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The food still needs to be balanced. You need to know how much meat and bone there is before it's cooked. You need to ensure that quantity of each is properly balanced before cooking. You need to ensure all liquids are included with the final product. It's not really a good idea, in the larger scheme of feline nutrition.
I didn't say that was *all* I did. I just offered that as a way for the bones to be fed safely.
It's really not all that unbalanced. She might be getting a little less calcium than ideal, but that's about it.
Yes, it really is that unbalanced. You cannot feed a cat a 50% diet deficient in calcium and expect the cat to remain healthy.
It's not only the calcium that this diet is deficient in, since you are making no effort to ensure the correct amount of organ vs muscle meat as well.
Calcium is an essential nutrient. And the phosphorous in the diet (from the meat) must be balanced appropriately with calcium. A diet deficient, or even unbalanced, in calcium puts your cat at a very great risk for many health conditions.
Most of the 50% raw is from raw chicken breast, livers, hearts and gizzards. With an occasional RadCat and, until recently, the Bravo. On occasion I'll also give her raw fish or pork. It might not even be 50%, could be more like 40%.
I have read your posts. 15% or less is safe to feed unbalanced raw meat. Not 50%, not 40%. 15% or less.
Since I have posted a link to recipes, and you can certainly find our own sources, there is no reason for you to continue risking your cat's health this way.
It is not difficult to balance that 50% or 40%, and it is crucial that you do so.
Right, except that the raw portion isn't very unbalanced. Again, with somewhat of an exception for calcium.
That is not "somewhat". It is a huge omission.
Assuming the muscle meat (including heart and gizzard) and liver are in the correct proportions, (80/10) 40-50 percent of your cat's diet is calcium deficient. The other, missing, 10% in your raw formula is calcium. That is a very large, very dangerous deficiency.
This type of imbalanced "raw feeding" is one of the reasons many vets are against raw diets. The only justified reason, true, but it's a big one.
Actually, since part of the raw 40-50% consists of Rad Cat, it's less than 40-50%. Probably more like 30%.
One thing I learned from all this paleo-cat reading is that in the wild, cats often don't even eat all of their prey. That is, a cat frequently will catch a rabbit, and only eat some of the organs, presumably because they're tastier and easier to eat. Big cats do that a lot as well. So, even in the wild, cats don't always eat a perfectly, scientifically "balanced" diet, so I figure if it's off from the ideal scientific proportions somewhat it's probably not that big a deal.
Last time I turned on my air purifiers and that seemed to make her better the next day, so I just turned them on again to see what happens.
Incidentally, this seems to have done the trick, again. Turned them on for several hours today, and by dinner time she was bugging me for food like usual.
Actually, since part of the raw 40-50% consists of Rad Cat, it's less than 40-50%. Probably more like 30%.
One thing I learned from all this paleo-cat reading is that in the wild, cats often don't even eat all of their prey. That is, a cat frequently will catch a rabbit, and only eat some of the organs, presumably because they're tastier and easier to eat. Big cats do that a lot as well. So, even in the wild, cats don't always eat a perfectly, scientifically "balanced" diet, so I figure if it's off from the ideal scientific proportions somewhat it's probably not that big a deal.
Yes, and I think most animals, including cats, have instinctual knowing combined with internal sensings that tell them what they need to eat. Sometimes they will eat grass, othertimes not. Sometimes they will eat the bones or the lungs or the kidneys, and othertimes not.
I know with my cats I would include the organs and bones, and most times they would be eaten but occasionally they wouldn't. I took that as them knowing what their body did or didn't need at the time.
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