- Joined
- Aug 27, 2013
- Messages
- 41
- Purraise
- 11
Hi! I haven't posted here for awhile. I'm returning because I needs some thoughts from everyone. I'm so sorry that I'm long-winded!
Background: I have two kitties ~4 years old, who both were started on raw food right after adoption as kittens. They have thrived on it; they have gorgeous coats and musculature. I fed RadCat exclusively for most of that time, but when they started high pressure pasteurizing their poultry, nothing I could do would get them to eat it. We started feeding Darwin's Pet raw, which initially I was pleased with, but as we've been buying it over the last year I've had growing concerns with ingredients and quality. This includes but isn't limited to the product varying extensively in color, texture, and smell between batches, and website ingredients listing "thigh meat," but the package only reading "meat." They have also changed the recipes in what I feel represents a cheapening of the product. The cats, too, noticed, refusing to eat food from one batch, but fine with another. You can see where this would disturb me - what are they smelling that I can't?
I have started making my own cat food. I use a grinder because that is what they are used to - for now, maybe we can advance to chunks. I should note that I am a dietitian with a degree in nutritional science so reading recipes that say to remove x percent of bone drives me a little crazy.
I'm looking at recipes from Dr. Pierson and Feline-Nutrition.org and approximating the percentages of bone/meat/organs therein and I am not coming out at the much-cited 80-10-10. I ended up deboning my turkey, weighing it all separately, then calculating the amount of everything I'd need to hit those ratios. I ended up with liver at roughly 5%, bone roughly 10%, and then the rest hearts plus other muscle meat.
So I guess my question is this, how do you all ensure that you are achieving a somewhat precise nutritional profile? Is there a good reference for this ideal profile besides recipes? I've noticed that RadCat, for example, doesn't include added vitamins/salt except manganese. Darwin's Pet has a slew of vitamins and minerals and includes hearts as an "organ." I also read that mice are 4% bone, so why are we trying to hit 10%? Dr. Pierson (I believe) has stated that she removes 50% of the bone now - I haven't done the math to estimate on what percentage that lands. Is the ratio only applicable as a percent of total food weight (so including water, egg, etc)?
It's funny because I am not that precise with human diets (with the exception of high-performing athletes) so my obsession with "getting it right" here is a little bonkers. The cats have also been unimpressed with my food so far, so all of this drama may be a moot point.
At the end of the day I'm still trying to clone RadCat because man oh man, they were addicted to it until the HPP started.
Background: I have two kitties ~4 years old, who both were started on raw food right after adoption as kittens. They have thrived on it; they have gorgeous coats and musculature. I fed RadCat exclusively for most of that time, but when they started high pressure pasteurizing their poultry, nothing I could do would get them to eat it. We started feeding Darwin's Pet raw, which initially I was pleased with, but as we've been buying it over the last year I've had growing concerns with ingredients and quality. This includes but isn't limited to the product varying extensively in color, texture, and smell between batches, and website ingredients listing "thigh meat," but the package only reading "meat." They have also changed the recipes in what I feel represents a cheapening of the product. The cats, too, noticed, refusing to eat food from one batch, but fine with another. You can see where this would disturb me - what are they smelling that I can't?
I have started making my own cat food. I use a grinder because that is what they are used to - for now, maybe we can advance to chunks. I should note that I am a dietitian with a degree in nutritional science so reading recipes that say to remove x percent of bone drives me a little crazy.
I'm looking at recipes from Dr. Pierson and Feline-Nutrition.org and approximating the percentages of bone/meat/organs therein and I am not coming out at the much-cited 80-10-10. I ended up deboning my turkey, weighing it all separately, then calculating the amount of everything I'd need to hit those ratios. I ended up with liver at roughly 5%, bone roughly 10%, and then the rest hearts plus other muscle meat.
So I guess my question is this, how do you all ensure that you are achieving a somewhat precise nutritional profile? Is there a good reference for this ideal profile besides recipes? I've noticed that RadCat, for example, doesn't include added vitamins/salt except manganese. Darwin's Pet has a slew of vitamins and minerals and includes hearts as an "organ." I also read that mice are 4% bone, so why are we trying to hit 10%? Dr. Pierson (I believe) has stated that she removes 50% of the bone now - I haven't done the math to estimate on what percentage that lands. Is the ratio only applicable as a percent of total food weight (so including water, egg, etc)?
It's funny because I am not that precise with human diets (with the exception of high-performing athletes) so my obsession with "getting it right" here is a little bonkers. The cats have also been unimpressed with my food so far, so all of this drama may be a moot point.
At the end of the day I'm still trying to clone RadCat because man oh man, they were addicted to it until the HPP started.