Need advice on best cost-effectice ways to raw feed 8 cats

Hi everyone!

I'm in the process of transitioning my 8 indoor cats to a raw diet. I'm using the My Natural Cat mix from Feline Instincts with chicken breast and thigh meat. If each cat eats between 1/2 to 3/4 of a cup at each meal, twice a day, I'm looking at each meal being 4-6 cups of food, twice a day. That's a LOT of raw meat I'll need to buy!

Does anyone here with multiple cats have any tips/advice on the best way to save money when buying that much raw meat? What about freezing the portions. Any suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

1. an additional freezer box so you have space to buy in bulk

2 .chicken breast is expensive and doesn't have a high taurine content... cheaper to buy whole chickens (careful so they are not enhanced), which gives you at least some organs and bones that you can still cut.

3. turkey necks/ wings are usually inexpensive (and you want to go for red meat if possible).

4. Asian markets are cheaper in meats, and have so many interesting parts!

5. remember if you bought this whole freezer load of high end canned food, it would be so much more expensive .

A deep freezer will save you so much money!  And time!  Also, watch for sales at specific grocery stores.  I never pay full price for chicken.  I can't afford it.  Thighs are normally $1.99/lb here, and I wait for $0.99/lb or BOGO sales and stock up.  Beef and Cornish hens I watch for sales, and pork I only buy "sell-by" dated.  Eggs are frequently on sale too.  Liver and gizzards are so cheap that it just doesn't matter.  I buy my supplements from iHerb.com and watch for the occasional sell-by date there too.  I also buy enough at a time so I don't have shipping costs.

Does your area have an active craigslist or equivalent? I feed raw to 9 cats, and I bought a used mid-sized chest freezer on craigslist for $35. We live in an RV, and the chest freezer lives on the deck, covered in a tarp.

We don't have any ethnic markets near. So I stock up when there are sales. I pay attention to the circulars, and I browse the "sell by" dates when we shop for ourselves, so I can guesstimate when the sales will be. We also made friends with the butcher at the local supermarket, so we can just ask when they'll be putting out the pork trim (which is super cheap and goes really quickly). I feed by weight, not volume. My 9 cats eat 12.5 ounces of food per meal. I freeze meats in 12.5 ounce portions and portion it up into individual meals at meal time.

I have a lot of cats and I've put some thought into this. . .currently I would have too much trouble sourcing that amount of meat to feed my cats all raw/homecooked but I may be able to work that out later. At any rate I've thought about it .

Anyway, do you have a Costco nearby? They sell vegetarian-fed boneless non-enhanced chicken thighs for about $1.20 a pound. Sam's Club sells bone-in chicken thighs for less than that but if you're using a mix you probably don't need the bones and removing them is a pain. I have never found a whole chicken that isn't enhanced so getting the thighs is easier. Thighs are more nutritious than breast meat and usually cheaper so unless you get a great deal on breasts you might as well stick to thighs. Try to pick up some other kinds of meat when it's on sale, but if you're using a mix that's not strictly necessary.

Also, if your cats are full-grown and spayed/neutered, they most likely will not be eating 1/2-3/4 cup at each meal! Well, maybe if it's chunked and very lightly packed in the cup it may fill a 1/2 cup measure but it won't be that much by weight. Most adult cats will eat around 3-6 ounces of raw a day, of course it depends on a lot of factors like the caloric content and if you use bones, etc.

And, yep, a big freezer definitely makes things easier. Then you can stock up when you find a good sale.

Willowy said:

Also, if your cats are full-grown and spayed/neutered, they most likely will not be eating 1/2-3/4 cup at each meal! Well, maybe if it's chunked and very lightly packed in the cup it may fill a 1/2 cup measure but it won't be that much by weight. Most adult cats will eat around 3-6 ounces of raw a day, of course it depends on a lot of factors like the caloric content and if you use bones, etc.

 

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Great point.  I can't remember what it ended up being as far as weight (and I double the water that www.catinfo.org says to use), but my cats get 1/4 cup twice a day. 

Thanks everyone!

I should have mentioned, I DO have a large, stand-up freezer in my garage, so I have plenty of room for frozen meat/raw meals, and I have a Costco membership. I'm now just trying to figure out the best way to purchase large amounts of meat for the best price. My grocery stores have good sales, but it would still be too expensive to buy their sale meats for so many cats.

Right now, 1 of my cats is on her last day of 6 weeks of eating nothing but Veterinary Diets s/d kibble to dissolve a bladder stone. She can go on regular food tomorrow. I've been feeding the other 7 two cans of MaxCat wet food (5.5 oz each) plus about 1/4 - 1/3 cup of the raw mix mixed in and some extra water. Between the 7, there is nothing left but very clean bowls! Sometimes they act like that wasn't enough, so I give them some of the s/d food as 'dessert.'

Now that all 8 cats can eat the same thing, I'll be decreasing the amount of canned and increasing the amount of raw.

For some reason, I thought I had to use BOTH breast and thighs, but from what I'm reading now, I can use only chicken thighs? In fact, their more nutritious than chicken breasts? That's good to know, as they're cheaper. I need the boneless, as the Feline Instincts mix is formulated for boneless meat.

I have been grinding the meats using my Kitchen Aid food grinder, and although it comes out a bit smaller (looks like ground hamburger) it seems to work ok so far.

If I can buy already frozen chicken thighs, thaw them out and prepare the meals then refreeze everything, that may work too. Keep the advice coming - it's really helping!

While it is ideal to have a minimum of 3 different proteins and different parts of the animal for the different nutritional profiles, many people have fed the same 1-2 proteins for years. Dr. Pierson uses only chicken thighs alone with the occasional batch of rabbit and has for at least 10 years. It really just depends on what you can afford. Dark meat like thighs is generally higher in taurine. It is also higher in fat. If you can mix in breast meat occasionally, it would not hurt. However, if it's just that cheaper to source thighs, then that's fine.

What about anything else I can add to "bulk" up the food? Is there anything I can add to the feline instincts recipe (other than the required ingredients) that would increase the amount of food without harming them? I know rice is a filler, but it won't do much for them in terms of nutrition.

Any suggestions that will increase the bang for my buck and support their nutrition needs is greatly appreciated!

8whiskers said:

 
What about anything else I can add to "bulk" up the food? Is there anything I can add to the feline instincts recipe (other than the required ingredients) that would increase the amount of food without harming them? I know rice is a filler, but it won't do much for them in terms of nutrition.

Any suggestions that will increase the bang for my buck and support their nutrition needs is greatly appreciated!

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Is there a reason you need to bulk up the food?  If not, then I wouldn't add anything to bulk it up.  Although you should feed by weight, my cats eat about 1/4 cup twice a day and that's it.  It's just been forever since I've weighed that amount.

I'm asking if there's anything I can do to bulk up the food because I have 8 cats! :-) Right now I'm transitioning them from canned to raw. Currently I'm feeding 2 cans (5 oz each) plus about 1/3 cup of raw mixed in and a little warm water to thin it a bit. That entire amount is devoured twice a day, and most of them are still hungry. My cats range in ages from 5-9, and from about 9-15 pounds.

Only 2 of them don't seem to be eating as much (and I'm concerned about them) but the others are licking their plates clean and searching for more, so obviously I'm going to need to feed them more than I am now when they're on 100% raw.

I'm figuring they'll average about 1/2 cup each, twice a day. That's 8 cups of raw food in one day! Using the Feline Instincts mix, that's about a batch a day. I want to make sure they're getting enough food, but I also want to make sure I can AFFORD to feed them enough.

Before I decided to switch to raw, they all had dry food (up to 3 different kinds of high quality foods) out all day, and shared 7 oz of wet food at night. Their weights were fine, but they were developing bladder stones and UTIs, so I decided to eliminate all dry food and switch to raw. It's much more expensive than I'm used to, so I'm trying to do the best I can by them within my budget.

Anything else I can give them I'm sure they would appreciate! :-)

Are you opposed to the idea of prey model raw?  That would be considerably cheaper and you could buy a lot of cuts in bulk for under $1/pound. 

I'm not opposed to the raw model at all - it's just that I'm new to this whole idea and feeding ground with the supplement mix seemed easier to start with.

I understand that I'd have to weigh/measure out and balance supplements, make sure the rotation schedule is correct, etc for the raw model. It seemed really confusing and I was scared I'd screw it up! :-)

When feeding a homemade diet, the point is to feed them only what they need.  Some cats need cooked rice or squashes to slow down gut motility.  If your cats' gut motility is fine then I wouldn't mess with that.  I would feed according to the directions on the premix or use a recipe like www.catinfo.org.  I'd use eggshell calcium over bone meal in the boneless recipe, but that's me and my preferences.

Are you sure you need to feed 1 cup per day per cat?  My 7, 14, and 18 lb cats get 1/2 cup each per day in 2 servings (1/4 cup twice a day).  Even then I have to reduce the amount of skin in the recipe and add more water to thin it out.  My cats are pretty active, by the way.

Even if I feed my kitties 1/2 cup per day, that's still 4 cups per day of food. I'd be going through about 1/2-1 batch of food a day, and I'm just trying to make sure they get enough food, and that I can afford it. My only male cat is very thin and lean, and he eats the most food by far. I think he could eat at least 1/2 cup of food at each meal. I find it interesting that he usually finishes first and checks out what everyone else has. If they still have food on their plate, he'll push his way in to finish it, and all of the other cats just let him! Even if they're not finished, they just turn around and walk away, leaving Louie to finish their meal for them.

I can put him in another room so that he doesn't eat everyone else's food, but it's still telling me he's hungry and can eat more. From what I've read, I should put food down for them and let them eat as much as they want for up to 30 minutes, then take the food away. The signals I'm getting from them is that I could clearly put out more and it would be devoured right away!

I certainly don't want to feed them unnecessary crap, and may go to the raw prey model once I get more comfortable with the concept of raw feeding and the complexities of the diet. But for now, while I'm transitioning them this ground mix seems to be palatable to them.

If he's very thin and eating everyone else's food, that sounds like hyperthyroidism and he should probably get checked out by a vet.

To reduce costs, if you cannot source inexpensive meats or follow a recommended supplement recipe, maybe cheap canned is the way to go for you.  Or at least use cheap canned intermittently to help with costs.  I'd still have the male cat checked out.  Hyperthyroidism can be dangerous and affect many parts of the body.  Hopefully he's just got a high metabolism.

He's actually been to the vet recently and his thyroid is (thankfully) fine. He had to have surgery to remove a bladder stone in February, and that's part of what prompted this idea to switch them to raw.

I am still currently trying to find a decent source of meat, I'm pretty new to all of this. I just want to do the best that I can by my babies!

8whiskers said:

 
He's actually been to the vet recently and his thyroid is (thankfully) fine. He had to have surgery to remove a bladder stone in February, and that's part of what prompted this idea to switch them to raw.

I am still currently trying to find a decent source of meat, I'm pretty new to all of this. I just want to do the best that I can by my babies!

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Ah, so he's just got a fast metabolism.  Well, Fancy Feast classics (and store brand versions) might help reduce pH.  As far as meat for raw, that's going to take careful sale-watching on your part.  Sell-buy dating is something to consider too.

Yeah, even if they each eat only 4 ounces of meat a day, that will be at least 2 pounds a day :/. Now, if you manage to find chicken thighs at $1.50 a pound, that would be cheaper than canned food, even Friskies (Friskies @ $1 per 13-oz can, 6 oz per cat per day=48 ounces, which is 3.7 cans a day, so $3.70 a day, approximately). I'm not sure how much the supplement costs, but you could even pay up to $1.80 a pound for the meat and still come out cheaper than Friskies. And any higher-quality canned food is going to cost substantially more than that (the next cheapest food (EVO and Dave's) I use is $2 for a 13-oz can). So homemade food can definitely cost less than canned food.

But of course kibble is always cheaper, so it can be a real price shock when you're switching from kibble. Although not that much cheaper if you're talking about the really high-quality stuff. If you pay more than $3 a pound, the homemade food would still cost less.

Ooh, I just looked up that premix and it's pretty expensive. Adds about $2 to every pound (if I'm reading their site correctly). So the meat isn't even your biggest expense. . .

I wonder if any of the other premixes might be more affordable and suit your needs just as well. I don't have a lot of experience with the different premixes but I know others have, hopefully they can help you out with that.