Raw Diet: Day 4 of Week 2
So I've been getting over a cold (who gets colds in the summer, seriously?) -- so I haven't been updating as much.
Tonka is still eating 100% raw. I ground up the meals a little finer yesterday, as I noticed he was leaving chunks of meat in the bottom of his bowl the past two days. (rolls eyes)...
I also began adding taurine 500 mg supplements (1 a day, split between 2 meals), which I picked up at GNC the other day. $5 for 50 tablets. Should last me about a month, I figure.
I mean, I've been told he's getting enough taurine just with the beef heart -- but I'm crazy and convinced that since I didn't buy it "whole" (it was sliced fresh beef heart) that the taurine content is much lower than suggested. Then I froze it, and ground it... and it's not like I fed the whole heart, either - just 4 oz to make 7 meals... Better safe than sorry, I think -- and you can't overdose on Taurine (it's water soluable, he just pees the excess out) so I'm not worried about him getting "too much". At least I can rest assured he's getting enough.
I AM worried, however, about the calcium:phosphorous ratios in the food I'm feeding him. Everyone says "Well, if you grind the meat with the bones, it's a perfect ratio and you're all set!" which would be FINE... but my cat doesn't eat the bones -- not as much as he should, anyway. I added 2 eggshells to the recipe I made (that I happened to have from the day's breakfast) that I ground in there, but still wonder about the calcium levels. I tried doing out all the math of the recipie, and it seems like it's really high and phosphorous and not as balanced in calcium -- so I added a 1200 mg calcium supplement to the meals and mixed it all in to balance it out. I'm not worried about this so much, as cats have an extremely high maximum in-take requirement of calcium (in fact, the ratio is slightly in favor of calcium to phosphorous) -- so I'm not too worried about him getting "too much". If he is getting "too much" it wouldn't be too far off the perfect 1:1 ratio, anyway.
Next batch on Sunday, however, will be more carefully measured.
For starters, I don't think I'm doing too poorly. But I aim for perfection.
Perhaps I'll find a better recipe online to follow. The one on catinfo.org is okay, but I've found better ones since in my research.
Stools, urine is normal, and he seems normal - although a bit sluggish, but I can only blame that on the sudden heat & humidity lately. It's really been hot. I don't have air conditioning, so I leave the windows open and turn the fan on and he just lies in the cool breeze all day.
Tonka is still eating 100% raw. I ground up the meals a little finer yesterday, as I noticed he was leaving chunks of meat in the bottom of his bowl the past two days. (rolls eyes)...
I also began adding taurine 500 mg supplements (1 a day, split between 2 meals), which I picked up at GNC the other day. $5 for 50 tablets. Should last me about a month, I figure.
I mean, I've been told he's getting enough taurine just with the beef heart -- but I'm crazy and convinced that since I didn't buy it "whole" (it was sliced fresh beef heart) that the taurine content is much lower than suggested. Then I froze it, and ground it... and it's not like I fed the whole heart, either - just 4 oz to make 7 meals... Better safe than sorry, I think -- and you can't overdose on Taurine (it's water soluable, he just pees the excess out) so I'm not worried about him getting "too much". At least I can rest assured he's getting enough.
I AM worried, however, about the calcium:phosphorous ratios in the food I'm feeding him. Everyone says "Well, if you grind the meat with the bones, it's a perfect ratio and you're all set!" which would be FINE... but my cat doesn't eat the bones -- not as much as he should, anyway. I added 2 eggshells to the recipe I made (that I happened to have from the day's breakfast) that I ground in there, but still wonder about the calcium levels. I tried doing out all the math of the recipie, and it seems like it's really high and phosphorous and not as balanced in calcium -- so I added a 1200 mg calcium supplement to the meals and mixed it all in to balance it out. I'm not worried about this so much, as cats have an extremely high maximum in-take requirement of calcium (in fact, the ratio is slightly in favor of calcium to phosphorous) -- so I'm not too worried about him getting "too much". If he is getting "too much" it wouldn't be too far off the perfect 1:1 ratio, anyway.
Next batch on Sunday, however, will be more carefully measured.
For starters, I don't think I'm doing too poorly. But I aim for perfection.
Perhaps I'll find a better recipe online to follow. The one on catinfo.org is okay, but I've found better ones since in my research.
Stools, urine is normal, and he seems normal - although a bit sluggish, but I can only blame that on the sudden heat & humidity lately. It's really been hot. I don't have air conditioning, so I leave the windows open and turn the fan on and he just lies in the cool breeze all day.