RAW food vs FRESH food

[BrainInAJar]

Hello all,

I alternate between Katkin, Untamed and Blink. All are "gently cooked".

There's a company though called Bella & Duke which sells RAW, UNCOOKED food.

Any thoughts on that?

I raw feed my two kittens (4m mainecoon boy & 6m mainecoon cross boy).
i use a rotation of homemade, using beef/ pork/ lamb/ turkey mince from the supermarket & a complete supplement from purrform. I also use commercially made raw food (which generally includes the offal & bones too) from both purrform, and keizebrink.
i would say that my boys currently eat about 12kg a month between them, maybe more..
they have 3 meals a day, and eat between 60-100g per meal.

I probably pay about £50-70 a month in total for their food.

when i first started raw feeding, i managed to get a code which gave me 4kgs from bella & duke for 1p. If i am honest i’m not massively impressed with their quality, i also prefer to buy from sites where it’s not on a subscription basis, just a minimum order amount.
pics of my two kittens for cat tax purposes.

Thanks, that's very helpful! Particularly the distinction between getting raw food from the supermarket yourself and what is contained in the commercial ones.

What is the benefit of raw over cooked?

And why then do all the other companies cook the food (albeit gently) before selling it? Presumably to do with shelf-life/food safety?

My cat gets a high protein, no filler dry food and then either raw mince, canned fish from the supermarket or poached meat. I also give dried organ meat supplements. It's a lot cheaper than paying for cans.

Glad it was of some help!
generally speaking it is cheaper usually to use supermarket meats, but obviously there is less variety, unlike the commercial brands.
it’s probably worth mentioning that they also get a couple of raw quails eggs each a week, and usually 1/2 a tin of sardines too for the omega 3s.

there are many raw feeding groups on facebook that are quite helpful. Generally speaking they tend to fall into two categories. Those who advocate for all the supplements, and those who prefer a ratio diet or prey-model. (Feeding your cat feeder mice & day old chicks etc is highly encouraged in the latter groups)

@BrainInAJar The main ‘selling point’ of raw, generally seems to be that cats are of course obligate carnivores. And thus a high protein diet is far better for them than most other cat food. Saying that, there also is the general consensus that actually feeding any quality wet is better than feeding dry kibble.

other notable advantages of raw feeding do include, shinier coats, less fur shed, and firm poos with very little odour!

Another raw-feeder here although I make my own and I do sometimes do a 'gently cooked' batch or a bit of ridiculously expensive tinned food just to keep their gut familiar with different food types in case of emergency.

I only chose raw because my two cats came to me with terrible health issues and they would have been euthanised or abandoned. A specialised raw diet is the only thing that made them healthy, otherwise I would feel completely comfortable with tinned or gently cooked food.

The only thing I draw the line at is dry food, I'll never feed that to my cats.

Good question about the raw vs gently cooked options. I think that yes, it's partly a food safety issue as the regulations around transporting raw meat are more rigorous than cooked meat (I have no idea how cooked 'gently cooked' is!).

And also a marketing issue? The word "raw" immediately summons images of dripping blood, salmonella, flies etc. It's not exactly logical considering that commercially-available pet food, even dry food, is a bacterial breeding ground, but I do understand.

Wow, @GerbilMum26 it never even crossed my mind to feed my cats such things but I'm sure mine would love it! At the end of the day, they are predators.

My current puss is very old now and has a little tummy trouble so I won't be making any major or sudden changes to her diet.

It's good to know this stuff though, in case I break my vow not to get another cat after this one! (Highly likely)

Excuse my ignorance but can I just buy some mince from Tesco and add it straight to the cat bowl? Are cats OK with pork?
Can you buy taurine separately to add to raw food?

1. You can't, no. It is imbalanced and although once or twice won't hurt, a cat will become very ill in the long term from malnutrition if they eat plain old muscle meat like that.

1. Yes, cats are fine with pork as part of a broad range

1. Yes, I buy taurine to add to my homemade cat food. I'm one of those who chooses to use supplements though, and other raw feeders are opposed to that, preferring that their cats get all their nutrients from food sources.