So I've been feeding my cats a half raw diet for some time now, I don't remember when I started but I think it's been about a year now. I've been following this recipe - Feline Nutrition - Feline Nutrition's Easy Homemade Cat Food Recipe | Hare Today
I was under the impression that supplements absolutely need to be used when making raw food for cats, unless you are feeding whole prey. However, I recently joined a raw feeding facebook group for cats and that group does not support supplements at all. Their outline is this: 70 to 80% muscle meat, 10 to 20% bone, 10% organ meat.
Regarding organ meat, either 10% liver or 5% liver and 5% a different secreting organ.
Regarding muscle meat, as long as you feed hard working muscle meat there will be sufficient taurine in the meals, so you do not need extra taurine supplements. It's just important not to use rabbit and I think chicken breast as the main muscle meat, since those are too low in taurine. They say those are fine occasionally but not long term since the taurine content will be too low in those meats.
Then sardines and eggs can also be added additonally to the recipe if desired.
So now I'm confused, because I thought supplements were mandatory for raw cat recipes. I've been adding vitamins, fish oil, taurine, and salt to my cats raw food, but this group is saying that thats unnecessary if you're using the right meat and ratios. It's just hard to me to imagine that one type of muscle meat + bone and only one organ (liver) is enough to be considered a balanced recipe. I would love to use a simpler recipe, that would make things so much easier and faster for me, but I'm just confused about whether the outline above can truly be considered a balanced meal.
For example, this is one recipe the group shares (I think the simplest recipe they have)
- 2.5 lbs of chicken wings
- 4.4 pounds of any boneless meat except rabbit or chicken breast
- 0.77lb of any liver
Is this truly balanced??
To compare, here is the recipe I am used to using, from the link at the start of my post:
- 4.5 pounds chicken thighs with bone. Remove about 20 to 25% of the bone from the total amount of meat used. Remove the skin from half of the thighs.
- 7 ounces raw chicken liver
- 14 ounces raw chicken heart. If you can't source chicken heart, then substitute with 4000 mg Taurine. If you do omit raw heart, remember to make up the missing 14 ounces of heart with additional chicken thigh meat.
- 8 ounces water.
- 4 raw egg yolks
- 2000 mg Taurine
- 4000 mg wild salmon or wild caught small fish oil
- 200 mg Vitamin B Complex
- 200 IU Vitamin E
- 1 ½ teaspoons Lite Iodized Salt
After using so many supplements, I find it hard to believe that a 2 ingredient recipe is balanced. So I just want some more opinions here. Is the facebook group correct in saying that supplements aren't truly necessary if you have the right type of meat and ratios? Or is the group incorrect?
I was under the impression that supplements absolutely need to be used when making raw food for cats, unless you are feeding whole prey. However, I recently joined a raw feeding facebook group for cats and that group does not support supplements at all. Their outline is this: 70 to 80% muscle meat, 10 to 20% bone, 10% organ meat.
Regarding organ meat, either 10% liver or 5% liver and 5% a different secreting organ.
Regarding muscle meat, as long as you feed hard working muscle meat there will be sufficient taurine in the meals, so you do not need extra taurine supplements. It's just important not to use rabbit and I think chicken breast as the main muscle meat, since those are too low in taurine. They say those are fine occasionally but not long term since the taurine content will be too low in those meats.
Then sardines and eggs can also be added additonally to the recipe if desired.
So now I'm confused, because I thought supplements were mandatory for raw cat recipes. I've been adding vitamins, fish oil, taurine, and salt to my cats raw food, but this group is saying that thats unnecessary if you're using the right meat and ratios. It's just hard to me to imagine that one type of muscle meat + bone and only one organ (liver) is enough to be considered a balanced recipe. I would love to use a simpler recipe, that would make things so much easier and faster for me, but I'm just confused about whether the outline above can truly be considered a balanced meal.
For example, this is one recipe the group shares (I think the simplest recipe they have)
- 2.5 lbs of chicken wings
- 4.4 pounds of any boneless meat except rabbit or chicken breast
- 0.77lb of any liver
Is this truly balanced??
To compare, here is the recipe I am used to using, from the link at the start of my post:
- 4.5 pounds chicken thighs with bone. Remove about 20 to 25% of the bone from the total amount of meat used. Remove the skin from half of the thighs.
- 7 ounces raw chicken liver
- 14 ounces raw chicken heart. If you can't source chicken heart, then substitute with 4000 mg Taurine. If you do omit raw heart, remember to make up the missing 14 ounces of heart with additional chicken thigh meat.
- 8 ounces water.
- 4 raw egg yolks
- 2000 mg Taurine
- 4000 mg wild salmon or wild caught small fish oil
- 200 mg Vitamin B Complex
- 200 IU Vitamin E
- 1 ½ teaspoons Lite Iodized Salt
After using so many supplements, I find it hard to believe that a 2 ingredient recipe is balanced. So I just want some more opinions here. Is the facebook group correct in saying that supplements aren't truly necessary if you have the right type of meat and ratios? Or is the group incorrect?