!st Raw food today and some?'s

[andreanar]

Gave Jinx and Archie their first raw meat today! I gave them each a chicken wing and some chicken liver. At first they werent sure and then just kept licking it so I broke it open. They really seemed to like it! I let them eat it for 25 minutes then took it up, but it doesnt really seem like they ate alot of it. Chewed the skin, but they werent ripping pieces off or crunching the bones. They are 5 mths old now. Is this typical and will they start ripping at it eventually? Also Jinx was throwing it around with her paws and then chewing it, then throwing it and chewing on it. What about bacteria on their feet and faces? Do you wash them up after? I fed them in the bathtub, figured it would be easier to clean, but they wouldnt stay and eat unless I stayed with them!! And should I give them the meat with no bone and only bone a few times a week? What if they dont eat the bones? I dont want to use any supplements, I want them to get what they need from the meat. I plan to use a place called Haretoday to order from, once I know what they like and what their habits are. Otherwise I dont know what to order. Can anyone tell me what the definate DO's and DONTS are with raw? Thanx- Im a nervous kitty mom!

 

[werecatrising]

Cats (at least mine) don't really rip pieces off. They sort of gnaw on it. I should make a video sometime. Mine seem to have a tough time getting started on wings. I think there is just too much skin.

I don't rally worry about bacteria other than practicing basic hygiene. If you are concerned about them dragging it around you could ty feeding them in a crate.

Cats need about 85% muscle meat, 5% bone and 10% organ. That is a guideline. Some need more bone, some less. You'll have to monitor stools and see how it goes.

Do's: variety. Feed as much variety as you are able.
Learn your market and monitor sales. I check sales ads weekly. I checked out all of the local stores and found out who carries what, who marks stuff down etc. Ask around about wholesalers too. I get boneless turkey thigh meat and beef heart in bulk from a wholesaler. I get chicken and pork when it is on sale locally. I average about 90 cents a pound for the staple proteins. That allows me to spend a little more on the more exotic stuff.

Dont's: Don't get you cats hooked on one protein. I try to feed a variety in every meal. If I give them too much of their favorites they start to shun everything else.

Try not to buy enhanced meats. Some meats, especially chicken and turkey are loaded with salt.

Feel free to ask about any specifics or pm me!

 

[SealySphynx]

Definitely no enhanced meats, if you check the sodium levels on the nutrition facts there should be less than 100mg of sodium per 4 ounces of meat. If there's more than that, don't feed it!

I order from Hare Today, they have a great selection. You can still feed meat on the bone, even for a boneless meat meal so they can eat the meat off of the bone. I would avoid wings other than just the wing tips as a bone source, there's just too much bone and not enough meat. Go for the dark meat in poultry (legs and thighs) and lots and lots of red meats. Oh and the 10% organs - 5% needs to be liver and 5% needs to be other squishy organs. A good starting place for bone is chicken ribs and/or breast bone with the meat still attached. Just don't overload on the breast meat because its low in taurine and your cat needs taurine.

You can definitely feed your cat naturally without supplements. Feed lots of dark and red meats (they're high in taurine), especially hearts of any variety. Unless you can feed all or almost all free range grass fed meats, you will probably need to give an omega 3 supplement in the form of soy free fish oil.

Oh, when you order from Hare Today, let your kitty try the whole prey quail. My babies love it! The smallest size are really tiny, but I think the next size up is pretty good. They also love pork hearts and goat meat.

 

[andreanar]

Thanx. So every day the diet should consist of 85% meat, 10% organ and 5% bone? Can you give me a sample of what 1 days worth of meals consist of? And can they get Omega 3 by eating a sardine per week?

 

[Gensen]

I feed my kitten raw but I got an excellent receipe from my breeder and I purchased a Tasin meat grinder and it grinds up the chicken bones like a dream... I perfer this method as I know they are getting all the benefits of a raw diet however no worry on choking or bacteria or them dragging food around especially since I have a 1 year old daughter. If you would like the receipe PM me.

 

[magber]

You can definitely feed your cat naturally without supplements. Feed lots of dark and red meats (they're high in taurine), especially hearts of any variety. Unless you can feed all or almost all free range grass fed meats, you will probably need to give an omega 3 supplement in the form of soy free fish oil.

Do I need to give Link the fish oil? can you explain a bit more on this?

 

[SealySphynx]

Thanx. So every day the diet should consist of 85% meat, 10% organ and 5% bone? Can you give me a sample of what 1 days worth of meals consist of? And can they get Omega 3 by eating a sardine per week?

You *could* give your cat this ratio everyday, but it really is supposed to be the ratio over time so I prefer to give that ratio over a week's time. My cats (and dogs) get two bone-in meals per week and with their bone in meals they get beef kidney on one day and whatever kind of liver I pull out of the freezer first with the other bone in meal. The cats usually get a chicken wing tip, small chicken neck, bone in rabbit chunks, or bone in duck chunks for their bone in meat meal by the way. If they're getting the chicken neck or chicken wing tip they also get some boneless meat to go with because there is virtually meat on either of those. The rest of the week they just get a variety of boneless meals with as many different proteins as I can give them. So for example I just bagged and froze meat yesterday and over the next couple of weeks my kitties will be having goat, turkey thigh chunks, bison heart, pork heart, pork meat, beef, venison, and chicken thighs for boneless meals (there may be something else, but that's all I can think of atm). Then they also have some whole mice in there, which are perfectly balanced as far as the ratio of meat/bones/organs by themselves.

Giving a sardine per week isn't going to balance out the ratio enough and cats really can't have a lot of raw fish. If you don't have access to grass fed/free range meats or can't afford it (unless you hunt or know someone who does they pretty much are very expensive) then it's best just to give a little fish oil to balance those ratios back out. See the answer to Magber's question on why you need to balance the ratios for more info.

 

[SealySphynx]

Do I need to give Link the fish oil? can you explain a bit more on this?

I can't remember if you found free range meat for Link, so I'm not sure if he will need it.

The reason for giving a fish oil supp is to balance out the ratio of omega 3 to omega 6 in the meat. In the wild, the ratios are naturally balanced because the animals are eating the correct natural diet by grazing and such. So, if you can get your hands on game meats like bison, moose, elk, deer, etc that were wild caught/killed or grass fed/free range meats for the majority of your cat's diet then you don't have to worry about supplementing the omega 3s. But, if you are getting a lot of grocery store meat and meats that aren't specifically grass fed/free range then you will need the omega 3 supps. The reason is because the majority of grocery store meats and the like are fed grains for majority (if not all) of their diet. What this does is raise the level of omega 6 in the meat. To balance it back out, you would feed an omega 3 supplement, the preferred method being a human supplement containing no soy. To know how much to give, you look on the nutrition faces panel if the bottle and add together the EPA and DHA (they're under omega 3 fatty acids, but don't include the omega 3 fatty acids number into this total, just the EPA and DHA). Now your cat (or dog) need 100mg per day of that total. I am currently giving my guys the gel caps that have a total of 540mg total. Instead of breaking one open and trying to figure out how much would be 1/5 of the gel capsule, I give one gel cap about every 5 days for Sealy and every week or so for Hadyn. Oh and FYI, the only ingredients in my supps are gelatin, glycerine, and water other than the various fish oils, that is what you should aim for as well - no vitamin e, soy, or tocopherols.

 

[andreanar]

Thanks for all the info. I do have access to free range meats so thats a good thing. I think Im really starting to understand finally. I have already started buying meats, and meaty bones. I guess Im going to need a seperate freezer. Thanks for clarifying the ratio as a weekly ratio instead of a daily one. I will def try the quail for my kittens! Ive thought about mice too. Im going out today to get what I need for the next week and tomorrow I plan to just go for it! Its kind of fun looking for different kind of meats for them. I will be switching my dogs tomorrow too.

 

[SealySphynx]

Thanks for all the info. I do have access to free range meats so thats a good thing. I think Im really starting to understand finally. I have already started buying meats, and meaty bones. I guess Im going to need a seperate freezer. Thanks for clarifying the ratio as a weekly ratio instead of a daily one. I will def try the quail for my kittens! Ive thought about mice too. Im going out today to get what I need for the next week and tomorrow I plan to just go for it! Its kind of fun looking for different kind of meats for them. I will be switching my dogs tomorrow too.

I'm so envious of you since you have access to free range/grass fed meats! When you start your dogs, you want to give them just chicken (get whole chickens and hack them up in appropriate portions (start at 2% of dog's body weight). You want to feed only chicken for at least the first 2 weeks, then slowly start giving them a little bit of the new meat while giving less of the chicken until they're eating a whole meal of the new meat. Then just alternate the first 2 meats for a week and repeat as long as everyone's poos are good - not sandy or white looking (too much bone) or runny (not enough bone or feeding too much). Go really really slow with the dogs when adding new meats. Don't worry about organs until after they're eating 3 proteins and start really slow with them as well (think a bite at first).

It is a lot of fun feeding and looking for new stuff for your pets. I just found a co-op that had whole beef hearts for $1.25 per lb so I got a case. I was expecting big, but those things fill a gallon ziplock bag pretty much all the way. I didn't even cut them up to make it more fun for the dogs, these things are like the size of my larger dogs and twice the size of the littlest one! Anyway, I'm feeding 4 little dogs and the 2 Sphynx cats (well one's a kitten), so if you ever have any questions, I'm here

 

[andreanar]

I thought about grinding when I started researching raw but the surface area bacteria, need for taurine supplements and decreased dental benefits bothered me. I do worry about them getting enough bone tho. Plus its so fun to watch them eat whole raw foods! Like little nekkid lions! LOL

 

[susi794]

I have just now removed several posts on this thread. Please remember that this forum is a place where people are allowed to have differences of opinion and are free to express themselves without being attacked or made to feel stupid. People get passionate about the things in which they believe, but we can't forget that everyone needs to feel they have the right to share their opinions and experiences. There are any number of ways to feed a raw diet and most raw feeders are positive they are doing it right--but let's remember there is more than one way to accomplish what we all are setting out to achieve, but we need to be kind to each other too.
Susi and the gang