Just found out I'm feeding my cat wrong, some insight would be nice. :)

What I do is the grain free kibble diet with high protein and high grade stuff and I mix that with canned chicken with no salt or gravy added for breakfast.  I also have an evening meal of semi cooked chicken or turkey and occasionally salmon that I give mine, no garnishments because a lot of the garnishments people put in their cats food to "flavor" it are actually toxic to cats.  Some do this raw and they have their own receipes which is great but not for everyone. 

 

I hear just wet all the time is not good for them.  Then others say thats not true that it's just kibble alone that is not good for them.  I think it depends more on the grade of food you are giving them than the word of mouth or heresay of others.  That is my opinion.  I use Wellness Core and Taste Of The Wild kibble grain free.  They are supposed to be some of the best rated out there.  I don't know if you have it in Canada but that is what I am using.  I am sure others will come on with all kinds of suggestions.  Best of luck!!

For teeth, I have found that natural prevention works best and is the easiest.

 

A raw chicken wing or turkey or chicken neck at least once a week will keep teeth beautiful.

My 17 year old that recently passed had never had a dental, nor any tartar build up.

Whereabouts in Canada are you? There's a huge variety of excellent pre-made raw products here that are considerably cheaper than Feline's Pride. Or you could do a combo of commercial raw and high quality canned food. I'm a big fan of feeding a large variety of wet food to cats to help avoid addictions, allergies, and nutritional imbalances. There really is no good reason to feed cats kibble (doesn't actually clean teeth any better than you eating pretzels would). 

I crate my cats separately when I feed them bone in meats.

Usually takes them about 20 minutes to finish a chicken wing or turkey neck and about 10 minutes to finish a chicken neck.

Once they understand that the tasty treat will only be given in the crate, they go in willingly and vocally.

 

For the other stuff, I too feed grain free dry food (free fed) and canned (once a day).

 

Canned and raw I can only give at night due to the temperatures here, that and a serious lack of freezer space is all that keeps me from going 100% raw

Welcome to TCS!

If you want to feed raw, this is an excellent resource thread: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/240809/raw-feeding-resource-thread

You've already found some of the resources included in it.

Several of us are transitioning our cats to raw right now. Three of us (Feralvr, Carolina, and me) didn't trust ourselves to provide properly balanced meals either, and we started with commercial raw, most of which is properly balanced from a nutritional perspective, but not from a "frankenprey" perspective. Those that feed home-made raw to their cats tend to simply "mimic" the balance of meat, bones, and organs that would be in a cat's natural prey: 80% meat (which includes muscle organs: gizzard and heart); 8% - 10% bone, 3-5% liver, and 3-5% "other" secreting organs (kidney, spleen or pancreas, though kidney is usually easiest to source). Then you simply rotate proteins (once introduced to your cat). Cats are designed to get all the nutrition they need from meat - they are true carnivores, and have no dietary requirement for carbs, and lack the digestive enzymes necessary to convert many vegetable sources into the vitamins they need. When fed chunks of meat, there is little oxidation of the required amino acids, taurine and arginine, which cats cannot synthesize from other amino acids, so must have. If meat is ground, the taurine and arginine oxidize, so at least taurine is typically added as a supplement.

When starting on a raw transition, it is really helpful to get your cat on probiotics right away. Many of us plan to use probiotics for life (I use them myself daily). The probiotics help maintain a healthy gut flora, which the cats really need when eating raw food. It is also recommended when you begin to transition to raw that you use digestive enzymes. Many cats can't handle bones at first; also, the raw food requires more acid than they've been producing to digest the food.

But there are a lot of commercial raw foods available in Canada! There is a GREAT whole prey provider that is ONLY available in Canada. You might want to check out this thread: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/239950/questions-about-commercial-raw

You may also want to contact the owner of this site: http://www.catcentric.org. She is always happy to help with questions and transitioning!

Yes, we discuss costs in a couple of places.

Here's one: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/241317/what-60-lbs-of-homemade-ground-looks-like

And if you buy canned cat food that is nutritionally balanced & complete, they'll get everything they need from the canned! Just in a healthier format than the kibble. Of course... still best to look for grain free, and you want to find foods that have the first 3-5 ingredients listed being meats or broth. I used Instinct and Before Grain (and Wellness grain free foods, though I tried to keep those to a minimum). Just look for foods with the least amount of vegetables, peas, potatoes, etc. I also bought Weruva, and picked out the vegetables.

But to compare costs, basically all you need to do is figure out how much you'll spend on the food per pound fed to the cats. I have 8 cats, and fed about 6 cans of food a day. That's 33 ounces (they didn't eat all of it, but they do need 32 ounces - 2 pounds - of food a day). I bought high-end foods. They cost me on average $12 per day for about 2 pounds of food. So if I can keep my cost per pound feeding raw to under $6.00 per pound (though I gave myself a budget of $7), I'm saving money feeding raw.

All of that said... if you start with commercial raw, many of them are supplemented, so they're already nutritionally complete, just like canned cat food.

Have you gone to the NV website (http://www.naturesvariety.com/)? What exactly are you looking for when you say what kind of protein is in it? Sorry, I'm just a little confused. One of the nice things about NV is that it's antibiotic, hormone and genetically modified free. You can also buy the bigger cans of NV Instinct that have the picture of the dog on them, they'll be with the dog food, but they're the exact same thing. Sign up for the email list too, they send out coupons every 3 weeks or so. You can print out as many as you want when you get them and use them, it's not limited to one coupon per person. When you sign up, you'll also get a $3 off coupon in your email from the Instinct Raw, you can use this to purchase a trial sized bag (with the coupon it should be about $2.99) to try your cats on raw. They also offer a money back guarantee, so just keep your receipts and if your cats don't like something you can return it to the store you go it from. 

 

Here are the ingredients for the Instinct Chicken cans:

 

Chicken, Turkey, Chicken Broth, Chicken Liver, Ground Flaxseeds, Montmorillonite Clay, Eggs, Peas, Carrots, Lecithin, Vitamins (Choline Chloride, L-Ascorbyl-2-Polyphosphate, Vitamin E Supplement, Niacin Supplement, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Vitamin A Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate, Biotin, Riboflavin Supplement, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Vitamin D3 Supplement, Folic Acid), Dried Kelp, Potassium Chloride, Tricalcium Phosphate, Salt, Taurine, Minerals (Zinc Proteinate, Iron Proteinate, Manganese Proteinate, Copper Proteinate, Sodium Selenite, Ethylenediamine Dihydriodide), Artichokes, Cranberries, Pumpkin, Tomato, Blueberries, Broccoli, Cabbage, Kale, Parsley

 

If you have a Global Pet Foods near you, they tend to have better prices than Pet Valu and they have a larger selection of grain free foods.

That's the guaranteed analysis. Somewhere on the can - yes, usually very small LOL - will be the list of ingredients. But most cat foods have websites, and the products and their ingredients are listed there! Nerdrock already posted a link, so you can look it up.

But there are very few canned foods with out any veggies. EVO has some, as does Before Grain.

Kind of off topic, but I picked up some BG that they had discounted at Pet Valu a few weeks ago (coming up to expire) and noticed that it said something along the lines of "for supplemental feeding only" on it. Why is that? 

Can't imagine. Pet foods have to list that if they don't meet AAFCO requirements for balanced and complete. But the Before Grain canned foods are balanced and complete: http://www.beforegrain.com/pdfs/BG-Cat-Can.pdf

The older versions of canned BG were not supplemented with vitamins/minerals, they were just plain meat. They've since revised the formulas to be balanced (and now say something like "96% Turkey" instead of the original "100% Turkey", for example). Would still be fine for a treat or the occasional meal.

Ahh, that's probably what I got then... maybe that's why they were actually clearing them out. Thanks!  

 

 

Just curious how it's going.  I'm in the process of converting my four from dry (free fed) to scheduled feeding wet, then to raw also.  They are not cooperating!

 

The National Research Council says the average healthy 10lb cat should get around 280 cal/day: http://dels-old.nas.edu/banr/briefs/cat_nutrition_final.pdf 

Or, somewhere between 20-30 calories per lb per day, depending on age and activity levels and stuff: http://www.maxshouse.com/feline_nutrition.htm

 

It is definitely very individual. My cats are older, but seem to need somewhere between 15 and 20 calories per pound. If I fed anything even close to the recommended amounts on the cans, they'd be bowling balls.

Well, it does depend on the food. Canned foods vary in how many calories they provide. They tend to be anywhere from 180 - 220, though I have seen them lower (rabbit) and higher. But yes, figure out how much per whatever can you're feeding, and divide it into the three meals!

I guess it depends on if they are still growing or not on how much to feed. I have an 8 month old and he is a voracious eater. He gets 5.5 oz of wet per day plus some raw food (I'm not sure how many ounces of raw though). Usually three (maybe four) piece of chicken (small strips). Also a small spoonful of sardines (in spring water) for his coat. He's still begging for more food though. He's still at that long and lean "teenager" looking phase though. Are your cats still pretty active? They don't need to eat as much when they stop growing, but if they are still growing it's OK to feed them a little more. 

I'd go with one 5.5 oz can each and then cut back or give a little bit more based on how their body weight is doing...... and yes, three meals is better than two if you can do it.

Deciding how much to feed can be really hard... what I do is take the average of the feeding recommendation (example: if the bag says 5-10 lb should get 1/4-3/4 c, I'd start with 1/2 c) and then adjust from there based on my pet's body condition and weight. 

 

I'll use my two dogs as an example because they're about as far apart in metabolism as you can get. Fynn holds a steady weight at 17lbs and is extremely lean, I would like to see him gain 3 lbs but he just won't unless I feed him upwards of 1.5lbs of raw a day (that's the recommended amount for a 90lb dog btw), as I feed him now he maintains his weight and doesn't loose so that's what we stick with. Sadie on the other hand is 9lbs and gains weight very easily. When she was on kibble I had to literally count how many kibbles she was getting because if she got even 5 pieces more than she needed, she'd gain fast. On raw, she gets the recommended amount for a 5lb dog. 

 

My cat, Leiki, holds her weight with one raw medallion and a little bit of kibble a day (sorry, I go by looks for hers, I don't have measurements), or half a can and the same amount of kibble.