seeking advice about my cats and the food they eat. Raw Foods?

[I Love My Sailor]

I have 3 beautiful cats that my husband and I adopted a few months ago. We first started feeding them Purina one dry food and nine lives wet food. My husband (el chepo) brought home one day the cheapest cat food he could find. Special Kitty, I started to feel guilty about feeding them that about a week later, so I did a little research and decided that we should be making the food ourselves. My husband and I looked for the best concoction and found the best thing for them is raw foods, chicken, skin,bones,hearts,gizzards,and vitamins like salmon oil B and E complex all grounded up with a meat grinder. We don''t have a grinder yet so we have been leaving out the bones until then but cutting up the food and vitamins into small pieces. There are a couple vitamins we have to order but I forgot the names. We just started feeding them raw food the day before yesterday. what do you feed your cat and are we really doing the best thing for them? One of my cats loves it and the other two pick on it but are not sure, one is crying like mad this morning because he is hungry, I want so bad to give him what he wants but I have not because I don''t want him to stay hooked on the bad stuff. should we keep giving them the raw foods.

 

[Bia]

You might want to try mixing the cat food with a little raw food - slowly decreasing the cat food as you go along. Because raw ingredients will spoil, you can''t leave it out too long, but hopefully you won''t have to.

I don''t have cats, but I do have a dog and she''s been on the raw diet since she''s 6 months old. Honestly, we couldn''t be happier. She is very healthy, has strong teeth, and her breath always smells clean. Our pup didn''t take to it right away - she loved cooked meat lol - but eventually she loved it. We do sautee it a bit, just to make it warm, but that doesn''t cook the bones, so it''s okay.

I stay stick with it. Good luck!

 

[NewEnglandLady]

Unfortunately research on cat nutrition tends to lag about a decade behind research on dog nutrition. Luckily cat owners are finally able to see the advantages of a raw diet. My second dog''s breeder started feeding her cats raw about 15 years ago and will never go back to kibble. There are high-quality dry cat foods out there, however once you go raw, you tend to never go back. Last month when D and I were travelling we had to put our dogs back on Orijen (which is a fantastic kibble) and I could not wait to get back to raw.

There is a distributer called Oma''s Pride that makes pre-packed raw food for cats. We used Oma''s Pride for about 2 months for our dogs and I loved it. We have since started making our own raw foods to cut down on costs, but have often thought about going back to Oma''s pride.

The book that we used to guide us is a book called "Natural Nutrition for Dogs and Cats" by Kymythy Schulz. We used it because she''s a Newfoundland owner (we have 2), however I think you''d find the book very helpful. She provides sample menus and everything you could want to know about raw diets.

Good luck!

 

[movie zombie]

purina and the cheapest you can find is the worst thing one can do for their cat. i'm glad you've educated yourself and have moved on from that.

mz

 

[Haven]

We feed our cats and our dog raw food. We''ve been doing so for over a year and they are extremely healthy, and their coats are unbelievable.

We feed the kitties Nature''s Variety raw.

As for mixing kibble with raw, hopefully someone who is an expert can weigh in on this, however:
I know it is not safe to feed dogs a mix of cooked and raw food at one time because they digest the two types at different rates, and it does something bad to their digestive system. I''m not sure if it''s the same for cats as for dogs, but it''s worth looking into for when you make the switch.
(DH is out of town, but I''ll ask him about this when I speak with him. He''s the one who did all the research on raw when we made the switch.)

 

[Haven]

Also, I could be wrong but if you aren''t feeding them all of the components of a healthy raw diet (including the bones and vitamins) I would not make the switch until you are able to do so. I think you may be doing your cats a disservice by jumping so quickly into a raw diet before you''re able to give them the entirety of what they need.

Look into the pre-ground raw patties for cats, it sounds like that may be your best option.

 

[Haven]

I swear I''m not stalking your thread!

Anyway . . .

Do you have a Kitchen Aid stand mixer? They have a food grinder attachment, I wonder if that would work?

 

[Lynn B]

ILMS,

Congrats on your kitty-family, and kudos to you for wanting to feed them the best that you are able to!

We have discussed cat nutrition here many times (mostly on Hangout, though, I think)... so if you do a search you will find A LOT of valuation information!