raw & grain-free

[catsite]

Hi all, came upon this community via rawdogs and rawfedcatsI adopted this guy (see avatar) just over a month ago and in that time switched him from low-quality kibble/canned grain food (what he was eating at the shelter) to high-quality canned and kibble grain & grain-free food, then just high-quality canned grain-free & grain, and now he's on a 100% raw, grain-

Comments

[adina_atl]

My cats are on a mix of mostly cooked-carb-free with a little raw-carb-free, both homemade. The older cat, who's 17, has been eating cooked-carb-free since she was 12, and is still going strong--or as strong as you can expect from a crotchety lady of her age. She has turned up her nose at every single raw food presented to her, however, so it's just not worth the effort of changing her. But she loves her cooked carb-free.

The younger cat eats any food given to her, plus a few that aren't. She mostly gets the cooked food we make for the other cat, plus occasionaly raw chicken necks, scraps of whatever meat we're cutting up for our own dinners, raw ground beef heart (which we sneak into the cooked food as well), and raw organic pork liver.

Personally I believe that being carb-free is more important than whether it's raw or cooked, and I won't feed the cats any carbs even if they're non-grain. The only meat I make sure is organic is the liver, which tends to concentrate chemicals. But all that is just my opinion, not Talmudic law

[catsite]

Oh good, this community is still alive!!! I didn't notice until after I posted the last post was made almost exactly 1 year ago. 0.0

I am amazed at how much less waste my cat produces on his new diet. It's not smelly at all, either. I just posted about it in my own journal, but I'm seriously, SERIOUSLY amazed. I didn't think switching from commercial HQ to raw would make a huge difference, but it really, really has. And this is just the short-term effects I'm starting to see already! 0.0

My cat has a congenital heart murmur. Although it's pretty bad (Grade IV) and the adoption clinic said he might not live a very long life, my hope is that he will at least live a quality life on this diet. I don't expect this diet to "cure" a congenital defect like what he has, but if it can in anyway improve his quality of life or life-span, I'm happy for it.

[adina_atl]

The comm's not dead exactly, but I was surprised to see your post. It hasn't been active in a while, as you've seen

[catsite]

I thought congestive heart failure and congenital heart mumurs were two different things. I thoguht congestive heart failure was brought on (not born-with) and congenital heart mumurs are just heart malformations that you were born with? Or can a congenital heart mumur lead to congestive heart failure?

And yes, my father was born with a congenital heart mumur which was fixed through open-heart surgery. So I get the lecture, too. ;)

[adina_atl]

The vet seemed to think that the congestive heart failure was caused by or related to the heart murmur in some way, or maybe she just assumed since the murmur was known and the other heart disease wasn't. I had a necropsy done because her death was so unexpected. But yes, the two heart diseases are different things.

Oh, good, you've already got the dental health thing. *grin*

[catsite]

And I am feeding bones, but he doesn't eat them. So they just sit there and don't do any good.

I crush bones up fine so he gets calcium, etc.

I leave meat chunks and he chews those and hopefully that does some good for the teeth...

[adina_atl]

Meat chunks are probably just as good. My younger cat gets pieces of chicken neck, but she tends to treat them as toys as much as food. *chew, chew, throw in the air, bat across the floor, get yelled at, chew, chew*