This Raw Food Diet Is Serious Business..advice for a newbie?

romansmomma

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Good Evening All!

A quick back story on my fur-baby.

Roman was taken to the emergency clinic back in September of 2013 with UTI with no crystals. This was the first instance of any medical issues I have had with her. Upon further research lack of hydration from a low grade strictly dry food diet was a big contributor. I have switched her to wet food and bought her a great big kitty fountain and we have not had any further issues. So that's great news. 

Back in December I had her in for her vaccinations and mentioned she had been having some serious smells coming from her rear end and had even "let loose" (so to speak) some fluid on me when I surprised her. They expressed her anal gland that was full and all was fine again. No serious problems since then but I did notice that odor again today. So i hopped online again and am noticing a lot of anal gland smells occur from people that feed a wet food diet.

So dry food is certainly a no go...and maybe not wet food? 
 

I have always been curious about raw food but never researched into it. Today I have spent 5 or so hours reading over this site and others and I know that I really want to switch her over but there's so much information to read into. 

My main concern is obviously her health and providing all of the essential nutrients that she needs to be a happy and healthy baby for her entire life. My second concern is being a student working only part time and already slightly feeling the strain of wet food costs. I simply can not afford a store bought raw food diet.  I am willing to put in the time for prepping her meals that is not an issue I'd do anything for my fur-princess!

I am interested in PMR diet because I do not have a meat grinder but anytime I see other peoples sample menus I see them feeding 3 meals and sometimes snacks on top of that. Is three meals really necessary? I also see a different type of animal being fed each day.. is there tried and true recipes that can be used for a month or so and then switch for the variety that I hear is necessary?

The video that I found on youtube that intrigued me was this one 


is this type of method okay? It appears to be quite different from what everyone else is doing and that raised a red flag right away. 

I would normally just give my Vet a call but unfortunately we are small town folk and their answer is Science Diet for XYZ condition. When asked about fillers in the ingredients he told me that it was a decent food. 
 

He's been great with everything else that has come up but as far as nutrition he only recommends the food that he sells. 

And on a final note I apologize for my horrible lack of vocabulary and sentence structure..etc... I'm cross eyed from all of the reading..
 

cprcheetah

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So I am new to feeding my cats raw but have fed my dogs raw for 3 & 1/2 years.  My cats have been raw fed for about a month now for one and about 2-3 weeks for the other.  I am following this recipe:  http://catinfo.org/?link=makingcatfood  I am using a boneless recipe because I don't have a grinder and I am feeding a cat who has kidney disease so we need lower phosphorus.  I use my Ninja food processor to mix up the food.  While that video was interesting, I do not think it is a very good diet for kitties especially a cat with urinary problems.  Fish should be fed sparingly maybe once a week if that especially cats with urinary problems.  I feed 2 meals because I work outside the home and am gone for 12 hours a day 3 days a week and it just works out better that way for me.  I make up 6# of food at time which feeds my 2 kitties (one is 11# and 1 is 15# on a diet) for 2 weeks.  That works best for me.  I do add additional supplements to my recipe as both the kitties have health issues they are dealing with.  As for costs, it costs me a little over $5 for the chicken thighs per week for 2 kitties, then there is the minimal cost for the liver and the supplements I would say maybe $6 per week altogether for my 2 kitties.  MUCH cheaper than canned food.
 
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pinkman

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cprcheetah gives very good advice here.

Also, check out this link: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/264154/raw-feeding-resources It gives a lot of good introductory information, along with what styles of raw feeding you can do. I know it's quite overwhelming, but once you digest it... it's not too bad. 

Regarding that youtube video - I've seen it before, and I disagree with what she is feeding. Like cprcheetah mentions, fish should be fed sparingly. 

Three meals is great - I know some feeder feed less or more meals if you've been doing three, I'd stick to that.

Some people do feed different proteins everyday - I do myself. One of my cats get bored of food very easily so I can not feed the same protein two days in a row. Chicken, turkey, pork are pretty good starters and easily sourceable. If you have a Chinese/SE Asian market near by you may be able to source rabbit, partridge, black bantum chickens, and goose. However, that is not to say feeding one protein can't work. Many can only source a couple types of protein and their cats are doing fine. Same with organs. 
 

ritz

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I viewed some of the video and you're right she does use a lot of fish, though she does also use gizzard and hearts (which are protein, not organs) and chicken. But what also struck me more than anything, is she doesn't weigh anything. She is correct that the amounts don't have to be exact every day, it's okay over a seven day period. But still, I'd be afraid to use the eyeball method--not recommended for beginners!
I've been feeding PMR for over a two years, and I always always weigh the components of the raw food. She also used ground up egg shells, fresh out of the refrigerator (i.e., with the membrane intact, not dried). Egg shells are an acceptable substitute for bone/calcium, though I haven't heard of the non-drying method. (I'd freeze one or two of those yolks for my cat, they can benefit from them too!)
I feed a fair amount of pork, chicken and turkey during the week because Ritz can't handle red meat (she throws up) when I'm gone for 12 hours at a time. She has no problems with red meat (beef, goat, llama, geese, deer) on the weekends.
It is ideal to feed your cat three or even four times a day. But I have a long commute so am gone 11.5 hours during the work week. Cats adjust, usually.
I don't have a grinder. I simply buy meat/organs from the grocery store; I frequently buy them 30% to 50% off because the meat is at its "sell by" date. I do process it the same day or freeze it, so it doesn't spoil. I do use the method the woman on the video does: lay out a bunch of plastic containers and do a bunch at once.
Ritz is prone to stress-induced UTIs, some bacteria based, some crystals. I don't feed fish, except Krill oil as a supplement.
And Ritz generally has to have her anal glands expressed about once or twice a year. And a dental cleaning about every other year. Some cats are just predisposed to anal gland problems and dental; in her case, it might be because of poor nutrition as a kitten (she lived on the streets).
My advice to you is: KISS: keep it simple, student. The cardinal rule is 80/10/5/5%; you can experiment with types of meats, organs, liver. And with time, adjust the bone percentage if Roman's poop is too hard.
Good luck and check back to let us know how it is going.
 
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pinkman

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Ritz - you mentioned something very important! She does eyeball everything, which is not something you should do when just starting. Eventually you can get an idea of how much organ you may need but it's always good to start out with actually measuring. 
 

mrsgreenjeens

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Everyone above has already touched upon the fact that "eyeballing" and "heavy on the fish" isn't really all the good, but what I would like to mention is that feeding raw is NOT a guarantee to fix anal gland issues


Don't get me wrong...I'm definitely a raw fan, but my girl developed an abscessed anal gland while ON raw (don't think the food had anything to do with it, just saying it happened), and there have been others who have switched and it made no difference.  Also, I have never heard that switching to canned CAUSES anal gland issues.  I, personally, think some cats are just prone to them.  How old is your furkid?   It could be that she will simply need to have her glands expressed with some regularity no matter what her diet is
.  I think @LCat4 has a cat that has to have this done, but can't remember if SHE has learned to do it herself, or if she has to take him in to have it done professionally. 
 

ritz

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Yes, sorry if I didn't make myself clear. Raw feeding doesn't cure everything --Ritz still has gingivitis and sometimes anal glad problem. You still have to be an advocate for your cat and do what makes sense for both you and your cat. Contrary to contrary belief Ritz doesn't totally rule my life!
 

lcat4

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Hi, I'm responding to Sally's shout out about anal glands.  My 16 year boy started having anal problems about 5 years ago. No symptoms or smell, until I noticed the burst abscess.  Got that taken care of and all seemed well.  The second burst abscess about a year later began the process of regular gland expressing at the vet.  The techs do it every three months, costing me about $26 each time.  They offered to show me how, but I declined.  My cat's problem is "the stuff" becomes dry, cakey, and therefore plugged.  Often they have to go in with small forceps to get it cleaned out. When it first happened, he was eating wet canned food only - no dry.  He's been on raw and home cooked for about a year and a half - no improvement with the glands.  His blood brother does not have this problem, so I think he's just prone.

The brother does however have lots of bladder problems; he has struggled with inflammation cystitis for many years and now has transitional cell cancer throughout his bladder.  Over the years, he has spent many sessions with the vet because of blocking, but he hasn't blocked since we switched to home prepped foods. I certainly can't say that eating raw and home cooked foods have prevented him from blocking, but in my opinion, it's what has kept him alive far longer than his vets (regular and specialists) thought possible. It's definitely worth the effort!

With respect to the home prepped raw food, I assume you've read through the Stickies at the top of this section, going through recipes and supplements.  I don't feed PMR. I feed several meats - turkey, chicken, beef, venison, elk, along with chicken hearts and liver, supplemented with a premix supplement.  To keep things interesting, I often serve a couple meats in the same meal, and some meats I cook, some are served raw. If your cat will eat the same thing for a couple weeks at a time and then easily switch to another meat, I'm sure that's okay.  I have a cat that gets bored easily.  Other people have cats that get used to one food, and then won't make an easy transition to another type.  It all depends on the cat.

I used to feed twice a day and started feeding three times a day several months ago.  They seem happier. And to make a comment on the "eyeball" method, that's how I cook for my family.  But for the cats, I bought a 1/100 gram scale.  Didn't want to make a mistake with the supplements.

I hope you find what works best for you and Roman!
 
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romansmomma

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Wow! Thank you everyone for the replies. I wasn't expecting so many responses. 


Roman is 2 years old (next month that is). I kinda figured that the method shown in the video wasn't the best option as it seemed far too convenient and I would never feed Roman that much seafood with her bladder problems. At this point in time she gets one maybe two fish meals a month.  I know that nothing has been proven showing the correlation between wet food and anal gland issues, but I noticed a lot of over lap in my research and kind of figured if raw was healthier anyway why not give it a whirl? 

Anyways I think perhaps she had just recently had a bowel movement and had some residual anal gland smell on her because I haven't smelt it on her at all in the last two days. So fingers crossed for that!

After giving my brain a break I'm going to finish reading the last half of that stickied thread which is great for the root of it but sometimes it's just really nice to hear people's personal experiences.

Thanks for the tips all, I really love the community here at this site. It has been nothing but a pawsitive
experience.
 
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