the domestic zoo

This diet is based on the recipes at catinfo.org and catnutrition.org. There are other sites and several books written on the subject of raw food nutrition for cats. I would encourage anyone interested in a raw diet to seek out such resources. Research before raw.

Now that my public service announcement is out of the way, on to the food…I am a highly visual person, so there are a lot of pictures to illustrate the process. Quite obviously, there’s a lot of shots containing raw meat. If you’re squeamish, consider yourself warned.

We start with four pounds of boneless, skinless chicken thighs purchased at the local store or butcher of your choosing (in this case, Wild Oats). Using meat that is preservative/hormone/antibiotic-free is important when feeding a raw diet, though it’s not such a bad idea for humans either.

The chicken is diced into small, bite-sized chunks. This encourages chewing, which is not only good for the kitties’ teeth, but also stimulates the process of digestion.

Next, we take one pound of raw chicken hearts (shown below, whole) and cut them into similar bite-sized pieces. Heart muscle is packed with taurine, an essential nutrient for cats.

The bulk of the diet consists of ground whole chicken. The ground chicken and chicken hearts are purchased from Hare Today, small farm that raises, among other things, free range chickens without the use of hormones or antibiotics.

I buy the ground chicken in 5-pound ‘tubes’. Within three days of shipping, it arrives on our doorstep still frozen. For the time being this method is the most convenient, because we don’t have any way to grind our own meat.

All together the ground chicken, chicken hearts, and chunks are nearly ten pounds of meat. It sounds like a lot, but four fully grown cats can eat a combined pound of food a day. I’m starting to understand how real zookeepers feel.

*throughout this whole process, hands are washed and the counters are wiped down multiple times – raw chicken isn’t something to be fooled around with*

Next, we add 1½ cups of water. This is actually less water than the recipes call for, but that comes into play later on at meal times: adding warm water to the thawed food makes it much more palatable.

The water and various meats get mixed together.

And we move on to supplements…

from left to right: Vitamin B Complex (400 mg per 10 pounds of meat), Taurine (8000 mg), and Vitamine E (1600 IU).

The supplements are mixed together with one tablespoon cod liver oil and eight large egg yolks (no egg whites – they contain avidin, which can impede absorption of biotin in the small intestine) Separating the egg yolks is probably the most tedious part of the whole process. The eggs are from a local farm, so unlike commercially farmed eggs, they’re large with thick shells and similarly thick egg whites. It makes it very hard to separate, but the yolks are large and healthy (and a rather bright yellow color). By the way, these eggs also make a great egg salad sandwich. Cooked, that is.

The ‘supplement slurry’ is added to the meat…

…and mixed together. Now it’s ready to be stored. I find Mason jars to be the most convenient, but be sure to get the ones for canning and freezing.

One half-pound per jar, which divided among four cats is equal to one meal:

All told, there’s enough food for nine days. After setting aside the next few meals in the fridge, the rest of the food is packed away in the freezer, and each can is taken out and placed in the refrigerator to thaw 24 hours before it will be served.

Now all that’s left to do are the dishes:

It’s been over a month since the three youngest cats have had any sign of urinary problems. Which may not seem like very long, until you realize that from the end of December until the end of February, every two weeks there would be at least one cat at the vet.

But a month ago, after it seemed like we would never get to the root of these issues, the vet thought it was time for a radical diet change. I agreed. Only I had a very different change in mind.

Raw food isn’t a universal solution. But has worked for us, and marvelously. The cats are sleeker, have softer, shinier coats, and absolutely no signs of ill health.

Our vet is somewhat anti-raw food (and by ‘somewhat’ I mean that he thinks it’s stupid and dangerous). So it gives me no small amount of pleasure to think about the next time the cats have their check-up (many, many months from now), when I will have the opportunity to educate the vet about what has been working for us.

This morning, I dropped by the cats’ vet to return the unopened bag of dry food. I told the receptionist, “It’s been a week since I’ve been here, I thought you might be starting to miss me.” Of course, she had to ask for my last name, because everyone there knows me by my cats.

Then I called the mice’s vet. The boys seem to be coming down with another cold: slight chattering noises, weepy eyes, etc. I wanted to know if I could just pick up the medication, and save myself the hassle and expense of an actual visit, wherein the vet will confirm my suspicions (yes, they are making noises…) and since there’s no way to run a culture or any other definitive diagnostics, the vet will do the only thing she can: prescribe antibiotics.

Would I pay the cost for an exam? Absolutely. Would I avoid it if I had the opportunity? Definitely.The office finally called back this afternoon. One of the vet techs was able to get a hold of Dr. Dankoski (even though she’s off today), and she said I could pick up the medications, on one condition: that I bring the boys in towards the end of the round to see if we need to keep them on antibiotics a little longer. That makes a lot of sense, and now I have two weeks to save up that extra hundred or so dollars (it’s been rough lately with the cats urinary issues)In other news:

The shipment of frozen ground chicken and chicken hearts arrived from Hare Today. That means I can start mixing and freezing the cats’ food as early as tonight! I’m excited, I’ll admit it.

The basics of raw food for cats

After a good deal of research and reading, I’ve decided to follow the basic raw diet that Anne lays out on her website, catnutrition.org. A slightly modified version of the recipe can be found at catinfo.org, a knowledgeable site that is run by Dr. Lisa Pierson, a veterinarian.

The only problem with it, is that I don’t own a meat grinder. The foundation of raw feeding is ground meat with bones, or else the cats will be missing out on calcium and other essential minerals and nutrients. To purchase a meat grinder that could also handle bones would be a significant investment, something that is definitely out of my league at the moment.

I was, however, able to find an excellent source of whole ground chicken! Yes, I just purchased 10 pounds of ground chicken plus 2 pounds of chicken hearts (contains taurine, a critical component of cat diets) from Hare Today, and I am quite excited about it.

Hare Today is a small family run farm. We strive for a healthy environment for all our animals without the use of hormones or antibiotics. I believe that a healthy animal raised with plenty of pasture space (rotational grazing) as well as good management techniques does not require all the “preventative measures” found in most feed lot practices. Fresh air, plenty of sunshine and room to roam is by far the best way to raise livestock. The chicken, turkey, pheasant, duck, salmon are USDA inspected ALL NATURAL.

http://www.catnutrition.org/

http://www.catinfo.org/

http://www.felinefuture.com/

http://www.serve.com/BatonRouge/nutr.htm – tons good information

Recommended Reading:

Raising Cats Naturally, Michelle Bernard (order online at http://www.raisingcatsnaturally.com/)

The New Natural Cat, Anitra Frazier and Norma Eckroate  (amazon.com)