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Dehydrated raw as good??

BlackLabelKim

Savannah Super Cat
Would a dehydrated raw be just as good as frozen? With our lifestyle (we are a busy family with 5 human kiddos) we just can't grind our own raw. Our other F1 and F6 both eat whole prey and then Blue Buffalo Dry. Siri, our new F1 was solely on canned food from the breeder. I'm transitioning her to a raw diet, but having a hard time deciding between a commercial frozen or dehydrated raw food.
 

Becki

Savannah Super Cat
I was curious about this too, and look forward to the answer. The pet store where we buy Nyah's raw has freeze dried Stella and Chewies food. We feed Primal frozen raw, of which we have have a smorgasbord in our freezer. So far, her favorite is Chicken and Salmon, with pheasant being a close second. We supplement with Natures Variety Instinct, I mix the rabbit with their kibble that has the "raw" pieces in it. I just wonder if having the freeze dried is a good back up for when we realize we forgot to take her food out in time to defrost and panic thinking the warm water defrost is going to partially cook it!
 

John Popp

Site Supporter
Dehydration adds heat in some form or process and will reduce some of the nutrient content. I would definitely prefer a frozen ground raw food although it takes a lot more storage space than when we bag and freeze our own ground raw.

For us the process is always two hours for making raw whether it's a 2 week or 6 week batch. The majority of the time is spent getting things prepped and cleaning up. The grinding and bagging part goes by pretty quick.

We are now grinding for a total of 12 cats including my Mom, Sister and a family friends cats. My Sister stops by to help and in all we are generally grinding up about 75lbs and have done as much as 150lbs which revealed that it only takes a few extra minutes for the extra quantity. Definitely somewhat of an assembly line as it gets broken down a couple ways for some individual diet requirements, but doesn't add much time.
In all it's really not that tough and although my wife and I don't have a lot of concurrent spare time, we eek it out and have the opportunity to get together with my sister. Definitely a time commitment, and there are some weekends where it seems like more of a chore than a labor of love. The positives are it costs less than a premium canned food, our cats like it better and then I don't get sucked into buying more cat toys at the pet store, which I have never found one they like better than a cardboard box.
 

BlackLabelKim

Savannah Super Cat
That is fantastic John! You're actually making me want to think twice about potentially make our own ground raw........ :)
 

BlackLabelKim

Savannah Super Cat
Dehydration adds heat in some form or process and will reduce some of the nutrient content. I would definitely prefer a frozen ground raw food although it takes a lot more storage space than when we bag and freeze our own ground raw.

For us the process is always two hours for making raw whether it's a 2 week or 6 week batch. The majority of the time is spent getting things prepped and cleaning up. The grinding and bagging part goes by pretty quick.

We are now grinding for a total of 12 cats including my Mom, Sister and a family friends cats. My Sister stops by to help and in all we are generally grinding up about 75lbs and have done as much as 150lbs which revealed that it only takes a few extra minutes for the extra quantity. Definitely somewhat of an assembly line as it gets broken down a couple ways for some individual diet requirements, but doesn't add much time.
In all it's really not that tough and although my wife and I don't have a lot of concurrent spare time, we eek it out and have the opportunity to get together with my sister. Definitely a time commitment, and there are some weekends where it seems like more of a chore than a labor of love. The positives are it costs less than a premium canned food, our cats like it better and then I don't get sucked into buying more cat toys at the pet store, which I have never found one they like better than a cardboard box.
Do you have a favorite recipe you use John?
 

John Popp

Site Supporter
Hey Kim, don't get me wrong as there are definitely those weekends where it's the absolute last thing extra I need on my plate. We always have some extra kibble, canned and purchased ground raw around just in case we can't swing the time investment. I also purchased a commercial Weston Grinder to get it done that makes quick work of grinding bones and never once have I needed to stop it or hit reverse to slow it down.

I also have collected a handful of recipes to actually use the grinder for things destined for human consumption. Haven't done it yet, and would certainly do it before grinding up organ meat and bone for the cats, but when grilling season rolls around I have my eyes set on a pretty big agenda. Salmon, turkey and chicken patties/sausages, then of course just some regular grind of these. Just a ton of recipes available and grinding my own cat food really got me thinking about what cuts they use at the grocery store to make their grinds and what I would leave out if I were in control.
 

admin

Paige
Staff member
I use Stella and Chewys at times...nothing wrong with it....my cats get a variety, but zuri loves raw rabbit as well as Stella and Chewys and canned.

Raw is great, but as a breeder i feed a combo because many buyers will not feed raw...

Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2
 

John Popp

Site Supporter
Do you have a favorite recipe you use John?

We started with the Dr Pierson raw diet recipe and have modified things as we have moved along. Trying to find a balance of who eats what and what they don't like has led to some modification. I was also using whole chickens at first which is definitely more time consuming, but came to learn that using thighs are a better option with a higher meat to bone ratio and higher amounts of taurine in the dark meat.

None of our cats like Turkey, some have an aversion to fish oil and some don't like the raw egg yolks. Easy enough to find alternatives, such as I now used cooked salmon as opposed to fish oil and have reduced the amount of egg yolks we use. There was also a balance of chicken hearts, a good source of taurine, they would tolerate and I found I couldn't straight up eliminate adding taurine. We also tried to use some of the pre-packaged supplements and they were a total non mover for us. Others seem to use them with great success.

We try to change just one thing at a time so we don't have the art of dealing with interrelated variables to deal with that can quickly become more art than science. Learned that lesson with a load of turkey I made and three cats that looked at me as if to say "Really" when i set their food in front of them. Could hardly dilute it enough for them to eat it and fortunately my sisters chow hounds didn't mind it at all.

So in all it's a process and perhaps your cats will prove to be easier to deal with than ours. I think there are lots of tales of what peoples cats will and won't eat, and not much different than dealing with an 8 year old kid. Personally, I think they just want to keep you on your toes and always present new obstacles for you.
 

Jacq

Savannah Super Cat
That's so true John! I know mine like something one time, and when I repeat it, they won't touch it. None of mine like commercial raw diets, as they add stuff to the meat that they are not used to, and they all hate turkey.
 

admin

Paige
Staff member
Yes, I agree it is a balancing act and each person must do what is right for them as well as what their cats will eat. many people feed canned and there is nothing wrong with that either...

One day they LOVE Blue Ridge Beef Kitten Mix or Rabbit/bone or Quail/bone, the next day they won't touch it...very annoying...Zuri loves S&C, as does Taj, but they also eat raw- the kittens won't touch it...I am trained for sure...

Maybe we should add a Fave Recipe or more recipes to the Raw Recipe forum, so others won't have to go off site to look for a recipe...
 
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