Raw Food

Flick216

I tried my cats out on some raw food recently - I used Purrform (I think it's called) They really enjoyed the chicken but wouldn't touch the rabbit.

If you feed you cats a raw diet, where do you get it from - who do you recommend.

Do you feed them an exclusive raw diet or a mix of raw and dried?

GwylimT

We make our own and use west fife raw feeds, some of the purrform isn't complete, sadly rabbit farms make chicken farms look ethical.

Flick216

GwylimT wrote: »

We make our own and use west fife raw feeds, some of the purrform isn't complete, sadly rabbit farms make chicken farms look ethical.

Thanks - I am a raw food virgin. What do you out in your home made raw food?

paddypaws101

I would not jump into making it yourself until you have done a lot of research and study.
For now you can choose from
http://www.nutriment.co/
http://www.naturalinstinct.com/raw-cat-food
http://www.naturesmenu.co.uk/category-raw-cat-food.aspx

GwylimT

Flick216 wrote: »

Thanks - I am a raw food virgin. What do you out in your home made raw food?

Lots! You also need a very large freezer and a very good quality meat and bone grinder, along with a good balance and decent maths skills, getting the percentages slightly wrong can lead to a very ill cat.

West fife do the best raw foods.

If you email natural instinct they will often send a 5kg trial pack, you would however need to add muscle meat as they contain too much bone which can cause constipation and issues urinating.

Flick216

GwylimT wrote: »

Lots! You also need a very large freezer and a very good quality meat and bone grinder, along with a good balance and decent maths skills, getting the percentages slightly wrong can lead to a very ill cat.

West fife do the best raw foods.

If you email natural instinct they will often send a 5kg trial pack, you would however need to add muscle meat as they contain too much bone which can cause constipation and issues urinating.

paddypaws101 wrote: »

I would not jump into making it yourself until you have done a lot of research and study.
For now you can choose from
http://www.nutriment.co/
http://www.naturalinstinct.com/raw-cat-food
http://www.naturesmenu.co.uk/category-raw-cat-food.aspx

Well looking at Gwylim's post I certainly won't!!

I will try some of the ones you have both suggested.

Many thanks for the information.

Lil_Dee_2

Hi Flick,


I started to feed my two a raw diet about 18months ago now. I don't include bone (as is recommended) as one of them simply won't eat it, and the other has had issues with pancreatitis, which means all her food now needs to have enzymes sprinkled into it (not so easy to add to a bone !!)

To combat the lack of bone, I use a powdered additive called Felini Complete, which has a number of vitamins and minerals incorporated in it - meaning I don't have to worry too much about things like Taurine levels (which can cause major issue for your cat if under-provided).

The freezer part is a definite requirement, I have had to adjust the way I shop to store it once mixed up and bagged !!

As for where I get it from - I buy it all from the local supermarkets (here in the UK). Most places now sell the heart and kidney I need to add to chunked and minced meat to provide a perfect diet for my girls.

Don't be too afraid to make the leap - a little bit of time invested in some of the more educational web sites will provide your cat with a much better diet.

One thing to note - if you do convert to raw, then do not feed raw plus biscuits - the raw food is much more easily digested than biscuits (which contains lots of unnecessary additives), which can then cause blockages due to digestion times (at least that's how I read it)

I have to have my poorly girl checked out regularly, and my vet kindly did a full blood work on her as part of this check up to ensure that the new diet was OK, and all results came back just fine.

Hope this helps you out a little.

rita-rabbit

Ditch the dried. Even the best is processed rubbish & cats never make up the liquid shortfall with water