Do You Feed Raw?

solaritybengals

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Ok out this poll jumps from another thread. How many TCSers feed raw?

I guess it dosne't matter how many people say "no" because there are 2,359 active members so we can draw a few statistics from this. More importantly how many "yes"s will we get?

I guess this will be biased towards those that visit this forum in a give period of time but we can still make inferences
.
 

renny

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I don't yet, but I've started doing some more research with the thought of starting the process to switch to a raw diet.
 

cearbhaill

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I checked yes, because it didn't ask "Do you feed raw exclusively?"

Raw is part of my food plan, yes, but not 100%.
 
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solaritybengals

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Originally Posted by Cearbhaill

Raw is part of my food plan, yes, but not 100%.
Thats fine
. Technically I do the same. I feed half canned salmon. For the most part I consider myself a raw feeder though.
 

kai bengals

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Originally Posted by SolarityBengals

Thats fine
. Technically I do the same. I feed half canned salmon. For the most part I consider myself a raw feeder though.
My bengals don't seem to tolerate salmon at all. They like it, but it gives them loose stools. How do you feed yours the salmon? Mix it in? Seperate?
Did you have any problems at first? Do their digestive systems just need to become accustomed to it?
 
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solaritybengals

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Originally Posted by Kai Bengals

My bengals don't seem to tolerate salmon at all. They like it, but it gives them loose stools. How do you feed yours the salmon? Mix it in? Seperate?
Did you have any problems at first? Do their digestive systems just need to become accustomed to it?
Yes I did have some trouble at first. My vet strongly advised me to incorporate this into my raw diet. She is a Maine Coon breeder and does the same combo I do. She feeds one meal salmon and one raw each day. This does not work for me. I was also advised to stay away from mackerel and other sorts of fish, that salmon was the best one (she could go on forever about the health benefits of salmon - its nice having a vet I feel I can trust). Also the bone in the salmon is nutritious and not dangerous for them to eat, the cookign proccess they use calcifies the bone (I think thats what she said, I can't quite remember?).

So for the most part I just can't feed it by itself. I mix it in to the meat. I started just mixing a little. Now I take a pound of raw and mix it with 1 can of salmon. The cats adore it! For my pregnant cat, she has me give her 1/4tsp cod liver oil every day but she said that it can't be anymore than that as you don't want to overdose. Since the pregnancy and lactation is so taxing on the liver the extra liver support is good. She also has me give 1inch cube (for 3 cats) of raw beef liver twice a week.

I think the salmon is like any other food, if you feed it suddenly in any quantity it overloads the system. Also if the liver is unhealthy it will have a harder time handling it. But a slow gradual transition to incorporate it into the diet should be easier on the GI. It took some time to figure this out for me. But all the kitties are back to healthy poops, the fish dosen't make it any stinkier either.
 

arlyn

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I don't feed raw, but I do offer raw meats as treats.

I'd certainly switch my crew over to raw if I had a freezer.
All I've got now is the tiny ice box on top of my fridge.
 

sharky

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Gigi is all raw and man has it helped


Kandie is raw and canned ( note to self ask about salmon, vet said mackeral last time)

Zoey dry food junkie who prefers her raw very fresh as in it had a heartbeat a few seconds ago
... have gotten her to eat small amount s of canned and raw everyday


Fish get some blanched foods
and a mix of frozen( raw I guess) ,pellets, flakes and anything else I find
 

lookingglass

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To be honest, I don't feed raw, and the reason why is because it scares me. I am so scared that I'd screw it up, and one of my boys would get sick.
 

dawnofsierra

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No, my girlies eat wet food. Sierra ate raw for a period of time a few years ago, but I discontinued this due to concerns about the potential dangers of a raw food diet.
 
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solaritybengals

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The vet told me the mercury content of salmon is not a concern, where mackerel it would be. Here was a little info I found:
Alaskan salmon are among the purest of all ocean species. In addition to residing in the most remote and pristine waters left on earth, Alaskan salmon are relatively small, short-lived fish that feed at the lower end of the food chain. Consequently they grow free of hazardous levels of contaminants found in larger, longer-lived carnivorous species.
Hmm I need to make sure I'm getting Alaskan salmon and not Atlantic.

I guess if the mackerel was farm raised then it wouldn't matter about mercury, but farm raised often are in poor conditions so might be less nutritious.
 

heidrun

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As I am in Iceland I feed a little bit different raw food then you might in europe or usa. For the most part my cats eat dry food and seem to do very well on it. Then I always share my food with anyone that wants a bite. That would most often be cooked chicken, fat fish, lamb, horse, or liver. Then I feed them as often as I can raw food. That would be raw lamb meat, raw horse meat, raw liver, heart or kidney. I never feed them cooked lean fish (as in cod) because it usually upsets their stomach. But fat fish (salmon, halibut, makrel, herring, sardines) seems to go down much easier,they like it much more and it has more of the good oils in it.
And to let you on a secret then it really benefits when you are trying to lose weight. It seems that when you consume fat fish the oils in the fish makes the body fat deposits desolve more easier. Why it happens I really dont know, but I have lost much more pounds in the weeks when I eat salmon every day then the other weeks, and so many people I have talked to and heard about have the same experience, more fat fish, more rapid weight loss.... Well way over the topic I guess...

Then again the horse meat is really good for the cats, because the horses in Iceland are basically outside most or all of the year, and they dont eat anything else but vegetatition of the ground or hey so they are like game when you look at the meat. The fat in horse meat isnt hard. In fact you cant keep horse meat frosen for a long time because the fat doesnt freeze like beef fat. Because the fat in the horse meat isnt hard it is similar in structure like the fat in the fish, so it is more beneficiary for the coronary system then beef. Lamb meat is also good, since the lambs dont get feed in houses, but are grasing in the mountains untill slaughter-time in the fall, but they have the hard fat and the cats dont like the taste as much as the horse.
 

renovia

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thanks for making this poll, i felt too inexperienced to do this.

i want to switch to raw but currently do a wet/dry combo. i am going to pick up a book on it tomorrow and talk to my vet tomorrow as Stoli is going to be microchipped....
 

vanillasugar

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It's funny, I thought about making this poll too!

My kitties are both raw fed almost entirely. The only time they get something else is if I a) forgot to defrost dinner! (hey, it happens!) or b) Nya gets really fussy about a certain meat and needs a little wet food on top to entice her.
 

sharky

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I am so glad I am not the only one forgetting to defrost raw food ...
 

etain

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Originally Posted by sharky

I am so glad I am not the only one forgetting to defrost raw food ...
I probably forget about twice a week on average


That's what canned food is for
 

bengalbabe

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Originally Posted by heidrun

Then again the horse meat is really good for the cats, because the horses in Iceland are basically outside most or all of the year, and they dont eat anything else but vegetatition of the ground or hey so they are like game when you look at the meat. The fat in horse meat isnt hard. .
Im sorry this is hard for me to read, im a serious horse lover. In the states no one eats horse. Actually slaughtering horses in California for human consumption is against the law.
To me eating a horse would be the same as eating a cat!
 

lionessrampant

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I'd try it for my IBD cat if I had two things:
1. A freezer (I have an old vintage frigde where there's a tiny freezer that holds like one ice tray and a pint of ben and jerry's, but that's it)
2. Any counter space in my 7x5 foot kitchen.
 
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