Raw meat diet

While I had two of my boys at the vet today she suggested that I give my cats raw food about three times a week.Other than some raw tuna and hamburger can anyone tell me what meats are ok, and what to stay away from? Thanks,Torri

Personally after losing a beautiful boy to salmonella and having three of my other cats come down with salmonella poisoning but thankfully survive, raw meat is the last thing I would ever feed my cats. But that is just my opinion-

Originally Posted by misstorri

While I had two of my boys at the vet today she suggested that I give my cats raw food about three times a week.Other than some raw tuna and hamburger can anyone tell me what meats are ok, and what to stay away from? Thanks,Torri

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I occaisionally give my one girl small bits of Turkey or chicken Breast and others offer their cats beef. BUT you NEED to be VERY careful where you buy this meat or as Hissy says your cats can get Salmonella!

I can suggest a couple of groups to join if you are really interested or you can just go to yahoogroups.com and check into groups for raw feeding of cats.

Again BE SO CAREFUL of where you get the meat. It should be organic and of the hightest quality!

Do a search online for BARF diets for pets, you will find all sorts of information about what raw meats are good for pets.

Also though alot of people cannot handle this fresh dead mice is good for a cat too.

But there is a difference, natural prey isn't usually full of chemicals and other harmful things, and cats do not eat the gut sac of a mouse (where all the bacteria is housed).

Actually they will eat the whole thing once they develop a liking for them, I breed mice for my snakes and when I thaw one out for them I have to watch Sturgis he will steal them and eat the whole thing.

Originally Posted by misstorri

While I had two of my boys at the vet today she suggested that I give my cats raw food about three times a week.Other than some raw tuna and hamburger can anyone tell me what meats are ok, and what to stay away from? Thanks,Torri

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If you are going to do this, please check out the links I am going to list...quality of the meat source, and preparation/handling of the meat is very important, and there are risks you need to know about, and you'll need to know what to watch for with your kitties (i.e. what are the symptoms of salmonella).

site 1 ,
site 2,
site 3 ,
and site 4

Here is an article on raw diets that is also worth reading.

I know the meat industry is very different in the US than here in Sweden, in Sweden less than 1 % of the meat is contaminated with Salmonella so it's not considered a risk here at all. The meat here is tested for bacterias and parasites and there are many diseases (such as pseudorabies) we don't even have here.

Important things, no matter where you live are:

- Only feed human grade meat, preferably organic
- Keep good hygiene! Don't allow potential bacterias to reproduce by leaving the meat out for more then 20 minuter (I don't even leave the food out for more than 10 minutes). Keep the kitchen surfaces and the knives (if you chop the meat into chunks) clean. And o course, keep your hands clean and wipe of the surface where the cat have been eating raw meat.

Thanks everybody I'm starting to think that other than the occasional piece of tuna,the boys are gonna have to live with their ordinary food.