raw food

I was wondering what people think of the raw prepackaged foods you can buy at the pet store? I believe the local pet store carries feline pride? Is that a name brand? Anyways, I was thinking of getting some to try on our civvie cat twix who has been getting rodent ulcers lately. She started getting them last year when we switched her to wet cat food for the first time. We switched her back to dry food and didn't have any episodes for quite awhile once she was on dry food again, but now she has had two in the last two months. She also has small hard bumps on her ears that her previous dr said was allergy related. I'm nervous about switching her since she did so bad on wet cat food but something needs to be done. I don't want her becoming diabetic because she is not a cat I can pick up and treat.

 

I'd be surprised if you local store has Feline's Pride. I think they only do mail order but if they do, it's a great product. Dr. Lisa mentions it on her site. It's what I used to introduce Gabby and Gizmo to raw food. If you can get it locally, it will save you on the shipping.

I didn't like Nature's Variety. There were hunks of bone and gristle in the chicken variety. The cats weren't all that enthusiastic either.

I ended up making my own raw. I buy skinless, boneless chicken, grind it, and use Feline Future's pre-mix for the supplements.

If Twix's granuloma is the result of allergy, you may want to try a novel protein (e.g., duck).

 

I'm not sure if twix's problem is food related or not, but I know it only started after having her switch to wet food. Not sure if it would have happened otherwise, probably since it has continued after she went back on dry food.

I could be wrong about the name of the food in the store. Perhaps it is natures variety? To be honest I only ever give it a quick glance as we walk by.

I wonder where you buy duck? At the grocery store? We don't eat much meat in this house and when we do it's turkey ... never looked for duck before ....

 

My cat's are on Nature's Variety mixed with a bit of canned food, they love the organic chicken and rabbit. Unfortunately Canada has just banned them from selling the rabbit one because the rabbits come from China. But there are lots of other flavours to try. I love that they come in convenient serving sizes.

the good thing with Nature's Variety is they have a loyalty program, every tenth bag is free!

 

Iorwen, how much do you feed your cat and how much do they weigh? Do you find this expensive to do?

 

I feed them 2 a day and then 1 oz of canned food.
Tray is 8lb my civvie is about 7lb,
They have a feeding guide calculator on their website that will help you figure out what to feed based on your cat's weight and activity level
http://www.naturesvariety.com/feedguide

it's about $25/bag Canadian. It's probablly a bit cheaper in the US since we get slapped with import fees. It's a bit pricey but made such a difference in their health I'd never go back.

 

Really?!? I haven't heard of this yet! I feed nature's variety too to supplement the canned food I give.

 

Yes, at least here in Canada. You should ask your retailer about it.

 

thanks, I checked out the site. I think that would be easier for us, then to make actual raw food. I am so nervous to switch anything up on twix. She seems to be allergic to any kind of change! But perhaps this would eliminate some of her allergies.

 

good luck and don't be discouraged if Twix doesn't take to it right away, I still have to coax them into eating some days with some tuna juice on it, or a hidden treat burried in it.

 

Some of the companies have duck as one of the choices just like they have rabbit. Both are novel proteins.

 

Thanks sienne!

 

We were using the Nature's Variety raw. You can sign up on their website for a buy one, get one coupon. Then in 30 days they'll send you another one. You're only supposed to use the coupon once per year or something, but it keps printing out. Hmmmm. Arnold wouldn't eat the beef or lamb, but did eat the chicken and rabbit. It instantly fixed his stinky, bloody diarrhea to normal raw food stools. It was amazing. He ate it just fine for about 2 mos and then he just started refusing to eat it, at all. He'd rather starve. So we just switched back to wet food and had the problems start again. We were doing FF though and have just moved to all Nutro and that has seemed to help. It's no more expensive for us to do raw than it was to do FF. Arnold is 14.5# and was getting 5 medallions a day.

 

don't order too much nature's variety. just get the free bag if you can or the small sample bag. none of my cats will eat it so i have a bunch in the freezer. lol.
i do like the idea of going raw but it takes some cats a long time to transition to it. feline's pride is very expensive, which is why i haven't tried it. of the people i know who grind their own, in the end it seems about comparable monthly price-wise to the canned cat food i buy (FF and wellness). but if you have a good butcher in town i'd bet you can get fresh ground meat done there rather than needing a grinder at home. dr lisa's site has good info on raw food recipes.