Feeding Raw

We used to feed Science Diet dry to our cats and then switched to Royal Canin. We then tried a few others and always with same results... we had too many with diarrhea problems and just not thriving. We spent a small fortune on vets and prescription foods but then learned what the dry food market is actually about. A breeder friend in Canada, Judith Schulz, talked me into trying to feed raw and I have never regretted it. We have fed raw meat since then and dry is used for a couple boys who came to us used to only dry but they also eat raw meat mix. 

Cats are carnivores and need meat. Too many of the dry foods that are out there nowadays, are full of fillers and ingredients that are dangerous to the long-term health of your cat. It is just like with people....if they do not eat right, they may be okay, but they may not. And if you love your cat, why take a chance on their future? For those who prefer to buy grocery store meats, there is a company who sells a powder mix for that. Feline Instincts, in Florida, has a few varieties of powder to fit your needs. They also sell a powdered liver (beef or chicken) and a large squeeze bottle of salmon oil (saves pricking oil capsules for each meal). Our cats have done well on this and love the flavor. Our kittens were raised on this mix and really thrived on it. You can buy this powder with the liver included, as we did, saving yourself time. UPDATE:

We have recently changed our raw meat we feed our cats. The frozen ground turkey we were buying suddenly had very high content and was really soupy and awful and when mixed up the cats refused to eat. For weeks I tried everything and finally we bought a grinder. If you get online and google a group called BARF (bones are real food) they recommend a LEM grinder that grinds chicken bones w/meat. So, we purchased the biggest one they had, and it has been a true blessing. We now buy chicken leg quarters at the store and pull the skin off. Then they go into the grinder. Now this is not enough for the felines to eat, so we also buy cases of chicken heart (for taurine) and chicken liver (measure this one out as too much is not good). A couple times a month we then grind the heart and liver, then get all the chicken ready and grind that. Then in my mixer, we measure out the meat mix, the liver mix, the heart mix and add some liquid (usually blood that is in the bags of all these parts and then add salmon oil and raw egg yolks, sometimes some benebac, and sometimes added powdered taurine). Once mixed up we measure everything into our plastic buckets and put in freezer. When frozen, these buckets are 5 pounds. We are presently feeding 2.5 pounds a day, up to 3 buckets a day. Lots of meat but wow do they love this. Sometimes we have extra heart and that is ok, as the cats can eat that by itself on occasion without any problems (like liver would be a problem)

Below are some photos from our mixing....

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For this book shown below that we found online:

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Above left is ground chicken hearts, above right is chicken livers, being partially cooked since my cats hate raw liver (HA.

Below is the LEM grinder, ready to start grinding up the chicken leg quarters

We cook and save all broth and freeze it to use with our mixing. Sometimes we have to buy some. Then I will mix the Nutrional Yeast (Vit B), Taurine and Lysine (when we add it), with broth. Sometimes beef, sometimes chicken. The buckets to the left show the mix. Just before each batch being mixed together, I stir the broth and vitamins together. My cats like the raw meat mix to be a thinner mix so we add warm water at times also.