Raw Feeding Cats

[isisandshiva]

I know there are entire forums dedicated to this but I trust the advice i find here more, I was wondering if anyone here raw feeds their cats, I found a good supplier of rabbit but the entire internet is filled with so much contradicting information on cat raw feeding and i was hoping to find some answers based on experiance especialy in regards to rabbit.  I really would like to avoid supplements because i feel that defeats the purpose of going to natural foods while dumping vitimins and capsules in.  In addition to whoe rabbit they also sell beef liver, pig and turkey hearts, and ground salmon so from my estimation I can get a suplement free diet from one local supplier my issues come in in all the math and percentages and preportions in creating an actual meal plan.  I would really apreciate any advice anybody has thank you

[spughy]

We don't have a good supply of rabbit here but I do feed my cat raw food.  He gets a mix of salmon, chicken backs and necks, beef liver & heart, and smelts (frozen whole tiny fish).  This is basically what our dog gets too.  Once a week I chop everything up for the dog into chunks then I put the cat's portion through my Kitchenaid meat grinder attachment.  I freeze it in portions in ziploc bags and just thaw it and then mix a little warm water in it for the cat to eat (he won't eat cold food).  He also gets crunchies occasionally, because I don't like his food sitting out too long so if he's outside when it's time to eat, I don't put food out for him.  Sometimes he comes in at a really inconvenient time (like when I'm almost asleep) and then I just give him some crunchies so he'll stop complaining.  But it takes more than a month to go through a small bag of crunchies (and DH uses them as dog treats too - it's decent stuff, Orijen kibble) so he's not getting a lot of that.

He's in *really* good health, his coat is gorgeous and shiny and our vet is really happy with how he's doing.

[isisandshiva]

thank you it's good to know I won't hurt my little ones by not adding powders and capsules. 

[spughy]

As long as you have some whole animals (guts and all) and bones (which my cat gets from the salmon, wee fishies and chicken) I think you're good.

I should add that my cat is an indoor-outdoor cat and a fairly accomplished hunter; I'm sure he eats some of what he catches, so that would also cover any nutrient deficiencies.  You might need to be a tad more careful if your cat is indoor-only.

[nettster]

Yep full bodied animals are a must for a complete diet (rodentpro.com) and variety! variety isnt just the spice of life it keeps things changed up certain animals will have different nutrient profiles when ingested so a variety of things (mice rats quail etc) is always an important thing to do. 

[Shadoe]

You can find a great deal of info, as well as recipes for raw food for cats on a site created by Dr. Lisa Pierson, dedicated to the health of cats and info immensely important to the health of diabetic cats.

http://www.catinfo.org/