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Fresh Meat for Pets
zombiegirl
beating the drum of the lifelessin a dry wasteland Veteran
Anybody make their own pet food with fresh meat?
My vet has recommended that I increase the amount of "wet" food for my cats to avoid urinary issues. I have always fed them a wet/dry food mix. I always use 9 Lives/Friskies out of a superstition of a sort. (About 4-5 years ago, not sure if anyone remembers, but there was a MAJOR pet food contamination and 9 Lives/Friskies/Purina were some of the only brands not affected.)
So, I asked my vet for her cat food recommendations, and she pointed me in the direction of a few 'gourmet' pet stores... and as expected, all of that stuff is super expensive. So this got me thinking, I really think that it would be more cost effective and healthier to just buy 'food grade' meat and freeze it into portions. This way I could even make sure that I get organic/free range. I am also really bothered by pet food. Cat food doesn't rot... Why does it just shrivel up into hard squares? It just doesn't seem right...
Anyone have any experience with something like this? I don't want to just wing it and feed them plain meat, lol. I want to make sure I'm not neglecting anything since I know there are supposed necessary nutritional additives in pet food.
My vet has recommended that I increase the amount of "wet" food for my cats to avoid urinary issues. I have always fed them a wet/dry food mix. I always use 9 Lives/Friskies out of a superstition of a sort. (About 4-5 years ago, not sure if anyone remembers, but there was a MAJOR pet food contamination and 9 Lives/Friskies/Purina were some of the only brands not affected.)
So, I asked my vet for her cat food recommendations, and she pointed me in the direction of a few 'gourmet' pet stores... and as expected, all of that stuff is super expensive. So this got me thinking, I really think that it would be more cost effective and healthier to just buy 'food grade' meat and freeze it into portions. This way I could even make sure that I get organic/free range. I am also really bothered by pet food. Cat food doesn't rot... Why does it just shrivel up into hard squares? It just doesn't seem right...
Anyone have any experience with something like this? I don't want to just wing it and feed them plain meat, lol. I want to make sure I'm not neglecting anything since I know there are supposed necessary nutritional additives in pet food.
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Comments
So cook your own pet food from meat scraps, the way people used to do, if want to make sure it's good. I bet somewhere on the web you can find directions.
We have a problem of our pets becoming fresh meat... Our city is networked with deep forested ravines.. and coyotes have used them to move in over the last five years. Our neighbor had one come through her open back door in pursuit of her cat... or so she says. We have been warned not to leave small dogs unattended.. and to act loud and aggressive whenever we see a coyote.. so that they do not lose fear..
I know people can eat rare - even raw - hamburger meat that has been irradiated. Perhaps the raw chicken patties have been likewise treated? Just don't know for a fact.
In just to scared to do it again
they're sponsored by these companies and they get a cut of the profit, plus major incentives to push it.
If you feed raw food, then do it after a lot of research, and transfer animals gradually.
there isn't a single wild wolf or coyote that eats cooked food.
It's completely unnatural.
Try these sites for more, experinced, reliable information.
welcome to this paradigm
We started doing this with our dogs.
(our cat wont eat it... yet.)
There is no point in buying the raw meat at the pet store.
no logical reason, no financial reason, no ethical reason, no health reason.
It's just more expansive and there is no way to tell how it got treated.
People have all kind of fears about raw meat, as many here in this thread have expressed, but the knowledgeable vets seem to agree on this so i would ignore the common commonsensical but uninformed fears.
watch this, very informative from a knowledgeable vet:
Yes, actually, you can.
The exterior is pretty different, the digestive system is pretty much identical....
there are no massive, prohibitive differences.
the main reason human beings feed their animals synthetic, processed dry or tinned food is because they've always been told it's better.
It isn't.
the video above is very, very good.
BTW... did you know that commercial pet food has to be fit for human consumption?
Fact remains just as many vets believe a full dry diet can provide the equivalent of any raw product.
Want me to post 100's hundreds of video stating the issue with raw meat? ...common commonsensical but uninformed fears. ? why because its different than YOUR opinion, or YOUR vets opinion.
"If you feed raw food, then do it after a lot of research, and transfer animals gradually.
there isn't a single wild wolf or coyote that eats cooked food.
It's completely unnatural. "
Really. So maybe owners of jack russels should allow their terriers to fed on wild rats they can catch? Hey best be off time to take my wolfhound to the mountain so he can feed on some coyotes and new born mountain lions he can hunt out.
I think the only uninformed ones are those who are pushing raw meat as an agenda because its their opinion.
Fact is this. Raw Meat, dried food, and wet food. Its your choice, between you and your vet. Each animal will react differently to it.
but posting a video of a vet saying yeah raw meat is awesome is completely and utterly redicuous.
Veterinary medicine > Pseudoscience.
i'd like to see the other side.
Often the dogs will eat what they catch.
and there are those who own Jack Russell terriers and use them to do what they were bred for... why the sarcasm....?
Nobody here has been confrontational, rude or sarcastic with you...
Carnivores will not usually feast on other carnivores unless they are dead.
One, it's too risky, taking on another carnivore - this is why wolves in the wild will only very rarely cross swords with bears, other wolves or coyotes....
And two, the meat is very bitter, due to a meat-protein diet only.
Most dogs will however, chase rabbits, pigeons and other herbivores, to eat them... No, not at all.
i have been a dog behaviourist for over 20 years, and I've owned dogs for over 30.
this comes out of hands-in experience, and veterinary approval.
If people choose to continue to feed their animals a processed and commercial dog/pet food, that's their choice, but with the experience I've had, I know, at first hand, that feeding a raw-food diet has done nothing but benefit all my dogs.
but I can only recommend, i can't force people.
Have you actually ever fed your dogs a raw food diet?
you seem pretty hostile to the idea...
I have done both, so I can see it from both sides.... Initially yes, of course.
in fact, to begin with, it will seem as if the raw food diet is adversely affecting your dog.
This is a transitional period, during which time, your animal's gut will be readjusting to eating raw food, and such a transition can cause an upset tummy, or vomiting.
just adjust what you're doing gradually, and over time, your animal will reap the benefit of returning to a natural diet.
but admittedly, the convenience of just being able to ring-pull a can containing... well, who knows precisely what it contains - ? is much quicker, more convenient, less time-consuming and less effort, for us.
So it's an easy way of keeping your animal fed.
But having visited a pet-food canning factory, I'm telling you - what goes in there would make a trooper blanch... .
....Why? When you consider that commercial pet foods have only existed for the past 80 years or so, I fail to see how advocating a feeding system that was in existence since animals were domesticated, can be called 'veterinary medicine >pseudoscience'.
Especially when the meat you would buy for your animal is likely to be from a domesticated herbivore, and therefore even less prone to parasites and harmful bacteria.... :wtf:
It bunged my boy up really badly and he ended up having to have an enema; the vet tells me small dogs shouldn't get bones for this reason.
I've also read that small dogs should be fed twice a day, whereas larger dogs should only be fed once a day; and both types of dog need long periods where there's no food in their stomach.
But give it another 10 years and the advice will all be different no doubt.
never give cooked bones!
Cooking a bone makes it hard, so your dog can break his teeths.
also so very sharp part of that bone can get stuck inside.
stay away from cooked bones!
wild safari parks now keep the animals in a state where they have to usually work for their food, and have adapted feeding patterns to mimic those of wild animals....
Short of letting the carnivore species actually kill their own prey, meat is left in difficult-to-reach places, for example, to make lions and tigers, leopards and panthers, have to work for it.
And full carcases are dragged behind jeeps to make carnivores "chase the prey"... especially if animals such as wolves and tigers are being bred for a naturalisation programme, and would be released into the wild.
Carnivores in the wild need to hunt, but they don't do so every day, usually, (although when raising pups, they need to find food more frequently)... so usually, a carnivore will eat twice or at a push three times a week as a habit.
Hunting takes a lot of energy, and it's both time consuming and heavy work - but the protein they eat, usually keeps them nourished until the next time. that's why, in between feeding, carnivores are actually very lazy. Having consumed probably 10kg of meat at a killing, they need to relax and digest that....
Herbivores need to graze all the time, because the food they eat isn't all that nutritious - so they need a lot of it - and it takes energy to process and digest it. so they have to keep moving and often either chew the cud, or eat their own dung to extract all the nourishment they can.
I often advise my 'dog-clients' to let their dogs skip a day's food, once in a while.
no decent, caring and loving dog owner would wilfully deprive their animal or starve it - and the food they eat will keep them going, so for a dog to go without food for a day, now and then, does it no harm at all.
But anyways, with cats, this is absolutely untrue. Dry food causes cats (males, typically) to form crystals in their urine, which then lodge in the urethra, and kill the cat. It's part due to the grains in the dry food that cats have trouble digesting and part due to the fact that cats get most of their water intake from food, regardless of whether you put out a bowl for them or not. This is what happened to my sister's cat (who died). This is what happened to my aunt's cat (who opted to pay the $3000 surgery, although her vet only made her pay $1000). So when my cat started having urinary problems, I flipped out. I was lucky, because he only had a UTI, but my vet gave me a lot of information on the role that food plays in these sorts of issues and recommended I feed him more wet food. She's actually a really cool cat lady, so I feel lucky to have found her. Oddly enough, she told me that she had actually just gone to a seminar on wet vs dry food for cats and discussed some of the things she learned there. This sounds just like the barn cats at my grandmother's farm. We used to gather all the leftovers from dinner (bones and whatnot too) and put it out there for them too. Cats will really eat anything, lol. But alas, I do not eat meat... so... having random meat scraps would never happen for me, lol.
Also, thanks for all the comments guys! I don't have time to watch the videos at the moment, but I definitely will. Also, I have done some research online and one lady recommended cooking the outside of the chicken in the oven for a certain amount of time to kill the surface bacteria (leaving it mostly raw). And actually, there are also a good number of people who just cook the meat and feed it to the animal cooked. Thoughts on this?
Oh, and one other thing... One thing I noticed about how to make your own cat food is that it always involves a meat grinder. The hand crank styles are so much smaller and cheaper than the electric... but I wonder how hard it really is to use one. I'm not against getting a little muscle mass so long as it's not impossible to do myself, lol.
It explains that cats and dogs already have a naturally high quantity of salmonella present in their systems - it's a higher amount than we have, and they're consequently more resistant to bacteria than we are.
When you see some of the hideous things dogs and cats sometimes eat out of dustbins, you'll know this is fact.
But if you don't give them food that is past it's best by date or handle it too much with unwashed hands - then it's fine.
Secondly, things like worms and parasites reside in the small intestine and large intestine of animals - that's where they get their nutrients, and they stay in the host's digestive system - and you don't feed those parts to pets - so cross-contamination with parasites is extremely rare.
they're fun, they make you feel you've achieved something, and they're just as efficient as a food processor!
In fact, a food processor sometimes grinds things to too much of a mushy pulp....
I forgot that minor but vitally important bit....:rolleyes:
If you freeze the meat for a few days, as @patbb so rightly says, it kills the toxoplasmosis bug, which is so dangerous to cats.....
I have my cat on meow mix... been thinking of cooking her meals but i'm going to check with the vet
you're only cooking it for your benefit because first of all, we think raw food is gross, and it's cruel to give raw food to animals when they've been enjoying canned, synthetic, mushed-up food for so long -
And secondly, we have been so conditioned by hype to believe that raw food is just wrong and bad for them, and commercial food is so much better....
don't cook it, but gradually introduce it, by adding a little bit to wet cat food, and then, bit by bit, exchanging the proportions....
But they do need some vegetative roughage.
When you watch the video by the vet, to the right, there is a further selection of raw food videos... one of them is a tutorial, giving a list of other ingredients it would be wise to add to raw food, to give pets a balanced diet... and most of them, we consume too, so it's not as if you have to go to added expense....
the only thing I see there which is 'raw' is yoghurt... and dairy products aren't too good for cats.....
http://cats.about.com/cs/catfood/a/humanfood.htm
(Actually, thanks to spell-checker, I know it's 'diarrhoea'... and that really is thanks to spell-checker!!)
maybe this video link will be useful to you with regard to feeding your kitties....
there are also other cat-related videos alongside....----->
I actually found this video today - and it pretty much repeats what said about the way wild animals feed, in my above post.
@Lookingformyway, I have located more videos about raw food diets than you could shake a chicken wing at...
Have you perchance found anything from a vet to state the opposite, yet?
I'm still very open-minded to your viewpoint...
Many thanks....
1. if that piece of raw meat has sanitary-veterinary approval to be on the market ( in civilized countries you don't even need to bother asking about it)
2. you should give a cat different types of raw meat, like liver ( my cat's choice for years
The thing is, from what I've seen cats have food 'preferences' (also due to the physiology of their tongue/taste buds) and will avoid certain raw meat ( keeping the idea of giving your cat raw meat). Now you can try with..let's say liver ( I give my cat cow liver) and see if it's good. If not, change to other raw meats.
P.S.: my two cents; the credibility of this post will be severely decreased when I'll say that it comes from what I've seen, and what I've learned during my two -week work at that vet cabient.