Opinions on Feeding RAW

Originally Posted by pushylady

:schocked:
Yikes "human supliments"! Is this what happens to neighbours who annoy you?

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LOL! thats right, grrrrr !

Originally Posted by moggiegirl

I agree. Those who have the time and the desire to prepare homemade should do it. But I'm not brave or knowledgeable enough to feed raw and the stuff at my grocery store is pumped with hormones and Rosie threw up the last time I gave her some raw hamburger meat as a treat. So I just feed a combination of dry food and canned food and some occasional cooked chicken. I also add halo's purely for pets Live a Littles freeze dried chicken treats to my cats dry food. I think it improves the quality of dry cat food by adding some extra animal based protein.

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There are some alternatives to making your own.

Bravo! Bravo Diet
Oma's Pride Oma's

I use the Bravo brand..it's well packaged and has a good reputation.

What raw foods do you feed? I might try to do half and half...if thats too out there for my budget, what canned foods are good?

We use the brand called "Bravo!". Various blends and whole ground products.
I'm happy with them so far. The prices are reasonable from most of the distributors.
I'm not keen on any of the commercial canned foods, but the Fancy Feast canned seems to be pretty good, but it's pretty expensive per can if you're feeding a good sized cat.

Kai Bengals, I have to disagree with you on the wet food reccomedation SOME varieties of Fancy Feast are not terrible but overall, it's not a very good quality food. Pretty much the same companies that make top quality dry foods (Wellness, Innova, Felidae, Chicken Soup for the Cat Lovers Soul, Wysong, Natural Balance, etc.) also make a great quality wet food.

I think a high quality wet food diet is the best thing you can feed your kitties, other than raw.

In terms of prepared raw diets that are available, I think it varies widely per area, as it's not practical to ship frozen raw food over great distances. My store carries Healthy Paws, Pets4Life, Amore and Urban Carnivore. But I'm in Canada. You'll find different brands depending on where it is you are

Originally Posted by lavender

Kai Bengals, I have to disagree with you on the wet food reccomedation

SOME varieties of Fancy Feast are not terrible but overall, it's not a very good quality food. Pretty much the same companies that make top quality dry foods (Wellness, Innova, Felidae, Chicken Soup for the Cat Lovers Soul, Wysong, Natural Balance, etc.) also make a great quality wet food.

I think a high quality wet food diet is the best thing you can feed your kitties, other than raw.

In terms of prepared raw diets that are available, I think it varies widely per area, as it's not practical to ship frozen raw food over great distances. My store carries Healthy Paws, Pets4Life, Amore and Urban Carnivore. But I'm in Canada. You'll find different brands depending on where it is you are

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Thank you for the wet food note... I have found anything without by products to be above fancy feast cept for a few flavors ... According to my girls authority , nutro and pro pac seem to be the best felidea recently bombed and I aint sure why..Here I can get things from Califonia which is strange since I am at least 900 miles in the prepared diet ... I am just unsure of those prepackaged things..

Originally Posted by lavender

Kai Bengals, I have to disagree with you on the wet food reccomedation

SOME varieties of Fancy Feast are not terrible but overall, it's not a very good quality food. Pretty much the same companies that make top quality dry foods (Wellness, Innova, Felidae, Chicken Soup for the Cat Lovers Soul, Wysong, Natural Balance, etc.) also make a great quality wet food.

I think a high quality wet food diet is the best thing you can feed your kitties, other than raw.

In terms of prepared raw diets that are available, I think it varies widely per area,as it's not practical to ship frozen raw food over great distances. My store carries Healthy Paws, Pets4Life, Amore and Urban Carnivore. But I'm in Canada. You'll find different brands depending on where it is you are

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My experience with canned foods is indeed limited, since I rarely use it. But when I do, I use the fancy feast fish varieties. What do you think of those flavors...good or bad in perspective?

as it's not practical to ship frozen raw food over great distances.

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In this day and age and with dry ice, it's very practical. Even after 2 1/2 days of travel, the product still arrives at my door frozen. And the shipping is very affordable with UPS.
I could get the food closer to home, but I like the service the company I buy from provides.

It's been so long since I've had to buy any FF (to tempt the kitties into eating, or in an emergency when I'm out of food), that I can't remember which ones aren't completley horrid I know there are only a few, but I believe it is seafood varieties. Not all of them, only some. I think I have a Trout Feast hidden in the back of my cupboard somewhere. I've found that FF has wheat in some varieties, which is completley unnecessary in wet food, as well as the usual "meat by-products" which are oh-so-sketchy. When I say certain ones aren't as bad, I mean they don't contain these things.

I think I'll pick up some wet food today and start mixing it in with their dry food in the evenings. My fear is that, should I be terribly short on cash, they'll turn their nose up at dry food....but my parent's dog tends to do that as well when there aren't any table scraps in his meal. After a day or so he'll begrudgingly eat the dry food alone (while casting you bitter looks) so I imagine the kitties will do the same.

Both my kitties and one dog get a raw diet supplemented with kibble. They all LOVE it and it has done wonders for their coats and litter box smell too!! I buy the Natures Variety Prairie brand. I don't have the time or ambition to make it myself, so I spend the extra to purchase this brand. I can't say enough about it!!!

I'm a huge fan of raw food. I've raw fed my cats for 2 years now and they've never been better. No more vomiting, skinny OR fat cats. They are all very heathy and today they're all in their right weight class

Raw feeding turned out to be a huge success in this household.

Originally Posted by Lndscpsam

Both my kitties and one dog get a raw diet supplemented with kibble. They all LOVE it and it has done wonders for their coats and litter box smell too!! I buy the Natures Variety Prairie brand. I don't have the time or ambition to make it myself, so I spend the extra to purchase this brand. I can't say enough about it!!!

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One of my lacal stores is getting this brand dry kibble ... Have you tried it??

Originally Posted by HUNTER

My one year old bengal kitty is being fed raw since he started eating solid, i give him 3 ozs. of raw and 1/2 cup of dry daily, he likes it.

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may i suggest you take 12 hours between feeding raw and dry so the dry does not interfere with proper abosrption of the raw.

I don't think people should be worried they aren't knowledgeable enough to feed their cats a balanced raw diet, most people are able to feed themselves (ok, it's hard to deny yourself the cheeseburgers etc ) so with a little research it's possible to feed your cats. And if you are able to feed a preprepared food it should take no more time than taking it out of the freezer in time to defrost !

If I read all this we are being spoiled here in the Netherlands. I want to feed my cats homemade but am still in the process of finding the right suppliers, buying an extra freezer and a meatgrinder. Meanwhile I can buy raw frozen foods meant for dogs but - with the right supplements - suitable for cats at petstores and supermarkets. I can buy 4 kinds of superior preprepared complete raw foods through the supply channels of the manufacturers themselves. There is even a kind made from free range meat ! I feed Carnibest,a complete food, there are different varieties, my cats especially like chicken/lamb. It is ground really fine so the cats don't get to chew a lot, I give them something extra to chew everyday, chicken necks or wings, drumsticks, lambheart, whole chicks, that kind of thing. I've been feeding completely raw for a month, my eldest tom already loved raw meat, my kittens got fed partially raw by their breeder, so the guys loved the Carnibest instead of kibble right away. My usually picky female cat took 4 days to change her mind. The only problem was that she didn't understand how to chew chunks of meat and/or bone, but this week she suddenly ate chicken necks and chicks, so there's hope.

I'm also in the process of switching our cats to at least almost completely raw, right now it's about half and half. I buy my cats' meat from a kennel that delivers, a bigger firm that visits the city once a month or, if I want fresh, not frozen, from any supermarket, human grade.

I feed the cats raw meat quite happily (they won't touch cooked anyway). Food supervision is extremely strict in Scandinavia (I can't even imagine a supermarket selling hormone or diseased meat, GMO etc. ), so my mind's completely at rest.

Does anyone know how chicken gizzards are for cats? I've seen them really cheap at a local store and might like to give them to my cats (not as an exclusive diet, of course) if they have some nutritional merit...

Originally Posted by semiferal

Does anyone know how chicken gizzards are for cats? I've seen them really cheap at a local store and might like to give them to my cats (not as an exclusive diet, of course) if they have some nutritional merit...

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They are okay from what I have read but I personally would only buy organic like the livers I buy..

I would never feed a raw diet. I don't have the time. Dry cat food is nice and easy for me, and the cats absolutely love and thrive on it.

Originally Posted by sharky

They are okay from what I have read but I personally would only buy organic like the livers I buy..

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Ideally that's definitely what I'd do. It's just not financially feasible. I'm trying to work as much raw into their diet as possible, though.

Originally Posted by semiferal

Ideally that's definitely what I'd do. It's just not financially feasible. I'm trying to work as much raw into their diet as possible, though.

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My nossey recomedation..lmao... is to check around I get chn or beef livers that are either all natural grain feed or organic for 1.99 a lb ... the hearts are like 4.99 a lb...