Red Dog Blue Cat food -- complete food? advice for newbie to raw diet

[jimmypage]

Hello all,

I'm new to raw feeding and am hoping someone out there can help me with a question about raw diet.

I have a new kitten that we're feeding raw food for the first time (previous cat was fed kibble and wet food -- we've learned a lot since then!). We're feeding him Red Dog Blue Cat food, which is a Canadian manufacturer, and we give him a mixture of the Chicken and Buffalo types. The ingredients are below:

Buffalo: Non-medicated buffalo meat, buffalo heart, buffalo liver & Organic: chard, leafy lettuce, kale, sweet potato, squash, beet, free-range egg yolk, wild salmon oil

Chicken: Free-range, non-medicated chicken meat, chicken bone, chicken heart, chicken liver & Organic: kale, leafy lettuce, yams, zucchini, squash, free-range egg yolk, wild salmon oil

My question is: is this a "complete" food source? As in, is this all we need to feed our kitten for him to be healthy and growing up strong? We buy our food frozen, and we've heard some concerns about Taurine and Salmon oil being destroyed in the freezing process, so every day or two we supplement his food with some powdered Taurine and salmon oil from a capsule. We also give him a chicken neck or chicken wing a couple times a week so his teeth get a bit of a cleaning, though the raw food we feed him does have ground-up bone as part of the formula.

Any Red Dog Blue Cat users out there that have any advice in terms of supplements? We are happy to be feeding our new cat raw food and he loves it, but we're just worried that we're not giving him all the nutrients he needs to be healthy. We also haven't found a vet yet who is happy to help us with the raw diet thing (both we've visisted have recommended we switch to canned wet food for "our own good").

Thanks so much!

 

[Willowy]

Chard and kale are high in oxalates, which binds calcium. I'm not sure why they'd put those in a daily food :/. But I don't know how much it takes to be a concern or how much of a problem the calcium-binding thing is. Maybe someone else will know more. My experience is with tortoises, who of course ONLY eat greens :tongue2:.

And cats have no need for veggies at all anyway. Of course, I think that on the whole it's better than a processed food, just not quite as good as an unprocessed meat/bone/organ diet without veggies. If you can find another raw brand that has fewer plant ingredients, that would be great. I think Carnivora is a frequently-recommended Canadian brand.

 

[sugarcatmom]

Red Dog Deli makes excellent raw foods (I feed them all to my cats), but not every "flavour" contains bone and either needs to be supplemented with a sufficient amount of another calcium source, or only fed intermittently. Check the label as it should say somewhere above the nutritional analysis something along the lines of: "This product does not contain calcium.... blah blah blah". Off the top of my head, I believe Buffalo, Venison, Beef, Wild Boar, and Kangaroo need some degree of supplementation.

As for the veggie content, it's an extremely small amount (2%, and it's juiced), so nothing to worry about.

Where abouts in Canada are you? Some other good raw products to have in your rotation are Natural Instincts and 3P Naturals, if you're in the west. Carnivora is also pretty good, but I prefer the vacuum packaging of the other products (and the bone bits are considerably larger).

 

[mckat]

I've been feeding my cat RDBK for over a year now. What I love is that you can call their head office and they will respond to your questions (like the ones above) quite quickly! Being that they're Canadian,and in my case, local... This is important!

Here's what I've found out about them and the food that I'd like to share.

ALL of their meats come from free range/free run farms. They only deal with ethical suppliers (from how their product is raised to how it's slaughtered) and the animals they use never contain hormones or antibiotics! I haven't seen any other supplier that has those claims! So if you care for animals, but realize your animal needs to eat other animals (as cats and dogs do) then their food is the best! They also label their packages with nutritional information (such as calcium and phosphorous percentages) which again.... Not many others do. This information is also available on their web site.

As for the cat meals being complete... All their meals are considered complete, so long as you are feeding a variety of their meals. Usually they recommend you do one poultry (chicken or turkey) and two red meats (in your case buffalo... I would highly recommend the kangaroo as your second option... My cat LOVES it!!!)

The percentage of veggies in their food is only 2% for the cat meals (according to their website) and after calling their head office to find out why they bothered to add veggies I was told the most logical information. Basically, if you take into consideration what your cat would eat in nature... It's most likely it would capture a mouse or a bird... That mouse has been eating plant matter... The cat who eats the mouse would eat he whole mouse... Fir, bone, organ, and yes, as gross as it sounds... The stomach. So even though cats don't eat plants in he wild, they get those nutrients from their prey. Also.... Their veggies are juiced, which makes for easier digestion, rather than just chopping up the veggie and throwing it in the mixture, which cats (and dogs can't break down)

I think you've made the right choice! I'm pretty brand loyal to these guys!

 

[chactada]

Hi,

I recently adopted a kitty and am determined to feed her the best food available. I have given her red dog blue cat and am now about to try 3P naturals. It is important to me that her raw food is organic and mostly cruelty free. Any thoughts on the 2 I've mentioned? I am located in Vancouver and like the fact that both these products are local and they are both about the same price. 

Thanks,

Ch

 

[sugarcatmom]

 
Hi,

I recently adopted a kitty and am determined to feed her the best food available. 

Great!!

If you want to check out the suppliers for Red Dog Deli products, they list them on their website here: http://www.reddogdeli.com/products.php?id=50&page=Our Suppliers

3P Naturals has a little blurb on their meat sources in their FAQ section, but to find out more you'll have to contact them directly: http://www.3pnaturals.com/faqs

And in case you want to throw some Natural Instincts into the rotation, here's their info: http://www.naturalinstincts.ca/products.html

 

[thecatlady3]

I know this thread is a little old but does Taurine need to be added to RDBK?