Water content in homemade raw food

[F+V]

Does anybody know what % of food is water? I looked up online but they are all over the place between 65 and 77%.
I was under the impression that cats on raw diet got more than enough water from food, but apparently I was wrong. According to Cornell Feline Health Center, "Cats need to consume about 4 ounces of water per five pounds of lean body weight per day."

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

I think it's really impossible to give you a blanket answer because every recipe is different, and every cut of meat may have a different amount of moisture in it or added to it. All I can say is that most cats who are fed raw, home cooked, or even canned food usually get enough moisture in that food to not any more. I fed raw for years and merely filled up the water bowls as an exercise for myself. Fill, empty, wash, refill. Never saw any of the cats drink, and whenever we had a vet visit, they were always plenty hydrated. Now that we are mainly on a canned food regime, it's the same. The one time one of them actually spent any time at the water bowl, I actually took him to the Vet because it was so unusual. Turns out he had a UTI.

 

[Jabzilla]

I also agree that it varies. I make new batches of food every week and about 1223g of food contains about 902ml of water on its own, which would be 128ml of water per day just from the food. I also add around 80-85ml of water to the day's container of food, have two water bowls, a water fountain, and offer 100ml of either fishy water or water with treats floating on top. One cat does well with just the water from her food and whats added to her batch. With my other cat though, it's a struggle. Sometimes he drinks all of the juice from his food and sometimes he doesn't. I no longer see him using the fountain but I still clean and refill it in the hopes that its being used. This week, he's been refusing to drink the juice from his food, any of the fishy or treat water and has started holding his pee again and only going once a day.

So I would say it depends on the cat. Officially, according to the cats needing a percentage of their body weight in water, no, raw food alone wont fulfill that requirement. My 14lb cat is supposed to get over 300ml of water a day based on his weight, but the only way to do that is for him to drink all the added water with his food, eat all of his food, and drink an additional 100ml of water each day either from the treat water, fishy water, or fountain/bowl. That being said, my other cat certainly doesn't drink the 227ml daily that she would need for her body weight, yet she still pees 2-3 times a day from eating her food and drinking the juice from her batch. I never see her drink from the water bowls or fountain.

 

[F+V]

This week, he's been refusing to drink the juice from his food, any of the fishy or treat water and has started holding his pee again and only going once a day.

One of mine would pee once a day or twice but in the last month he visits toilets numerous times in a very short space of time. Ultrasound and urinalysis didn't find anything and he's been on Zylkene for a few days now.

My 14lb cat is supposed to get over 300ml of water a day based on his weight, but the only way to do that is for him to drink all the added water with his food, eat all of his food, and drink an additional 100ml of water each day either from the treat water, fishy water, or fountain/bowl. I never see her drink from the water bowls or fountain.

My cat needs to drink over 200ml daily on top of eating 200g of food based on assumption he gets 77% of recommended water from his meal, but there's no way he's drinking that much additional water from the fountain. I started giving them Hydra Care to help increase their water intake.

 

[Jabzilla]

Yeah, the amount of water they're supposed to be drinking vs what they actual get is pretty insane. I'm hoping its similar to how we're supposed to drink 8 glasses of water a day, but clearly don't die if we drink less than that. One cup of water is still less than 300ml, so I have no idea how a cat in the wild would get over a full cup of water every day. Like you said, eating 200g of food and then drinking 200ml of water. I somehow doubt that 200g's worth of small mammals and birds have over 200ml of blood in their bodies to provide that amount of water. And I doubt cats outside are lapping up that much water either since ones inside certainly aren't.

I hope the Hydra Care works for your boy! I offered some to mine back in the summer and it gave them diarrhea. It's so easy to stress and worry over whether they're getting enough water. I try (not always successfully) to trust that they know what their body needs in this case and if they're in need of additional water then they'll drink it from the many offered sources. Waaaaaaaay easier said than done though, especially for anxious folks like myself.

 

[sophie1]

I've found that grinds I get for cat food making are highly variable with their liquid content. Chicken seems to include a lot more "meat juice" than rabbit or red meats like beef. I'm sure this is throwing off the supplementation, but I just add it by weight of the package and hope it will all even out in the end. Then I add water to achieve the desired consistency. I also use the litter box as a guide, adding more water if I'm not seeing a normal amount of pee.

One thing I do that seems to help my cats drink more: whenever I'm making dinner and pull out meat from a package, I drain the juice into their cat dishes and add a little sliver of whatever it is I'm making (salmon, steak etc). They love it and the bowls are always licked clean. (Of note, I buy meats from Butcher Box or local butchers....pretty much never from the grocery.)