Starting Raw Feeding - Advice for a Newbie?

[thevegancuddler]

My concern with Frankenyprey is this: How do I ensure they actually eat the bones? I'm thinking about my kitties and I can only see maybe one of them eating the bone, even small ones. What if they're never drawn to it, even if they love the tasty raw meat? I know calcium is a concern. If I grind it, I can just grind the bone down into the meal, right? I know that's not advantageous for teeth, but at least they'd be getting calcium if they refused the bones.

Also, what's PMR?

And for those who do grind, what kind of grinder do you use?

Oh! Also, for those who grind, what recipe do you follow? How many follow Dr. Pierson's guidelines?

 

[peaches08]

I'll let the Prey Model Raw feeders speak about PMR/Frankenprey since I choose the grind, chunk, and supplement.

I use the Tasin TS-108 from www.onestopjerkyshop.com. I use Dr. P's recipe and have added other meats in the past. Tomorrow I'm going to make Dr. P's and then a separate pork recipe with eggshells.

 

[aprilprey]

So I've finally made the decision to switch over to raw feeding. It was a tough choice for me at first because I'm vegan, so the thought of handling raw meat disgusts me.

I am not a vegetarian at this time, but I grew up in a vegetarian family; my dad was a vegan for many years until he recently decided to add eggs back into his diet.  Thus I am really familiar with vegan/vegetarian thinking and lifestyles.

I wanted to commend you for putting the needs of your obligate carnivore before your vegan philosophy.   Recently, I was doing some volunteer work with another volunteer - during our chatter, she noted that she was a vegetarian as well (grew up 7th Day Adventist) and that her cats "don't get meat" - all the while shaking her head as if the sky would fall if she fed them the meat they needed!   It was all I could do to not lose it.*  I really don't know what is worse:

A.  People who think cats are so low maintenance they can just fill up a bowl with kibble once a week and call it good....or

B.  Vegan/vegetarians who try to cram an obligate carnivore into the vegetarian life.

Although Option B is probably worse - at least there is SOME meat in kibble, regardless of how processed/extruded/mangled....

* I did not sense she was willing to be swayed - very strong personality like me.  I figured if I had tried to convince her otherwise...fisticuffs would ensue....

 

[ldg]

I'd have gone to fisticuffs on that. How terribly, terribly sad.

PMR=Prey Model Raw, also known as frankenprey. All interchangeable.

Some of my cats don't eat bone. Those that do really enjoy it.

I feed a mix of styles. All get ground 4 times a week. This is because egg yolks and sardines are an important part of a PMR diet for various nutrients that are part of a whole animal but not the model. A number of my cats don't like egg yolks. So I mix those in to ground raw I buy from Hare Today and have shipped frozen. They each get 1/4 egg yolk per ground meal for one yolk a week.

I also like to know more precisely how much calcium they get. Instead of using only fresh bone, I balance most of their meals with either powdered eggshell (that I sprinkle on the meat or meat and organ meals), or I use a freeze dried bone powder.

I have four cats that won't eat fresh liver, but they like freeze dried liver. I figured out, with the help of TCS members, the fresh liver equivalent of the freeze dried liver I use, and that's how they get that essential part of the diet.

I have four cats that won't eat kidney. This figures predominantly as the 5% "other secreting organ". Of the four, two eat liver. So I make it 10% instead of following the 5% guideline.

That leaves me with two cats that won't reliably eat any fresh or freeze dried organ. I use Call of the Wild, a supplement that makes just meat complete, for one cat.

The other cat doesn't like the supplement. I may order others to try. In the meantime, I give her 250mg of cod liver oil a day, and that at least gets her the vitamin A she needs (that is provided by the liver).

With the help and creativity of members of this site, I found a way around the stumbling blocks to feeding *mostly* a diet that is based on PMR, and meets their nutritional requirements.

I live in an RV with a small kitchen area, and I can't imagine trying to make batches of ground raw for 8 cats. I did buy a small chest freezer we keep outside on the deck (covered with a tarp) to store the frozen food. My 8 eat close to 2 pounds of raw food a day. (They ate more than 2 pounds of canned food a day).

 

[ravencorbie]

You might be right about time and space.  I was imagining that for Frankenprey/PMR, I'd go weekly -- get the cat's fresh meat at the same time that I got mine at the local meat shop on Friday afternoon or Saturday, make up 7 portions with appropriate additions (organs, etc.), and put just those seven portions in the freezer along with my own meat.  I figured that if I was making homemade raw food, I'd follow Dr. Pierson's recipe, which creates a HUGE batch at the outset, which would mean it would 1) take longer per session (with the understanding that there would be a LOT more sessions with weekly-created Frankenprey) and 2) create a much larger quantity of food needing to be stored.  I figured this because if you're cutting up meat, you would use a knife and a cutting board, and a large bowl for mixing in supplements.  Three relatively easy-to-clean items.  If I was using a grinder -- 1) it probably wouldn't stay out all the time, so I'd need to take it out each time, and 2) From my experience with food processors, blenders, and even salad spinners, I'd expect a meat grinder to be fairly difficult to clean.  So I wouldn't want to make smaller, more frequent batches of ground, as that would involve dealing with the grinder more often.  I guess that what I'm saying is that if you made batches with the SAME FREQUENCY in both ground and Frankenprey, that yes, Frankenprey might take longer, but that Frankenprey seems to adapt more easily than ground for having MORE FREQUENT sessions, meaning less time PER SESSION, and a smaller quantity of created food needing to be stored.

And yes, trying to force a cat into a human culture and ignoring their essential cat-ness. . . uck.

 

[peaches08]

As far as grinder cleaning, it's really not that bad. I use alcohol to cut some of the fat while cleaning it to make it easier.

 

[Willowy]

I think the grinder is easier to clean than my food processor. . .for whatever that's worth :lol3:. But, yeah, not hard to clean at all. Storage is a thing, because it's kinda big, but cleaning is a snap.

 

[thevegancuddler]

Well I don't really use my freezer much anyway, to be honest. Most of MY food is fruits and veggies, and I am the only human around, so that's handy! As I said, it's all just very intimidating, as there's so much info, but I know for sure this is what I wanna do for my cats (and dog?? haha)!