Want to make the Switch

[soka]

We feed our cats Iams right now. They used to eat Nutro, but we heard some bad things about it, and switched them over to Iams. About a year ago, we tried raw with our cats as an experiment and fed them raw for 1 month. We were very pleased with the results and would like to switch them over to 100% raw. The only thing stopping us is money. We are about to move and soon our finances will even out. We budget about $200 to feed the animals every month. We currently feed 1 dachshund, 4 cats, 4 ferrets (was five, we lost our baby girl this morning

), 1 cockatiel, a couple of rats, a few mice, 11 snakes, and a leopard gecko. The cockatiel and leopard gecko we don't really budget in because their food costs are so low. Maybe $15 for a few months worth of food. We spend about $100 in food costs for the snakes but we are hoping with the new rats and mice, we might take that down a little. The 4 ferrets are fed raw but recently we've been supplementing with kibble because the smallest ferret was losing weight. She died this morning.

So we would like to put the cats and possibly the dog on a raw diet. Maybe putting them on raw and buying in bulk will actually save us money. So I recently weighed our cats.

Miki is around 5-6lbs. Yea, she's tiny. Tyran is around 9lbs. Ramman is around 13-14lbs (might need to weigh him again because he just feels heavier lately), and Liam is around 9lbs. I would really love to hear from other raw feeders about how much they feed their cats, how much it costs, and what is your menu like? I am really big on organization and planned meals. I'm working on one for the ferrets right now so I know how much I have to buy. Ideally, I'd like to make one trip every month to buy the amount of meat we will need for an entire month of meals and take a day to prep them all.

 

[mschauer]

I feed ground raw. Each of my 3 raw eaters (I have one holdout) eat about 4 oz a day at a cost of $0.75 a day each. That's with a diet of chicken, turkey, game hen, pork and beef with organs and bone and a few supplements. I've recently added rabbit and lamb which are more expensive and will up the average daily cost a bit depending on how often I feed them.

Are you thinking of going ground or whole pieces? If they will gnaw on whole, raw bones, that would be so much better for dental health than ground.

What positive results did you see during your 1 month experiment that convinced you to go with raw?

 

[sharky]

Originally Posted by mschauer

I feed ground raw. Each of my 3 raw eaters (I have one holdout) eat about 4 oz a day at a cost of $0.75 a day each. That's with a diet of chicken, turkey, game hen, pork and beef with organs and bone and a few supplements. I've recently added rabbit and lamb which are more expensive and will up the average daily cost a bit depending on how often I feed them.

Are you thinking of going ground or whole pieces? If they will gnaw on whole, raw bones, that would be so much better for dental health than ground.

What positive results did you see during your 1 month experiment that convinced you to go with raw?

I DO NOT feed pork though ... that seems to fall under personal preference or what research you have done...

My current ones eat some raw , mostly chicken thighs, legs or ground beef

Looking at pricing ... I agree with the above about 75 cent s to 1$ a day for me to buy anything but a chicken grind from the butcher ( 46 cents per cat per day)... Beef mix from the butcher is .81 cents per cat per day

12 lb cat and 12 lb dog eat roughly the same amount ... a 50lb -80lb 12-18 oz a day

 

[soka]

Ramman, our long haired cat had dental problems from the time he was a kitten. The vet said he had the beginnings of gingivitis and told us to brush his teeth with a special toothpaste she gave us. His gums were getting red and he had bad breath. Most of the cats were also lazy and Ramman also had really bad allergies (one of his eyes always goopy)

I started feeding them a 100% raw diet at the beginning of the month and by the end of the month, Ramman had shed a lb or two, his bad breath was gone and his gums were nice and pink. All the other cats became more active and obsessed over feeding time. Liam would actually crawl into my lap and demand to be hand fed.

I offered them some ground turkey today. It is a raw food they have never tried before. Ramman and Liam took a few bites but they left it alone. They LOVE chicken legs. They crack open the bone and lick the marrow. Do you ever use a menu? I know with my ferrets, I like to plan everything out.

Sunday:
AM - ground turkey
PM - chicken leg
Monday:
AM - turkey neck
PM - ground beef
Tuesday:
AM - chicken leg
PM - ground turkey
Wednesday:
AM - turkey neck
PM - pork
Thursday:
AM - chicken leg
PM - organ (liver/heart/gizzard)
Friday:
AM - chicken wing
PM - ground beef
Saturday:
AM - pork
PM - ground beef

I have not put this menu into use yet. I'm about to go shopping for the ferrets, but this is the menu I'd like to use. I was actually thinking of replacing pork with whole mice though.

 

[auntie crazy]

Hiya, Soka!! Good to see another raw-feeder coming on board.

I, too, feed from a menu. I have five cats and this is their weekly plan:

Breakfast
8 - 9ozs of chicken or beef heart, beef round, or pork loin chunks.

Lunch
Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday: Bone-in meals of about 12oz of chicken wings, two and a half quail, 13oz of chicken backs, or 16oz of chicken necks.

Tuesday and Friday: 4.5 - 5ozs of liver and 5oz of chicken breast meat.

Thursday and Sunday: 4.5 - 5ozs of kidney and 5oz of chicken breast meat.

Dinner
8 - 9ozs of gizzards, a turkey drumstick or a chicken leg quarter.

Once a week, they share a single 3.75oz can of sardines and every couple of weeks, they get a whole mouse apiece or share a couple dozen live crickets and/or an egg or two.

I visited every grocery store, club store, knock-off store and butcher shop within a 45-minute radius of my home comparing prices, and my monthly cat food cost is less than half what it was when I fed canned.

 

[soka]

Well with my menu plan and with the amounts I need to feed per cat, per ferret, and per dog, per day, I'm looking at about 15lbs of food per week, with a cost of around $200 per month, which comes out to be about .75-$1 per day per animal, which sounds about right, but that's really expensive. Then you add on the $100 I spend on snake food costs. Of course I hope to breed rats and mice as food for the snakes and ferrets, hopefully bringing my costs down. It will cost me about $50 a month to raise rodents, so I'm hoping that I can bring that $200 a month down to maybe $100-125 when I add rat and mouse to their diets.
How can I interest my cats and dog in whole prey? Is it possible to feed a whole prey diet without the other raw meats? I know the ferrets love their mouse and rat. Its just so darn expensive. When I finally move, I plan on breeding mice, rats, and gerbils as food for the ferrets.

 

[sharky]

I had used ground and found this group was not interested so I plunked down a chicken quarter and had a near riot on my hands

... of course mine are not clean eater s so I must in the mood to clean

 

[soka]

Whenever I give raw to the cats or dog its like a riot in my house. They can't wait for me to put the plate down. Sometimes the cats try and climb my legs. I've decided that tonight, they are going to get whatever the ferret's don't eat tonight. The ferrets were offered 7oz of chicken leg with a spoonful of chicken baby food smeared on them. Anything they don't eat (I'm going to weigh it) I'm giving to the cats for dinner.

 

[snake_lady]

Originally Posted by Soka

. Then you add on the $100 I spend on snake food costs. Of course I hope to breed rats and mice as food for the snakes and ferrets, hopefully bringing my costs down.

I'm curious as to why your snake food costs are so much for 11 snakes?

I maintain 60+ cornsnakes, 2 large boas (jumbo rats), ball pythons, kingsnakes and a brazilian rainbow boa, and don't spend $100/month.

 

[atinsley]

I'm sorry for your loss! Every time I step foot into a pet store I find it hard not to come home with a ferret.

 

[swoshum]

Try to feed about the weight equivalent of 1 chicken drumstick/day to your cats and give them some organ meat once a week. Every week once a week, give them something else in place of their chicken drumstick meal like a pork loin, beef, turkey, canned fish, etc. That should keep it nice and inexpensive for you! I should know, it's how I feed my kitties!

I can usually find drumsticks for 99 cents/lb, the other day I found that all of the drumsticks had $2 off coupons on them, so I got them for about 77 cents/lb. I'm not sure quite what it averages out to per cat per month, but it really isn't very much. My older cat, on the other hand, doesn't really eat the chunks of meat. The only thing she will consistently eat is RadCat pre-made raw food, which is, IMO the best pre-made raw food and one of the cheapest on the market, so I'm ok with her decision.

She costs me quite a bit more though, I get a 24 oz container for $10.50 and a container will last me 4 or 5 days. In all honstly, it is almost more convenient for her to be on a ground raw diet because it makes it easy for me to crush up her benazepril and add it to her food every night and she doesn't even notice. In fact, she seems to eat better since she was put on it! I also put a pump of salmon oil on her food at every meal and she is doing absolutely wonderfully, even though she's in beginning stage renal failure. She doesn't look like your typical renal kitty though because she eats great so she's maintaining a good weight, she accepts her sq fluids most of the time so she's staying hydrated, and the salmon oil keeps her coat amazing and helps her cataracts. Sorry to get a little off topic there!