So, I am thinking about raw food. I've read the thread and found it quite informative.

About the Cats:
I have a 1yr old cat and a 12 week kitten. They were fed pouched food with supermarket own brand dry. I feed them Animonda Carney and have enough for one tin a day between them both until Christmas (I bought loads!). Dry throughout the day.

When buying bones, I would buy these in addition to the meat.

Raw2Go:
So, if I was purchasing raw food from Raw2Go, could I just order let's say one of nearly every option and feed them that, alternating flavour each time I feed them? Bones obviously would be as a pudding, perhaps twice/three times a week? Would that be alright compared to what I am currently feeding?


Darlings Raw Foods:
Again, if I was to purchase one of each flavour and some bones, would that be alright? Although I am a little concerned with the beef bones as the guide suggests get bones cats would actually get in the wild. I can't see a cat taking on a cow! I don't really want to get bones from a different place, so this supplier already puts me off, compared with others.


Lincs Pets:
Well, firstly I am already put off as they only deliver to selected locations. I am near one, but it would mean driving out of my way. I may be moving to Derby soon but they don't deliver there as yet.
However, the ordering does seem simple enough and seems 100g would cost me about £0.12 compared with £0.28 of A-Carney.
There's a bit too much to get once of each, so I'd just pick out couple from each heading or so and feed them that.



I'd be planning to move them on to raw, so when I have the space to store the meat, then if I have any tins left, I'd feed them alternating meals until the tins are gone.

Is it really just 2%/3% of the cat's weight? That seems awfully low compared with the 200g + dry they currently have (although I haven't weighed them).

Really? Feeding a cat a raw egg yoke? I just don't want to make kitty sick

Do I have to be absolute with what I order to ensure they get the exact 80/10/10 or can I just buy a selection each time and rotate it per meal/day? So once day it might be minced beef, the next it might be minced rabbit, then tripe & heart (one flavour per meal).
Obviously I wouldn't buy all beef or all rabbit but as many different flavours and types of meat that is available. Also, as time goes on, I would try and get each meal to be the correct ratio.

Thanks

Each of those ready prepared foods (raw2go and darlings) already contains bones - so you don't need to feed extra - except maybe a once a week chicken wing for teeth cleaning - too much bone can cause constipation - yes it really is 2-3% of a cats ideal weight - if they are skinny feed them a little more, fat feed a little less - the reason they eat more on the other stuff is because it contains fillers (especially the dry) that they tend to just poop out. Though you are feeding better wet - if it was rubbish wet they would need about 400g not 200g. 100g of raw is very filling. Raw egg yolks are wonderful - cats digestive tracts are a) shorter and b) much more able to cope with 'bugs' - they eat birds eggs in the wild - so a raw egg yolk will be a lovely treat for them. It will be fine. Each meal should already be in the proportions of 80/10/10 darlings certainly is, as are the NI minces, and I assume raw2go there is nothing more for you to do really.

__________________
please look at my website - www.finesthourcats.webs.com - for gorgeous GCCF registered RagaMuffins and Selkirk Rex

Just to add to Spid's reply, don't forget that one of your cats is a kitten and kittens can eat as much raw food as they want so the 2-3% rule doesn't apply to them.

Darlings and Natural instinct contain enough bone. If you want to feed bone for dental health then I would feed a chicken wing or other cat appropriate bone once or twice a week.

What it comes down to with commercial raw food suppliers is the degree to which they follow the 80/10/5/5 rule. Doesn't matter if they don't follow the rule really as long as they are transparent as to what it is that they don't put in so that you can add it yourself.

Darlings I think is the only one to follow the ratio (*I think*).
Natural Instinct don't include any organ meat/offal other than liver - best fire off an email to see what it is that they are including and also to clarify how much liver they put in (a few months ago I was told it was 2% but that might have changed so better clarify)

R2G - hmm, long story but every single person who enquires about the detailed make-up of their product gets a different answer. One person got told that it only includes 1% liver; another got told it includes 2-5% liver. I got told that some minces don't include any bone and some minces contain more than 10%; others get told that all of their minces contain some bone to roughly the right ratio. So, again, I would fire off an email to DAF (no R2G as she only distributes the minces but doesn't make them) to see what's what.

I would only rely on one supplier of raw minces if I was completely satisfied that the minces follow the good ole ratio. Otherwise, if there was even some doubt then I would look making raw food myself.

Re the bone, not sure why you are so intent on getting them from the same supplier. Chicken wings, for example, are readily available from butcher's and supermarkets. Now that it is game season you should be able to pick up woodpigeon, quail, small pheasant, rabbit etc quite easily.


Re your rotation of flavours: not sure whether that will work as the minces tend to be sold in 400g sausages/tubs. Instead of rotating per meal you are better off rotating flavours on a daily basis or every two days, depending on how long a sausage/tub will last you.

Also, instead of going raw completely I personally would still feed a couple of tins of good wet food a week. You never know when them still eating commercial wet food will come in handy.

Hope that helps

Thanks so much for both of your help!

I didn't know if the minces included bones or not, it's just I didn't want to order bones from one supplier, then the rest of the raw food from another. But I didn't even remember about supermarket chicken wings, so for the extra bones, I'll just get some of those.

Now to find a freezer!

Just as a side note, Lincs Pets sell the same minces as Raw to Go supplied to them by DAF. So no difference

__________________

Just emailed NI and asked about ratios

__________________
please look at my website - www.finesthourcats.webs.com - for gorgeous GCCF registered RagaMuffins and Selkirk Rex

I'll be doing a bit of a price comparison to see what works out best for me.
If I can get a little bit of raw meat at a time then that would be great.