Raw food

[brooklyn201219]

I have a few questions about raw food for cats.

I have heard that feeding your cat raw food makes cats extremely fit and healthy and more "kitten like" is this true?

Is feeding raw cheaper or more expensive than feeding canned food? I have 5 cats and find it pricey to feed them all canned food. But I try my best to make sure they all get canned because I know how much healthier it makes them.

can you give me a few raw recipes I can try?

What is the best way to transition from canned food to raw food?

Can cats get parasites and sick off raw food?

Thank you guys for your time!

(I have 3 kittens, a 1 year old and a 10 year old if this makes any type of difference)

 

[vball91]

Hi and welcome to TCS! We raw feeders do believe that feeding a species-appropriate diet is the healthiest option for our little obligate carnivores. If you read some of the transition threads in this subforum you will see some of the many benefits that raw feeders have noticed.

As for your other questions, everything you want to know about raw feeding is in the stickied threads at the top of this subforum. If you are on a mobile device, you will need to switch to the Desktop version in order to see them. Have a look and come back and ask questions you may have that are specific to your situation.

 

[nikolova]

Hi, It will be nice if we discuss here.

I am little confused about raw food, should we feed raw food everyday or not?

I gave my baby Alexander raw chicken breast yesterday for first time and he loves it very much. 

 

[peaches08]

As vball91 mentioned, the forum stickies and transitioning threads have a wealth of information. I'll give answers from my own personal experience as well.

I got 3 cats from the shelter in December of 2011. One was 1-1.5 years old, and the brother and sister were 8 months old. They were fed dry kibble, but after everything I've learned about feeding cats and the death of my diabetic CRF cat caused by kibble, I swore I'd never feed that mess again. So I gave these cats canned. They had raging diarrhea for months that no medication really seemed to touch. With nothing left to lose I tried raw and it literally fixed them up overnight.

I bought a grinder and upright freezer to make the food myself and they have helped to reduce costs. I buy meat on sale and freeze until I need to make their food. My costs for making www.catinfo.org chicken thighs recipe is less than $1/day for all 3 cats combined. I can't feed canned that cheap. However, you have to look at the costs for your area.

Freezing does reduce certain pathogens, and the links explain how and which ones. They also explain why some pathogens aren't as great a concern.

I've fed raw exclusively for about 1.5 years now, and my cats are doing wonderfully.

 

[fhicat]

I gave my baby Alexander raw chicken breast yesterday for first time and he loves it very much. 

Just want to point out that this should not be the only thing you feed, as meat without anything else does not have the nutrients kitties need.

 

[peaches08]

Just want to point out that this should not be the only thing you feed, as meat without anything else does not have the nutrients kitties need.

VERY good point! The raw diet must be balanced or only fed as 15% of the diet.

 

[vball91]

 
Hi, It will be nice if we discuss here.

I am little confused about raw food, should we feed raw food everyday or not?

I gave my baby Alexander raw chicken breast yesterday for first time and he loves it very much.

Agree about it needing to be nutritionally balanced, but if Alexander likes raw chicken, you are on your way. You can add premixed supplements like Wysong Call of the Wild or TCFeline to meat it only to make it nutritionally balanced. Then you can feed it every day, although it would be good to rotate a minimum of 3-5 different proteins.

 

[peaches08]

Agree about it needing to be nutritionally balanced, but if Alexander likes raw chicken, you are on your way. You can add premixed supplements like Wysong Call of the Wild or TCFeline to meat it only to make it nutritionally balanced. Then you can feed it every day, although it would be good to rotate a minimum of 3-5 different proteins.

Are those available in Dubai?

 

[vball91]

Are those available in Dubai?

Oops, sorry, I missed that. Mixed up with the OP.

 

[vball91]

 
Agree about it needing to be nutritionally balanced, but if Alexander likes raw chicken, you are on your way. You can add premixed supplements like Wysong Call of the Wild or TCFeline to meat it only to make it nutritionally balanced. Then you can feed it every day, although it would be good to rotate a minimum of 3-5 different proteins.

Oops, sorry, missed your location, so I don't think you can get these premixes there. Can you reliably source organ meat? Here, chicken livers and beef kidney are easy to find. If you can, then adding 5% liver and 5% other secreting organ to the meat and adding EITHER bone-in meals if you kitty likes them (bone should be 10%) OR adding finely ground eggshell powder would be your best bet.

 

[peaches08]

Oops, sorry, missed your location, so I don't think you can get these premixes there. Can you reliably source organ meat? Here, chicken livers and beef kidney are easy to find. If you can, then adding 5% liver and 5% other secreting organ to the meat and adding EITHER bone-in meals if you kitty likes them (bone should be 10%) OR adding finely ground eggshell powder would be your best bet.

Hearts provide taurine...I don't know what other organs might provide it too.

Nikolova, do you have access online or in a store for vitamin B complex, vitamin E, lite salt with iodine, fish oil...?

 

[nikolova]

 
Oops, sorry, missed your location, so I don't think you can get these premixes there. Can you reliably source organ meat? Here, chicken livers and beef kidney are easy to find. If you can, then adding 5% liver and 5% other secreting organ to the meat and adding EITHER bone-in meals if you kitty likes them (bone should be 10%) OR adding finely ground eggshell powder would be your best bet.

I buy frozen chicken liver and  hearts, and fresh kidneys and liver.
 Alexander didn't eat the bones I gave him today, I will try again. We have many pet stores but I am confused and I don't know what vitamins to buy. .  

 

[peaches08]

I buy frozen chicken liver and  hearts, and fresh kidneys and liver.

 Alexander didn't eat the bones I gave him today, I will try again. We have many pet stores but I am confused and I don't know what vitamins to buy. .  

Nice that you can buy organs! You may not need to buy vitamins then. The vitamins are to help people like me who don't have access to organs other than liver. Will kitty eat these organs?

What bones did you try? And if bone is a problem for kitty, eggshell calcium is super easy to make yourself.

 

[aprilprey]

 
I have heard that feeding your cat raw food makes cats extremely fit and healthy and more "kitten like" is this true?

Is feeding raw cheaper or more expensive than feeding canned food?

 

RE: the "fit" issue. I'd say if you feed raw or quality canned, you'd get those results.  I say this based on the behavior of my 12 yr old - she won't do raw, but now that she's off kibble and onto a decent canned - she acts several years younger and gets more energetic by the day.  So I'd say "Species appropriate + wholesome/quality" is key - IMHO that accommodates commercial/home made raw, home made cooked, and quality canned foods - the full spectrum of options.

RE: cost - given regional differences in prices, hard to say. What I do is calculate the per pound cost of the canned food I am feeding, and compare that against meat prices in my area.  FWIW - the Nutro Naturals my one cat eats is like $5.75 - $6.00 a lb.

You live in PA - I urge you to check out Hare Today https://www.hare-today.com/

Located in PA as well - they are the most popular, reputable vendor of ground rabbit there is.  The big sticking point here is shipping FROZEN goods - really pricey for me on the west coast.  But for you...in the same state???  Get thee to the website NOW! 

Good luck.

 

[nikolova]

Nice that you can buy organs! You may not need to buy vitamins then. The vitamins are to help people like me who don't have access to organs other than liver. Will kitty eat these organs?

What bones did you try? And if bone is a problem for kitty, eggshell calcium is super easy to make yourself.

Alexander loves raw food. He eats liver and fish but chicken breast is his favorite. I adopted him almost 4 weeks ago, so may be the stress and all, but I think he felt better after we started raw food diet. 

I gave him mutton bone from my food, he didn't even taste it. Should I try raw meat with bone? Which one is the best?

How can I make eggshell? I gave him little boiled egg yolk.. 

 

[peaches08]

Yes, he must have a calcium source in his raw. Rinse the eggshells, then dry them thoroughly. Then grind in a clean coffee grinder, blender, or morter and pestal. Somewhere here is a thread that LDG started for how much to add per ounce of food...maybe check the resources stickies?

 

[ldg]

He absolutely MUST have calcium!

If you want to get him eating bones, the best starter bones are the smallest ones: think "mouse." The tip of a chicken wing or wing of cornish hen... maybe chicken ribs or rabbit ribs... and yes, the bones must have meat on them or they have no interest in eating them. Also, the meat "pads" the bones. Normally the cats crunch up the bones inside the meat/skin package and swallow it with the meat surrounding it.

Mutton bones should definitely not be fed. No "structural" bones should be fed (leg bones), they're much too large.

Bone should be about 8% of his total diet - though growing kittens may need up to 10%, I don't really know.

Until he's eating enough bone, you should use eggshell as a source of calcium. You can sprinkle eggshell powder directly on his meat. Here is an illustration of how I do it: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/264489/making-a-meal-pictures

I don't have the information in grams, but it takes 1/32 teaspoon of eggshell powder per ounce of food - a little more if there is organ included.

To learn more about prey model raw (which is what you're feeding), I suggest you read the articles on this website: http://www.catcentric.org

The meat, organs, and bone need to be fed in the correct proportions. And to make sure he gets needed vitamin D and choline, you should feed him at least one egg yolk a week. If you can find tinned sardines (in water with no salt), feeding him one or two a week (sardines, not tins!) is also a very healthy addition to his diet. (You can freeze the sardines in the tin in the portion sizes you want to feed him to use later).

 

[peaches08]

I agree that growing kittens probably need more calcium. Calcium does much more than just build bone. It's used in muscle, nerves, etc.

Since teaspoon is a volume and gram is a weight, the conversion would have to be made by weighing the eggshell?

 

[ldg]

Mmmm, good point. I have a gram scale that measures to the tenth of a gram. Very finely ground eggshell powder weighed 0.2 grams. But it's such a small measure, I wanted to know if it scales up accurately. I weighed 1/2 a teaspoon, and it weighed 4 grams. So it's safer to assume that 1/32 of a teaspoon, needed to balance one ounce of meat, weighs 0.25 grams (one-quarter of a gram). And if there's organ, best to round up to 0.3 grams per ounce of meat and organ.

 

[nikolova]

Thank you very much, peaches08 and LDG 

 

I think Alexander gained some weight and become more beautiful and playful. He has very thick coat, any supplement for it? I don't comb him everyday for now (still with ''lion cut'') but my friend said I must give him sea salt so he doesn't shed. Any advice?