Hello! Cat owner looking become a better guardian

[KittyNic]

  to Purrs! :-)

[Janeyk]

  to Purrs

[hollycat]

Hello and  to Purrs.

You have got me thinking now (and it hurts  )

[ydobrrup]

My cats have been eating both raw and dry food I don't feed wet its to hard on there teeth I started them at a young age an rukia I started with chicken an chicken broth that's how I have got mine to eat raw.

[bickhamwitch]

LOL. Close up moths and butterflies do look a bit powdery. And the wings must be like eating bits of cloth.
Julie.

[Gill (sneakiefeline)]

Mine wont eat raw bit Lupin caught and ate a cabbage white today and kept spitting out the wi ngs 

[bickhamwitch]

I switched ours to raw as adults. Alfie was only about 2 years but will eat anything. Cleo was more like 11 - 12 years and is very picky but she took to raw very well. There is some info here about switching over http://www.nurturingbynature.co.uk/category_s/1819.htm  This company is local to me so I use them for all our cat food, mainly chicken and chicken mixes with beef once a week, chunks for Alfie, very finely chopped for Cleo who doesn't have many teeth (but adores both beef and venison!).

On tinned food, Cleo used to have the smelliest poo imaginable  Cats fed on raw food tend to have stools that are firm, dry and much less smelly!

LOL. Snap! I use nurturing by nature. I used to use woldsway. But they said they were retiring, so I had to switch.
Julie.

[bickhamwitch]

How did you get on with yours Julie - have they always eaten raw, or had they previously eaten canned/dried and if so how did the switch over go?

Sue I had no trouble with any of mine. They just took to it straight away. But I used to belong to the yahoo group rawcat, and a lot of people had trouble converting their older cats. Some even gave up in the end as you can't starve a cat into eating something. They soon go into liver failure if starved for over two days.
Julie.

[bickhamwitch]

I had never even thought of feeding raw to my cats, it makes a lot of sense though as that is obviously what they eat if they were in the wild. I'll have to do some more research on this. Are there many benefits to the cats eating like this?

The best thing any one can do always is research, and lots of it. Like most subjects, there is a lot of wrong information on the internet about raw feeding. And as for the benefits. Well there are plenty. Health being the main one. Plus as Slugsta states, small non smelly stools. In the wild cats eat meat. Not cooked processed muck full of carbs and veggies which they can't digest. Hence disgusting large smelly soft stools when fed a commercial diet. After pet food was introduced as a way of making money from food unfit for human consumption, well that was when the vets started to make a lot of money from cats with diabetes, IBS, cancer and thyroid problems. Vets and commercial pet food companies make a lot of money out of pets made sick from eating a diet not suitable for them. Vets get little training in nutrition. But are paid big bonuses by pet food companies to sell their so called science diets. Mother nature fed cats thousands of years before pet food company parasites came along.
Julie.

[Lyn (Slugsta)]

I switched ours to raw as adults. Alfie was only about 2 years but will eat anything. Cleo was more like 11 - 12 years and is very picky but she took to raw very well. There is some info here about switching over http://www.nurturingbynature.co.uk/category_s/1819.htm  This company is local to me so I use them for all our cat food, mainly chicken and chicken mixes with beef once a week, chunks for Alfie, very finely chopped for Cleo who doesn't have many teeth (but adores both beef and venison!).

On tinned food, Cleo used to have the smelliest poo imaginable  Cats fed on raw food tend to have stools that are firm, dry and much less smelly!

[Sue P (Paddysmum)]

How did you get on with yours Julie - have they always eaten raw, or had they previously eaten canned/dried and if so how did the switch over go?

[housecat]

I had never even thought of feeding raw to my cats, it makes a lot of sense though as that is obviously what they eat if they were in the wild. I'll have to do some more research on this. Are there many benefits to the cats eating like this?

[bickhamwitch]

Apologies - I was having to work (impossible idea!) and didnt get around to finding a link for you, but better yet - bickhamwitch may let us pick her brains.   

I love the idea of a raw food diet, but convenience wise it seems so much trickier - much trickier, because I understand about the need for organ meat etcetera, and it seems worrying as to how to get the balance nutritionally great. 

The amount of cereal and filler carb in proprietary feed is alarming, coonsidering our cats dont need carbs in those quantities.

Yes only too willing to have my brains (cell!) picked about raw feeding. After ten years of feeding raw, and doing lots of research, I would never go back to feeding any other way.
Julie.

[Sue P (Paddysmum)]

Apologies - I was having to work (impossible idea!) and didnt get around to finding a link for you, but better yet - bickhamwitch may let us pick her brains.   

I love the idea of a raw food diet, but convenience wise it seems so much trickier - much trickier, because I understand about the need for organ meat etcetera, and it seems worrying as to how to get the balance nutritionally great. 

The amount of cereal and filler carb in proprietary feed is alarming, coonsidering our cats dont need carbs in those quantities.

[bickhamwitch]

Now this is interesting. I have been feeding raw for ten years now. I feed no commercial at all. Just meat, bones and offal.
Must take a look at other posts on raw.
Julie.

[Sam (Fussy_Furball)]

 

If you click on the Search button and type *raw food* in the search box ... you will find several threads on raw feeding 

[Sue P (Paddysmum)]

Tan, Purrs founder, has done some good research in this respect.  Am on kindle right now but will try to find d you Tans posts on a raw food diet.

[Lyn (Slugsta)]

Hi and  to Purrs,

I can't answer many of your questions but I can tell you that I feed our 2 (one fussy little madam who knows what she likes and won't eat much else and one big lad who loves his food) on raw and they cost me about £1 a day between them.

[MissBubblegum]

Hello everyone.  let me start by introducing my babies, I have 3 cats names Scarlet (4), Max (5) and Daisy (6).  All are rescues and have different personality.  Scarlet is a little bit of a spoilt brat which is my fault, but she was so undernourished and unhealthy when I got her that I couldn't help it.  Max is very played back and loves a cuddle. Daisy is very lazy and likes a nice long nap and loves sitting on laps.

I always though I was a good cat owner u til I found out about what is really in cat food, and then I realised how wrong I was and that I was doing no good for them.  It made me sad.  And as I researched more I learned so much that was just wrong at I always though was fine because the adverts say so.  How dumb could I be.

I joined here to learn more, and be the best guardian I can be. 

I have a few a few immediate questions. First, what is needed in grediant wise for a raw food diet? Where can I get the items needed (UK)? And how much do you think, rougghly it will cost to feed 3 adults?  At the moment I feed them Porta 21, which I know is not the worst food ever, but its not the best. Thanks.