Quick suggestion for commercial raw

Kitty has had some issues, and my vet nutritionist wants to see if diet is the culprit, so we're doing a change for the next 8-12 weeks. He can't seem to handle canned food without vomiting, so I can either go commercial raw or the cheaper Wellness dry food. Any suggestions for a cheap-ish commercial raw? I used Feline's Pride in the past, but at $4/lb, it's prohibitively expensive.

I think Primal raw is somewhat cheaper depending on protein source. A three pound bag of one ounce nuggets is around twenty dollars. One cat can eat around 4 nuggets a day. There are 48nuggets per bag. Sound cheaper?

Also, there is alot of discussion about fillers in canned food being the culprit. Have you tried canned without carreegenan or weird gums? Some brands are without that. Or trying novelty protein sources?

pocho said:

Also, there is alot of discussion about fillers in canned food being the culprit. Have you tried canned without carreegenan or weird gums? Some brands are without that. Or trying novelty protein sources?

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Yes, some cats have trouble with the fillers and gums... one of ours barfs if she eats foods with potato, which is very commonly used, and I avoid peas and carrageenan, too. Both our cats love Primal, which comes out to cost the same or less than canned foods like Wellness or Nature's Variety. The cats prefer freeze-dried over frozen.

pocho said:

Also, there is alot of discussion about fillers in canned food being the culprit. Have you tried canned without carreegenan or weird gums? Some brands are without that. Or trying novelty protein sources?

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He eats homemade raw, so my uneducated guess is that canned food texture or taste is disagreeing with his intestines. We're suspending the "homemade" part for now and going with commercial.

I'll try Primal, thanks for the suggestion!

Which canned food did you try? 

I found that buying chubs of ground meat/organ/bones and adding supplements is much cheaper than buying "complete diet" raw food. Primal and Bravo have chubs. I live in Southern California and a member here told me of local companies (Smallbatch and Halshan) also. With Smallbatch, if I buy 15 2lb chubs, it can go down to $2.5/lb. 

It's definitely worth looking for chubs and other frozen raw foods: one of our local stores, for example, carries Oma's Pride, which makes various blends of meats that you have to add supplements to, as well as a new complete food called Purr. Our cats like Purr pretty well and it's cheaper than Rad Cat, which is still their favorite. Rad Cat is great food, though it can be expensive: I did, though, find a decent price by shopping around. Now that I think about it, one of our stores sells Bravo complete food that's pretty reasonably priced. Unfortunately, our cats don't really like it! Good luck, @FhiCat!

FhiCat said:

 
Kitty has had some issues, and my vet nutritionist wants to see if diet is the culprit, so we're doing a change for the next 8-12 weeks. He can't seem to handle canned food without vomiting, so I can either go commercial raw or the cheaper Wellness dry food. Any suggestions for a cheap-ish commercial raw? I used Feline's Pride in the past, but at $4/lb, it's prohibitively expensive.

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There's Nature's Variety Instinct Raw Bites, both the frozen and freeze dried, but it's kind of pricey for a 1.25 pound bag that doesn't last very long There's a current coupon for both types of Raw Bites a little ways down the Raw board if you would like to try it. The NV frozen dog medallions can be fed but only if you add in a taurine supplement.

Stella and Chewy's also has frozen and freeze dried raw food. The freeze dried raw is about $20 a bag. I'm not sure how much the frozen morsels cost.

I've had good luck with Primal, both freeze dried and frozen raw - very affordable, I've reduced my canned food (Nature's Variety) considerably since I use more commerical raw than canned. A little goes a long way - I feed two cats with mostly Primal FD, one 14 oz bag lasts one week.  I use Primal Pronto (bites) for the male cat.

NV Instinct canned food is mostly gum free (except Pride).  My IBD cat is doing much better on mostly commercial raw. Good luck.

LisaHE:

Mikey likes Rad Cat but it's a major pain in the arse trying to portion it out! I initially put the 24 oz container in warm water for a bit but only half thawed, cutting it was a mess. I read posts on this site regarding partial thaw and refreeze. What works best for you? I don't want to portion out in Ziploc bags - too much plastic waste. Thanks!!

LisaMarie12, I completely agree that the portioning is the downside to Rad Cat! I usually put the containers on the top (coldest) refrigerator shelf overnight and then cut, smush, and/or spoon the food (depending on how frozen it still is) into reusable small plastic containers that I refreeze. Some of them are Glad containers I bought at the grocery store, others are for baby food. I mark the top with a T if it's turkey. I have a sort of system now but still don't like doing it... the cats love Rad Cat so much that I would never stop feeding it because of the inconvenience!

LisaMarie12 said:

 
I've had good luck with Primal, both freeze dried and frozen raw - very affordable, I've reduced my canned food (Nature's Variety) considerably since I use more commerical raw than canned. A little goes a long way - I feed two cats with mostly Primal FD, one 14 oz bag lasts one week.  I use Primal Pronto (bites) for the male cat.

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14oz lasts for a week for two cats? How much do you feed them for each meal and how many times a day? Each of my cats eats at least 6oz of wet food a day, and they go crazy with FD, so FD gets very expensive for me. 

LisaMarie12 said:

 
LisaHE:

Mikey likes Rad Cat but it's a major pain in the arse trying to portion it out! I initially put the 24 oz container in warm water for a bit but only half thawed, cutting it was a mess. I read posts on this site regarding partial thaw and refreeze. What works best for you? I don't want to portion out in Ziploc bags - too much plastic waste. Thanks!!

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I put the container in fridge for a day and scoop out to Rubbermaid containers and refreeze them. I use a kitchen scale. 

ankitty said:

 
14oz lasts for a week for two cats? How much do you feed them for each meal and how many times a day? Each of my cats eats at least 6oz of wet food a day, and they go crazy with FD, so FD gets very expensive for me. 

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Ours each eat about 2.5-3 "loaves" a day of Primal freeze-dried, plus a medium-sized serving of Rad Cat and some combination of canned foods that totals about a six-ounce can. They are small but very active junior cats! The raw foods are probably the best values, though--even over lower-priced canned foods like Hound & Gatos--because the cats always finish the raw stuff.

And, back to @FhiCat's original issue: all that raw food, plus low-carb, grain-free, potato-free canned that's mostly carageenan-free, too, seems to agree with their delicate stomachs.

AnKitty:

I should have been more specific, a 14 oz bag of FD Primal turkey last me a week b/c they also eat NV canned (at night) and Mikey eats Primal frozen in addition to the FD and canned. They eat about 4 times a day, twice in the morn and evening, they get about 2-3 nuggets but Mikey sometimes less b/c he is eating the frozen raw (Molly won't). At night, they split a 5.5 oz of NV canned.  Sometimes also I may mix in some freeze dried treats with the FD turkey.  What can I say, they are highly active and seem eat like horses but that 14 oz lasts a good week.

LisaHE

Thanks so much, actually, this evening I partially thawed a portion in the bottom part of the refrigerator and then I was able to cut through it. I'm going to be storing the food in glass container Mason type jars, I don't like the idea of using plastic containers (b/c they can harbor bacteria). I also don't feel comfortable using plastic baggies and creating more plastic waste. Interestingly, on RC's faq's, they say they use those containers bc they can be recycled.  I just wonder why they couldn't portion it out somehow beforehand. I'll get this worked out, I'm spoiled I guess with raw "bites" and nuggets that are very easy to portion out to thaw.  Thanks though - I have to go and exercise my cats now, they are giving me dirty looks.

LisaMarie12 said:

 
AnKitty:

I should have been more specific, a 14 oz bag of FD Primal turkey last me a week b/c they also eat NV canned (at night) and Mikey eats Primal frozen in addition to the FD and canned. They eat about 4 times a day, twice in the morn and evening, they get about 2-3 nuggets but Mikey sometimes less b/c he is eating the frozen raw (Molly won't). At night, they split a 5.5 oz of NV canned.  Sometimes also I may mix in some freeze dried treats with the FD turkey.  What can I say, they are highly active and seem eat like horses but that 14 oz lasts a good week.

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Ah, that makes sense. Thank you for clarifying. 

FhiCat said:

 
Kitty has had some issues, and my vet nutritionist wants to see if diet is the culprit, so we're doing a change for the next 8-12 weeks. He can't seem to handle canned food without vomiting, so I can either go commercial raw or the cheaper Wellness dry food. Any suggestions for a cheap-ish commercial raw? I used Feline's Pride in the past, but at $4/lb, it's prohibitively expensive.

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FhiCat said:

 
He eats homemade raw, so my uneducated guess is that canned food texture or taste is disagreeing with his intestines. We're suspending the "homemade" part for now and going with commercial.

I'll try Primal, thanks for the suggestion!

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I'm confused...if it's commercial canned that he throws up, why not just continue the homemade raw by itself?  That'd be much cheaper than commercial raw, and you can more control over ingredients.

Also, after a hiatus from vomiting, my cats have started yacking.  I'm having to "clean them out" again of hairballs.  Maybe that's a possibility for yours as well?