Hi , i have been feeding my dogs on a raw diet now for a while they love and so do i . now i have a Siamese kitten 6 months , i want to feed her raw too , i have only been giving her chick wings ( which she loves ) , prawns, salmon (tinned) and tuna , mackerel all tinned. now Ive read that you more or less give them the same as dogs , but I'm thinking in the wild surely they would not eat lamb, cow, and such like ????? , so thought maybe i should be giving them , more of what they would hunt and catch for themselves like , small birds , mice, rats, squirrels maybe , so was thinking , i would feed small day old chicks, mice , all in tact, frozen ,and just defrost from a supplier ? what do you think , i would think this would be a better diet for a cat do you not think? , does anyone else feed mice , and chicks to their cats ? and if so could you tell me where i could get these from ?.. thanks guys .

Dunno about chicks and mice etc. I just feed mine simular to the dogs but with more poultry than beef and lamb. It doesn't matter that they wouldn't eat cows or sheep because the nutrient profile of beef and lamb is close enough to that of their natural prey. Be careful not to feed too much fish as it doesn't provide a good balance of nutrients; fish should really only be fed as a treat rather than meals.

Yes, I am sure that someone feeds day old chicks (dead of course). I suppose you could get these and possibly rat/mice from a snake food provider.

I know that people feed rabbit (a natural prey) - see here:

English Rabbit Meat

and this link I got from a poster here.

I feed lamb and beef and chicken wings raw. Lamb is the favourite, beef is sniffed at but seems to disappear eventually, usually at night

i dont understand this raw meat diet thing, my understanding is that domestic pet cats have been raised for thousands of years to be just that, your not keeping pumas

Yeah, pet cats have been eating Whiskas and Felix for thousands of years!

humans used to live in mud huts and run around in loin clothes, it's called evolution...........

Hi

I see where you are coming from but actually processed meals for cats (and dogs for that matter) hasn't been around that long. Maybe 70 years?

Most cats would have been working cats - and their food would have been their prey. Cats were kept to keep infestations of mice and rats at bay. They probably scavanged scraps from the kitchens as well.

Most people on here are pragmatic. They feed a combo of raw, dry and wet according to how easy it is to get and what their cats like.

The main concern is how much cereal is in any given food. Many processed food manufacturers 'bulk' the food with cereal which is not easy for a cat to digest. It makes the food cheaper.

However, a cat fed a combo of high protein food usually eats less (unless pregnant or feeding kittens). You need to look for high meat content food, either wet or dry.

Orijen is a dry
Tesco Luxury and/or Finest is a wet

Many feed Natures Menu which contains ground bones (wet).

Raw could actually be quite cheap if you are lucky enough to have a tame butcher. A colleague of mine feeds her Bengals scraps from the butcher at a fraction of the price as he can't sell them.

Alternatively look at cheap mince products in the supermarkets and reduced meat. Possibly meat supermarkets might have bargins. I bought 2kg of halil mutton (boned leg) for £5.40 from a muslim/asian cash and carry. I cut it up and froze it.

thank you for that informative answer, better than the sarcastic reply before

i'd be a bit nervous of food poisoining with raw meat, so think i'll stick to the food i use I was just curious

Sarcasm as in the same thing as your Puma comment? Don't give it if you can't take it!

Hi CatLover

The cat is not equivalent to the human gutwise. They can deal with a lot more than we can.

Think about it: they eat prey, ferals will scavange from bins. Their digestive tract is designed to cope with bacteria.

(Though strangely it is advised that fish is cooked because 'raw' enzymes in fish can cause problems)

My cat has just chomped through a raw chicken wing and left a minute sliver of bone. That means he has eaten most of the bone in that wing. This is fine - they are designed to cope with this.

DO NOT GIVE COOKED CHICKEN BONES >>>>> cooking changes the structure of the bone and makes it sharp and indigestibe.

Its YOU you have to worry about giving raw - wash hands and hygiene is a priority - not the CAT.


Edit: if you freeze it kills bacteria. You can leave raw out as long as not extremely hot or loads of flies around - just use common sense.