Alternative to RAW diet

[tkymasters]

I love my cat, but I will eat the steak before him... don't really care if the steak is from a dying cow, dead cow, disabled cow.. diseased cow, maybe not, but as long as its well done and not mooing... who really cares?

 

[Kronos]

That's actually pretty cool and looks like a great alternative. My only question is do you give any supplements, since the freeze-dried chicken and turkey do not have anything like Vit E, B Vitamins, etc.

Question for thought:

Animals in the wild eat raw and do not need supplements. Why supplement our pets when feeding raw?

 

[admin]

But in the wild, animals eat the entire prey and not just part of it. Zuri eats whole prey, but the prey she eats is small and therefore, does not get enough calcium or taurine...so I supplement.

I am going to try and get the rep for Feline's Pride to come on and answer some questions...she is wonderful!!! Deborah is very well versed on this subject as well as others...

 

[Kronos]

That explains it, thanks for the clarification. What about the raw diets that are "complete" which include the bones and organs. There would be no need for additional supplementing right?

Kronos and Solo both LOVE raw - at this time with his gut issues I am still keeping him on Royal Canin sensitive stomach (regretfully). I would rather do a grainless kibble and eventually want to switch both cats over to raw (my dog already gets it).

 

[WitchyWoman]

Question for thought:

Animals in the wild eat raw and do not need supplements. Why supplement our pets when feeding raw?

There are a couple of ways to feed "raw"":
1. Whole prey -- primarily birds & rodents -- contains hair, skin, feathers, bones & organs;
2. Body parts -- can be any type of protein a cat will eat -- doesn't necessarily include bones or organs, skin, feathers;
3. Raw ground (a) containing whole bodies (skin, feathers, hair, bones & organs), (b) containing some but not all of (a) or consisting only of meat.

Each part of an animal contains vitamins, minerals and amino acids necessary for balanced diet. The more we move away from the balance, the more we have to supplement to ensure health.

Whole prey -- the fresher the better and is a tidy package containing most nutrients required. I buy quail, chicks, guinea pigs, rats, mice in bulk and since taurine (an important amino acid that cats can't synthesize) can degrade when frozen, I supplement with taurine occasionally. This amino acid appears in dark muscle (such as thighs) and in organ meats such as the heart & brain.

Body parts -- When we feed parts, we have to be careful to include appropriate muscle to organ ratio to keep the diet balanced. You can't just throw a chicken leg on the floor every day and expect that it contains all nutrients required for a balanced diet. The farther you get from whole body, the more you have to supplement to insure balance. The way a food is processed can also degrade nutrients which will need to be readded into the diet.

Lastly, the quality of the food fed to the prey animal affects its nutritional value. We can't always find out how healthy the prey diet was, especially for supermarket bought meats, so that can be another reason for supplementing a raw diet.

 

[admin]

Thanks Deborah...I buy quail and mice, but Zuri will only eat the one day old quail, so needs to be supplements a bit - not much.

I spoke to RodentPro yesterday for a long time on what they put in their feed diet and they did not want to tell me, citing the competition aspect, which I understand to a point. However, they did tell me that they changed their formula a few years ago, based on concerns about Vit A and have not deviated from that formula.

 

[WitchyWoman]

Thanks Deborah...I buy quail and mice, but Zuri will only eat the one day old quail, so needs to be supplements a bit - not much.

I spoke to RodentPro yesterday for a long time on what they put in their feed diet and they did not want to tell me, citing the competition aspect, which I understand to a point. However, they did tell me that they changed their formula a few years ago, based on concerns about Vit A and have not deviated from that formula.

Yep, the holisticat group wrote to them about the formula change and they were very accommodating. I'll have to renew my membership with the group. They may still have in their archives the contents of rodentpros diet.

Have you tried feeding Zuri mature quail that's been cut up. My F6 will eat a whole quail but he prefers when I cut it into pieces. Does she eat mature or nearly mature mice? Two of my cats won't be caught dead eating rodents (my DSH & Taji). It's kind of embarrassing to admit that my cat won't touch a mouse

 

[admin]

She just won't touch the mature quail...I tried cutting it up and no go...same with the chicks...I was feeding her fuzzies and just ordered hoppers and whatever the next learner size is (hairless) to try...I have two bags of mature quail and chicks that I cannot use

 

[Kronos]

I am very interested in trying out the whole prey diet! You just let them eat everything, even the beak? I wonder what I would do with a whole bag of small dead animals and no pets to eat them if they didn't like it haha.

 

[Arline]

I am very interested in trying out the whole prey diet! You just let them eat everything, even the beak? I wonder what I would do with a whole bag of small dead animals and no pets to eat them if they didn't like it haha.

You could always do what I do with food my cats won't eat. I give it to the vets office to feed their colony of feral cats. I swear I'm single handedly fattening them up. LOL