Cat raw feeding!?

Joleen Cohen:

I feed Eliot a meal of wet food every evening and I've found that really helped him gain weight, which was a problem we were having since he was very young (Kind of typical to the breed actually). But although it really helped I am just not liking the how it's a few chunks of meat and fillers and tuns of gravy, That's just not what I'm wanting to feed my cat and I feel it beats the purpose.. But on the other hand I am kind of scared of feeding him human meat Because that's even worst we can't even know what they put in it these days and they are filled with so much stuff ! So how would I go about starting a raw diet where do I get the meat from and how do I know its safe? whats the process of cooking or boiling it in a safe way?

Animal Admirer477

Anonymous:

But if meat is sold for human consumption it should be safe for cats too no? I mean if it was harmful to cats it would definitely be harmful to humans too and I can't imagine you live in such a place where meat is THAT dangerous to buy. Also I think cats won't eat meat that doesn't smell or taste nice and low quality meat will usually be so.

Janis:

Afaik neither cooking nor boiling is necessary but freeze the meat instead, pre frozen meat should be fine, all bad stuff that can possibly be in there gets killed. Of course you should defrost it before feeding your cat! Emotion: smile

Aren't there any trustworthy meat suppliers in your area?

Animal Lover689

alfinnlay:

Human meat is far from safe for humans, there are so many things I get in my email everyday. As Janis said, always freeze the meat for a couple of days at least to freeze out the pathogens. Also, don't feed ground ANYTHING. Ground meats are what has the contaminants. Because of processing, the ground meat gets mixed with all kinds of things and can carry e colli, salmonella, etc. I never, ever see recalls for beef slabs. it's always ground beef. I have instructions for raw feeding on my site, also some recipes from friends of mine that have been doing it for a very long time. I wish I could feed mine raw but they will have none of it: http://ibdkitties.net/rawinstructions.html . You can also look at my very good friend Tracey's awesome website: catcentric.org. That site is winning awards like crazy! Emotion: yes

Animal Lover817

Joleen Cohen:

Humans are eating that stuff for years, our body's kind adjusted to it over the years but it is still extremely bad for us, filled with antibiotics cholesterol and tuns of bad stuff, I myself am not a meat eater I only eat it in small portions if we have a bbq or something because it is extremely bad for you (not the actual meat but more what it is filled with what the animal eats and what part of it we eat). Even if it wasn't our body's are nothing like a cat's body and a lot of things that can be good for us can easily kill a cat.

As for cooking or boiling I've always heard that while boiling it can help take out most of the dangerous stuff I never knew freezing was enough but you know better. I know about the ground meat issue you never know what's inside that stuff really.. I will be going for pure animal parts I think that's the safe way I still can't know what they fed it or injected into it but at least I know what it is Emotion: hmm

As for where I'm gonna buy it I'm not sure I will have to look around for a place I can trust. Where I come from you have small shops all over that sell only meat and you can trust them but since here in the US all meat comes from factory's you never know. I wonder if natural food stores sell meat.. probably not lol

Thank you alfinnlay! I will read through those sites and decide how I'm gonna go about this. Eliot is all about trying new stuff although he is never allowed to he always trys so I'm sure he wont give me a hard time Emotion: smile

Ville:

Oh Patches has been on a raw meat diet for his whole life almost! Emotion: smile

And yes, we've usually frozen the meat for some days before we'd give it to him, it's been working fine for over 10 years, although sometimes we'd give him cooled meat right from a store, too. Are there any laboratories that could test the meat samples for you if you're not sure of its quality?

Junior Participant26

Joleen Cohen:

hmm I'm not quite sure, do you have an idea of where I could find something like that?

I was also looking into some shops that specialize in pet raw meat and don't involve any antibiotics or hormones in them, But they are quite expensive so I will have to look into that some more and see how I do financially in the next couple of months if I do good I might just order it from one of them. It's going to take me awhile anyways because I need to know exactly what parts, how much etc because he is very sensitive to food as it is so I think just giving him stuff is not a very good way to go about it.

Ville:

That depends on where you live. I know it's an option in some countries, eg
http://www.hill-laboratories.com/page/pageid/2145845920
http://www.kappalabs.com/chemical-testing.html
There must be something in your area too. Then you can contact them and ask if they work with individuals and if they can do the necessary tests for you.

Cat raw feeding!?

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