Beef, Duck, Rabbit, Venison?

I'm going to try to get some different food for Dandy to try.  We've avoided most fish, had quite a few chicken-based kinds, and some turkey FF, plus the Lamb H&G mix.

I never got any beef because it doesn't seem to be very popular but I'm not sure why.  I'm equally unsure as to why people pay such a premium for duck and rabbit and venison.  I know rabbit gives the cats the runs (yes, probably because they weren't used to it) and there's venison tromping around in the yard.  Not quite the same as cat food but its hard to pay those high prices anyway.  Someone claimed the Nature's Variety Instinct rabbit was from China and I can't fathom that.  We used to get rabbits that were locally raised and ate them.  They really did taste a lot like chicken.

Can someone enlighten me as to the merits of these proteins?  We used to raise lamb too so it's no big deal.  Now I never ate a duck...

Beef flavors tend to give all of my cats the runs. My IBD cat can't handle anything with hooves, but the other two handle venison and lamb OK. But the beef, unless it's mixed with chicken, has them all in and out of the litterbox, and even just a tiny bit blended with chicken means the IBD cat ends up with poop butt for days. I don't know if that's true for anyone else, but that's why I don't feed mine beef.

Duck, rabbit and venison are all common foods for cats with food allergies, especially chicken allergies, so that's probably why they're priced higher. But I say they're all worth a try (and the beef too) unless your cats turn up their noses or can't tolerate them.

They cost more because chicken, turkey, lamb, pork, and beef are all mass-produced commercially in the US. Venison, duck, and rabbit aren't (this is why NV sources their rabbit from China---no US producers can supply them with the amount they need on a consistent basis). Other than providing variety, the main reason for novel proteins is for allergic cats, who probably haven't been exposed to those proteins enough to become allergic to them.

My cats like fresh beef but don't really care for any beef-flavored cat foods. I don't know why. There are a few "chicken and beef" formulas they like OK. They like ground rabbit and venison from Hare Today but I haven't tried commercial rabbit- or venison-flavored foods.

Thanks.  Lamb is not much cheaper than the venison.  I don't know where they get it but a lot is imported from Australia for people.  I see that Nature's Variety makes a turkey too, which doesn't seem to be as common as I'd think.  I wasn't really asking about the cost, although I realize I was kvetching about the price of the venison and rabbit.  I know they can't use the ones in the yard.  We don't have as many rabbits as we used to have.

Maybe most cats don't like the beef?  Everyone seems to make one though.

As Willowy said, the main reason for novel proteins is allergies. Mogli has IBD and is allergic to chicken. His prescription food is rabbit, kangaroo, venison or horse, and we're trying some duck right now. He gets a little commercial grain-free, and that's beef or veal. There aren't many commercial foods without chicken or some grain. I've read that beef is hyperallergenic, but Mogli is fine with it, so I also cook it for him.

My thing with beef is that if your cat doesn't get a reaction from it, it's totally okay. That said, it is known to be hyperallergenic  - so I'd ease your cat into it. Actually, I'd ease any food if it's something new and if your cat has a history of digestive upset. 

Have you tried pork? I know pork has a bad rep overall but I give some raw pork cutlet here and there and I've had no problem with it. Of course I freeze it for a couple days or a week before feeding it, supposely freezing kills the parasites. Some raw (dog) feeding groups will say the longer you freeze, the better, also.

Thanks again.  I suppose once you've identified an issue, you try most anything else. We'll take it easy if we try beef.  She's only thrown up once and I think she just drank too much water too fast after eating.  That was months ago.  I'm concerned about this odd behavior and intermittent lethargy. I'd never really considered pork but I guess it's no worse than anything else.  I wasn't sure why one would spring for one of the price meats.

 I don't mean to be preachy, but sometimes I look things up for myself just because I have a question and I was wondering about trichinella infected pork.  Our commercial supply is much safer now but this is from CDC on trichinellosis:

• Freeze pork less than 6 inches thick for 20 days at 5°F (-15°C) to kill any worms.
• Freezing wild game meats, unlike freezing pork products, may not effectively kill all worms because some worm species that infect wild game animals are freeze-resistant.

It's much more prevalent in wild game but there's more on CDC's site if anyone really needs that info.

I believe the US commercial pork supply has been declared free of Trichinella. Or at least it's so uncommon that they're allowing restaurants to serve medium-rare pork now.

I've actually noticed pork being added now to a few commercial cat foods. I think Nutro is one...I might be remembering that wrong though.

Willowy said:

I believe the US commercial pork supply has been declared free of Trichinella. Or at least it's so uncommon that they're allowing restaurants to serve medium-rare pork now.

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I was thinking I might have seen something that said it had been declared free of it and that's why I went looking.  The best I could find for the U.S. is that it's now "rare" in commercial pork and they lowered the recomended internal cooking temp. to 145 F.  Maybe that is medium-rare?  Wild pigs/boars are becoming more prevalent and they are a risk if you know someone who hunts them.  So are bears, although that's not everything. My dog chases bears but hasn't caught one yet, thank goodness.

DianaMc said:

 
I'm going to try to get some different food for Dandy to try.  We've avoided most fish, had quite a few chicken-based kinds, and some turkey FF, plus the Lamb H&G mix.

I never got any beef because it doesn't seem to be very popular but I'm not sure why.  I'm equally unsure as to why people pay such a premium for duck and rabbit and venison.  I know rabbit gives the cats the runs (yes, probably because they weren't used to it) and there's venison tromping around in the yard.  Not quite the same as cat food but its hard to pay those high prices anyway.  Someone claimed the Nature's Variety Instinct rabbit was from China and I can't fathom that.  We used to get rabbits that were locally raised and ate them.  They really did taste a lot like chicken.

Can someone enlighten me as to the merits of these proteins?  We used to raise lamb too so it's no big deal.  Now I never ate a duck...

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Variety is the spice of life! It also helps keep cats from developing food sensitivities.

The majority of what I feel Pia is poultry and rabbit. Stuff she could catch herself. Pia has never had the runs on rabbit, and I keep it in the rotation always. I use Primal's rabbit. The reason being, it is much lower fat and higher protein than all the other commercial raw foods. So I keep it in there for balance.

I also occasionally get venison. Not all the time -- I try to stick to stuff she might actually eat in nature. But she really likes it, so I throw it in there sometimes.

She isn't an enormous fan of beef, but if she were, I'd adhere to similar guidelines that I do with venison, with an extra addendum: some cats are sensitive to beef right out the gate, so if you want to try it, just get a little sample size and make sure your cat's bowel movements seem normal.

I normally don't feed fish, but she gets a sardine on special occasions.

I should clarify that I didn't actually feed the cats rabbit.  They've caught them on their own and we could always tell when my old kitty had gotten into one.  The same thing happens when the dog find himself some venison (we live in a very rural area and he's come in with some of the strangest things, including a very nice deer rack once and a pheasant). I think it's hard to tell what they would really catch and eat on their own, don't you?  I suppose a cat near the sea would get fish scraps. We know they aren't catching pigs   Chipmunks are popular here but I don't know how much gets eaten.  Xena used to turn them loose in the house and let me do the mousing.

DianaMc said:

 
I should clarify that I didn't actually feed the cats rabbit.  They've caught them on their own and we could always tell when my old kitty had gotten into one.  The same thing happens when the dog find himself some venison (we live in a very rural area and he's come in with some of the strangest things, including a very nice deer rack once and a pheasant). I think it's hard to tell what they would really catch and eat on their own, don't you?  I suppose a cat near the sea would get fish scraps. We know they aren't catching pigs

  Chipmunks are popular here but I don't know how much gets eaten.  Xena used to turn them loose in the house and let me do the mousing.

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Well, I think we can assume cats will catch things that are smaller than them. In talking about, say, commercial raw, that means rabbit and poultry for the most part. Of course, a cat in nature would also catch things like chipmunks, snakes, mice and probably other small critters. For the most part, cats don't consume fattier, darker meats very much. This may be why many cats are sensitive to beef. Their bodies just aren't set up for it as well as the whiter, leaner meats found in most small animals.

Cats don't really eat fish in nature. They aren't suited to catching them because they're dry-climate critters (not many fish around), and they don't really scavenge scraps because their systems aren't all that great at processing old meat like dogs are. I mean, a hungry cat will eat whatever comes their way, but it's not a staple of their diet by any stretch. And similarly to beef, many cats don't tolerate fish well. It isn't really properly balanced for them and their bodies aren't very good at breaking down the particular kinds of toxins that can be found primarily in fish. They're better with potential toxins in land-dwelling animals.

The only time rabbits are small enough for the cats to catch here is a very short period in the spring so it couldn't make up much of their diet.  She does catch a fewbirds but I doubt they are much like chicken.  I guess we just do the best we can.