My Pet Carnivore

So I've been looking at My Pet Carnivore. Their prices look amazing, and I am moving nearby to their warehouse, so I could also save on shipping! Woohoo! I've been using Hare Today, getting their ground meats and organs and supplementing with Alnutrin and been very happy with the company, but saving money is nice, too. 

Looking at MPC's website, I see it says that if I feed a variety of their whole ground meats, my pets will have a naturally balanced diet without supplements. 

So if I fed my cats a couple different meats throughout the month with the occasional chicken heart or whatnot, would that suffice for a nutritionally balanced diet? Or would supplementing be a good idea regardless? I honestly hate supplementing, and I'm pretty good at giving my cats a variety of different meats (because they aren't too picky, thankfully).

Any thoughts or suggestions on if I should supplement their whole ground meat?

I've ordered from MPC before.  Their quality is wonderful and the owners are very responsive to questions.  The only reason I haven't ordered from them recently is that their selection is usually limited.  You'd have to order different items at different times (when they're available) in order to get a good variety.

There's nothing magical about their ground meats.  You still have to supplement.  The info you are reading is for dogs, who don't need supplements the way cats do.  Also, I'm not sure their info on bone % is correct.  Whole ground chicken is ~27% bone, not the 10% that they claim.  I'd ignore what's on the website, use the USDA figures, and in mixes like the Chicken Supreme, ask them precisely how much gizzard/heart is added.

Aww, man. Knew it was too good to be true...lol. I was wondering about the ground chicken thing, because I've seen on Hare Today the percentages, and it wasn't very close to 80/10/10.

So if I were to get ground rabbit (thats 80/10/10 right?) and just add Alnutrin for meat with bone do you think that would be nicely balanced? Or would the Alnutrin be too much?

Thanks for your response!

We bought a Tasin and grind our own chicken. Wally World 10 lbs/$7.90 and supplement with kibble and Before grain. Grind bones and all with no feeding issues. Used this recipe for my 8 cats in TNR colony for 3 years. Seems to work fine. Each cat gets a large spoonful or several if they are acting hungry. We put it in Tupperware sandwich containers, freeze and thaw as needed. Lasts about a month because I feed every other day.

FurbulousBunz said:

 
So if I were to get ground rabbit (thats 80/10/10 right?) and just add Alnutrin for meat with bone do you think that would be nicely balanced? Or would the Alnutrin be too much?

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Rabbit is 15% bone.  You need to add boneless meat plus the supplements.  The catinfo.org webpage has information on how to do this.  If you'd rather use Alnutrin, just follow their directions for the entire amount of meat (rabbit + boneless).

Whoever you end up buying from, go by the percentages given on Hare Today's website.  MPC's website doesn't have this information.  Of note, Hare Today didn't include this information either until recently, so raw feeders buying those products had to go to the USDA website to figure it out.  Definitely nice that the info is now easier to find.

sophie1 said:

Rabbit is 15% bone.  You need to add boneless meat plus the supplements.  The catinfo.org webpage has information on how to do this.  If you'd rather use Alnutrin, just follow their directions for the entire amount of meat (rabbit + boneless).

Whoever you end up buying from, go by the percentages given on Hare Today's website.  MPC's website doesn't have this information.  Of note, Hare Today didn't include this information either until recently, so raw feeders buying those products had to go to the USDA website to figure it out.  Definitely nice that the info is now easier to find.

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I really appreciate that Tracy, HT, is posting bone %'s - and I trust her numbers. The commercial raw companies, I don't entirely trust their bone percentage numbers, other than Fresh is Best which uses human grade, MCH bone meal as their calcium source. The other companies use too much backs and necks. The commercial raw I use for one cat I usually dilute a bit with breast meat.

FurbulousBunz said:

 
Aww, man. Knew it was too good to be true...lol. I was wondering about the ground chicken thing, because I've seen on Hare Today the percentages, and it wasn't very close to 80/10/10.

So if I were to get ground rabbit (thats 80/10/10 right?) and just add Alnutrin for meat with bone do you think that would be nicely balanced? Or would the Alnutrin be too much?

Thanks for your response!

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When I feed rabbit I don't dilute it. 15% is fine for my crew, but I don't feed it exclusively. I don't use alnutrin with HT's ground rabbit because it contains thyroid, and alnutrin has iodine. 

missmimz said:

 
When I feed rabbit I don't dilute it. 15% is fine for my crew, but I don't feed it exclusively. I don't use alnutrin with HT's ground rabbit because it contains thyroid, and alnutrin has iodine. 

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I didn't dilute it initially either because my cats seemed to be doing fine, but then one day I found one of them in the litter box crying and trying to poop.  Now I keep it to the 10% range.  I guess just keep an eye on things and if no problems then great - one less thing to worry about!

The iodine in Alnutrin is yet another reason why I like to mix my own supplements.  I figure that whole animal grinds are pretty safe to leave unsupplemented though, as long as they're not fed these exclusively.  For HT I believe that's the rabbit fur and all (which sadly they ran out of a while back, temporarily I hope), cavies, and quail.  And of course the ground mice, but I've never ordered that.  Any others I've missed?

And yes I am also very appreciative of Tracy's new website design with the USDA composition info.

sophie1 said:

 
I didn't dilute it initially either because my cats seemed to be doing fine, but then one day I found one of them in the litter box crying and trying to poop.  Now I keep it to the 10% range.  I guess just keep an eye on things and if no problems then great - one less thing to worry about!

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I've actually been feeding HT's ground turkey and chicken for one meal spit between 7 cats without diluting. So far no one is having issues. I feed a lot of boneless meats anyway so it seems to be working fine, but yeah, I think if you feed these exclusively you want to dilute. 

sophie1 said:

The iodine in Alnutrin is yet another reason why I like to mix my own supplements.  I figure that whole animal grinds are pretty safe to leave unsupplemented though, as long as they're not fed these exclusively.  For HT I believe that's the rabbit fur and all (which sadly they ran out of a while back, temporarily I hope), cavies, and quail.  And of course the ground mice, but I've never ordered that.  Any others I've missed?

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I have to supplement the whole carcass grinds I use from HT, the quail and mouse, because it's about 3/4 of one of my cats' diet. The only reason I haven't had him on 100% whole grinds is because he gets constipated, even though the quail is 8% bone and the mouse 10%. . So I'm thinking of adding psyllium husk for my next batch. Mikey really likes the mouse grind, btw.

LisaMarie12 said:

I have to supplement the whole carcass grinds I use from HT, the quail and mouse, because it's about 3/4 of one of my cats' diet. The only reason I haven't had him on 100% whole grinds is because he gets constipated, even though the quail is 8% bone and the mouse 10%.

. So I'm thinking of adding psyllium husk for my next batch. Mikey really likes the mouse grind, btw.

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Out of curiousity, why the quail and mouse diet? 

My cats hated the quail, even though they'd already sampled and liked supermarket quail.  I guess the gamey smell was an issue.  I heard the mice are smelly also so I've been hesitant to try it.

Hi Sophie,

Well first of all only one cat will eat homemade raw, the other just commercial freeze dried.

I opted for mouse and quail for several reasons, the main reason being that the bone % is within a reasonable amount and I don't have to dilute those meats with boneless meats.

Also, mice, albeit ground whole carcass, makes up a large part of what a cat would eat in its' natural habitat, mice and rabbits, 68% from one stat. Mikey, however, tested low positive for allergies to rabbit (and beef, pork, high positive for eggs). Small birds come in second, as far as what a cat would consume.

Granted that what a cat would eat in "the wild" varies on geographical location.

When I mentioned to Mikey's vet that I'd be feeding whole carcass mouse - and he totally supports raw feeding, he said, "Hmm, interesting. Well, that is their natural diet, let me know how that works out."

I am fortunate that Mikey really likes both the whole carcass grinds, in addition to the quail with ground bone (head included but no fur). The quail doesn't smell, IMO, only the mouse had a slight smell to me - gamey yes, but not as exaggerated as described via the reviews for the mouse meat on Tracy's site. Although scents are subjective.
My next order I'm going to give the cavies whole ground a try, that way I'll have three small animal proteins to offer Mikey.

sophie1 said:

Out of curiousity, why the quail and mouse diet? 

My cats hated the quail, even though they'd already sampled and liked supermarket quail.  I guess the gamey smell was an issue.  I heard the mice are smelly also so I've been hesitant to try it.

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Hey, just my 2 cents but the mouse does not have a bad smell. No different then the cavies, I would say.

I had to stop feeding the grinds with fur to my kitties though because they get awful hairballs whenever I feed them the rabbit with fur, mouse and cavies. It sucks [emoji]128513[/emoji] because I really wanted theme to have those varieties, being they are the natural diet.

I don't know why my cats are so hairball-prone. I even tried supplementing with Egg yolk lecithin and Vets best hairball relief but no go. When I don't feed grinds with fur, we have no issues.

Abby2932 said:

Hey, just my 2 cents but the mouse does not have a bad smell. No different then the cavies, I would say.

I had to stop feeding the grinds with fur to my kitties though because they get awful hairballs whenever I feed them the rabbit with fur, mouse and cavies. It sucks [emoji]128513[/emoji] because I really wanted theme to have those varieties, being they are the natural diet.

I don't know why my cats are so hairball-prone. I even tried supplementing with Egg yolk lecithin and Vets best hairball relief but no go. When I don't feed grinds with fur, we have no issues.

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I had a similar problem with the rabbit fur-and-all.  One of my cats would regurgitate whenever he ate it.  The solution was to add extra water and fish oil to the grind.  Just keep adding water until the fur won't soak up any more.  I did the same with the cavies last time I fed it, and again no problems.

I really like using the whole animal grinds - I get them in 1 pound chubs and feed them right out of the bag, no supplementing.  It's nice to get a break from the work of mixing up, supplementing, and portioning the meat/bone/organ grinds that's the bulk of their diet.