Raw Feeding For Cats?
Posted by
editor in
Question & Answer on
Nov 1st, 2009 |
9 responses
I’m thinking about switching my two cats over to a raw diet but have some questions.
What types of meat can I feed my cats?
How do I “serve” it to them?
How much do they need to be fed?
Do I need to worry about internal parasites?
What is the cost as compared to dry kibble?
Where can I go to get whatever meat I should be feeding?
Any general information or answers to those questions would be greatly appriciated.
Any people who simply say ‘dont feed raw!’ will get a low rating and then be ignored.
Similar Posts:
- Raw Feeding Cats And Effect On Prey Drive?
- Raw Meat/veggie Feeding For Cats And Dogs… Need Recipes And Suggestions?
- Types Of Food For Feeding My Cat?
- Question About Feeding Dogs Raw Meat!!!?
- Raw Feeding Cats?
My blog should answer many of your questions.
1. Answered in my blog.
2. How to serve – raw obviously. In a dish or bowl. Straight from the fridge or you can let it come to room temp, or nuke very very slightly or better yet run it (in container) under warm water to bring it to room temp. The temp is up to your cat. Poppy eats it straight from the fridge. I buy the meat in 1″ containers. After thawing I portion it out into 4 smaller containers, about 5oz each. These go back in the freezer and then I just pull out the small containers to use as needed. I sometimes mix with a little bit of canned food (for flavoring/scent) and/or sprinkle a bribe over the top.
3. I feed approximately 5 oz. per day. There are those who say to feed something like 2% of the cat’s body weight, but someone else I know said that’s incorrect. You need to feed based on calories and your cat’s weight. Well, I never got that figured out either so I’m winging it and settled on approximately 5 oz per day. It also depends on your cat’s appetite.
4. Only if you feed rotten meat.
5. I don’t know since I don’t buy any kibble. I pay approximately $2/pound for the meats I buy. I go through around 8 pounds per month, so that’s $16 for one cat per month. Pretty cheap!
6. Answered in my blog.
HOW TO GET STARTED FEEDING RAW
This blog is not intended to serve as your one-stop-shop for raw feeding. But hopefully it’ll help you focus on what you need to decide and give you ideas of where to look for more info. I personally chose to feed ground whole prey so I do not supplement (except for a bit of extra taurine, fish oil and probiotics). I still serve some canned food for variety and likely will always have some on hand. I am feeding just chicken at the moment, but will be adding turkey and rabbit, and perhaps other meats when they become available.
(This ground meat does nothing for their teeth, so I also give the girls 1″ or so pieces of raw chicken neck to chew on.)
So you’ve decided to feed raw. What’s next?
It’s actually pretty simple. You need to find a supplier. You need to decide on a method (ground, whole, etc.) You need to decide which meats to use. You need to know whether you need to supplement, and if you do, what supplements to use. And most importantly, you need to get your cat to eat it.
1. Finding a supplier.
A. Find a local supplier. If you’re in the midwest, I recommend Taylor Pond Farms. I buy my meat from them and it couldn’t be easier. They deliver every month and you can either pick it up at a dropoff point or have it delivered to your door. http://www.taylorpondfarms.com. They also have Yahoo groups for specific areas (http://groups.yahoo.com/search?query=tay… You can also join http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/rawme… http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/Carni… http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/Whole… and look through their list of links.
B. Buy online. One site used by many is http://www.hare-today.com. There are many other sites; the WholeCatHealth links above will help you find them.
C. Buy meat at the grocery store. Your choices will be limited but if all you’re going to feed is chicken, that’s fine. Just be sure that the meat is hormone and antibiotic free – or organic.
2. Choosing a method.
A. Whole prey. This may be either meat, bones and organs all ground together, or it may be chunks of meat and whole bones and organs. With this method you do not need to supplement. Your cat will be eating a properly balanced meal.
B. Just meat. Again, this can be either chunks of meat or it can be ground. If you do not include bones and organs, you will need to add supplements to ensure that the meals are complete and balanced.
To learn more about these methods, check out these Yahoo groups: (http://groups.yahoo.com/search?query=raw…
3. Supplements. If you’ve chosen to serve meat without organs/bones, you will need to add supplements. There are a few different ways to do this. You can purchase a ready-made supplement such as Instincts TC (http://www.felinefuture.com/) or Wysong’s Call of the Wild (http://www.wysong.net/page/WOTTPWS/PROD/… Or you can put together your own mixture. There are tons of recipes out there. One example is here (http://www.catnutrition.org/foodmaking.p… One of the raw feeding groups is dedicated to one particular supplement: (http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/felin…
4. Meats. Most meats are appropriate but you may want to avoid pork. The most commonly used meat is chicken. My vet suggested feeding a variety, so my choices are chicken, turkey and rabbit. If it becomes available I’ll also try venison. Lamb and duck were rejected. It’ll be up to you and your cat what to feed.
5. Converting your cats. If you’ve got a kibble junky on your hands, it might be easier to first convert him or her to canned food, and then try the raw. This has been a tried and true method for many including myself. Once the cats are happily eating canned food, start slipping a bit of meat into it. Just a speck to start with. Gradually increase that amount. If the cat balks, back down a bit but keep at it.
When you’re ready to try it alone, you may need bribes. Raw meat has little scent so it can be helpful to add something stinky your cat likes. Crush some kibble and sprinkle it over the top. Try fish or liver flakes, parmesan cheese, a drop of soy sauce, meaty baby food (with no added onion or garlic), whatever it takes.
Note that you do not have to start with canned. You may be able to toss down a hunk of chicken and your cat will devour it. You never know until you try.
If you join any or all of the above groups, you’ll find many more tips as well.
Patience and perseverence is the key. I was surprised at how readily Poppy took to the chicken after being on canned food for a year, but Sophie who is not normally picky has been resisting. What she doesn’t know is that she’s getting a bit of chicken along with her Wellness. (NOTE: Mushier canned foods may do better to hide the meat than the denser varieties such as Instincts).
Last but not least – relax! If you’re researching this you may become overwhelmed at the tons of info out there, and all the conflicting opinions about what is best. What you need to do is choose the method that will work for YOU and your cats. And while it is important that your cat eat a balanced diet, it is not the end of the world if you don’t get it exactly right, or if you forget to add a supplement one day. As my vet said, do you eat a balanced diet every day?
You have been given many great links to feeding raw and I won’t reiterate them.
Personally I have fed my cats a raw diet for eight years now. (I also use canned food for them in the AM). There has never been an issue of “contamination” in that time period.
I use organic chicken and organic turkey and the livers and hearts from both species in each mixture. Your meat source should be absolutely free from antibiotics or hormones. Beef definitely did not agree with my cats. I use canned so my cats have some lamb and venison in their diet too.
I never buy any meat that is “packaged”. I get the chicken and turkey from a small market where the meat is ground on an “as needed” basis. And the meat is expensive – $5 and $6 a lb. (so is the canned food). I use the supplement powder from Feline Instincts which includes the salmon oil in their recipe. I think the benefits are worth it.
Many people who feed a great number of cats know how to get their meat at a lower price and prepare their own supplement and still don’t have any problems. Australians use kangaroo meat!
My cats seem to eat a normal amount of food – the equivalent of about 6 oz per day.
Hi KC,
Good for you for considering a raw diet for your cats.
***What types of meat can I feed my cats?
~~~I feed Natural Chicken I buy at my grocery store and Local Farm raised rabbit I buy from My Pet Carnivore. But you can feed any meat your cat will tolerate. I have found the smaller the prey the better, as in… a rabbit is more likely tolerated than beef. But many cats just don’t care and can eat whatever they want. You also need to feed a source of calcium (bones) and organs as well. My husband and I grind whole chickens myself with hearts, livers and supplements. And I buy my rabbit preground.
****Where can I go to get whatever meat I should be feeding?
~~~I buy Natural Gerber Chickens at my local Grocery store. Same thing I buy for myself. I’ve developed the rule that if I won’t eat it… neither will my cats. I buy my rabbit from My Pet Carnivore who Buys from a farm in Michigan called Taylor Pond Farms. Both sources are as natural as I can get. Since I can’t afford to buy organic… this is the next best choice.
***How much do they need to be fed?
~~~You should feed 2 t 3% of the cat’s body weight daily, adjusting accordingly for to fat or to thin. So if you have a 10 pound cat it cat weighs 160 ounces, so you would feed that cat 3.2 to 4.8 ounces of food daily depending on what the cat needs. A more active cat will need more, a lazy cat will need less. You will figure this out once you start feeding.
Here is a picture of my freezer filled with prepared daily meals. http://i17.photobucket.com/albums/b69/Ca…
I feed 5 pounds a day to 14 cats. We spend about 4 hours every six weeks preparing 6 weeks worth of food. For one or two cats it would take you maybe an hour a month if that.
****How do I “serve” it to them?
~~~I feed ground. So I serve it to them on plates. It is not messy and it’s just like I used to feed a canned diet.
Here are some pictures of my cats eating and how I serve it. Take the spaces out and it will take you to a slideshow.
http:// tinyurl.com/2sxo98
***Do I need to worry about internal parasites?
~~~No more than if your cat was an outside cat that caught mice and ate them. My cats have NEVER had a worm.
You of course need to have careful meat handling, but since I’m sure you already know that for yourself you don’t have to be told that meat can spoil if handled incorrectly.
***What is the cost as compared to dry kibble?
~~~Compared to what kind of kibble. Cheap grocery store kibble will always be the cheapest way to go. But it’s also the unhealthiest for your cat. Now… compared to the best dry you can get, high quality Evo or Wellness? It’s just a bit more. Compared to high quality canned… it’s way less.
After all is said and done, I spend about $1.00 to $1.50 per pound on the food I make depending if I get my chicken during a sale or not.
If you are interested in feeding a raw diet some great places to start learning are http:// http://www.catinfo.org/ , http://www .catnutrition.org/ , and http://www. felinefuture.com/nutrition/ . These are the three sites that I I chose to use to make the recipe I use to feed my cats.
If you would like to try raw with your cats and don’t want to get all technical about it but want to try a trusted, time tested and balanced raw diet you can order from http://www .felinespride.com/products/catfood.aspx . I purchased this myself when I first started and my cats loved it!
Here’s a bunch of websites to help you learn what you need to know.
http://www .catinfo.org/
http://www .catnutrition.org/http://www.rawfedcats.org/http://www.felinespride.com/http://www.felinefuture.com/http://www.felineinstincts.com/index.htm…http://www.raisingcatsnaturally.com/http://www.blakkatz.com/index.htmlhttp://www.holisticat.com/http://goldcoastragdolls.com/MyOwnCatFoo…http://www.mypetcarnivore.com/rawfeeding…
Starting Raw is not a walk in the park. It takes time and dedication, especially with cats. Once you get it though… it will be smooth sailing. So if you feel you would like more information. I would be happy to share with you and converse in email if you need more help. I had many coaches when I started and I feel I should pay that forward and help where I can with other new raw feeders.
“Raw” diets are a nutritional fad based on a false idea about how basic digestion works. There is *NO* demonstrated health benefit, certainly none which justifies the increased risk of bacterial infection and parasites. Almost all published recipes for raw diets are inadequate and/or unbalanced.
Your determination to ignore anyone who doesn’t tell you what you want to hear is narrow minded, childish, and petulant. Apparently you’re more interested in feeding your ego than feeding your pets.
I wont say dont feed raw but unless you raise the livestock yourself you will never really know if the meat you feed is safe. Salmonella, giardia, tapeworms, etc all affect cats as well and with all the meat recalls in the past few years I personally wouldnt feel safe feeding my cats raw food.
raw is fine, i raw feed my dogs and they are doing great, any meats are fine, and any raw bone..never give cooked bone, you can buy ready prepared meats from pet shops or just buy the meat yourself if its in big bits you can just chop it a bit smaller or if you arent fussed you can serve it to them in the state you bought it, you dont have to worry bout taking it off the bone, it excersises the jaw and keeps the teeth clean, fish ,chicken(whole/carcass), steak rabbit,etc…. basically anything that you can afford, i get my meat from pets at home and the supermarket and find the cost no different to buying kibble xx
Hi
Pretty much all meats except pork and I would keep red meat to a minimum. You serve it to them at room temperature and they will determine how much they need to eat. Cats have different systems then humans and you do not have to worry any extra because you are feeding raw about parasites but even with commercial foods, adding a probiotic like acidoupholous is always a good thing
Costs are a bit more money but that is excluding vet fees that would come because you were feeding kibble, Dry should be outlawed and canned is much better then dry foods in all aspects for the health of a cat. Here are links showing you how to prepare and for where to buy if you don’t prepare your own and also Check out dr lisa’s whole site pleasehttp://www.mousabilities.com/cats/food/h…http://www.catinfo.org/makingcatfood.htm
I use Natures Variety raw medallions simply because it’s easier to find locally. However, Felinespride raw is made specifically for cats and does not contain the fruits that the NV does.
NV is for dogs and cats.
Cats fed a raw food diet will be healthier in and cheaper to maintain (lower vet bills). Cats are obligate carnivores.
They have smaller digestive tracks than humans or dogs. They can’t process the carbs and fillers that are in the dry food.
If you choose to grind meat for your kitties be sure to add proper supplements and bone meal. Others have already supplied you with great websites that have raw food recipes, so I wont.
Good for you for considering this change.
I do not care what other people say and what the vets say, here is our story of feeding a BARF diet.
I adopted a kitten who had BAD reactions to shots, so once I found that I out I turned to a Holistic approach and my cat is by far one of the healthiest happiest cat’s I’ve ever seen. Since then I have added two more “special needs” cats who were considered “unadoptable” by the local MSPCA and I took them in. I was told that both cats wouldn’t live very long and I am here to say BARF or RAW is the way to go. My cats are now 8, 6, 5 and they are so healthy.
Here is some great info on BARF for cats.http://www.barfworld.com/http://www.njboxers.com/faqs.htmhttp://www.seefido.com/html/cats_and_bar…
I have also learned that these are great alternatives to a BARF diet for cats. One of my cats doesn’t really like the BARF so I’ve switched him to these and he is just as healthy as can be and we save a ton on vaccinations (I Don’t Vaccinate and am against it) and vet bills.
Dry Food alternative:http://www.evopet.com/products/default.a…
Wet Food alternative:http://www.merrickpetcare.com/store/cann…
&http://www.naturesvariety.com/content.la…
Also, raw chicken wings (smashed to bits) is great for the cats, I also incorporate sardines in water which can be bought at any grocery store for like 99 cents a can and will feed 3 cats at one time.
If you need any other advice or links please don’t hesitate to email me at tcapezza@yahoo.com as I am a HUGE fan of RAW diets and education of vaccinations.
Best of luck!