more questions about starting raw food

This is a dedicated place for all of your questions and answers about Raw Diets. There are also some really cool groups like "Raw Fed" on the topic you can join. This forum is for people who already know they like the raw diet or sincerely want to learn more. Please remember that you are receiving advice from peers and not professionals. If you have specific health-related questions about your cat's diet, please contact your vet!

Max

The Gentle Giant

Purred: Mon Jun 25, '07 9:10pm PST


	What type of meat is better to start with? I'm sure it depends on what we kitties like, but just wondering if one meat is better to start with than another. Mom tried feeding us lean ground beef since we love any kind of beef wet canned food. We all sniffed at the bowls and walked away. Then mom tried mixing in a small can of wet food into the ground beef. It was a 50/50 mix. That got us eating, but mostly we just nibbled for a couple of minutes. Then I got sick. I threw up all over the bed. By the looks of it, I threw up the raw food. Dad just got the food from the grocery store. And it went directly into our bowls. So the food wasn't sitting out all day long or anything. Mom tried feeding us the ground beef again the next day. This time mixed with a different flavor wet food. My brother and I nibbled again. My sister turned her nose up at it and walked away. And then I threw up again, right next to the bowl. Is beef too much too fast? Or is buying beef that is already ground bad? Mom wants to get a meat grinder, but doesn't want to spend the $100 if we can't or won't eat raw. Mom has read Nature's Variety mentioned all over these message boards, but they're a bit pricey for us. Our local pet stores don't sell it. We'd have to go to a pampered pup shop to get it, where everything is overpriced. Any advice?

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KarmaSutra

Scratch RIGHT- here!!!

Purred: Mon Jun 25, '07 10:50pm PST


	Chicken is usually better to start with. The beef may be too rich. Go slow and stick with one protien source till your tummies get use to it. Another thing that might help is to warm it up a little in a warm water bath before feeding. Us kitties are more finicky about food temp.None of us would eat the NV medallions. We eat primarly chicken and fish. We do get elk fairly often.

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♥- KODY- ♥

I HAD AN ONLINE- LOVE AFFAIR

Purred: Wed Jul 25, '07 9:23am PST


	Hiya!! I've been trying to get my kidz on RAW but they're sooo angry & on a hunger strike now....so I had to cave & give them Fancy Feast again!! AArrggh! I've been searching for weeks for a different option. I have had to keep the RECALL list on hand and narrow my choices down over & over, then I checked with each individual company I was interested in to make certain they had no recalled foods. Finally, I have found 3 companies I feel good about, regarding great nutritional content as well as no grains, no wheat or corn or rice gluten, etc. as well as none of them has ever been recalled. One of them was "Nature's Variety" that you mentioned! I found a website called PetFoodDirect.com and I ordered it there reasonably priced. I also ordered "Wellness" brand thru that site, I ordered cans and the "Wellness CORE" dry kibble. It's on special right now for a #2 lb. sample sized bag for $7.49. Raw is best but these cans & dry I got look to be the next best thing, nutritionally. I even ordered them cans of rabbit, from Nature's Varity & it contains 95% rabbit meat!! Lol the boys are (hopefully) gonna love it! I spent LESS on all this than what I usually spend at Walmart for food that isn't nutritionally sound by any means. I wish you the very best with this...I know it's horribly stressful trying to find safe foods for our beloved kids! I have been a wreck, desperately searching and have spent almost all my time online, reading up on all this stuff & doing research until my eyeballs are bleedin! Lol! I just ordered all this food this morning after I finally completed my weeks long research and should receive it in about 5 days. I'll let you know how they like it. I got a total of #2 lbs. dry Wellness CORE grain-free kibble, and a case of Natures Variety canned rabbit, 12 /5.5 oz. cans, 2 cases of Wellness cans , 24/3 oz. cans, (1 of Land Lovers Variety Pack and one of Surf & Turf Variety pack, 24/3 oz. cans), and a case of "Instinctive Choice" cans, 24/ 3 oz. cans, totalling 84 cans in all plus #2 lbs. dry for $115.34 including the shipping, which was $12.00 for the Instinctive Choice and $14.44 for the Wellness & Nature's Variety. We spend much more locally for food so it was a good deal online.(especially if they like it! Keep ur paws crossed!! Lol!) Instinctive Choice is a great food from Healthy Pet Net but they only have one flavor in the cans & a type of kibble that has grains & wheat added that I did NOT get, I just got the cans, and the boys get sick of it right away so I only got one case of that. I order it directly from the company and it cost 12 bucks to ship which was spendy, considering the food was only $20.00!! At any rate, I sure wish you luck and hope this might help lotsa others that don't have the time or resources to research like crazy. I had purchased raw gourmet meat, (cornish hen, duck, chicken & turkey)LOTS of it & it will sit in my freezer unless I figure out something to do with it cuz the boys refuse to touch it! Lol! The lil twerps not only refuse & got hissed off, they have staged a revolt and are laying a HUGE guilt trip on me! Lol! Well, they WIN on the RAW (I can't bear those little faces peering at me balefully, tears squeezing out....yeah, the tears are mine!) but they're gonna get the healthiest canned I can get if it kills me! Lolol! So goooood luck!!! Havva great week! Huggys!

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♥- KODY- ♥

I HAD AN ONLINE- LOVE AFFAIR

Purred: Wed Jul 25, '07 9:27am PST


	P.S. I've read you're never supposed to serve cats or anyone raw hamburger because of E-COLI and all the other deadly bacteria in it. There are companies who sell raw meat, human grade under sterile conditions like what I first bought that guarantee NO salmonella or bacteria. If you grind your own, you'll need a grinder that costs almost $200.00 because you need to grind the bones into the food as well. Cats need them. I didn't want to mess with the yuck factor of it and hated to spend the $200.00 bucks if I could buy SAFE RAW meat. I ordered mine from "Feline's Pride". Fast delivery and clean meat but the boys refuse to touch it!! Lol!

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Pooka

Do the Pooka- Polka!

Purred: Sat Jul 28, '07 4:40am PST


	I agree that chicken is a great first start for cats. I feed my cats the Bravo pre-made, and the older one much prefers chicken to beef. Of course, they both LOVE elk, which cost 3x as much as beef. Doesn't that just sound like a cat?

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Brucey- Bruce-In- loving- memory

580600

Purred: Mon Jul 30, '07 12:27pm PST


	Ground turkey or chicken is nice. The texture is not far from some of the canned foods out there. And cats are very much about texture. When I started on raw, I would only eat a teeny tidbit of ground, watered down turkey that had some fish oil in it. It was a slow process. I've been on a raw diet for years now but still prefer ground poultry as my main protein. Sometimes I can do a whole chicken neck but not very often. I'll try other parts but they're usually too much work for a lazy kitty like me. And don't be suprised if you "get sick" at first. Your body is transitioning from mystery ingredients of a prepared meal and may need some adjustment (releasing toxins, perhaps). I transitioned very slowly and was already a sick kitty (IBD) so I didn't have a very noticible adjustment. I slowly transitioned and got all better.