i could never do raw...

cats4sky

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just felt like throwing in my 2 cents....i could never do this with my cats.

I cant even look at raw meat without getting sick or gagging, i wont even touch it! I dont have problems eating meat as long as i dont have to watch it be prepared. At home BF has to cook if we eat that. Its just so digusting and bloody! Everyone says im silly. If i order a steak at a restaraunt i say well done, if theres any pink i send it back, one time at red lobster i ordered a steak well done and it was so disgustingly bloody on the inside i said take it back and forget it and i left. So i dont order red meat alot when i go out to eat.

the only point to this thread is i guess i have a wierd phobia of raw meat so i could never do it for my cats!
 

jack31

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I never loved handling raw meat--but in the last few weeks I've gotten over it pretty quickly. I guess when you look at why you are doing it--the benefit of your pet its easy to see the up side of it. I think I've cut up raw meat everyday for two weeks. The worst thus far has been venison and organ meat.

Leslie
 

missymotus

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I'm a vegetarian and feed mine raw. It did take a little time getting used to handling and cutting up meat, but I feel it's the best diet for them so I just got on with the job.
 

layitdown

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I used to be the same about meat, I hated seeing it raw,smelling it, touching it. However I realized I was just being silly and got over it. I still like my meat cooked really well, whether it's chicken, ground beef, steak, fish, whatever it is pretty much has to be on the verge of being burned.
But it's really not as bad as I thought it would be. Even a month or two go, when I was looking into giving my kitty raw every now and then, I didn't like the idea of going inside the cavity of the chicken and pulling out the neck, liver, and other organs that were there. But I do it because I love him and I know it's good for him. No offense, but it is a silly fear, and I know that because I've been there.
 

anlina

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Before I started feeding raw I never handled raw meat without gloves or tongs - I found the feel of it absolutely vile. But after doing my research and coming to the conclusion that raw was the only appropriate diet for my cats I forced myself to get over it. Knowing you're doing the right thing for your babies is an incredible motivator.

These days I have no problem cutting up an entire pork leg or turkey, handling organs or even field-dressing wild game. It wasn't easy at first but once I got into the right mind set it stopped being so intimidating.
 

korina

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Im with you Cat4Sky.
Im considering raw too, but find the handling of raw meat to be absurd.

To the person who said they gutted a chicken and got used to it, can't one just buy a really nice industrial grinder and jam a whole chicken down it?
 

missymotus

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Originally Posted by Korina

To the person who said they gutted a chicken and got used to it, can't one just buy a really nice industrial grinder and jam a whole chicken down it?
You can, but chunks of meat are far better than ground. Ground meat they have no need to tear and chew, which is what works their jaw muscles and helps clean teeth.
 

korina

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Originally Posted by missymotus

You can, but chunks of meat are far better than ground. Ground meat they have no need to tear and chew, which is what works their jaw muscles and helps clean teeth.
Well problem is Korina, a beautiful mink bengal is afflicted with Gingivitis.
Last year she had to have her right front canine tooth pulled with a cuspid and 2 of the small front ones.
She is only 6, so it's depressing (when she tries to eat the dry of her sister's bowl it falls out of her mouth and on the floor, she might drop like 10 kibbles)

Before her extractions she half a can of good wet and dry each day.

After her surgery I try my hardest to feed her 1 can of wet a day (sometimes she forgets and messes up the free feed dry bowl for the other cat).

Anyways, my main gripe with raw other than handling and work (Im a single 30 yr guy who works in IT, I dont know how to cook a chicken
) is that of food safety.

Look, we live in a world where our food supply now matter how superior to many countries is tainted. If it's not disease it's jerks moving cows around with forklifts.

I have little respect or faith in our "big farm industries" Especially last year when a company wanted to market beef tested for Mad Cow, and the industry lobbyists and local politicians came down like a ton of bricks on that company.

God If I lived in the country next door to a poultry farm ( I know the smell would suck) and some hardworking farmer butchered and diced it up for me, wow that would work.
Or if a reputable butcher shop did the work or made pre-cut raw, fortified to be cookable at home.

So for me, its a decision between feeding Korina the very best quality canned wet foods (Instinct, Merricks, EVO, and ocassionaly Weruva fish, and Wellness pouches as treats) which arguably is the best commercial diet available in America for a cat.
Or switch my cat to raw, which the only pro in it is the health benefit to my cat. I don't care about nor think the benefit of cost savings, really in the end this all about what is healthiest for my cat and what is safest.

Its a shame there is no brand out there with enough guts to make human grade pet food (by human grade I mean the same meats, and testing, and hygiene standards we do) and sell based on the guarantee that it is food safe enough for your pet.

Rachel Ray recently came out with a food, and although her heart seems in the right place, its a shame she put her "dunkin donuts" brand value for it. It seems like a shot in the pants product that is probably re badged food, with rice and wheat gluten (probably equal to nutro).
And they are donating all profits to saving animals. Which is all nice.
But as we know this brand won't last.
Really, someone like Rachel Ray could have taken a company like Nature's Variety or Merricks over the top.
If a Food celebrity like Rachel got on TV and repeated the rants we all know by heart about corn, wheat, rice, byproducts etc it would devastate the grocery store markets brands.
 
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