Raw cat food question?

Question

I am adopting a 10 week old kitten this weekend and it will be my first time to own a cat (as an adult). I've been reading up on the best diet to feed your cat and came across the website: mypetcarnivore.com which supplies raw food for pets.

I think this is the best option but I'm at a loss as to what to purchase and how long it will last/how much of it to feed per day?

Anyone have any tips for a newbie?

Thanks!

Answer 1

When you get the new kitten I suggest you chop up a raw chicken wing into about four pieces, serve a raw chicken liver and heart with it. You can also try a chicken neck (not the most nutrition and great for the teeth!). Your little newbie should take to that food pretty readily and will get him accustomed to the raw while you do your investigation about doing a more nutritionally complete menu for it. There is a crucial period of about a month at his age to get a cat to accept the raw, especially chewing on the bones. The chicken parts I suggest are readily available when you buy a whole chicken for your own use.



I have used the Feline Instincts supplement powder with my cats for 11 years now. I mix that up with ground organic chicken and ground turkey. My cats were older and would not do the chewing on the bones or large pieces of meat. They have all been healthy and done well on it (except for needing teeth cleaning). The ground meat is sticky and it takes the bones to really keep the teeth in good shape.



I mix up a 2 lb batch of ground meat with the powder (contains calcium and put it wild salmon oil) much as you would make a meatloaf. Then I put the mixture in muffin tins and freeze it. Then I put the "muffins" in a gallon plastic bag and return them to the freezer. I usually take one out at lunchtime to thaw for the cats' dinner.

I use canned food in the mornings.

Answer 2

My cats are partially raw fed and two have eaten some raw since they were tiny kittens. Their mother was a stray so I presume she was eating raw too!



I have never ordered anything from the company you mention but as I recall there was another regular contributor who did use and recommend them.



The raw that I feed is grocery store and meat market meat/bones/organs and some wild meats. My cats eat chicken, turkey, rabbit, goat, venison, beef. They have had a few other meats but won't eat lamb at all except kidney.

Feeding homemade raw and not grinding it presents the challenge of feeding enough bone that the cats can actually eat. They will eat chicken bones, some turkey bones, and rabbit bones (rabbit is very bony compared with other meats) but can't eat any others from those I listed.



When you order prepared raw meals or whole (small) prey there is no longer that issue. The issue instead is the expense! Those foods are usually many times more expensive than just going to the meat market and buying some chicken leg quarters on sale for 69c/lb or the occasional dressed rabbit for 3.99/lb.



But if you really want to order the kitten's food I would suggest first that you order a variety. The kitten should eat a variety of foods both for nutritional reasons and to prevent it developing specific food habits.

And even if you feel raw is by far the best I think you should definitely feed a few brands/varieties of premium canned foods too at least 2 or 3 meals per week. You would really be in a fix if some emergency happened where you had to board your cat or who knows what else and the kitty insists on fresh baby chicks, quail, or whatever.



A 10 week old kitten is going to be eating a humongous amount of food relative to its size. Even though a raw-fed adult might eat only 3 - 5 ounces of raw food a day (they require less canned than raw) I would suggest planning for 6 ounces a day. Then see how it goes.



Another suggestion is to NOT change the kitten's diet for the first week or so it is in its new home. Re-homing is tremendously stressful to a cat so I'd try to keep some things the same until it feels at home. Get a short-term supply of whatever the kitten has already been eating even if you disapprove of whatever it is.

Answer 3

Disgusting things in the wild are usually all they can get--don't make solid comparisons about that and processed cat food. A raw diet for a cat is processed the same way human foods are--it's inspected by the FDA and WON'T have worms in it unless you're talking about food left out long enough a fly laid eggs in it. But it sure won't be sold that way. Giving raw to your cat has to be a balanced diet with all nutrients and taurine, or they get deficiencies. There are several good raw diets you can buy. Giving 'raw' doesn't mean just ploping something down in front of the cat that you got from the butcher store--that's only muscle meat and doesn't have 100% nutrition for the cat. A lot of people feed a mixture of raw, canned and dry foods. You can easily do that with your cat. Ours are on 1/3 cup of raw ground turkey (frozen, I thaw in the microwave till it's room temp or just slightly warmer but not cooked), a 3 ounce can of canned and a half a cup of dry. This feeds three cats for half a day. In the evening I give them some of the raw meat I'm cooking up for supper, share part of a baked chicken or baked fish (no bones) that we have in the fridge all the time (we eat a lot of chicken) and a 6 ounce can of good quality canned food, and check the level of the dry. If it's gone, they get more dry put down. None of them have worms. None of them have dry coats, and two of them require a special dry food --one has to avoid food allergies and the other is diabetic. We worked out what worked best around these two problems.

Answer 4

I raw feed my dog but getting my cat to eat raw is pretty impossible. He's old and addicted to the cheap stuff. I cant even get him to eat better quality canned foods. I'm still trying though. I think its a great idea to start young before they get addicted to the cheap foods with sprayed on fats and flavorings. Feeding a homemade raw takes a lot of research to make it balanced. Just feeding a piece of chicken is very unhealthy and can cause a lot of deficiencies. I would recommend feeding a commercial brand of raw food to start with and then you can start making it yourself if you want to after you learn how to do it. Some great brands are Bravo Balance, Primal Formulas, and Nature's Variety.

Answer 5

I haven't tried the pre made packages - we just cut up raw chicken or beef and give it to our cats. But they also get quality canned and dry food too so we are sure they are getting the right amounts.



I would guess you could feed them about 2 or maybe 3 spoonfuls of the pre-packaged kind. There may be a weight chart for guidance on the package.

Answer 6

Delicious Raw Food Recipes : http://RawFoodHappy.com/Suggest

Answer 7

This website explains in detail how to do a raw food diet and lists the pros and cons. http://www.holisticat.com/rawrecipe.html



It's not as easy as you might think. You can't just feed your cat some raw chicken from the grocery store, you have to grind the whole animal (bones, organs, muscle, etc)

Answer 8

Have you ever tested Eating for Energy (120 raw food diet recipes) method? Try this site : http://www.StayEatingRaw.com/Free . Possibly this could certainly assist everyone!

Answer 9

trust me on this, no one is a newbie when it comes to cats, the only difficulty you will have is the tendancy to loose your temper on it's droppings and irregular behavior. for food you can use any particular brand of catfood, and stick to it , but only if dont see your cat hating it.



I use a combination of minced meat(any animal) and bread / or cooked rice

bread can also be helpful for their consumption and stomach generation



Im new to giving advices but i tried my best. Cheers !