Lol I'm sure. Just adding what I've read to the thread

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They certainly seem to have more energy when they're eating raw, even if they're also eating wet food.

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http://www.elmstarbengals.co.uk



Our darling Foxy is now at Rainbow Bridge. R.I.P. little one, you'll always be loved.

Thanks for starting this thread, I have been confused about this topic as well because I keep reading very different things

ok this is how i do it... probably not ideal to everyone but this is my routine. My cats only get commercial wet food 1 day a week (and they see it as a treat lol), unless i am going away. I find its easier for the people looking after them to have a commercial diet to feed than a raw diet.

7 day week
Mine are fed on a raw diet sunday - friday most of the time, and a commercial wet on a saturday.

Saturday is the most likely day i will be away too, so its easier if the cats are in that routine for me too.


Now, if for some reason ive forgotten to get the meat out of the freezer or ive run out, then they have the commercial diet instead.

I do stick to set mealtimes now though.



Once upon a time (not long ago lol), i did always have a dry diet available all the time. Since a thread in the dog forums about dry foods and me looking more closely into it, i choose not to do so now. Not because i thought it upset their tummys, but because i feel its not the best type of food for them.

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“He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.” Martin Luther King Jr

“Remember that all through history the way of truth and love has always won. There have been tyrants and murderers and for a time they seem invincible but in the end, they always fall -- think of it, ALWAYS.” Gandhi

Its true, minced up meats don't do anything for their teeth, but nutritionally they are fine, its just important to make sure you include both some whole bones i.e. chicken wings, and larger chunks of meat that encourage them to use their jaws and teeth.

Catlover, the necessary extras you talk about, like taurine are already there in abundance in raw meat, especially muscle meat like thighs and particularly heart. However if feeding raw thats been frozen its probably a good idea to add extra taurine as any processing/freezing can lower taurine content, although its still likely to have much more than is even added to commercial cat food because its well known that pet food manufacturers added only the minimum required, not the optimum.

Oh, and I also mix raw and commercial food - commercial in the morning (usually Hi Life pouches) and raw in the evening, but some days it will be raw both meals.

Thanks for the replies all.

What are the thoughts on raw whole fish....sardines, whitebait etc etc. I was told that raw fish contains certain amino acids that could deplete the Vitamin E and potentially cause illness?

~x~

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Owned by 1 x Maine Coon Cross (13yrs Male), 1 x Pixie Bob kitten (male), 2 x Norwegian Forest kittens (both males)

Look on the Feline Instinct'c TC web. Natascha has been researching raw for cat's for years,
Don't just guess.
Lot's of us think we have the knowledge, but a more lil research is good.

It depletes Thiamine - vitamin B1 but other meats/foods can restore it, according to a raw cat list I am on.

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Sue, Merlin & Cuba
Dog moves in mysterious ways. Be at peace, Patrick.
I've been described as a lighthouse in a bog - brilliant, but useless.

I read on Feline Instincts site not to feed heart as "they give cats & dogs diarrhea". Didn;t someone say earlier that they are an excellent source of taurine? On the same site it also mentions not to feed raw fish and states ".....can have urinary problems from too much prosperous in their diet". Eh??? Too much prosperous??

Went to shop today and came home with partridge, lambs kidneys, lamb hearts and hare. All OK to give?

Also, we have cooken, frozen, shell on prawns. OK to defrost these & feed?

x

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Owned by 1 x Maine Coon Cross (13yrs Male), 1 x Pixie Bob kitten (male), 2 x Norwegian Forest kittens (both males)

They certainly are, mine have been having some chopped lamb's or pig's heart once a week.

That's funny! I might be a bit fussy but I have a personal rule not to trust websites that can't spell properly!

In the past I've tried giving my cats prawns, thinking they would surely love them! All I got was the royal paw-shake of disgust and a look that said, "You feeding us fishy pink insects now, are you?" Yours might be different!

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Sue, Merlin & Cuba
Dog moves in mysterious ways. Be at peace, Patrick.
I've been described as a lighthouse in a bog - brilliant, but useless.