There seems to bit a lot of confusion that using grinders results in mush, it doesn't if you prepare it correctly. You need to strip the carcass of the chickens or rabbits (rabbit is a better meat if you can get it) of the easy to get to meat. This meat is then cut by hand into chunks. The bones with the attatched skin and meat are then ground (i also grind the beef heart as it is very tough). You then add the chunked meat & livers etc with the ground material to your eggs and water. The whole process is very quick and easy (no smashing things with meat cleavers etc) and there's no worry about the cat swallowing large bone fragments. The ground bones should still clean the teeth as the fragments are mixed into the food that needs to be chewed. You do not need to use £200-300 grinders either, the Kenwood MG510 £74.99 (in uk) is rated at 1600w and makes short work of bones (although i wouldn't try the bigger bones like legs).

The other thing to remember is grinding massively increases surface area for bacteria, this is fine if you have ground the meat yourself as it goes straight into freezing but you should never buy pre-ground fresh meat for use in your homemade food.

Silly question but I want to start feeding raw but don't have a lot of freezer space, so i figured 1 meal a day is to be raw. Could I simply buy chicken, beef, liver/kidneys, place it in a mixer for a few seconds and hey presto.

I'm going on cost too, I can get off cuts from my local butchers for free and the 'end of day stuff' that no one bought. I've figured I could store 5 days worth in the freezer.

Might have to do some rearranging then lol

I've been looking into raw feeding, one thing that concerns me is the amount of bacteria in raw food. I know that cats have eaten raw for millennia, but so have humans and this hasn't stopped us moving to cooked food resulting in vastly greater life expectancies and lower disease incidence. Has any study been done into how to prevent these bacteria doing harm to our feline companions without spoiling the health benefits of raw food? Also, what's the consensus on bone? Like many here I'm cautious about it because of horror stories but I know cats would eat bone in the wild.

Thanks for the wealth of resources.

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Elysium, happy slave to Tempest the Bengal (born Feb 2012, we think).

Cats have much shorter guts than us humans so the bacteria doesn't get long enough inside to start wreaking havoc. This doesn't mean don't take care of course, you can't leave your cat's raw food down for hours etc, cat's must have fresh meat unlike dogs who are scavengers.

I've tried the girls on the following:

Minced pork
Minced Chicken
1 large fresh egg
grinded up bone

I added in a bit of their kibble too.

I went to my local butchers and got the meat fresh, asked him to mince it for me too. The girls loved it A LOT!

I've enough to feed both of them 1 meal of this per day for the next 6 days and it only cost me £5!

Hi All
I have had my bengal baby for about 3 weeks now - she has a very healthy appetite (she is 14 weeks and 2 kg, and a bit "pudgy" according to the vet - I think I have been overfeeding - she was 1.25 kg when I got her!!).

Anyway, I was advised by the breeder to feed her raw meat, RC 36 kibbles, and Fancy Feast cans. She has had days here and there with diarrhoea. I took her to the vet for the next round of vac's, and the vet strongly recommended a dry food only diet for the first 6 months. Does anyone agree with this here?

I have also read that kibbles and meat are processed at different rates, and if you feed the cat both at the same time, it can cause diarrhoea (I was guilty of doing this at times ). So while it could have been the mixture of food, it could also have been the raw meat that caused the diarrhoea. And while the diarrhoea is not good for the kitten, I would like to sort out the cause of the diarrhoea as I can't stomach cleaning it up, and tend to throw out the things she poos on (including an Indian doll and my bag!! She knows the good stuff to poo on! ). I am now feeding only kibbles and the occasional Fancy Feast can, and hasn't had any diarrhoea since.

The vet also thought the FF was a poor canned food, so I am starting to cut that down at the moment. I would like to feed raw meat, but just want to know that it's 100% fine for kittens!

Thanks for you help

I think it is safe to say that there is no one rule for every cat. what suits one cat might not suit another. My kitten is 5 months old and has been raw fed since 12 weeks old and is fine. I do feed him a feed that is ready mixed with supplements so he gets all he needs this in my opinion is vital in providing a balanced complete diet especially for growing kittens. I would say it never hurts to try as it does take trial and error to find what is best for your cat. Good luck with it all.

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Lollo

Ok, this is an interesting one. My cousin went to see his daughter over in Canada who is a Vet Nurse. She said that her surgery are seeing a growing number of dogs and cats coming in at about 7 - 10 years old with liver failure. She seems to think this has been caused by a completely raw diet (which all these animals were on). Apparently, in the wild they would eat all of the prey which would include what is in its stomach so would be consuming grass/veg. Her opinion was that it is wrong to feed without some veg. Does anyone have any thoughts on this as I'd like to have your views?

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The Rum Tum Tugger is a Curious Cat

I do think that there are a lot of people out there that feed an incorrect raw diet... it is that kind of raw feeder that gives raw feeding opposers ammunition.

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Lollo