Please correct me if this is wrong ,, thank you.

Our little Ragdoll is thriving, a happy healthy wee soul that loves to cuddle. Until I'm told different I will keep her on the diet at hand which is as follows ( fed four times a day ) two tablespoons of high quality canned ( containing no meat by-products ), one tablespoon of Blue Wilderness " Natural Evolution Diet " which is a grain free dry food that contains nutrients and antioxidants for kittens, we mix this in with the wet.

Fresh bottled water at every feeding, I also defrost and shell a raw prawn and chop that up for her each day, she loves that.

Although I have done a great deal of reading with regards to raw feeding my wife and I are not completely comfortable with the raw diet at this time , but that certainly could change.

Her stools are consistent, I don't see any issues at all with her well being, please advise if you feel there may be issues with the diet we have Henrietta on at this time ,,, thank you.

Well, there is no "right" and "wrong" in feline feeding philosophies.

Did you intentionally post the thread in the raw feeding forum? Or would you like it moved to the nutrition forum?

Because as someone who's been feeding raw for about 1.5 years, and who was skeptical enough about feeding raw to basically argue against it with research for a year after our holistic vet recommended it, I understand the "not comfortable" part well. :nod:

If it was your intention to chat about raw, might I ask from what perspective are you and your wife uncomfortable? If it wasn't your intent to chat about raw vs commercial processed options, never mind the questions. But is it fear of parasites? The ability to make homemade food properly? Something else? Because we can help address those issues, if you would like us to. :rub:

I mentioned in your other thread the dramatic changes I've seen in my 8 cats: but mine were free fed kibble for 8 years, with one meal of wet food a day for the first few years, then two meals of wet food a day, and not high quality food. I thought it was high quality, because it was Hill's Pet, recommended by the vet. I hadn't done any research on feline nutrition, as you seem to have done, and the ingredient list meant nothing to me. The concept of "species appropriate" never occurred to me.

So whether or not it was your intent to post in the raw forum, in answer to your question about whether or not the diet you're feeding her is good for her, I suggest forgetting everything you've read about feline nutrition. Just think about the original Hen, and what she ate. Did she raid the vegetable garden? Did she raid the corn field? Most likely not: she probably hunted small rodents, maybe some birds. She probably chased and ate some bugs. She ate them in their entirety - "by products" and all. And she was healthy and soft and beautiful. :heart2: Compare her diet to the ingredient list on the food you've chosen to feed this Hen. Is there peas? Potatoes? Spinach? Carrots? Flax seed?

Cats are obligate carnivores. Their bodies are actually very finely tuned to getting all the nutrition they need from an animal-only diet. They're not little dogs, and their digestion doesn't work the same way. Dogs may be carnivores, but they have systems for digesting carbohydrates and vegetables that cats do not. Humans get the bulk of the omega 3 fatty acids we need from oily fish and plants: flax seed has become a very popular source. But plant-based sources provide the fatty acid called alpha-linoleic acid (ALA). To "use" it, our bodies convert ALA into eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). Dogs can convert ALA into EPA and DHA (though not very efficiently); cats cannot. To benefit from omega 3 fatty acids, they need the pre-formed AS EPA and DHA. This can only be achieved with animal-based sources. So why the flax seed in cat food? It markets well to humans.

Do your high quality cat foods contain carrots? While cats do benefit some from the beta carotene (as an antioxidant) in carrots, for the most part carrots are just a "filler" in cat food, adding a bit of unnecessary fiber. Cats lack the digestive enzyme necessary to convert that beta carotene into vitamin A.

A group of researchers undertook the task of analyzing feral cat diets. This is the study: http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=8404219 The full text is available for free, you just have to click on the tab. The main point, though, is that cats naturally thrive on a diet that is, on a dry matter basis, 62.7% protein, 22.8% fat, 11.8% minerals (ash), and 2.8% carbohydrates - none of which is fiber. They also found that cats eat a little grass, but it is mostly "incidental" to bug hunting. So if you want to compare the foods you've chosen with this profile, take the guaranteed analysis on the cans and the package of dry food, and input them into a dry-matter basis calculator. Here is one, if you have excel to use it: http://catcentric.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/DMB-Calculator.xlsx (Dry matter basis is a way to compare the macronutrients in different food types on an apples-to-apples basis: it "removes" the moisture so that just the nutrients can be compared).

You mentioned the foods you've chosen contain no by-products. But do they contain xantham gum? Carrageenan? Are they in BPA-free cans? The bottom line is that no matter what food you choose, it is very highly processed, heat treated, and made from the garbage of the garbage of human food production. This isn't meant to be derogatory: it's just what it is. Our technology has improved so vastly over the years that human food now uses what was garbage in the 1970s, so what's left for pet food production is of even less quality now vs 20, 30, 40 years ago, etc.

So my recommendation for your question about the diet you've chosen for your cat is just to dump all your thoughts about nutrition, and compare what's in her food to what she'd be eating naturally. Cats don't eat carrots, peas, potatoes, rice or corn for a reason. Their bodies are not designed to derive nutrition from them,and these ingredients likely stress their kidneys over time. It is possible to build a species-appropriate diet from commercially available canned foods. But just remember: feeding your cat canned foods with a little dry food would be no different than you and your wife choosing to eat only canned stews and some box cereal and taking vitamin supplements to replace everything else you're not eating. You feel better when you eat fresh foods. Cats are no different. It's just that for cats, "fresh food" is not apples, tomatoes, carrots and lettuce, etc.

Hope this helped. And let us know if you meant for the thread to be in the nutrition section, not the raw feeding section of the forums.

Interesting and important post, LDG.

Nay, Peas and Carrots arent necessarily what nutriment the cat needs most of all.   But why it IS useful, is if you by any reason must use dry food.  For example, your cats refuse to eat wet. 

Better Peas and Carrots, berries and even flax oil, which may be somewhat useful for a cat, and is harmless, then cereals like wheat and wheat gluten, who are not only practically useless, but also harmful... AND typically being the first ingredient in the brands who do use cereals.

These fillers are necessary, as they must use something to keep the dry kibble pieces together.

So better if these fillers are something which may be partly useful, than something which as best is a pure bowels filler.

Interesting is you remark LDG; much of it, is what sounds good for the buyer, ie their human.

In recent threads we had a couple of stricking examples for this:

A dry food, which by itself isnt bad as long as a dry food goes, with peas, carrots etc etc. "holistic / holistic inspired".  Nice, no?

They do also produce canned wet food in the same brand name.  Containing??   Exactly the same ingredients, including peas, carrot, not even forgetting the potatos...

Which is nonsense and a totally ridicolous product.

They apparently believe, or want buyers to believe, it is these peas and carrots who are a necessary and nourishing part of cat food....  And adding some meat of course.  

TS, said all this, to your question.   The food as you skissed, is surely good as far as it goes, compared with most of what cat owners gives their cats, and definitely so compared with what you find at the Pet shelves in your Supermarket..

But it can certainly be improved, as LDG did skissed out.   

Good luck!