are in a bigger city ethnic markets have the harder to find meat cuts.  If you buy meat from a grocery store you do need to watch out for sodium enhanced meat. 

 

[ayeshajae]

Hey I never thought about that before. We have a Vietnamese market that I know sells whole chicken even with their heads on. Lol. Think that would be good to get?

 

[guzmanl]

Cooked bones for whatever reason get stuck.  I am also in the transition stage and it is not easy, but what motivates me are the benefits. Not only for my little carnivores but for me financially in the long run. It only makes sense to feed them what they were meant to eat in order to keep them strong & healthy.  The kittens "6 months" now took to the raw food beautifully and you will notice the change almost immediately. These kittens are thriving, so I am determined even more now to get them all on a species appropriate diet. The older ones including the mother of the young ones have not quite grown accustom to the change completely.  But as they watch the little ones tear into the meat they become curious and will eat a little than walk away but its a start. I recently started chopping up the steaks and putting pieces mixed with their canned food and absolutely no kibble and they'll eat most of it, but I will not give up. Keep in mind once your kittens accept the raw food just remember as they rip and tear not a pretty site you may even hear them purr as they eat, but all that ripping and tearing is actually cleaning their teeth the way they were meant to and this is so important to their overall health.

mercola.com  go here click on pets, I go to this website for answers for many things. Her name is Dr Becker she is a Holistic Vet and she has a library of videos on cats, where she explains everything in detail. She is the reason I chose to change my cats diet.  So if your husband needs convincing she will help you with that, because she has a video on that also.

Grassfedtraditions.com  this website is inexpensive, organic and more importantly they treat their chickens humanely and the fact that they've done all the work for you is a plus.  There steaks"chicken" 85% of the steak is made up to include, meat, bone & organs and 10% is organic coconut which is very beneficial to the immune system of our pets and the other 5% is organic fruits and veggies to make it a complete meal. Currently they are having a sale on these chicken steaks. They have other types of meat here also, a little more expensive though. If you decide on also giving your cats the coconut oil its cheaper at Walmart just make sure its refined & organic the jar should cost you about $6 but will last for months all they need is about 1/2 of a teaspoon and they will eat it right from the spoon mine do they line up for it.

rawmeatybones.com  here explaines about the cooked bones and will give you a little more information regarding nutrition also.

and if you end up having to give your kittens suppliments no worries about trying to trick them, it all gets mixed in with their food.  Capsules you can open and empty directly into their food, gels you can put in warm water and when they become very soft you poke a little hole and squeeze out into their food and for the hard tablet kind I use to put in a teaspoon of warm water and let it dissolve then mix in food or you can buy a pill crusher i found mine at the dollar store.  

 

[ritz]

As goingpostal stated, cooked bones should never be fed, raw bones are fine.
And international supermarkets are great for finding novel organs and proteins; farmer's markets can be good sources too. In the latter case, you can ask the seller really detailed questions, like what do you feed your chicken/rabbit/quail/etc. Some cats aren't allergic to the meat per se, but are allergic to what the animal is fed.

 

[ayeshajae]

Ok a few more questions, I was going to try feeding them raw chicken leg quarters but they are about 4 months old in my freezer is that ok? They don't look weird or anything. And can I defrost them in the microwave if I don't give them any bones..

 

[vball91]

Freezer burned meat is fine, but I wouldn't defrost it in the microwave. I would just let it thaw in the fridge overnight.

 

[ayeshajae]

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• ayeshajae
• Mar 19, 2014

Ok good I just got done cutting all the fat. And skin off the leg and cut it into bite sized pieces

Uploaded a pic to see if it's up to code hope it works