Raw Diet

[michelle newhouse]

Does anyone here feed their kitty an exclusively raw diet? What do you add to the meat? Which meats do you give primarily? How much taurine do you add? I think this makes a lot of sense and I've been doing lots of research, but now I'm sort of hitting that overload point where there's almost too much information, I'd rather hear it from the source, owners who actually practice the raw feeding.
Thanks!

 

[WitchyWoman]

Michelle, do you want to make homemade ground or are you asking about feeding meat chunks and organ meats?

 

[Becki]

A lot of is feed raw, there are a number of really great educational threads on the site if you do a quick search. I feed frozen prepared, specifically Primal for cats. They eat the rabbit, venison and beef and salmon. Lately, the beef and salmon is their favorite. I have done rabbit from hare today already ground with bone and organ meat, mixing in alnutrin for cats. I may try that again as they haven't been a fan of the rabbit from primal like they used to be. Nyah doesn't like poultry, Kovu does off and on. I am going to try some with him again. I am looking at they wysong freeze dried raw, though I will still ensure I feed the frozen raw, too.

 

[michelle newhouse]

Michelle, do you want to make homemade ground or are you asking about feeding meat chunks and organ meats?

Meat chunks and organ meats, whole pieces that include bone and all (like chicken wings).

 

[michelle newhouse]

A lot of is feed raw, there are a number of really great educational threads on the site if you do a quick search. I feed frozen prepared, specifically Primal for cats. They eat the rabbit, venison and beef and salmon. Lately, the beef and salmon is their favorite. I have done rabbit from hare today already ground with bone and organ meat, mixing in alnutrin for cats. I may try that again as they haven't been a fan of the rabbit from primal like they used to be. Nyah doesn't like poultry, Kovu does off and on. I am going to try some with him again. I am looking at they wysong freeze dried raw, though I will still ensure I feed the frozen raw, too.

Thank you!

 

[WitchyWoman]

Meat chunks and organ meats, whole pieces that include bone and all (like chicken wings).

Ok. This link http://www.rawfedcats.org/nature.htm gives you the general ratio of meat/organ/bone you should feed. I recommend using a good all-around supplement such as Mazuri http://www.mazuri.com/exoticfeline.aspx carnivore supplement. They offer 2 types -- one for slab meat (that includes calcium) and one for a whole prey diet (that does not include calcium). That way you don't need to worry about figuring out proper amounts of taurine or any other vitamins -- it's all in there.

The organ meets you feed should come from the same animal as the meat you're feeding. That is, if the meal consists of beef, feed some beef heart or liver; chicken with chicken hearts/liver, etc. This keeps the calcium & phosphorus balanced for the type of animal being fed.

I don't know if you've had a chance to look through our raw food diet section yet for sources of food. Hare-Today https://www.hare-today.com offers a variety of boneless and bone-in meats. My 3 love the rabbit and bison.

If you're interested in feeding a whole prey diet or mixing the two types of diet, rodentpro.com has mice, rats, chickens, guinea pig, and rabbits. My cats are 97% whole prey with the other 3% coming from meat chunks.

Variety of meats is key. It's not good for a cat to become addicted to one type of meat. Not only does that unbalance a diet, but overtime, a cat may develop an allergy to the food and then you're in a boatload of trouble (I'm speaking from personal experience).

If you're lucky enough to live in an area where stores offer various organ meats that sure helps. I have to buy most of my cats' food online.