Rawr - Anyone Try This One?

[daftcat75]

I may have found a replacement for Rad Cat for my Krista. But I only realized as I was picking it up that it is not a boneless blend like Rad Cat was. However it uses whole animal grind rather than necks so that’s encouraging. It also has egg yolk and psyllium so good luck, little one. I picked up 8 oz sizes each of Turkey and Rabbit to sample this with her.

Does anyone have experience (or opinions) with Rawr?
Complete Meals

 

[lisahe]

That sounds like very decent food! And the price is lower than Rad Cat. I'd check into the bone content but love the option of duck.

And OMG, they have a coffee bar!

 

[Totsy]

My boys absolutely loved Rawr from the first feeding (except for turkey which they never like). Until I started making my own raw food for them, Rawr was their absolute favorite. I'm still feeding them Rawr duck and rabbit, but I'm sprinkling it with freeze dried chicken breast to keep them interested.

I hope Krista loves it.

 

[daftcat75]

My boys absolutely loved Rawr from the first feeding (except for turkey which they never like). Until I started making my own raw food for them, Rawr was their absolute favorite. I'm still feeding them Rawr duck and rabbit, but I'm sprinkling it with freeze dried chicken breast to keep them interested.

I hope Krista loves it.

No issues with bone or constipation?

 

[Totsy]

No, never. I haven't actually seen any bone and they've never been constipated.

I confess that I wonder why folks on this board distrust cat food manufacturers regarding bone content. Why wouldn't they take care to use the correct proportions?

 

[Totsy]

No, never. I haven't actually seen any bone and they've never been constipated.

I confess that I wonder why folks on this board distrust cat food manufacturers regarding bone content. Why wouldn't they take care to use the correct proportions?

 

[Totsy]

No, never. I haven't actually seen any bone and they've never been constipated.

I confess that I wonder why folks on this board distrust cat food manufacturers regarding bone content. Why wouldn't they take care to use the correct proportions?

 

[daftcat75]

Because chicken necks and turkey necks and other bone sources are cheap. Many raw manufacturers exceed the 10% bone content. And 10% bone is really more than a cat would eat anyway. And for my Krista in particular, she has IBD. It’s well managed since we went raw but she still has low motility as evidenced by her weekly hairball. I don’t want bone bunging her up or irritating her gut.

 

[daftcat75]

Also I just don’t trust a cat food manufacturer who thinks things like pea protein, garden veggies, or cranberries belong in cat food.

 

[Totsy]

Ah, I see. Thank you.

 

[lisahe]

T Totsy , as an example on the bone, Oma's Pride Purr food is 20% bone! I wondered the same thing as you about trust on bone content until I found that out a month or two ago. I had never fed a lot of Purr but our cats loved it. I still have a small pack in the freezer so will just feed it for occasional treats. Our cats don't have IBD but they do have quirky digestive systems so I also don't want to overload them with bone.

 

[riley1]

No, never. I haven't actually seen any bone and they've never been constipated.

I confess that I wonder why folks on this board distrust cat food manufacturers regarding bone content. Why wouldn't they take care to use the correct proportions?

Bone & fat are cheap and meat is expensive! Many canned products are mostly fat, as well.

 

[Totsy]

Did everyone here trust Rad Cat? I'm not spoiling for a fight, really! I'm new to raw feeding and trying to learn.

I am trying to give my cats as much variety as I can in their proteins, calcium sources and textures. They started with freeze dried raw, then Rad Cat and Rawr before I tried EZ Complete and now homemade with either bone or eggshell. So I guess I don't trust anyone but myself to deliver them the best diet either. Hmm.

 

[daftcat75]

My IBD kitty went from surviving on Tiki Cat to thriving on Rad Cat. I went from begging her to finish her meals to bribing her to get out of the kitchen after she cleaned her plate. She lost 3 lbs or a third of her weight to IBD. She’s gained 1 lb or 1/3 of that back in the month or two since she’s been eating Rad Cat. She would look distressed after eating Tiki. She’s happy, energetic, and playful again on Rad Cat. It’s as if the IBD never happened.

I am excited about trying Rawr with her. She’s been eating only turkey this past month or two. We tried Rad Cat chicken but I don’t think chicken is good to her. We can try rabbit tonight without me having to locate a lbs of rabbit meat and mix up a batch of EZ Complete. Neither of which I know how to do yet. If the Rawr works out for her, it buys us more time and it can make my remaining Rad Cat last longer before I have to get onboard with homemade. I can also try duck with her. She had 1/4 ounce of rehydrated Stella and Chewy’s Duck Duck Goose and didn’t seem rough afterwards. But I also don’t trust S&C’s bone content. I’m told they are one that exceeds 10%.

I think I’ll eventually get to homemade with Krista. But I hope Rawr works well for her so I have a fallback or three if it takes us a few tries to find the right meats and mixes for her.

 

[daftcat75]

I have to say that for a few tubs, I was still learning how long a thaw lasted in the fridge and how to reportion a tub. There was a week there where I kept feeding her too old thaw and she kept giving it back. We finally landed on a method of using a water thaw to get it just soft enough to carve up with a carving knife and reportion to ice cube trays. But for a week or two, I was having doubts. I knew the food was good for her and good to her. I just needed to learn how to thaw and serve it correctly. The last thaw and reportion was perfect. I believe we have our protocol now.

 

[lisahe]

Did everyone here trust Rad Cat? I'm not spoiling for a fight, really! I'm new to raw feeding and trying to learn.

I am trying to give my cats as much variety as I can in their proteins, calcium sources and textures. They started with freeze dried raw, then Rad Cat and Rawr before I tried EZ Complete and now homemade with either bone or eggshell. So I guess I don't trust anyone but myself to deliver them the best diet either. Hmm.

Yes, I trusted Rad Cat, which has been our cats' very favorite food pretty much ever since I started feeding it to them. It was very good food.

I, too, like to give variety in types of food: we feed two meals a day of freeze-dried, one meal of cooked EZ Complete, and a canned meal each day. There's also an afternoon snack, which had always been Rad Cat (or, every now and then, the bony Purr!) but is now either occasional Rad Cat (I still have a bit left) or a different combination of freeze-dried food from what the cats get for breakfast and dinner. But I want to find something else for the snack since, as I mentioned above, I don't want to overload them with bone, particularly since one cat seems to get borderline constipated at times.

I did trust Rad Cat but over all, like you, I only trust myself (and my husband when I'm traveling) to put together the cats' menu. There are lots of ingredients that I refuse to feed for various reasons. The prevalence of dumb ingredients like potato, carrageenan, and all sorts of legumes in all sorts of commercial cat food was a big factor in driving me to make food with EZ Complete.

 

[lisamarie12]

I may have found a replacement for Rad Cat for my Krista. But I only realized as I was picking it up that it is not a boneless blend like Rad Cat was. However it uses whole animal grind rather than necks so that’s encouraging. It also has egg yolk and psyllium so good luck, little one. I picked up 8 oz sizes each of Turkey and Rabbit to sample this with her.

Does anyone have experience (or opinions) with Rawr?
Complete Meals

It looks like a decent product, however, wow -- they don't tell you anything re: bone percentage, nothing, nada - only in the ingredient list, "whole duck" or "whole chicken", hence am I to assume it's necks, wings and backs? That's what it sounds like. I don't think a "whole animal grind" is less bone than necks but is more so.

At least other raw manufacturers will give a bone percentage, some even go further and provide calcium on an as fed or DMB as well as Ca : P ratios.

Once again the burden falls on the consumer to have to hunt down this info -- contact the company and see what they say.

And if your Krista has IBD and motility issues, I'd introduce very small amounts of Rawr, given that the company doesn't even give us a ballpark bone percentage to work with.

Good luck.

 

[lisamarie12]

No, never. I haven't actually seen any bone and they've never been constipated.

I confess that I wonder why folks on this board distrust cat food manufacturers regarding bone content. Why wouldn't they take care to use the correct proportions?

Dr. Pierson, DVM has a section re: commercial raw diets and excess bone:

Commercial Cat Foods

If you've ever seen a cats' body heaving from becoming badly obstipated / constipated from eating a bone dense diet, it's reason enough to be skeptical of what companies claim the bone percentages are. That's not to say that some aren't truthful, but as daftcat75 mentioned, the ingredients used for bone may well exceed what the companies state the percentage is.

I'm glad your cats are doing well on Rawr and haven't experienced any constipation issues.

 

[daftcat75]

It looks like a decent product, however, wow -- they don't tell you anything re: bone percentage, nothing, nada - only in the ingredient list, "whole duck" or "whole chicken", hence am I to assume it's necks, wings and backs? That's what it sounds like. I don't think a "whole animal grind" is less bone than necks but is more so.

At least other raw manufacturers will give a bone percentage, some even go further and provide calcium on an as fed or DMB as well as Ca : P ratios.

Once again the burden falls on the consumer to have to hunt down this info -- contact the company and see what they say.

And if your Krista has IBD and motility issues, I'd introduce very small amounts of Rawr, given that the company doesn't even give us a ballpark bone percentage to work with.

Good luck.

Reading the Rawr story, it sounds like they started with a cat with digestive issues so I trust they are aware of bone and constipation. As for tracking this company down, they are 1 hour away. I can drop in on them next weekend. I bought from one of their local retailers who were only 30 minutes away. But if Krista likes it, I’ll drop them an email or pop in on them.

I picked up 8 oz sizes to try. And the way I portion and serve, I would either give her 7 g of Rawr on its own as a watch-and-see trial snack or as part of a smaller portioned meal. She takes 50 g meals for full portion so I might do a 5 to 25 new to old ratio for a 3/5 portion. Either way, I want to set her up as best I can for a soft digestive landing. I’m old hat at this food transition thing with the number of foods we had to go through to stabilize her IBD.

We will very likely end up homemade raw plus supplements but it helps to have commercial raw to feed her while I work up the courage for that plunge. Rad Cat had a learning curve and a transition period for us. I expect no less from homemade. And in the meantime, she needs to keep eating something that works for her. And if that something is Rawr, even occasionally, then that can extend my deadline to go homemade.

 

[lisamarie12]

Reading the Rawr story, it sounds like they started with a cat with digestive issues so I trust they are aware of bone and constipation.

Given Rawr's background of having a cat with digestive problems, I find it even more perplexing that they don't mention anything about bone percentages in their food, that's pretty basic info for commercial raw companies to have on their website.

It sounds though like you have it worked out as far as meal plans and introducing the food, again, good luck and post back to let us know how it goes.

 

[daftcat75]

I keep wanting to try her on the rabbit rawr but I haven't had the time to observe her. I wouldn't drop-and-go a new protein on her. Maybe tonight?