starting raw diet

[ILoveCats]

ok so I am going to start giving kitty raw meat with better in the raw and I have a few questions. Should I store it in the freezer and how? also I heard cats can get parasites from raw meat will freezing kill them if there are any? Should i get bonless meat or with bones? Dark meat or light meat? and should i start with ground then give her chopped into chunks? if its in chunks how do i put the powder on it? and should i get the meat from whole foods? how much should i give her? sorry about all the questions i just want Kitty to be healthy and happy!

 

[muddpuddles01]

ok so I am going to start giving kitty raw meat with better in the raw and I have a few questions. Should I store it in the freezer and how? also I heard cats can get parasites from raw meat will freezing kill them if there are any? Should i get bonless meat or with bones? Dark meat or light meat? and should i start with ground then give her chopped into chunks? if its in chunks how do i put the powder on it? and should i get the meat from whole foods? how much should i give her? sorry about all the questions i just want Kitty to be healthy and happy!

Questions are always good! Ok let's start from the top:

An ice cube is about 1oz of food, so I always scoop mine into ice trays to freeze and then it's easy to measure portion sizes.

Cats have stronger systems than humans, so I wouldn't really worry about parasites as long as the meat is fresh and you clean up thoroughly after preparing it.

BitR already has bone meal, so go with boneless meat unless its just a better price. If you get meat with bones, just cut the meat off the bones and you can use those UNCOOKED bones as treats occasionally. There's no need to add more bones to the food mix.

Dark meat is best since it has more taurine. Chicken or ground turkey is a good meat to start out with. Wait to add other heavier meats like beef until she's used to the raw diet.

I'd start with ground meat then transition to chunks. When doing chunks, you'll still mix it with powder and water exactly the same, so it will just coat the chunks of meat like gravy.

I just always get human grade meat from any supermarket. Organic is always best, but not necessarily required.

The feeding amount depends on her age and weight. My adult girl weighs 6 pounds, and gets 3-4 oz twice daily. Kittens need more. There's a formula for figuring it up, but I forgot it. Maybe someone else can fill it in?

Hope that helps a little bit! Good luck and don't hesitate to ask if you have questions. We're always here to help!

 

[ILoveCats]

thanks its way more simple than i thought

 

[Alimoore]

I complete agree with muddpuddles01 answers I also do a lot of what she says.

I use ground turkey and chicken when feeding. If you want to feed chunks, I would feed the ground already made stuff for a meal, and then in between meals, cut up so unground chicken, make cubes out of it and give that. That way you wont have to worry about if they are getting enough powder. (This is what I do)

I do not like beef or any of the dark meats. I've read that beef is rough on their tummy's and that turkey and chicken is the best for them (this is also my opinion so its what I will stick with)

 

[Calicocious]

I'm glad you asked that question. I am thinking of trying raw diet too. I have gone back and read a lot of the posts in this section. I always thought raw diet was much more complicated and time consuming! I'm leaning towards BitR too. I've looked into Alnutrin too but seems like you have to be much more precise with mixing it?