Building a raw diet with raw pancreas as the main ingredient

[Cassian]

Hi,

I have a senior cat with exocrine pancreatic insufficiency. Her own pancreas isn't producing the digestive enzymes she needs to absorb food, so every meal, she needs to eat 1oz raw pancreas. (It has to be raw pancreas -- she refuses to eat the powdered enzymes. I buy raw beef pancreas from a local butcher.)

1oz per meal is a lot of raw pancreas -- AND she's a picky eater with a sensitive stomach who never eats more than 2oz at a time -- so I have no choice but to make raw pancreas the main ingredient in her diet. Like, 50% or more of what she eats is raw pancreas.

The trouble is, while I've been able to find great resources on a general raw diet (largely thanks to TheCatSite!), I can't find any information online on how to build a diet on raw pancreas. Apparently EPI is a rare disease in cats.

So...it looks like I'm going to have to wing it. But I thought I'd ask around here for advice and feedback before I do, because I'm new to raw feeding.

My current plan is:

• start with 50% raw pancreas + 50% ground chicken thighs and bones + supplement slurry
• trial and error: add one new ingredient at a time because she's SUPER PICKY!
• avoid canned wet food...she's lost all interest in it since she discovered raw food
• seasoning with brewer's yeast helps her eat sometimes

Thanks!

(Forgot to mention -- the 1oz raw pancreas per meal rule was officially prescribed by a veterinary internist. It's absolutely essential -- before we knew what was wrong with her, she was eating 25-30oz of canned food a day and still losing weight. But by eating raw pancreas, she's back to eating normal amounts of food.)

Sorry -- also forgot to mention she has stage 2 kidney disease.

I'll probably use eggshells over bones for this reason.

(Kidney disease requires low phosphorus, and bones are high in phosphorus. Her EPI is by far the worse disease, so...this won't be a perfect renal diet, but I'll still try to lower phosphorus whenever I have the option to do so.)

 

[Jabzilla]

Hey Cassian,
Perfectly Rawsome has a section on EPI and formulating raw food recopies to help with that. You have to be a member of their site to acess it though. Guidelines for Home Prepared Therapeutic Diets for Dogs & Cats (perfectlyrawsome.com) Raw Fed & Nerdy has a fantastic formulation sheet (I use it for both of my cats) for putting together homemade food from scratch. Beef pancreas should be on there under the beef organ ingredients. You could select that and write how much of it in terms of weight you're using, and it will show you what vitamins and minerals you need to balance it. You can then add whatever other meats (and supplements if needed) you want to add the nutrients that are missing from the pancreas. Raw Fed and Nerdy Formulation Sheet - Raw Fed and Nerdy The sheet will also show you how much phosphorous is in the meat you've picked along with the Ca P ratio (among many other things).

 

[iPappy]

Hey Cassian,
Perfectly Rawsome has a section on EPI and formulating raw food recopies to help with that. You have to be a member of their site to acess it though. Guidelines for Home Prepared Therapeutic Diets for Dogs & Cats (perfectlyrawsome.com) Raw Fed & Nerdy has a fantastic formulation sheet (I use it for both of my cats) for putting together homemade food from scratch. Beef pancreas should be on there under the beef organ ingredients. You could select that and write how much of it in terms of weight you're using, and it will show you what vitamins and minerals you need to balance it. You can then add whatever other meats (and supplements if needed) you want to add the nutrients that are missing from the pancreas. Raw Fed and Nerdy Formulation Sheet - Raw Fed and Nerdy The sheet will also show you how much phosphorous is in the meat you've picked along with the Ca ratio (among many other things).

Awesome info, thanks J Jabzilla !
C Cassian please let us know if you try this. I'd be very interested to see how it works!

 

[Cassian]

Those look like great resources. Thanks! I'll see what I can do.

 

[Jabzilla]

You're welcome, I'm always glad to spread good raw feeding resources!