New to Raw Food

[rmc3]

Hi All

New poster here.  I have never delved much into cat nutrition and diets. I grew up with grocery store dry kibble for our cat, and thought that was a good as it gets. I was happy to find a place with such valuable information and others who think of their cats as more than just a pet.

A little background.  I’ll try not to ramble.  I have three cats; 2 females and 1 male.  We rescued the 2 females from the local humane society four years ago, and the male showed up on our property about 2 years ago (not an uncommon occurrence at our place in the country).  We were never able to find his owners despite contacting local shelters, checking for a chip, posting fliers, etc., so we decided to keep him because he was such a lover and a sweetheart.

From the start one of the females had digestive issues, diagnosed as IBD.  It was suggested that we try a grain free food with a novel protein.  To make a very long story short, we ended up with Natural Balance L.I.D. green pea and duck (dry and we).  This seemed to help her……for a while.  Every few bags it seemed like the food would still cause IBD symptoms to flare up.  It is also higher in carbs than I would like for the other female (who is becoming a little portly).  I began to do research on cat nutrition and found Dr. Pierson’s site, among others.  The raw diet makes complete and total sense, and it is something I have been thinking about for the past few months.  I’ve finally committed to starting the raw diet, especially after finding out that our kitty with IBD also has idiopathic cystitis.  Trying to find a canned food that is grain free, novel protein, low in carbs and free of a few other iffy ingredients had me running in circles, and raw seems so much better. 

I attempted to discuss the new diet with my veterinarian, but it did not go over so well. She kept pushing the fact that it is raw, and the possibility of bacteria.  I have done my research and it seems that it is no more dangerous than some of the regular commercial pet food, especially given recent recalls.  Have any of you run into this problem?  Is it as big of an issue as she is making it out to be?  I’m ordering the meat (rabbit) from Hare Today, and I’ve heard wonderful things about them, so……

I am committed to doing this diet, but I guess I have some nervousness about it as well.   Transitioning the cats will not be a problem since they go half-wild whenever raw meat is around.  Got any other tips for a newbie?

Thanks!

 

[ritz]

Welcome to The Cat Site.

I was a newbie to raw feeding, well, cats, too.

Follow the basic principles/percentages.  Balance over a week's time versus day.  Get a good scale that weighs in .00 grams.  An cube in an ice cube tray holds approximately one ounce of food.  Feed at least three proteins; you can mix proteins in the same meal (e.g., chicken, beef liver, pork kidney, rabbit bone).  Rabbit is a good protein to start with, fairly well tolerated, how about chicken or pork/beef.  Hare Today has good customer service, I presume My Pet Carnivore does too.  (HT is based in the east coast, MPC mid west, so shipping costs are a factor.)  Another source of meat/organs is your local farmers market.  Some vendors feed grass only to their animals, important if your cat has a severe allergy to wheat/corn.  Get to know the vendor, they may be able to save organs they otherwise would throw away, like the head, feet, or pancreas. 

Ritz loves rabbit, but I'm not sure if she loves the taste or because it's relatively low in fat and she needs her MDR in fat or she'll bugg me all night for food. 

Regarding your vet's opinion/advice/feedback:  take what you need and leave the rest.  Most vets have one semester of nutrition in vet school, and may in fact be taught/sponsored by a pet food company like Purina or Hills.  If your vet is concerned about bacteria, then she would not be recommending dry food or some of the other numerous wet foods that have been recalled (high and low quality).  NO studies have shown a human have become sick from feeding their cat raw food; there have been several studies that proved humans got sick from feeding their cat kibble.

Let us know how it goes!

 

[rmc3]

Thank you!

Any experience with constipation issues with the rabbit meat?  I have read some stuff that says that the meat content is high enough compared to bone content, and others that say there is too much bone.  Is it necessary to dilute rabbit meat with non-bone muscle meat?  If so, do it at each meal?  A few meals a week? 

 

[vball91]

I went through exactly the same analysis of commercial canned foods and came to the same conclusion about raw being best. I even had the same conversation with my vet (and am now searching for a new vet). My vet could only repeat the AVMA stance against raw without explaining why. Maybe I am strange, but I have never worried about getting sick myself from handling raw meat. I just never understood how it was any different than normal food preparation. I was slightly concerned about my cat getting sick from the bacteria but it hasn't happened yet.

I think rabbit is a great protein for cats, but variety is important as well, so I would introduce other proteins. 3-5 proteins is the suggested minimum. Are you going to stick with ground from HT or are you also going to venture into prey model raw (frankenprey)?

 

[rmc3]

For now I think I'm just going to do the ground meat from HT. I haven't really heard of the prey model, but it might be something I check out in the future.

Is mixing proteins in the same meal OK, or is it best to keep them separate?

 

[vball91]

In the beginning most introduce new proteins slowly (25%, 50%, 75%, then 100%). If you can do that, great. If not, it's best to keep new proteins separate until you know if your cat has a problem with any of them. Once you know they're fine, it's ok to mix proteins. If you're not familiar with with prey model raw, check out the Resources thread stickied at the top of the Raw Feeding forum. Also www.catcentric.org is good.

 

[rmc3]

I'll check that out. Thank you.

 

[ritz]

I feed whole prey model (frankenprey), so I feed bone separate from kidney/liver/meat.  You can watch your cat's poop consistency; if hard, dilute the rabbit from HT with raw meat.  Ritz is prone to constipation so I feed the low end of recommended percentage of bone.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

I feed whole prey model (frankenprey), so I feed bone separate from kidney/liver/meat.  You can watch your cat's poop consistency; if hard, dilute the rabbit from HT with raw meat.  Ritz is prone to constipation so I feed the low end of recommended percentage of bone.

Well...the raw poop is going to be hard

.  I think what Ritz meant to say is if your furkids seem to be having a hard time going, then you might need to add more meat to the mix.  I used to keep some ground turkey thighs (from Hare today) available to add to whatever they were eating, just in case someone appeared to be constipated.  I would add a little bit to their food once in a great while. 

One of my guys eats  ONLY ground turkey mix, which is higher in bone that I am really comfortable with (close to 15%

), but he still does ok on it

.  I still follow him to the litterbox, though, trying to catch him pooping, just to make sure

.