Re: Feeding raw

Sometimes we forget that our cats are *supposed" to be able to eat birds and
rodents, it's their natural food after all.
The canned and dry food we feed is just a substitute.
Kitty got another collared dove from Boyfie on Wednesday evening. He's
starting to learn they are good food so he had eaten the head and neck
before he presented it to her.
She left her gooshie food in preference for it. It took her 24 hours to eat
it all, leaving only the wings and a few tail feathers, plus some body
feathers which I hoovered up tonight. The bones are crunched up and most of
the feathers are eaten too. She has no problem with constipation ;-)
This is the second collared dove she has eaten since she was ill a few weeks
ago, and she isn't ill any more. She is perky again and has gained weight
which she had lost.

Tweed






"Granby" <spaz@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:5nn7deFj1uvkU1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I bought chicken wings for the cats, and Scooter today. After watching the
four of them attack the chicken, makes me want to sleep with my socks and
shoes on!
"Stormmee" <rgrass@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:5nm998Fim12sU1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
sign of a real cat slave, Lee
Marina <frankiennikki@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:5nlhkjFikejmU1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
jXwXeXrXmXoXnXt@xxxxxxxxx wrote:

Do you grind up the meat and bones in a meat grinder? Or do you just
feed them chunks of meat cut at the butcher's? I'm thinking you're
doing the latter since you said you give them a calcium supplement.


I wish I had a butcher's to go to for meat, but I'm afraid it's mostly
pre-packaged from the supermarket. Once in a while, I will take myself
to to the market hall nby the farmer's market, where they have a whole
section of butcher's stalls. But it's mostly prime cuts. What used to be
a normal shopping place for workers a 100 years ago is now more of a
place for well-to-do people to buy luxury foods.

So I mostly buy the pre-packaged in whatever form - mostly beef cut into
strips or chunks, or a big slab of beef that I then cut up into smaller
pieces. It doesn't have to be ground. In fact, Mir has stopped eating
ground beef if I buy it. I suspect it's too full of bacteria because
it's already been too far processed.

Initially, I did have a problem with cutting the meat up, but I've
hardened myself. Now I can even cut up a pig's heart, and those usually
have some clotted blood inside. That was one hurdle to pass. :/

About 6 months ago, I was thinking about feeding my cats a homemade
diet, but I couldn't find any reliable information about it that I
trusted. I read lots and lots of contradictory information and advice,
all written by very opinionated people who were certain their way was
the right way. So I couldn't engage anyone in dialogue either, because
they wouldn't take anything other than their own way of feeding
seriously.


I know, it's a jungle out there. I'm not saying my way is the only right
way ;) but I'm saying Miranda has lived exclusively on raw meat for
nearly three years, and she's a very healthy, active cat.

Generally, it seemed that the people who fed raw meat were more
knowledgeable about feline nutrition. But I didn't want to deal with
raw meat, which kind of grosses me out. (Hats off to you for being
willing to deal, especially being a vegetarian!) A lot of the meat
sold in the US has salmonella, so it's a bad idea to handle it raw
unless you're conscientious about cleaning, and that includes the
meat grinder - and that sounded like a royal pain.

Yes, it does. But there's no need to grind the meat up (unless you have
the bones in there, too). I'm lucky in that we don't really have
salmonella in Finland. My niece knows a breeder of Russian Blues who
feeds her cats raw chicken wings exclusively.

Then I looked into feeding home-cooked meat, but the info about
supplements for cooked meat was almost impossible to find. I found a
lot of websites with recipes for homecooked cat food, but they didn't
seem to know a thing about nutrition - I mean, the recipes would call
for stuff like *paprika*, but not taurine. WTF?? The raw-foods cabal
wouldn't even give advice on supplements for cooked food, because to
them, cooked food for cats was an abomination. <sigh....> Eventually,
I gave up.

I understand why you gave up. It's hard to weed out the good advice from
the bad. I just always try to keep in mind what cats eat in the wild -
small rodents, raw, and they eat most of it, including bones, skin, etc.
But then, I didn't have any choice, because Mir just doesn't eat
anything else.

I now feed my cats a premium brand that was never involved in any of
the poisoned-food recalls, and I can only hope they never will be. The
cats do seem healthier now, especially Roxy - she no longer has a
chronically runny nose and her eyes look great.

Glad to hear she is doing so well. :)

--
Marina, Miranda and Caliban. In loving memory of Frank and Nikki.






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