1/7/18 | Darwin: AMBG=71 - Update/Raw feeding question

Condo

I'm amazed at how well Darwin is doing after his procedure (though I suppose I am not super surprised!). Cats are TOUGH! He hasn't seemed to need any Bupe the last two days, and he is eating amazingly well. I am curious if he was feeling some discomfort with those remaining teeth as he seems to be even hungrier now - eating a can at a time breakfast and dinner, and then asking for extra snacks as well!

Once he is healed, I am going to start trying to transition him to a raw diet. I am collecting research to decide which type I'd like to try - I think I am going to start with commercial raw, and see how he does. Any suggestions? I know RadCat is on the list of lc raw.

Hope all the kitties are behaving and staying healthy - and the humans too! I am fighting this nasty cold/flu that's going around - boo! Sending lots of vines to all those who need them!

 

That is great Darwin is doing so well. You may want to put raw food ? in your subject line. I hope you feel better soon. Sending prayers.

 

Good for Darwin! I would be interested to hear about your transition to raw. I might be the only person on the board to not have had the cold/flu going around... knock on wood!

 

Tasha, I about had a heart attack when I saw the date and Darwin’s name on a new condo! So glad it’s just an update/food questions!

There are so many options and it can be a bit overwhelming, we just had to change foods recently, so I can share my thoughts and experiences with you.

One of the first commercially available food I used was Primal. They look awesome on paper and people have a lot of good things to say about them (especially these days). Fed that for a few years, I have another friend with 2 cats that also fed it for years. We always went with the same food because in the early days, raw wasn’t common, particularly for cats and our pet store had to order this food just for us. I stopped feeding primal because we encountered a few too many bad batches. Whole bags of food neither of my cats would touch, and my friend’s cats who are piggies and will eat anything would eat that same lot mine wouldn’t touch and vomit it up. When this became less of a once in a blue moon thing and more of a 4 times a yearish thing, we gave Primal the boot. Another note on Primal, it may have since changed, but you had to get chicken mixed with salmon, no chicken protein alone available, and that’s a concern if you don’t give your cats fish/seafood.

Switched to Stella & Chewies after a long search for a new raw. Many of the ones we tried had too many large chunks of organs and bone, paw naturaw is one of those, I don’t even know if it’s still a company. S&C seemed to be a reputable company and had many varieties, our cats all loved it and that’s what they ate for many more years, until... they changed an ingredient, whatever they sourced their vitamin k from changed and they started using dandelion greens which appeared as black flecks in the food looking not unlike ground up black trash bags. Again, my cats wouldn’t eat this food with black flecks. S&C assured me the greens were green, but maybe appeared black due to oxidation which is not a word I’m a fan of in reference to food! Anyway, sent me on the lookout again for another food.

Finally arrived at Radcat. What I like about radcat in particular is that they don’t put a bunch of veggies, greens and supplements in their food...they don’t put any. All vitamins are sourced from animal matter (organs, typically), including taurine. They also don’t use ground bone, but instead eggshell powder, which is better for cats with kidney insufficiency. So I don’t have to worry about ingredient changes, largely, they recently started using HPP to process their food (to make it safer) which some like and others don’t. It comes in tubs which I wasn’t thrilled with at first, but now I quite prefer it and I use them up in under 2 days so that’s not a concern of it going off in the fridge.

I’ve heard great things about food fur life mix where you can make your own. I also heard great things about Darwin’s (wouldn’t that be a cute match for you know who), but with that brand you have to have it shipped frozen to your house, which means you need someone home to receive it. Hope that helps!

 

Glad that Darwin did so well with his dental. The photo on yesterday's condo of him is adorable!

ETA: I feed raw and buy my own and add foodfurlife supplements. It's a lot cheaper than going with frozen ones that you are paying a lot for the convenience of it being all ready cut up for you. I get my ground turkey from a local butcher ( buy it frozen in 1 lb packs) My pork I get from Walmart Smithfield brand because the sodium is low and there is nothing else added, no antibiotics. My chicken I get from a grocery store that sells no hormone, antibiotics added chicken breast.

If you go that route, it's important that the meat you serve is frozen for at least 24 hours prior to thawing and serving to kill stuff like toxoplasmosis.

Foodfurlife's website has a lot of goo information on raw feeding with tips for transition and what proteins to start off with.

 

I have hard time trying to transition Meme to raw, she only eats raw meat and if i added any supplements she will not touch it what ever i do . I tried many brands and mixed it with the meat but no luck. If any one has a picky cat and has advice on how to do it please share with is

 

Sorry for the scare!! I changed my title

Thanks for all the great information!! I do feed my dog a raw diet, and have for several years now. I get her food from local co-op, but they only deal with dog food. I know they carry RadCat at my local pet food store, and I actually have a tub in the freezer (for when I was initially getting Darwin off of kibble last year). I had the same issue with the tubs vs smaller packaged brands. So you just thaw a whole tub and feed it over 2 days? I was debating partially thawing a tub and portioning it out into individual (or perhaps daily) servings. I am not sure if RadCat can be partially thawed and then re-frozen. I do that with my dog's meal preps (which are on a much larger scale - she's ~70lbs).

I also liked the fact that RadCat doesn't add any other ingredients and that they don't have bone. We'd like to get at least 2/3 kitties onto raw, and one is possibly in early renal.

 

I really like the look of this company! I am actually interested to see if this is a possibility for my dog! She's about 70lbs and I am currently spending a small fortune feeding her raw (which she has been on for several years). This might be a bit less expensive for her, and a good option for Darwin too. The only problem I foresee with my dog is that she cannot have chicken, and it may be hard to find additional protein (she currently eats rabbit, duck, turkey, beef and sometimes venison - some of which will be hard to source).

Do you just rotate turkey, pork and chicken for the kitties? And do you just prep on one day, and portion the meals out by day or ??

It seems like this would be a very cost effective way of feeding. Thanks for the info!

 

Oh you didn’t do anything wrong, you said AMBG, it was just my initial reaction to seeing that starting title 1/7 Darwin...my brain didn’t process the rest.

I thought I wanted to preportion at first too, because that’s what I did with s&c, but there is no nice way to do it, I don’t think it’s ever a good idea to thaw and refreeze meat like that. They have 3 tub sizes, so you could buy the size that works best that you would use up in 2-3 days. Between my two cats, the largest size lasts 2-3 days for us. I just leave it in the tub in the fridge and pull out what I need when I feed them (measuring by teaspoon). It also keeps the rest of the meat fresh as only the top has surface contact and browns a little, the rest stays nice and pink. I thaw a tub over a couple days in the fridge or I put it in a dish of room temp water for a couple hours to thaw it quickly. They have a nice variety of proteins you can switch between.

 

I rotate the three proteins as the site tells you to do. That way if a protein starts to become a problem, you will have other ones to go to. Do you have a local butcher near you that you could get venison and duck from?

I started with turkey and chicken, ( the site will tell you which proteins to start with first)

I have glass Pyrex dishes that I portion out 6 meals for each cat ( they are different weights so there portions are a bit different) That will last me a day for each one as they eat 6 meals a day. But you will find a rhythm that works for you.

The foodfurlife company has awesome customer service. Once I was having a problem with Bubba's digestion and hair balls and Carolina spent over 30 minutes on the phone with me to help me trouble shoot and all it cost me was a bag of powder egg yolk for 14 bucks that worked like a charm!

My cost for feeding went down dramatically when I switched to raw that I buy fresh and add foodfurlife supplements to rather than very expensive can food.

 

We tried Primal - at first our cats loved it, but got bored pretty soon.

Stella & Chewy's seems to be in it for the long run, but per recommendation of my brother in law (he's a dog walker in LA and kind of obsessed with pet food) we received our first order of Darwin's Pet - their customer service has been amazing so far and I feel pretty good about feeding it. The first trials have not been received overly enthusiastic by our cats, but that might be related to the husband microwaving the food a couple of seconds too long so it ended up more have burger patty consistency than raw. I can keep you posted.

 

One thing to be aware about with Darwin's food is the bone shards are easy to see. My cats would spit them out. Also, I heard the bone % is higher compared to the other commercial raw foods and could lead to constipation. I did notice Rex had issues so I decided not to buy more after I used up the stuff I got from their trial offer.