So Much Controversy

[Erin80]

I thought I was doing the right thing by starting my two on raw....but the more I google, the more I see sooooo much negativity surrounding it. So now I’m questioning my decision. I have 14 lbs of raw turkey in the freezer, and google is making me afraid to use it! So much talk of cross contamination. I thaw it in the fridge in a Tupperware. I feed them on their plates. It all gets washed, just like when I feed canned.....so I don’t see a huge danger to us humans? Now I’m unsure if I should I stick to raw after this batch or just go back to the good quality canned food.

 

[dhammagirl]

The concerns about cross contamination are a bit exaggerated, IMO.
I’ve been feeding raw, ground and chunks and whole prey, for about three years and haven’t had any issues.

I think some of the fear mongering is from the uninformed, and some from manufacturers of regular commercial pet foods.

But if you don’t want to have any worries, a good quality canned food is the next best thing.

 

[daftcat75]

Krista's no longer eating on a schedule so we're taking a break from raw. But when we did raw, here's how I did things to minimize risk and exposure.

I did everything as frozen as possible. Some thaw was necessary to prevent injury from running a knife through solidly frozen meat. But I never thaw overnight in the fridge unless Krista was going to eat it all the next day. Mostly I did water thaws. To reportion chubs into smaller batches or tubs into meals, I did cold water thaws. Run it under cold water just enough to get a knife started into it but still very much frozen--usually about 10-15 minutes. Batches and meals were sealed, labeled, and put back in the freezer. I did every reportion in the sink and washed it down with hot water (and dish gloves) afterwards. For meal-time, I took a sealed meal from the freezer and ran it under warm, but not hot, water until the meal was room temperature or body temperature (same as the water temp.) It was only at plating time that I ever put completely thawed meat out. I served Krista on a countertop because it was easier to clean than the floor. She always turned in a clean plate. I always wiped down her countertop after meals with her sponge that's never used for my dishes. It was a bit of a ritual but it kept things fresh and clean. I never worried about cross-contamination.

 

[sabrinah]

You could always do homemade cooked if raw is a bit too much for you and you want to continue making food. There's less concern about contamination but you still get to control the ingredients.

As long as you clean well I really don't think feeding raw is that much of a safety issue. I keep all the meat at least half frozen while making the food and when I'm done I pretty much bleach the entire kitchen. If meat touched it or could have touched it, I bleach it. Some people don't like bleach but vinegar works well too. I use vinegar or bleach on the kitty plates regularly (and wash them after each use of course). There's a separate sponge just for pet stuff that gets bleached all the time. Basically, I use bleach or vinegar on everything regularly. I probably go a little bit overboard but I really like to keep things clean.

 

[lisahe]

I'm concerned about cross-contamination from lax handling of meat, too, but I frequently remind myself that I cook meat for human consumption all the time and often put raw meat on plates, etc. Cutting boards and the like get cleaned well. So far so good over the decades! (She knocks on wood...)

That said, the only homemade food I make is cooked because I just don't trust myself to use the meat quickly enough and consistently handle it properly, particularly with defrosting. That probably sounds silly but I max out "use by" dates and sometimes even forget those. So I leave the raw food to commercial brands (some of which use HPP to kill bacteria) and cook food for the cats, which probably works out better anyway because they love freeze-dried raw and homecooked gives them nice variety (particularly of textures) and great nutrition, too. The big thing for them is low carb.

 

[Erin80]

Yes I just feed the commercial raw, I won’t make my own. With three kids, two cats, a puppy coming next weekend, 8 chickens.....no time to make cat food! I actually think I’m going to put my cats back on canned. They pick out pieces of meat from their dishes and take it over to the carpet to eat.....and that can’t be happening with raw food. I will feed the puppy the raw, she’s on it now anyway at the breeders.

 

[daftcat75]

Yes I just feed the commercial raw, I won’t make my own. With three kids, two cats, a puppy coming next weekend, 8 chickens.....no time to make cat food! I actually think I’m going to put my cats back on canned. They pick out pieces of meat from their dishes and take it over to the carpet to eat.....and that can’t be happening with raw food. I will feed the puppy the raw, she’s on it now anyway at the breeders.

Krista eats like this too. This is why when I feed her raw, I feed her on a countertop. That works with one cat but I don't know if you'd get two cats to share a counter. It's also why I would only feed blended raw rather than prey model. Krista would pick out her favorite bits, and eat unbalanced.

If you use a cold water thaw to reportion your still frozen raw into single meals, then you can thaw them on demand under warm water, and offer them as treat meals.

 

[Azazel]

Pay attention to which websites are claiming that raw feeding to pets is dangerous. They are probably biased or have ties to the pet food industry in some way. There is a lot of misinformation out there.

I've been feeding raw food to my cats for over 10 years and kissing them on their mouths on a regular basis. Never once have I ever had a problem with any of my cats or myself (or family) getting sick.

There is a risk with eating any kind of food. You have to make sure you can trust the source of any food that you buy, raw or not. Most food infections for humans in the US are due to raw vegetables, not raw meat.

Many cats and dogs have fallen ill and died due to contaminated processed kibble. You don't hear about these stories because the pet food industry is powerful and controls a lot of the information that gets out to the public. They also have a big influence on the FDA which has a war on raw pet food right now.

 

[Ardina]

Hmmmm, based on all the other comments, I'm pretty lax about food safety standards.

I've been feeding raw for two years and have done pretty much everything from commercial ground to homemade ground to homemade prey model raw. I usually thaw meat in the fridge overnight. Most of the meat I get is freshly slaughtered and never previously frozen, so I measure and batch the day I buy it (or sometimes the next day) and freeze the daily portions. I don't use anything much besides normal dish soap for sanitizing the counter. And I'm occasionally bad about washing their dishes after every use - I know I know, please don't judge me.

And despite me being bad at food sanitation practices, Saipha and Mishka have never had any issues, nor have the humans in the household. So take what you will from that. Maybe don't copy my bad habits, but hey, now you have a sense of how good cats are at handling bacteria in general.

 

[Tobermory]

I can’t see the difference between handling raw meat for the humans in our house and raw meat for the cats! I’m not obsessive about it, but I do try to use caution when handling raw meat. I have cat-only stainless steel bowls for mixing food, a pair of kitchen shears used only for cutting up raw meat, a cat-only stainless spoon for mixing, and sponges used only for cleaning bowls that have had raw meat in them. I cover the counter with newspaper when I grind and mix batches. I’m very careful not to let raw meat sit out for any length of time.

I’ve thought about getting non-latex food prep gloves, but I just wash my hands frequently and call it good.

I’m much more anxious about ensuring that I’m making the food properly than I am about handling the raw meat!

 

[1 bruce 1]

You need to feel comfortable feeding whatever you feed, and your cat has to like it!
I think the cross contamination is a bit of hype, and the panic about bacteria. I'll worry about that when the cats start using toilet paper on their butts and baby wipes on their paws that were sunken into used cat litter moments before
I worry more about my guy eating a commercial diet than I do about the ones eating raw because of all this business of recalls for serious problems.
Just make sure they're fed good food and loved, and the rest will follow. Just do your best and you'll all be fine

 

[islander]

My cats each get a piece of raw chicken every morning. Inevitably it gets taken and eaten on the floor.. Never had a single problem with any cat in the last 20 years . I share chicken with them; they eat raw, I eat from the same chicken, cooked . They thrive. After all if they ate wild ?

 

[MargoLane]

I have been feeding raw for about 10 months, and I haven't had any issues. Basically, everything I use to portion out and feed raw goes into the dishwasher. I use a citric acid based rinse agent - it's a good disinfectant - and an extra heat cycle. I wipe the counters down with a disinfectant spray pretty regularly and wash my hands. I think it's pretty simple, and with normal food hygiene standards, you should be fine. It's not different than handling raw meat for humans.

I use a commercial raw that I only have to portion, so I don't have the worries of cleaning the grinder and meat getting everywhere. That being said, if you feel nervous about it, go with cooked or high-quality canned.

 

[abbyntim]

I've been feeding raw for over four years. And I've been making food for most of that time. Additionally, since Rad Cat went out of business, I am now making almost all of our cats' food. In all this time, I have never had a problem. I take care, but am not obsessive.

I thaw meat in the refrigerator. I place it in a glass (not ceramic) casserole dish to catch any leaking blood. I wait until it's mostly thawed to mix it up with supplements. I do this mixing in a stainless steel bowl. Then I package it in old Rad Cat containers and re-freeze. I use plenty of hot, soapy water to clean up. Then I give my work area a good squirt with a mix of alcohol and water, then wipe with fresh paper towels.

I then thaw those Rad Cat containers in the refrigerator until they're mostly thawed and then portion into individual serving sizes, which I store in small glass containers. If I slopped any food on the counter, I'll clean with alcohol. Otherwise, warm soapy water.

The cats eat from stainless steel bowls. Once in a while, they'll get chunks that they drag out onto the floor. When that happens, we clean with the alcohol. And everything else gets cleaned with hot, soapy water.

If you take care, nothing to worry about. Cats can handle more bacteria than humans- shorter digestive systems and more stomach acid. Just wash your hands, wash your tools, and clean your work area.