What does your menu look like?

Hi, all!

I've been doing a lot of browsing today and I got to thinking (dangerous territory, I know!) - why not pull together a thread of menus?!

Can everyone who feeds a solely raw food diet post what you feed, how much, and when? Be specific, so new readers can readily see what you're doing. Maybe you could include how much your kitty weighs and/or why you made the specific choices you did? Mimosa, FurryFriends, Koobe, Missymotus, BrookeSphinx, are you out there?

Wouldn't that be a great resource for folks who are new to raw?

Below is my weekly menu (if you've seen mine before - this is the new and improved version!). I have six cats on raw, ranging from Heather, a demure 9 pounds even, to Meghan, my always-on-the-verge-of-being chunky girl, who weighs just under 12 pounds; their combined total weight is right around 63 pounds.

In all cases where a set amount is divided between all six cats, thinner cats will get slightly more than fatter cats.

Breakfast
Twelve ounces of each of the following is divided between all six.

Monday: Whole chicken hearts

Tuesday & Saturday: Beef Round or Stew Meat chunks.

Wednesday & Friday: Whole Duck Hearts.

Thursday & Sunday: Pork Loin Chunks.

Wednesday & Friday: Whole Turkey Hearts.

Lunch
Monday & Saturday: Three pieces of Chicken Wing each, except Heather, who gets two. I use only the wing tips and the middle pieces and I cut the middle pieces in half between the two bones (not across them).

Tuesday & Friday: 1oz of Chicken or Beef Liver and 1oz of Chicken Gizzards for every cat except Heather, who gets only 3/4s of an ounce of the liver. I feed the liver first and when it's gone, feed the gizzards.

Wednesday: Four Chicken Breasts-with-Rib Halves divided between them (I remove about 3/4s of the meat first).

Sunday & Thursday: 1oz of Beef Kidney and 1oz of Chicken Breast for every cat except Heather, who gets only 3/4s of an ounce of the kidney. I feed the kidney first and when it's gone, feed the gizzards.

One cat, Ralph, throws up organ meats when they are fed alone. For him only, I chop the organs and the accompanying meat and mix them thoroughly before I give it to him.

Dinner
Monday: 12oz of Chicken Breast chunks is divided between them.

Thursday & Saturday: All the meat from a skinned Chicken Quarter is divided between them.

Tuesday and Friday: 12oz of Rabbit chunks is divided between them.

Wednesday & Sunday: All the meat from a Turkey Drumstick is divided between them.

Once a week, I dump two or three dozen crickets in the tub and let the cats pick them off as they wish and every weekend, they each get about 3/4 of a wild-caught, packed-in-water sardine. Every now and again I'll drizzle eggs over their food and once in a blue moon I'll bring home something unusual - bison meat or quail, for instance - to just surprise them.

In this menu, no single item is fed more than twice a week.

The best resource for someone new to raw is a Very knowledgeable Vet( preferablely one who feeds their own raw...

That being said ... Stella and Chewy s beef is on the menu here ... Zoey and Sylvie are very happy with it re-hydrated... Chicken will be on the menu in the coming weeks as I found a way to get some up to my standards but within my budget ...

First off, I am feeding "frankenprey" raw.

I am feeding 18 cats a raw diet - soon to be 22 cats. One of them has a seperate menu from everyone else because he has specific likes/dislikes and eats twice as much! The rest split 3 lbs of raw between them a day. I don't measure the amounts of organs anymore and instead just eyeball the amounts. It works for us!

So then I have 17 cats who are splitting the 3 lbs of raw a day. Their combined wieght would probably be 180 lbs.

I'll get whatever meat is on sale for $2 or less. So the cuts of beef and pork vary a lot. Beef can be anything from something like 7-Bone Steak's (which is one of the cheapest cuts available here) to New York Steak. The cuts of pork will vary that much as well.

I feed 2 lbs of plain unflavored yogurt every other week. That is just a personal choice and works best for my cats. A lot of mine have a problem with feline herpes and getting the yogurt will help get rid of their symptoms.

The meals of egg + ground beef or yogurt + ground beef: The entire meal in those cases is about 4 lbs, half of which would be the yogurt or egg and half of which is the ground beef. For the egg meals I will cook the white and leave the yolk raw.

Also, I feed once a day, which is not ideal. However the farm cats who are getting the raw have eaten once a day for nearly their entire lives. They are just used to eating that often - if I try feed an hour early they aren't hungry.

So, here is the rest of my menu for the month:


August 15:
Chicken breast/ribs, beef liver
Rajah: Beef, beef liver\t

August 16:
Turkey Drumstick Meat, Beef Kidney
Rajah: Lamb Heart, Beef Kidney\t

August 17:
Pork
Rajah: Cornish Game Hen\t

August 18:
Chicken Necks, Beef Liver
Rajah: Pork, Chicken Giblets\t

August 19:
Beef, Beef Kidney
Rajah: Beef, Beef Kidney\t

August 20:
Chicken Giblets/Hearts
Rajah: Turkey Drumstick Meat

August 21:
Chicken Necks, Beef Liver
Rajah: Chicken Neck, Beef Liver

August 22:
Beef Heart, Beef Kidney
Rajah: Lamb Heart, Beef Kidney\t

August 23:
Egg + Ground Beef
Rajah: Beef\t

August 24:
Chicken Necks, Beef Liver
Rajah: Cornish Game Hen, Beef Liver\t

August 25:
Turkey Drumstick Meat, Beef Kidney
Rajah: Chicken Giblets, Pork, Beef Kidney\t

August 26:
Pork
Rajah: Turkey

August 27:
Chicken Necks, Chicken Liver
Rajah: Chicken Necks, Chicken Liver\t

August 28:
Beef, Beef Kidney
Rajah: Beef, Beef Kidney

August 29:
Chicken Giblets/Heart
Rajah: Lamb Heart\t

August 30:
Chicken Drumsticks, Beef Liver
Rajah: Cornish Game Hen, Beef Liver\t

August 31:
Yogurt + Ground Pork, Sweetbreads
Rajah: Turkey, Sweetbreads

I feed each cat a sardine (packed in water w/ no salt added) a week. However I am considering using raw smelt instead. At least I think it is called smelt...

Mine have some wierd tastes as well and enjoy eating fish oil capsules which I will give as a treat once or twice a week.

I have been informed that it is time to go back to beef mix from the butcher with some chunks... amazingly it was little Zoey who went um this is good but not quite up to snuff...

I know this is an older thread, but just started feeding raw recently and this is the recipe I go with: From Dr. Pierson's site I believe.

I'm not quite ready to go with whole prey feeding since my cats won't eat liver by itself, I'm worried it would be unbalanced....this recipe works great to start out with and I've almost got my obese kibble junkie ( who hates canned) nibbling the meat!!

I will be adding Nu-cat supplement to their diets when it arrives too.


I use the following ingredients - in amounts listed - per 3 pounds of raw meat/bones/skin.

1 cup water (or, preferably, more if your cat will eat it with more water)

2 eggs - use the yolk raw but lightly cook the white.

2000 mg (minimum) wild salmon or fish oil (a good source of essential fatty acids - I often use 4,000 - 6,000 mg)

400 IU (268 mg) Vitamin E (powdered E in capsules is the easiest to use

50 mg Vitamin B-complex (capsules or tablets)

2,000 mg taurine (use powdered - either in capsules or loose)

3/4 tsp Morton Lite salt with iodine when using chicken parts -
(Contains potassium and sodium. Make sure that it contains iodine.

Liver - If using ground rabbit (which includes liver) from wholefoods4pets.com, do not add additional liver.
If using chicken legs, thighs or a whole chicken carcass minus the organs, add 4 ounces of chicken livers per 3 lb of meat/bones/skin.

Most cats eat 4-6 ounces/day. Therefore, this recipe yields enough food for one cat for approximately 10-14 days.
If using capsules, open them and add the powder to the water. If using tablets, dissolve the tablets in the water.

I'd like to bump this up to see more menu's, please

I feed boneless frankenprey ("whole prey model). I supplement calcium with eggshell and NOW calcium hydroxyapatite (MCHA) at each meal, targeting a Ca ratio of 1.3:1.

I also supplement with

500mg of taurine, sprinkled on the food at one meal a day every-other-day;
Probiotic (acidophilus+bifidus) once a day (10 billion active cultures);
Omega 3 (1,000mg salmon oil: one capsule split between 8 cats at every meal. This is 3-4 drops per cat per meal).
Vitamin E 20iu (one drop) per cat per meal every-other-day.

I don't have a set menu but an average week would be like

Monday-chicken wing and a mouse or two

Tuesday-rabbit bone in

Wednesday-turkey gizzards, with hearts and liver (from turkey, chicken or duck)

Thursday-chicken leg and a mouse

Friday-rabbit bone in

Sat-cornish game hen, some liver

Sunday-duck chunk
 

Forgive me if I look stupid, but is it really necessary to have a weekly schedule for the different protein sources?

No, not necessary.

Just easier for me. I'm not sure I'd get the 5% liver and 5% other secreting organ amounts right if I didn't keep track. Having the schedule, I don't have to think about it.

No.... I don't keep a schedule anymore, since all my meals are balanced.... The supplements that are not fed in all meals, are only fed once a day, in the morning anyways (aside from Calcium, Taurine, and Hope's Call of the Wild - those are fed in every meal).... And the FD Liver I feed on the last meal, so it's easy....
But I think if you balance your meals overtime, like the majority of frankerprey feeders do, then probably yes, because you want to make sure you keep tack of your Calcium intake....
Also, is something goes wrong, it is nice to be able to go back to track what meat might have caused the problem - if you feed on a schedule, or at least write down what you fed, it is easier to do so.....

I certainly wil never do it the frankenprey way because that would be too much work. My feeling is if it is available in a can, I have no reason to buy a whole chicken and cut it up.

:scratch: Canned foods are cooked.

I understand most people don't want to put in the work. :nod: Personally, I love preparing my cat's meals. :heart2:

I'd probably be making them ground food, if they liked it. Much easier to make like a month or two of meals in advance. But I don't mind the little bit of extra work that goes into preparing their meals at meal time. With 8 cats, it takes about 10 minutes. With one cat, it would take like 30 seconds. :lol3: OK - MAYBE a minute (however long it takes to cut up an ounce or so of raw meat, and sprinkle on calcium). Add another 30 seconds to clean up the counter.

And the whole minute you hear that cat meowing at the top of his lungs near your feet, right?

Actually, by "in a can" I meant commercial raw. - if I ever make the switch.

Actually, in my experience, raw is more satisfying for them. They don't bother me for food between meals. That was one of the first things I noticed (and appreciated about the diet!). And while Billy and Lazlo meow a bit at meal times, it's more just because they're excited, not so much that they're hungry, I think. ? Not sure. It's cute. Mine all sit in their spots, waiting. :lol3: Also very cute!

I don't use a schedule or menu anymore. I just look in my freezer after breakfast is done and pick the next days meals that way. I already have everything prepackaged, weighed and marked. Commercial raw does not come in a can either. Anything in a can is cooked.

LDG said:

I understand most people don't want to put in the work. :nod: Personally, I love preparing my cat's meals. :heart2:
)

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I absolutely LOVE preparing meals for my cats. It is amazing to me how much I have learned about each of my six since switching to raw. My gosh - they all have such different personalities. Our bond is SO much stronger now just because of the raw transition. Go figure :lol3:. Every meal is prepared with love (and in the beginning of the raw process - a bit of stress ) and served with love (and in the beginning, again, of the raw transition, a bit of anxiety ara2: )

OH I have to go and find this video I saw the other night on line of this guy who has 13 cats. I was in SHOCK :shocker: over how he prepares meals. You won't believe it.

Well - I can't find it, of course. :nothappy: BUT will keep trying to locate it. I am racking my brain as to how I stumbled onto it on the internet. :doh3: It will drive me nuts if I don't find it.

Feralvr said:

I don't use a schedule or menu anymore. I just look in my freezer after breakfast is done and pick the next days meals that way. I already have everything prepackaged, weighed and marked. Commercial raw does not come in a can either. Anything in a can is cooked.

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I think part of having a menu for me is our freezer situation. When it's 80, 90+ degrees outside, I need to open the outdoor freezer and get it closed as quickly as possible. :nod: AND it's not easy to see at a glance what's available in a chest freezer. :lol3: I have VERY limited indoor freezer space, so only keep really a day or two inside. So for me, part of it is just "freezer logistics." :lol3:

Omg, about the preparing the food? Sure, I can't say I love cutting meat days.... Nope, don't love it.... But love, love love preparing their meals..... They do NOT beg, don't scream.... But they are SO cute standing in there in line on the kitchen like the best thing in their lives is about to happen! Then when I am done preparing it, they RUN to their feeding spots and then, only then they will scream, not begging, but in excitement! I love it! It means they LOVE their food, and that warms my heart! :heart3: