OK, the Do's and Dont's will have to come later. :lol3: I've been working today, but have also worked on putting this together all afternoon. :lol3:
So here goes....
So let's work through the raw costs. I don't really have enough info to do more than guess, but we can make that work. I'd need to know which Purina dry food - there are a bunch, and I need some idea of the amount and calories to come up with some kind of better estimate. But raw feeding is usually based on the weight of the cat, factoring in age and level of activity.
So how old is she? How active is she? How much does Luna weigh?
And which Purina do you feed, and how much does the bag weigh?
In the meantime, I can give you SOME idea of how much it will cost to feed raw.
My smallest cat, Flowerbelle, weighs around 7 pounds. She eats 3 ounces of raw food a day. That's 90 ounces a month (a smidge more than 5.5 pounds of raw food a month).
My 10.5 to 13 pound cats all eat about 4.5 ounces of food each per day. That's 135 ounces a month - about 8.5 pounds per month.
So if your cost is $3 per pound of food, then to feed 3 ounces a day, it will cost about $17 a month to feed raw (depending on supplements you chose to add – or not); it would cost about $25.50 if she eats 4.5 ounces a day.
If your cost is $4 per pound of food, then to feed 3 ounces a day will cost $22.50; to feed 4.5 ounces a day will cost $34.
If your cost is $5 per pound of food, then to feed 3 ounces a day will cost about $28 a month; to feed 4.5 ounces a day will cost $42.50.
That holds true no matter what raw food you feed – you just need to calculate the total cost per pound, including shipping if something isn’t available locally. Just translate the price into a per pound cost, and multiply by the number of pounds you’d need to feed based on how many ounces per day she’d need (there are 16 ounces to a pound).
Depending on how you choose to feed raw, you may need to invest in a kitchen scale (they range from like $15 - $25).
To look specifically at some foods:
Rad Cat, one of the highest quality (and most expensive) commercial raw foods costs...
is on sale at http://www.onlynaturalpet.com right now! :lol3:
OK, but at NOT sale prices, it's basically $14.50 for the 24 ounce tubs (1.5 pounds each) on that site. I never fed Rad Cat, I have no idea how that compares to local pricing for most people. :dk:
At 3 ounces per day, you'd need 4 tubs of whatever proteins for the month (technically it would be enough for a month and two days). Including shipping (I used Cleveland, OH to roughly estimate "NE Ohio") the total would be about $87.50. That works out (with shipping) to about $14.60 per pound. No need to bother figuring out how much it would cost to feed 4.5 ounces. :lol3: I don't know how much it costs in stores. There is a 10% discount if you order via onlynaturalpet.com and have autoship set up (which you can change your ship dates or cancel the autoship service). But like I said - Rad Cat, especially if you need it shipped, is usually the most expensive. (BTW, the shipping and handling totaled almost $30).
Less expensive options…
Nature's Variety is the most widely distributed. I live in very rural NJ, and I was able to find it in a "local" pet store (our definition of "local" is within 30-45 minutes :lol3: ). (The chain stores usually don't carry frozen raw foods). Even if you're on a raw food manufacturer website, and you don't see a distributor, it's worth calling around. :nod: The websites aren't always accurate. As mrsgreenjeans pointed out, google to find your locally owned pet stores.
Anyway... wow - they've got lamb and venison in chubs now.
NV frozen raw comes in three formats. Chubs (the cheapest - these look like frozen sausages. With a sharp knife, for feeding one cat it's easy to just "saw" off what you need and dethaw that). They also have bags of patties - these look like frozen hamburgers. The NV patties are 8 oz each, so for one cat, you just dethaw half of a patty of several different proteins, and you're good to go for meals for a day or two. NV also has medallions - these cost a lot more than the other styles. These are 2 ounce small round thingies. For people feeding in multiples of 2 ounces, it's real easy. :lol3: OK! Now there's apparently a new style - "bites." No idea what this is, but I'm seeing them at http://www.petfooddirect.com. They have a wider variety of proteins and styles for the NV frozen raw stuff there - but no chubs. Also, FYI, the petfooddirect.com autoship option results in a 15% discount on all the food vs the 10% at onlynaturalpet.com.
So cheapest are the chicken chubs. They're $7.49 for the 2 pound chubs without autoship discount at onlynaturalpet.com. If I remember correctly, we paid $5 per 2 pound chub in the store. Lamb is... $10.49 for 2 pounds. Oh - the chicken is $16.99 for 5 pounds. That sounds more like it. :lol3: You don't want to feed just chicken. When feeding raw, it is best to rotate several proteins. I'm going to select a range of options at onlynaturalpet.com, figure out how much it all costs shipped to Cleveland, and then just divide that number per pound, OK? So in the shopping cart is the 5 pound chicken chub, a 2 pound lamb chub (only because they don’t have a 5 pound option for sale there), and a 5 pound beef chub. That's enough for 2+ months if she's eating 3 ounces a day. The total is $82.81 for 12 pounds of raw food (of that, almost $32 is shipping and handling). Including shipping, that’s $6.90 a pound. So at 5.5 pounds for the month, the month would cost about $38 (if she's eating 3 ounces a day), and about $59 a month if she's eating 4.5 ounces a day (8.5 pounds of food a month).
If you can find it locally (and it will likely be less expensive in the store), without shipping that’s $4.25 a pound ($51 for 12 pounds of raw food). That works out to $24 a month if she eats 3 ounces a day, and $36 a month if she eats 4.5 ounces a day.
Another quick and easy option that may be less expensive, although it requires shipping is http://www.hare-today.com Tracy’s farm is in western PA – NO idea if you’re close enough to drive and pick it up or not. But assuming not, her shipping is typically really reasonable. And she has a HUGE variety of whole ground animal mixes to choose from. To make the food “complete and balanced” like the other commercial raw foods already are, you add a supplement from her site called Alnutrin for meat/bones/organs.
It requires one little scoop per pound. What those of us who use it do are dethaw the 2 pound chubs (takes about an hour if immersed in a bowl of cold water), dump them in a bowl, mix in the alnutrin, and then package them up into meal-sized portions and refreeze them.
Let’s use a variety of proteins. I’ll put chicken, turkey, rabbit, pork and lamb in the basket. And the Alnutrin. Now – I chose the large Alnutrin, which works for 30 pounds of meat, but I put 10 pounds of meat into the basket. The 10 pounds of frozen meats cost $31.70. The shipping for everything (to Cleveland) is $18.47 FedEx 2-day. The large Alnutrin costs $22.99 – but it’s for 30 pounds of food. For just 10 pounds, the portion of Alnutrin used costs $7.66. So the 10 pounds of meat, shipped and supplemented, costs $57.83. 10 pounds is more than you need even if feeding 4.5 ounces a day. So the total is $5.78 per pound (shipped and supplemented). If feeding 3 ounces a day, the total is about $32.50 per month (about 5.5 pounds needed a month); if feeding 4.5 ounces a day, the total is about $49 per month (about 8.5 pounds needed a month).
Of course, you can control that cost by not ordering the more expensive rabbit or lamb, and ordering the less expensive beef or something instead. :nod:
If you chose to make homemade (frankenprey or ground), your cost of feeding is usually less, and you control the cost you pay per pound of stuff (if you want to feed ground, you’d have to buy a grinder, and those are a big up front cost). If you buy chicken breast or pork on sale for $1.99 (what I usually pay for those) that brings the cost down a LOT. I do order hearts (duck $2.80 a pound; turkey $2.50 a pound), beef kidney ($1.85 a pound), and turkey thigh chunks ($4.00 a pound) from Hare Today. I buy enough at one time that shipping usually adds less than $1 per pound to the cost.
In the end, it costs me less to feed raw than to feed a high quality canned. That’s one of the reasons I switched.
Do's and Dont's later. :lol3:
So here goes....
:lol3: Aw thanks. :blush2:
Feeding a higher quality diet is going to cost more than that, no matter what it is, sorry! Even if you wanted to switch to a low-end all canned diet – that $0.75 per can would work out to $22.50 a month (most adult cats eat about one 5.5 ounce can of food a day). If you wanted to improve her overall diet, and move her to higher quality canned only, assuming she’d need that one 5.5 ounce can of food a day, let's say you switch to a rotation of By Nature 95% meat and Nature’s Variety Instinct foods at about $1 or $1.25 a can. That would be about $34 a month. Even if it’s just the By Nature 95% meat at $1 a can, that’s $30 a month.
So let's work through the raw costs. I don't really have enough info to do more than guess, but we can make that work. I'd need to know which Purina dry food - there are a bunch, and I need some idea of the amount and calories to come up with some kind of better estimate. But raw feeding is usually based on the weight of the cat, factoring in age and level of activity.
So how old is she? How active is she? How much does Luna weigh?
And which Purina do you feed, and how much does the bag weigh?
In the meantime, I can give you SOME idea of how much it will cost to feed raw.
My smallest cat, Flowerbelle, weighs around 7 pounds. She eats 3 ounces of raw food a day. That's 90 ounces a month (a smidge more than 5.5 pounds of raw food a month).
My 10.5 to 13 pound cats all eat about 4.5 ounces of food each per day. That's 135 ounces a month - about 8.5 pounds per month.
So if your cost is $3 per pound of food, then to feed 3 ounces a day, it will cost about $17 a month to feed raw (depending on supplements you chose to add – or not); it would cost about $25.50 if she eats 4.5 ounces a day.
If your cost is $4 per pound of food, then to feed 3 ounces a day will cost $22.50; to feed 4.5 ounces a day will cost $34.
If your cost is $5 per pound of food, then to feed 3 ounces a day will cost about $28 a month; to feed 4.5 ounces a day will cost $42.50.
That holds true no matter what raw food you feed – you just need to calculate the total cost per pound, including shipping if something isn’t available locally. Just translate the price into a per pound cost, and multiply by the number of pounds you’d need to feed based on how many ounces per day she’d need (there are 16 ounces to a pound).
Depending on how you choose to feed raw, you may need to invest in a kitchen scale (they range from like $15 - $25).
To look specifically at some foods:
Rad Cat, one of the highest quality (and most expensive) commercial raw foods costs...
is on sale at http://www.onlynaturalpet.com right now! :lol3: OK, but at NOT sale prices, it's basically $14.50 for the 24 ounce tubs (1.5 pounds each) on that site. I never fed Rad Cat, I have no idea how that compares to local pricing for most people. :dk:
At 3 ounces per day, you'd need 4 tubs of whatever proteins for the month (technically it would be enough for a month and two days). Including shipping (I used Cleveland, OH to roughly estimate "NE Ohio") the total would be about $87.50. That works out (with shipping) to about $14.60 per pound. No need to bother figuring out how much it would cost to feed 4.5 ounces. :lol3: I don't know how much it costs in stores. There is a 10% discount if you order via onlynaturalpet.com and have autoship set up (which you can change your ship dates or cancel the autoship service). But like I said - Rad Cat, especially if you need it shipped, is usually the most expensive. (BTW, the shipping and handling totaled almost $30).
Less expensive options…
Nature's Variety is the most widely distributed. I live in very rural NJ, and I was able to find it in a "local" pet store (our definition of "local" is within 30-45 minutes :lol3: ). (The chain stores usually don't carry frozen raw foods). Even if you're on a raw food manufacturer website, and you don't see a distributor, it's worth calling around. :nod: The websites aren't always accurate. As mrsgreenjeans pointed out, google to find your locally owned pet stores.
Anyway... wow - they've got lamb and venison in chubs now.
NV frozen raw comes in three formats. Chubs (the cheapest - these look like frozen sausages. With a sharp knife, for feeding one cat it's easy to just "saw" off what you need and dethaw that). They also have bags of patties - these look like frozen hamburgers. The NV patties are 8 oz each, so for one cat, you just dethaw half of a patty of several different proteins, and you're good to go for meals for a day or two. NV also has medallions - these cost a lot more than the other styles. These are 2 ounce small round thingies. For people feeding in multiples of 2 ounces, it's real easy. :lol3: OK! Now there's apparently a new style - "bites." No idea what this is, but I'm seeing them at http://www.petfooddirect.com. They have a wider variety of proteins and styles for the NV frozen raw stuff there - but no chubs. Also, FYI, the petfooddirect.com autoship option results in a 15% discount on all the food vs the 10% at onlynaturalpet.com.
So cheapest are the chicken chubs. They're $7.49 for the 2 pound chubs without autoship discount at onlynaturalpet.com. If I remember correctly, we paid $5 per 2 pound chub in the store. Lamb is... $10.49 for 2 pounds. Oh - the chicken is $16.99 for 5 pounds. That sounds more like it. :lol3: You don't want to feed just chicken. When feeding raw, it is best to rotate several proteins. I'm going to select a range of options at onlynaturalpet.com, figure out how much it all costs shipped to Cleveland, and then just divide that number per pound, OK? So in the shopping cart is the 5 pound chicken chub, a 2 pound lamb chub (only because they don’t have a 5 pound option for sale there), and a 5 pound beef chub. That's enough for 2+ months if she's eating 3 ounces a day. The total is $82.81 for 12 pounds of raw food (of that, almost $32 is shipping and handling). Including shipping, that’s $6.90 a pound. So at 5.5 pounds for the month, the month would cost about $38 (if she's eating 3 ounces a day), and about $59 a month if she's eating 4.5 ounces a day (8.5 pounds of food a month).
If you can find it locally (and it will likely be less expensive in the store), without shipping that’s $4.25 a pound ($51 for 12 pounds of raw food). That works out to $24 a month if she eats 3 ounces a day, and $36 a month if she eats 4.5 ounces a day.
Another quick and easy option that may be less expensive, although it requires shipping is http://www.hare-today.com Tracy’s farm is in western PA – NO idea if you’re close enough to drive and pick it up or not. But assuming not, her shipping is typically really reasonable. And she has a HUGE variety of whole ground animal mixes to choose from. To make the food “complete and balanced” like the other commercial raw foods already are, you add a supplement from her site called Alnutrin for meat/bones/organs.
It requires one little scoop per pound. What those of us who use it do are dethaw the 2 pound chubs (takes about an hour if immersed in a bowl of cold water), dump them in a bowl, mix in the alnutrin, and then package them up into meal-sized portions and refreeze them. Let’s use a variety of proteins. I’ll put chicken, turkey, rabbit, pork and lamb in the basket. And the Alnutrin. Now – I chose the large Alnutrin, which works for 30 pounds of meat, but I put 10 pounds of meat into the basket. The 10 pounds of frozen meats cost $31.70. The shipping for everything (to Cleveland) is $18.47 FedEx 2-day. The large Alnutrin costs $22.99 – but it’s for 30 pounds of food. For just 10 pounds, the portion of Alnutrin used costs $7.66. So the 10 pounds of meat, shipped and supplemented, costs $57.83. 10 pounds is more than you need even if feeding 4.5 ounces a day. So the total is $5.78 per pound (shipped and supplemented). If feeding 3 ounces a day, the total is about $32.50 per month (about 5.5 pounds needed a month); if feeding 4.5 ounces a day, the total is about $49 per month (about 8.5 pounds needed a month).
Of course, you can control that cost by not ordering the more expensive rabbit or lamb, and ordering the less expensive beef or something instead. :nod:
If you chose to make homemade (frankenprey or ground), your cost of feeding is usually less, and you control the cost you pay per pound of stuff (if you want to feed ground, you’d have to buy a grinder, and those are a big up front cost). If you buy chicken breast or pork on sale for $1.99 (what I usually pay for those) that brings the cost down a LOT. I do order hearts (duck $2.80 a pound; turkey $2.50 a pound), beef kidney ($1.85 a pound), and turkey thigh chunks ($4.00 a pound) from Hare Today. I buy enough at one time that shipping usually adds less than $1 per pound to the cost.
In the end, it costs me less to feed raw than to feed a high quality canned. That’s one of the reasons I switched.
Do's and Dont's later. :lol3:
But I see no reason for concern in feeding commercial pork to my kitties.
I'd actually forgotten is was called Pseudorabies until I went to look for when the last reported case in the U.S. was. It is called both names here, you didn't use the wrong name. 
