Raw food diet for cats?

[Frazzlerock]

I've seen conflicting views on this.

Ultimately I am trying to reduce waste, as well as feed our cats well without becoming bankrupt in the process!

We have three cats, all on pouches which I want to stop buying for environmental reasons.

A few people have mentioned raw food but this seems to be mostly a dog thing. Is it good for cats too? Better than shop bought tinned/packaged cat food?

I thought raw food was for dogs who have sensitive stomachs? My cats are all healthy. Well the two little ones are, our big cat is prone to cystitis so isn't allowed dry food (recommendation from vet).

A friend raw feeds her 1 year old cats, a mixture of raw meat and some kind of gravy. She's the sort who researches to the death and she treats her cats like children so I'm assuming it's good for them.

I've four cats and not one of them took to the raw despite me buying every flavour the website sold, so I took it all to a wildlife sanctuary! Advice would be don't go mad on buying loads of it until you've got them to try it, and you may want to add some stock to it so it's more like what they'd expect from a pouch

My old boy gets a mix of commercial cat food and raw, usually chicken wings which are great for his teeth.

I don't do all raw but mine adores raw turkey mince. Doesn't seem popular in the supermarket so I often get a massive tray for 50p and treat him! He also likes chicken wings
Downside - I was eating popcorn in bed watching a film, heard a noise and he jumped on the bed. Complete with raw chicken wing "mama I have movie snacks too"

You need to research the ratios you need. I think cats need extra taurine compared to dogs.
My dog is on raw due to allergies and wanting to get her off processed kibble.

You don't have to worry about taurine - it's an amino acid in meat. So as long as the diet is high in meat (as it should be) then they will be fine. You just have to be careful feeding other diets not as meat heavy.

I have fed a number of cats on a raw food diet for years, and they did really well on it.

Just make sure to do your research, so you know what you're doing.

Variety is the key - you don't have to feed a balanced diet every day, you aim to balance it over 1-2 weeks. So we've always done a fish day (sardines usually unless get some cheap sprats or whitebait - herring doesn't seem to agree with them or dogs), an egg day, a day with mince with veg part cooked & grated in it, chicken wings days, etc. I've been feeding since before it became more accepted - it's even easier now, as you can buy so much already done for you - mince with bone in it, etc. We always used to have to figure it all out ourselves.

Just do your research, there are loads of great websites & articles out there.

If you want to improve the quality of your cat food and use recyclable materials only you can do it much easier by using tins only and better quality food - and no risk of food poisoning.

There are lots of grain-free cat wet catfoods, sold in tins which really draw your attention to the rip-off that is shop-bought ie Whiskas, Felix and the other big brands.

Zooplus is your friend for seeing what is out there.

I have one elderly cat who was losing weight on her vet diet ( also for cystitis) and is now gaining and much fitter since leaving the vet diet behind. If I am paying for cat food, I want to be paying for meat, not filler which is what you do with the pouches. The tins mine eat now, they eat such tiny portions as it is all solid good stuff.