What additional supplements (besides pre-mix) do you use?

Hi all, pinkman here.

After starting my thread on probiotics, I thought it would be interesting AND beneficial for me  to know what others use for supplements and discuss their usages.

Here is a list of healthy treats or supplements that I have been giving my cat now:

• Raw egg yolk - Since it's moulting season, I have decided to incorporate egg yolk as a once or twice a week treat for my cat. Supposely helps with the shedding. You can also use egg lecithin too.
• Krill oil 500mg - Basically for Omega-3s. Helps with inflammation, too.
• Probiotics - For intestinal flora support.
• Pieces of raw chicken neck, gizzards, hearts - Dental and to strengthen the jaw.

Other "supplements" or treats I've been looking at but haven't tried:

• Green tripe
• Green lipped mussel powder
• L-Lysine - I understand L-Lysine is good for feline herpes outbreaks and URI's. Just out of curiosity, would non-herpes felines benefit from this if taken on an everyday basis?

What do you use and what are your reasons?Additionally, if you have to choose one supplement besides a premix what would you choose?

Can someone also fill me on green tripe and green lipped mussel powder? 

Thanks everyone! 

Good thread!

I use www.catinfo.org recipe: Morton's Lite salt, taurine, dry vitamin E, B complex, and fish oil. I like fish oil from smaller fishes over Salmon oil. I add a lot of egg yolks since hairballs are heinous here. I add a lot of water to thin out the calories and they stay hydrated.

I like to give canned sardines occasionally as a snack for omegas, sometimes gizzards for dental health.

I tend to keep things pretty simple.

Hi pinkman! I can comment on a few of the things on that list that I've tried.

I do use chunks of heart/gizzard for it's dental benefit. Have not tried necks - those who do use them are they much tougher to chew than gizzards?

I do a ground raw recipe for my kitties (Dr.Pierson's - but with different proteins each time). I put 5000mg of fish oil (Carlson gel caps unflavored) in it as the recipe calls for. I have not tried Krill oil. Those who do use it - does it have additional benefits over regular fish oil?

As for probiotics I do not use them regularly. My kitties seem to have enough good flora in their system but on the rare occasion they do need help in that department I like to keep Fortiflora on hand. Actually, I end up using the Fortiflora more often for its flavor enhancing ability. It will easily get my kitties to eat something they're being picky about.

Egg yolk... for about a month I was putting 2 egg yolks in my kitties food (as per the recipe) but it turns out that one of my kitties, Penny, is allergic to egg! The other two kitties seemed to like it and I would love to put it in their food for the extra nutrition, but I don't want to chance it. Penny developed Feline eosinophilic granuloma complex...eosinophilic plaques to be exact. The eggs were the only change in her diet and environment at the time, so the vet and I are pretty sure it was an egg allergy that caused the plaques. Plus with no eggs in her diet now she is just fine.

So, when Penny had her plaques, I tried an l-lysine supplement for her. I had read on one or two articles online that l-lysine had shown to be beneficial to cats with EGC. Her plaques were really bad and were taking a very long time to heal. (Poor thing had to wear the cone of shame for two months). But, after giving her 500mg of l-lysine daily the plaques started improving dramatically. Each day you could see the improvement and they healed up completely in about 2 weeks. I have not used l-lysine supplement at any other time than this, but if feline herpes or EGC showed up I would use it again! Does any one else here use l-lysine for other reasons?

peaches08 said:

Good thread!

I use www.catinfo.org recipe: Morton's Lite salt, taurine, dry vitamin E, B complex, and fish oil. I like fish oil from smaller fishes over Salmon oil. I add a lot of egg yolks since hairballs are heinous here. I add a lot of water to thin out the calories and they stay hydrated.

I like to give canned sardines occasionally as a snack for omegas, sometimes gizzards for dental health.

I tend to keep things pretty simple.

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l do the same as peaches, but l also add the glandular support from the catnutrition.org recipe: http://www.iherb.com/Nutricology-ImmoPlex-Glandular-60-Veggie-Caps/12703

l alternate between salmon oil and krill oil, the boys love both.

l bought them green tripe and they hate it (even the dog won't touch it, and he eats from the garbage can).

Also tried them with l-lysine, but it makes one of them sick so l took it away from all of them.

The green lipped mussel powder is just a different source of omega 3s. What you could do is rotate between the krill oil and the green lipped mussel powder just for the variety, as I'm sure each has a different overall profile. I know that when I switched from the 500mg of salmon oil to the 500mg of krill oil for Flowerbelle, the difference in her arthritis was apparent very quickly (the krill oil really helping her mobility; the salmon oil not making a difference). I've not tried green lipped mussel oil or powder. Here is some basic info: http://www.med.nyu.edu/content?ChunkIID=108308

Green tripe is the stomach lining of a cow. It is a VERY healthy source of probiotics - and many other nutrients. It's just a great meal replacement, or something to be fed as a portion of a meal. It is already balanced as re: Calciumhosphorus at a 1:1 ratio. Here is some information on green tripe: http://www.truecarnivores.com/nutrition/green-tripe/ Be warned: it smells like manure, but many cats LOVE it. You might want to try freeze-dried first. :lol3:

L-lysine is something I give to several of our kitties with herpes, but I don't give it daily all the time. I "pulse" it - two weeks on, two weeks off. It's VERY salty tasting stuff, and once on raw they wouldn't eat it just sprinkled on the food. I have to give it treat form, and I don't like all the other junk in the treats. I give them Vetri-Lysine plus.

I don't know if you're giving your cats hearts as a treat - that's something to consider. They're full of taurine, and most cats love them. I feed (mostly) prey model raw, so hearts (duck, chicken, and turkey) are meals at least three times a week.

I use other supplements, but only for specific medical issues.

I personally don't consider egg yolks a "supplement" when feeding raw. I see them as an essential part of the diet, for the choline and vitamin D. There are some vets that feel choline is important for any cat over the age of 7, for helping prevent dementia. If you're using krill oil, it has no vitamin D; salmon oil does (as do sardines). I don't know about green lipped mussel oil.

Many who feed prey model raw don't use a pre-mix, but some supplement with taurine.

I don't use a pre-mix. I make my own supplement, tailored to the diet I feed. It includes taurine, D, E, iron, manganese, and a B-complex.

So with that in mind, if I could only choose one supplement, it would be probiotics. If I didn't feed hearts, I'd probably choose taurine as the more important supplement.

I provide my cats with ubiquinol (the bioavailable form of CoQ10). I was using it for my FIV+ kitty, my cancer survivor, and my cat with high blood pressure; but after learning more about it, I decided to give it to most of them. But for the other kitties without those issues, I give it to them every odd-numbered month, rather than all the time. http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/ubiquinol-coq10.aspx

I use other supplements, but those are for specific medical reasons.

Hey all! All awesome info.

Chandra, I only give pieces of chicken necks once or twice a week. They are definitely tougher, and higher in calcium because of the bone content. My cat goes crazy for them sometimes, other times not so much. I never have had a problem giving chicken gizzards, she has never refused them. I use krill oil instead of salmon because I like the idea of giving my cat fish oil coming from smaller fish on the food chain. Also, I have read that krill oil gets absorbed a lot easier than salmon oil. 

Thanks everyone for all the good info. It's nice to know what other people are feeding, 

I may start incorporating green lipped muscle oil for a variety. Most if not all the supplements my cat takes, I take too. It's a win-win situation for the both of us.

Regarding green tripe, I just found out that K-9 Naturals has a green tripe freeze-dried dog food that only lists lamb green tripe as the ingredient. What do ya'll think? I think I will start with a smaller portion of freeze-dried green tripe though. I'm not gonna want a whole bag manure-smelling if the cat don't like it, ya?

It's also good to know that the L-Lysine is salty. I was thinking about buying the NOW foods Lysine powder, as it's pretty cheap but maybe now I'll consider Lysine treats instead.

Personally, I think I'm gonna stick to omega 3's, taurine-based foods, probiotics, dental-purposed foods, and egg yolks for now because the raw I feed right now is Hare-Today's ground mixes with Alnutrin. I know the Alnutrin has some Vitamin D and some B-vitamins. I wouldn't wanna overdose on those by accident.

By the way, I recently got my shipment of freeze-dried raw duck hearts. Can't wait to try them.

Chandra, I only give pieces of chicken necks once or twice a week. They are definitely tougher, and higher in calcium because of the bone content.

It's also good to know that the L-Lysine is salty. I was thinking about buying the NOW foods Lysine powder, as it's pretty cheap but maybe now I'll consider Lysine treats instead.

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Ah! Thanks. I thought they were probably a bit tougher. My cats sometimes think gizzards are too tough, especially when I haven't cut them down to their preferred size, so maybe in the future when their jaws have strengthened they can work up to the necks.

The lysine treats I used were Pet Naturals of Vermont l-lysine chews. Penny loved them and the other two approved of them in a taste test as well. Maybe those would work for you. One thing though is the size and shape of them were a bit awkward for my senior kitty to chew, so I had to break hers in half.

I have not tried any powders or oils before but I might give it a go, I tend yo go by eye (like how many shades of red/pink there is). My cat eats lots of heart for taurine and he has some liver and bones. I also give him whole rats/mice every week or so as a treat and to make sure he gets everything in one go. But I can never be sure he's getting everything, so investing in a bit of fish oil or some cat grass will probably be worth it? I often get scared that I've done it wrong the whole time and my kitty will grow up a weedy sickly thing!

I don't know that there's any benefit to cat grass. I care for a colony of ferals, and the only time I see them eating grass is when they want to make themselves vomit.

Well, if the only organ you're feeding is liver, you might want to consider adding a 2nd secreting organ. Many raw foods provide only one organ and little in the way of supplements - yet are marked as complete and balanced - but they typically contain 10% liver.

So if you're not adhering to the 80%/10%/5%/5% guideline without a second organ, you might want to at least make sure that you're giving close to 10% liver (over whatever period of time you're balancing the diet). One meal or "treat" of rat or mice a week probably isn't going to make up for what might be missing. If you're feeding 3 meals a day, that's 21 meals a week. One meal a week is not quite 5% of their total - and if it's fed as a treat, not a meal, then it's even less. And if you're not feeding sardines and eggs (or egg yolks), you might want to consider that. The diet, if not all whole prey, is a little light in choline (egg yolks) and vitamin D (sardines, most oily fish) otherwise.

LDG said:

I don't use a pre-mix. I make my own supplement, tailored to the diet I feed. It includes taurine, D, E, iron, manganese, and a B-complex.

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I can no longer go back and edit my post. This should read taurine, D, E, iodine (NOT iron), manganese, and a B-complex.

LDG said:

I don't know that there's any benefit to cat grass. I care for a colony of ferals, and the only time I see them eating grass is when they want to make themselves vomit.

Well, if the only organ you're feeding is liver, you might want to consider adding a 2nd secreting organ. Many raw foods provide only one organ and little in the way of supplements - yet are marked as complete and balanced - but they typically contain 10% liver.

So if you're not adhering to the 80%/10%/5%/5% guideline without a second organ, you might want to at least make sure that you're giving close to 10% liver (over whatever period of time you're balancing the diet). One meal or "treat" of rat or mice a week probably isn't going to make up for what might be missing. If you're feeding 3 meals a day, that's 21 meals a week. One meal a week is not quite 5% of their total - and if it's fed as a treat, not a meal, then it's even less. And if you're not feeding sardines and eggs (or egg yolks), you might want to consider that. The diet, if not all whole prey, is a little light in choline (egg yolks) and vitamin D (sardines, most oily fish) otherwise.

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Thanks for the advice. I was away for two weeks recently and had no control over feeding, otherwise I would have bought more organs or used egg yolks. I try my best to keep it balanced and make up little bags of different kinds of animal protein, I do want to feed him nothing but whole animals everyday but I don't know if I can afford it, so atm it's only once every few days or so. 

I gave Sanj an egg yolk before bed last night, he seemed to enjoy it. I might try giving him whole prey for most of his daily meals and some meat pieces (plus organs, egg, bone etc) as well, I have a freezer full of the larger stuff and that could be my emergency supply when I run out of whole prey. The whole prey feeding seems much easier to handle. I shall have to look around for cheaper online shops rather than in the highstreet pet shops.

My cat is a healthy, slender, bouncy bundle of fun so far but you can never be too careful. 

I hope you're able to find a cheaper source - that's really awesome he likes it! I can't afford to feed my cats mice. They do get whole quail - but larger ones, and I have to quarter them. The whole rabbits I get are even larger, and basically it's like feeding them some cornish hen - they get meat and bones from the rabbit, and some of the organs. But there's so much meat and bones, there isn't enough organ to balance the meals for the whole rabbit - let alone between 8 cats.