Raw diet?

marleyandme

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Anyone feed their cats a raw diet? I am considering it for Marley but have no clue where to start. He is 10 months and 10lbs.

How much do you feed and what do you feed?
 

mschauer

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Originally Posted by MarleyAndMe

Anyone feed their cats a raw diet? I am considering it for Marley but have no clue where to start. He is 10 months and 10lbs.

How much do you feed and what do you feed?
There are a number of threads on raw feeding that can be found by doing a search on "raw". There are 2 current threads that you will see if you look down the Health and Nutrition index page just a bit.

There are lots of ways to do raw. You can start by reading through these sites:

www.catnutrition.org
www.catinfo.org

I feed a combination of premade and home prepared ground with some chunks of meat added.

Mine each get ~4 oz of raw per day.

Feel free to ask all the questions you like!
 

sharky

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Originally Posted by MarleyAndMe

Anyone feed their cats a raw diet? I am considering it for Marley but have no clue where to start. He is 10 months and 10lbs.

How much do you feed and what do you feed?
Start with research( I prefer online for quick stuff and then hit the books ) and then discuss with either an open minded or a holistic vet ...
 
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marleyandme

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I know my vet won't like it. He gave me fits when I gave my dog a raw femer bone, said it caused build up of bacteria in his intestines......sigh...
 

mschauer

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Originally Posted by MarleyAndMe

I know my vet won't like it. He gave me fits when I gave my dog a raw femer bone, said it caused build up of bacteria in his intestines......sigh...
Unfortunately that is the response you'll get from most vets. It would be nice if we could get support from vets when it comes to cat nutrition but as has been discussed many times in these forums, vets have shockingly little education in feline nutrition. Much of what they do get is from the processed food industry and so has to be considered biased.

Fotunately feeding raw isn't complicated and you can easily find the information you need.
 

kody's mom

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Kody eats Rad Cat raw. I am too lazy to fiz it myself for just 1 cat. He's about 12.5 lbs. and he should get 4 ozs. a day of just raw, but I give him 2 ozs. of raw and 1/3 cup TOTW. If you do decide to use commercially prepared raw you need to try out several. I also tried Nature's Variety (very convenient as it is frozen in 1 ounce nuggets) and Primal, but Kody preferred the Rad Cat.
 

mschauer

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Originally Posted by Kody's Mom

Kody eats Rad Cat raw. I am too lazy to fiz it myself for just 1 cat. He's about 12.5 lbs. and he should get 4 ozs. a day of just raw, but I give him 2 ozs. of raw and 1/3 cup TOTW. If you do decide to use commercially prepared raw you need to try out several. I also tried Nature's Variety (very convenient as it is frozen in 1 ounce nuggets) and Primal, but Kody preferred the Rad Cat.
Hey! I work in Sugar Land!


What the heck is Rad Cat and where do you get it???

Edit - I looked up their web site and see Rad Cat is sold at Natural Pawz. Is that the pet store next to Whole Foods?
 

kody's mom

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That's it!! The owner is absolutely wonderful. Where do you work in Sugar Land (if you don't want to tell me, you don't have to
). I live in Sugar Lakes. I see you have a rescue Bengal, too(am I remembering correctly?).
 

kody's mom

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Forgot to mention--I was just in there yesterday and they do have little individual 1 ounce samples of the 3 flavors of Rad Cat --chicken, turkey, and lamb--at the bottom of the freezer. If you do want to try it, you may have to ask. They have quite a few employees that work in there and some that haven't worked in a couple of days don't even know when they have something new in. Kody loves the chicken, he will eat the turkey, but he turns his nose up at the lamb. When I first got him i used to buy the Nature's Variety, but he got to where he just didn't like it anymore.
 

mschauer

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Originally Posted by Kody's Mom

That's it!! The owner is absolutely wonderful. Where do you work in Sugar Land (if you don't want to tell me, you don't have to
). I live in Sugar Lakes. I see you have a rescue Bengal, too(am I remembering correctly?).
I work in Sugar Land Industrial Park (I think that's what its called). North of 90 and west of Dairy Ashford, a couple of blocks behind Schlumberger.

I'll check out the Rad Cat. I like the sound of it from the web site.

And, yup, Coco is a rescue Bengal. Welcome to the forums!

MarlyAndMe - Sorry for the thread hijack.
 

mschauer

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Originally Posted by Kody's Mom

Forgot to mention--I was just in there yesterday and they do have little individual 1 ounce samples of the 3 flavors of Rad Cat --chicken, turkey, and lamb--at the bottom of the freezer. If you do want to try it, you may have to ask. They have quite a few employees that work in there and some that haven't worked in a couple of days don't even know when they have something new in. Kody loves the chicken, he will eat the turkey, but he turns his nose up at the lamb. When I first got him i used to buy the Nature's Variety, but he got to where he just didn't like it anymore.
I started mine on NV also but once they gat a taste of Felines Pride they wouldn't eat the NV chicken and turkey anymore but they still eat the beef.


Why did you start Kody on raw? You didn't get him from CAP did you?
 

kody's mom

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My husband works at Schlumberger. Yes, I did get Kody at CAPS last May. He came with his registration certificate and I googled his name. Imagine my shock when it pulled up a website with his pictures on it! Anyway, I talked to the breeder and he had grown up eating raw.
 

missymotus

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Originally Posted by MarleyAndMe

How much do you feed and what do you feed?
Mine eat all kinds of meat - beef, chicken, pork, kangaroo, lamb, fish etc. cut into chunks with organs and bones. The only supplement I use is fish oil.

I like this site http://www.rawfedcats.org/ it also contains links to the yahoo raw groups.

They get approx. 90-100g each meal, per cat. I feed twice a day, with a 'snack' of chicken neck/wings/drumstick, lamb chops etc.
 

auntie crazy

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I just spent the last three weeks transitioning my five cats to raw (it actually only took two). As someone else mentioned, you determine how many ounces to feed each day by multiplying your cat's weight by 2%, 3% or 4%. (I added the weight of all my cats together to get a daily allowance, multiplied that by 3%, then divided the daily total by 3 to determine how many ounces to prepare for each meal.)

That tells you how much. Now take that daily total and multiply it by 7 to get a weekly total (you can do this by the day if you want, but it's easier using weekly numbers). Take the weekly total and multiply it by:
80% = ounces of meat to feed each week
10% = ounces of bone to feed each week
5% = ounces of liver to feed each week
5% = ounces of non-liver organ (spleen, kidneys, etc.) to feed each week

Now, that sounds like a lot of calculations. In fact, just writing all that out makes me want to go find a drink. *grin* But, TRUST ME, after feeding raw for just a very short time, you'll find it really isn't so difficult at all. The numbers absolutely don't have to be exact, they're just guidelines. You don't want to go over too much on the bone (you're cat might become constipated) or on the liver (I forget what happens, but it's not good), but other than that, it's really, really easy.

I know what I wanted most when I first started was examples, so here's what my cats are going to eat for the next week or so (keep in mind that I have five cats and you're going to feed a lot less):

Breakfast: 9ozs to 10ozs of beef round (comes in precut stew pieces) or pork loin chunks I cut and packaged myself.

Lunch: Usually a chicken quarter with the bones removed. The weight on the chicken quarters varies from 8oz to 14oz. If it's closer to 8oz, I'll feed more for dinner, if it's closer to 11oz, I'll feed less.

Every other day, they will get something with bone in it for lunch - chicken wings, half a quail, a quarter of a Cornish Hen, or half a chicken breast with ribs.

Twice a week, lunch will be 6 ozs of liver and 5oz of chicken heart. Also twice a week, lunch will be 6ozs of kidneys and 5oz of chicken heart.

Dinner: For this week, most likely a turkey drumstick with the bone removed. These drumsticks range in weight from 11ozs up to 18ozs each.

Hope that helps!
 

farleyv

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I found excellent information on the site yourdiabeticcat.com. The vet who runs the site feeds only raw. Try the site, you will love it.
 
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