Food4cats raw pet mince - alternative supplier?

paddypaws101

Oops, part 2 below!


'Cats also adore our Cheesy Biscuits and these are available at £2.99 a packet.
All the above costs are exclusive of overnight delivery. This is a flat charge of £10 for up to 30 kilograms and covers most of UK mainland, but there may be circumstances where need to work out an exact price for you.
Which, in a long and rambling way, brings me to our SPECIAL OFFER!
Option one, if you just want to see what our food is like, is this.
We’ll send you a box containing two packets of each of our recipes – in other words 3kg of food made up of the chicken, beef and lamb. Plus we’ll include a packet of Cheesy Biscuits. And we will only charge you £10. That represents a saving of over £15.
Option two, if you are happy to go ahead and order is to give you £15 off your first order providing it is for our minimum of 20kg of food.
I am afraid this email has got a little out of hand! If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to call me on or Ruth on 0844 656 1566 or drop us an email to this address. I hope that all the above will meet with your approval. If anyone needs a raw food top up urgently we do have some additional fresh chicken this Sunday, so could do a mini order to keep you going.
Warmest regards,
Vicky


Vicky Marshall
MD
Darlings Real Dog Food Ltd
07948 976746
www.darlingsrealdogfood.com



PS We always like to have the names of who we are feeding along with details of their medical history, age and gender PLUS if you have one a photograph.'

(Oh and BTW FF, I saw some pics of Noah over on Purrs, the ones from his foster home....and he is ONE HANDSOME boy!)

Fire_Fox

Thanks very much Paddypaws, I can't store twenty kilograms so that is me out! Bit confused what the point of sending the meat out fresh not frozen is, since you have to buy 20kg you'd have to freeze on receipt which means it's spending time at refrigeration temperature for no reason.

"Studies are still ongoing as to whether or not Cats should be fed Hemp seed oil. Cats may lack the enzyme required for metabolizing plant based Omega 6 and may develope a toxicity from it. We advise that you consult your veterinarian prior to supplementing cats with hemp oil." http://www.zoyatreats.com/hempproducts.asp


"Omega-6 Fatty Acids

Linoleic Acid (LA) - short chain; 18:2(n-6)

LA is the most prevalent omega-6 in plant foods and found in most vegetable oils (especially corn, sunflower, "vegetable," soy, and safflower oils)

Arachidonic Acid (AA) - long chain; 20:4(n-6)

AA is found in meat and peanut oil, and is also made from DGLA. AA is converted into series 2 and 4 eicosanoids which are considered bad. (Cats cannot convert LA to AA, which is why they must have AA supplemented in their diet if they are on a vegan diet.)"
http://www.veganhealth.org/articles/fat

paddypaws101

Good points FF, I have passed them back to the supplier.
And I am adding an edit here as I have already had a response!


Thanks so much for this. I'll refer straight back on to our vet, re the hemp oil and respond. But the answer i can give you now is about our food being fresh. The reason we send fresh is so that our customers know it is fresh before they freeze it, a sort of guarantee that it hasn't been hanging around! It proves that our food is not shipped in from abroad too. We have heard many a horror story from people who defrost meat for their dog and it stinks as soon as it is no longer frozen which proves it was well past it's sell by date at point of freezing. We're also happy for customers to share a delivery with other cat owning friends if 20kg won't fit into their own freezer. Many of our dog customers have purchased a cheap second freezer just for their dog food and kept it in the garage.Thank you very much for sending this through, we really appreciate the opportunity to gather feedback and respond accordingly.Speak soon

Quackers

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Thanks very much Paddypaws, I can't store twenty kilograms so that is me out!
[/LIST]

me too

But I do have a small shed type outbuilding with electricity so am hoping to find a chest freezer on freecycle in the near future...

Fingers & toes crossed

Fire_Fox

Thanks again Paddypaws: I have a city centre flat so no garages, space for spare freezer or other raw fed cats around AFAIK! I also dont really like the idea of storing it that long - for me that would be over three months supply if I raw fed daily. Noah currently has the freezer compartment in my mini fridge which would store max 8kg, and I have the separate freezer which is rammed. I'm going to investigate Landywoods, Woldsway and local halal butchers.

rita-rabbit

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Are they just meat or meat and bone?

all mashed up at Blackheath no bone at all: so supplementary if my memory serves me correctly!

Fire_Fox

Been doing some very dull maths ...

Woldsway delivery £7
Rabbit offal £4.48 per kg
Minced bone-in wild rabbit £3.90 per kilo
Minced bone-in farmed rabbit £2.35 per kilo
Minced bone in meaty farmed rabbit £3.70 per kilo

Landywoods minimum order £30: must buy 2.3kg chunky meats or 18kg minced
Chicken wings/ necks/ turkey necks £1.10 per kilo
Chicken carcasses 60p per kilo
Minced beef and kidney 88p per kilo

Durham Animal Feeds: many packs 9kg
Minced rabbit £1.34 per kilo
Rabbit carcass 8 for £18
Minced pheasant 98p per kilo
Pheasant carcass £1.33 per kilo
Chicken wings £1.37 per kilo
Chicken carcass £1.21 per kilo
Duck necks 40 for £8.10
Turkey necks 8 for £7.74

Tesco
Frozen Value chicken portions £1.40 per kilo
Frozen chicken livers £1.96 per kilo
Fresh pigs kidneys £1.42 per kilo
Fresh ox liver £1.64 per kilo
Fresh beef heart £3.29 per kilo

Asda
Fresh SP chicken wings £1.67 per kilo
Fresh pigs liver £1.40 per kilo
Fresh pigs kidneys £1.42 per kilo

"Of this approximatly 10% should be bone, 5 - 10% offal (kidney, liver, spleen, heart is classed as meat) and 80 - 85% meat. These aren't per day proportions as they can be averaged out over a couple of weeks.

Given that a chicken wing is 40% bone 100g of chicken wings (2 of our 2 joint wings) will provide 40g of bone. Based on your cats weight it would need between 13 and 20g of bone per day. So a chicken wing every other day would be more than sufficient. Whole Wild rabbit is about 15% bone when the head, fur and insides are removed."
http://www.petforums.co.uk/cat-health-nutrition/87501-how-get-started-raw-food.html

~Chameleon~

Just out of interest, do those of you feeding these raw diets to your animals, all cook & prepare raw ingredients for your own meals too and only ever eat naturally produced food with absolutely no refined sugars/carbs/fats etc?

Don't forget the human body isn't "designed" to deal with refined carbs, hydrolised fats and all the various chemicals we find daily in processed food

Fire_Fox

Interesting question, Chameleon!

You have an idea of my professional interests from other thread - I try to avoid refined carbohydrates and trans fats, get at least five a day and oily fish in. However I don't pretend not to eat any processed foods - think of baked beans on granary toast! Similarly quite a few of us are not feeding solely raw to our cats - Noah's diet is far from perfect as at present it contains too much fish and I'd prefer the meat to be free-range.

Perhaps the comparison should not only be with what we feed ourselves but also what we would feed our children, as I think many of us feel the same weight of responsibility? I think the big difference is that my favourite foods are pretty junky whereas most of Noah's favourite foods are (I believe) biologically appropriate. :T

Then there is the MSE aspect: looking at the prices per kilogram it is cheaper to feed a 'frankenprey' diet than the higher meat/ lower grain wet and dry pet foods on offer. :money: It becomes more expensive if you have ethical goals, soat some point I will head to Morrisons who only stock British meat and has recently gained Red Tractor status. Be interesting if someone else looked at Sainsburys or M&S.

~Chameleon~

Fire_Fox wrote: »

Interesting question, Chameleon!

It's certainly something which has crossed my mind on several occasions when I've come across these "raw food" threads. I've often wondered whether the same people are as evangelical about feeding themselves, or, as you rightly point out, their own children.

It's something I've certainly been thinking about more recently during my vain attempts at coercing my cats to forego their junk food treats and try one of the "whole meat/fish" foods everyone so highly praises ... yeah right, they're having none of that!! :rotfl:

But, you know what, I asked myself how would I feel if someone came along and took away my occasional chocolate bar, pack of biscuits or cake.... and I'd be thoroughly miserable! I eat a healthy balanced diet the majority of the time so a small treat of junk food isn't going to hurt me.

My cats have a healthy balanced staple diet so s0d it, if they want to eat Whiskas/Felix "junk" food as a treat then so be it!


Oooops didn't mean to go on and not trying to provoke any arguments, just the rambling thoughts of a mad cat woman