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Yep, it's not that hard to find liver usually (other organs are tougher, but they're not essential). Sometimes even if it's not being stocked openly on the shelf, it's just a matter of talking to the people at the meat counter. A lot of dedicated raw people have a lot of success at striking up little deals with grocery stores, butcher shops, and other places, even at "chains."
There are no butcher shops where I live and no butchers behind the counters. The meat comes in already packaged and in cartons to places like Publix and WalMart. The people simply load the meat counters at the grocery stores and what you see is what you get. If you try and ask them about getting you something they say they have no control over what comes in. I don't live in a big city. When I lived in NYC I could get anything including an entire pig for roasting, not so here in TN. There were butchers everywhere.
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Also, OP, if your cat would eat it, plenty of people who have trouble finding an adequate source of poultry livers will add beef liver in the proper proportions to the rest of their chicken/turkey/whatever muscle meat. This does work fine. It doesn't have to be all from the same animal to be balanced. I haven't seen too many grocery stores that don't stock beef liver, but YMMV.
Liver I can get, it's the other organ meats that are no longer sold. I can still get chicken gizzards and livers, and Turkey hearts. How much liver are you mixing in per lb of raw meat?
I'm also going to check the sites recommended - http://www.catinfo.org/. I haven't been there in awhile.....
You don't need the other organs. Liver is the only thing you actually need. Some people add hearts, but that's only for the source of taurine. Taurine can be supplemented separately as a supplement. The catinfo.org recipe talks about how much liver you need per recipe, though they do it in a larger batch. You'd have to do some calculations if you were only doing a pound at a time or something. Also, if you do have trouble finding proper liver for the recipe, there is stuff like this out there: Feline Instincts homemade raw cat food
I don't have personal experiences with how much liver specifically since I use pre-grinded meat that has the liver in the proper amounts already in it. The whole carcass of a rabbit or bird or whatever is generally in the proper portions that a cat needs in terms of muscle meat/bone/liver ratios.
Thanks, I just pulled up the site.
We have a Persmart and Petco where we live. I will look for these... and they're NOT made in China.
Yep, good stuff. Hope you can find it in one of those. Up until last month where I live does not have any pet supply stores other than the feed store. A PetCo opened up last month, but it has absolutely nothing that I use. I've been in there three times and have left empty handed every time, LOL. I get the PureBites on line.
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How much calcium (bone meal) do you add per lb of raw meat?
I buy Stella&Chewy's on line. I order it on Amazon, but it is fulfilled by a shop called Coastal Pet Supplies. Once I knew what I (and more importantly the cats) liked I save by buying three at once instead of one bag at a time. It is not a cheap food but it is not their sole means of food, a 12 ounce bag lasts about a month.
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I tried chicken wings and all they did is nibble some meat from the thick part and drag them all over the house.
It takes time for most cats to learn how to eat bone-in meals. Usually you would start with small pieces of meat, working up to larger pieces. When starting bone, at first you would cut the wing tip into small pieces, gradually offering larger pieces of the wing tip, and the middle part of the wing. Not the largest part, that is too big for cats.
I have one cat who, before I rescued her, lived by her own wits, and even raised a family on her own. She took to raw like a pro, including eating bone in meals. I have one who will probably never eat bone in meals (excpet the ground up bone in Stella&Chewy's) and a third who, while she can eat a wing if I cut it up into a few smaller pieces, tends to have trouble digesting bone chunks so far.
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No place where I live sells balanced commercial raw for cats. I can't afford what I found online for $15 a lb. Do you know what organ meat they add? Do you buy all those supplements you add separately? How much do you add per lb of raw food?
As mentioned I order the Stella&Chewy's freeze dried raw on-line. I don't have a local source for frozen balanced raw, I travel 100 miles (one way) to get it. I order it in advance, and when the order comes in the store calls me, and I drive up and pick it up. I order about 4 months supply at a time. I use Rad Cat exclusively for that portion of their food. Rad Cat is about $8 a pound, complete and balanced. Remember that I do not feed this food as their sole source, so it is not as expensive as it sounds.
There are many on line sources, I know a lot of people who use Hare Today, for example, the prices for the products aren't bad, but I just can't afford the delivery charges.
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I cannot feed them separately so the supplement would have to be added to the mix.
My home made portions of raw are Prey Model rather than ground. This means chunks of muscle, bone and organ, fed in ratios that mimic a cat's natural prey. The ratio is 80/10/10 (muscle meat/bone/organ) with the 10% organ mean being actually 5% liver and 5% other secreting organ. As I said earlier I am not using much bone yet, I am using egg shell calcium. The amount per one ounce serving was figured out for me by someone who knows a lot more than I do about this stuff.
Hearts and gizzards are considered muscle meat. I have no source for any secreting organ besides liver, so liver is all they get. Again, since this is not their sole source of food, I am not worried about the lack of other secreting organ,right now, though I continue to look some source around here.
Their daily PMR portion is one ounce of muscle meat and .1 (one tenth) oz of liver, plus the egg shell calcium, and other supplements mentioned earlier. Someone helped me work out the miniscule amounts of each supplement I need for this small amount of PMR every day.
OP... any ethnic supermarkets nearby? They're a great source for all kinds of meats and organs. I shop the Mexican and Asian markets. The Asian market is a fantastic source for different organs and proteins. They have beef, chicken, rabbit, fish, goat, pork, etc.
OP... any ethnic supermarkets nearby? They're a great source for all kinds of meats and organs. I shop the Mexican and Asian markets. The Asian market is a fantastic source for different organs and proteins. They have beef, chicken, rabbit, fish, goat, pork, etc.
Since the economy tanked the Mexicans have moved on and I noticed there is less choice of organ meats in the local stores now. There was an Asian Market about 20 miles from here but they closed some time back. They carried everything. I would make the trip there to get fresh seafood. I just Googled and nothing turned up except in a city about 35 miles away and I wont drive there. There are almost no minorities where I live.
It takes time for most cats to learn how to eat bone-in meals. Usually you would start with small pieces of meat, working up to larger pieces. When starting bone, at first you would cut the wing tip into small pieces, gradually offering larger pieces of the wing tip, and the middle part of the wing. Not the largest part, that is too big for cats.
I can try cutting them in smaller pieces but they wouldn't eat the chicken tail or neckbones cut into pieces. Same thing, they dragged them around, licked them and left them all over the house.
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As mentioned I order the Stella&Chewy's freeze dried raw on-line. I don't have a local source for frozen balanced raw, I travel 100 miles (one way) to get it. I order it in advance, and when the order comes in the store calls me, and I drive up and pick it up. I order about 4 months supply at a time. I use Rad Cat exclusively for that portion of their food. Rad Cat is about $8 a pound, complete and balanced. Remember that I do not feed this food as their sole source, so it is not as expensive as it sounds.
That's still costly when you add the gas for the car for a 200 mile trip. I'm figuring 20 MPG @ about $3.60 gal = about $45 for gas alone! Just sayin'.... yikes! I'm glad you can afford it.
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There are many on line sources, I know a lot of people who use Hare Today, for example, the prices for the products aren't bad, but I just can't afford the delivery charges.
As mentioned earlier, I wont order anything online. S&H are killers. And we're not always home to get deliveries.
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My home made portions of raw are Prey Model rather than ground. This means chunks of muscle, bone and organ, fed in ratios that mimic a cat's natural prey. The ratio is 80/10/10 (muscle meat/bone/organ) with the 10% organ mean being actually 5% liver and 5% other secreting organ. As I said earlier I am not using much bone yet, I am using egg shell calcium. The amount per one ounce serving was figured out for me by someone who knows a lot more than I do about this stuff.
What is the second secreting organ mentioned above? Muscle and liver are no problem getting locally.
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Hearts and gizzards are considered muscle meat. I have no source for any secreting organ besides liver, so liver is all they get. Again, since this is not their sole source of food, I am not worried about the lack of other secreting organ,right now, though I continue to look some source around here.
Their daily PMR portion is one ounce of muscle meat and .1 (one tenth) oz of liver, plus the egg shell calcium, and other supplements mentioned earlier. Someone helped me work out the miniscule amounts of each supplement I need for this small amount of PMR every day.
What is PMR? I wouldn't make a mix every day for each cat. I would make several lbs at a time since none are special needs and all can eat the same thing. I would freeze it in 1 lb portions. Between the 4 of them they can surely consume a lb a day.
PMR means Prey Model Raw. The diet is modeled after the prey a cat would eat. 80/10/10 or 80/10/5/5 is how you will see it written most of the time It means feeding chunks; muscle (80%), bone (10%), organ (10%), rather than grinding it all up together. I feed a "boneless" Prey Model Raw most days, using egg shell calcium to balance the phosphurous/calcium ratio of the meat. One cat does get bone in her PMR meal once a week. The other two have had trouble with bone, and get their bone in their Stella&Chewy's freeze dried raw (re-hydrated) portions instead. (it is ground up bone in the food)
Liver must always be at least half of the 10% secreting organ. Other secreting organs are kidney, pancreas, lung, spleen. I have no access to any of those, so my cats get only liver. However PMR is only 1/4 or less of of their total daily intake so I am not worried about them having only chicken liver.
Gas expense to pick up the food once every four months is about $30, and I pick up about a 4 month supply, 33 pounds.
When I first started out I did order Rad Cat on line. I ordered only the minimum amount, four pounds, and the shipping was $55, as much as the food.
$30 in gas once every 4 months is doable for me. I am actually in a very low income bracket but my own needs are few. I don't smoke or drink or eat out, I don't buy clothes or wear make up or get expensive haircuts. I don't use a cell phone or buy electronic gadgets. I budget very closely so I can afford to feed my cats this food as a part of their diet.
I just recently made all the computations to find out exactly how much it is costing me now to feed my cats, with their canned, commercial raw and homemade raw.
Total cost per cat per day for food and supplements is $1.14 per cat.This figure includes:
All food: canned, the commercial raw products,(and any shipping and/or taxes) and the meat bought from the grocery store
All supplements: calcium, vitamin E, vitamin B, taurine, krill oil, egg yolk lecithin, probiotic.(and any shipping and/or taxes)
Gas expense to get the Rad Cat frozen raw (I have to travel 200 miles round trip)
the added expense of freezer bags for the raw meals,
the expense of extra paper towel use for preparing raw food
This figure is based on all purchases dating back to May 2012 through February 2013.
However, the figure will drop as time goes on because the supplements will not need to be re-purchased for another six months at the soonest. So that will shave off a few cents as the weeks pass. In addition I have just found a store that is relatively local that is willing to get in the Rad Cat. Now I will be driving only 40 miles round trip rather than 200 miles, though they are charging a little more.
When they were on a canned only diet, they cost on average $1.20 per day per cat for food only. I was not supplementing with krill or egg yolk lecithin at that time.
So adding in the raw the way I have done is saving me a little money. Not much, but the benefits are so great that even if it wasn't costing less, it would still be worth it.
People who feed 100 % homemade raw do save even more, some claim 80 cents per cat per day, but I am not sure, with their figures, if they are adding in things like paper towel use and freezer bag expense. But I doubt I will ever go to 100% homemade raw, or even 100% raw using commercially balanced products and homemade.
As much as I dislike the stuff in commercial canned diets, I have found one I can live with that all three cats will eat. And I think it is important that they be used to eating some commercial canned food, in case they ever need to be hospitalized. Or if I ever need to be, for that matter, and I have to have someone coming in to take care of them.
PMR means Prey Model Raw. The diet is modeled after the prey a cat would eat. 80/10/10 or 80/10/5/5 is how you will see it written most of the time It means feeding chunks; muscle (80%), bone (10%), organ (10%), rather than grinding it all up together. I feed a "boneless" Prey Model Raw most days, using egg shell calcium to balance the phosphurous/calcium ratio of the meat. One cat does get bone in her PMR meal once a week. The other two have had trouble with bone, and get their bone in their Stella&Chewy's freeze dried raw (re-hydrated) portions instead. (it is ground up bone in the food)
Liver must always be at least half of the 10% secreting organ. Other secreting organs are kidney, pancreas, lung, spleen. I have no access to any of those, so my cats get only liver. However PMR is only 1/4 or less of of their total daily intake so I am not worried about them having only chicken liver.
Gas expense to pick up the food once every four months is about $30, and I pick up about a 4 month supply, 33 pounds.
I see.
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When I first started out I did order Rad Cat on line. I ordered only the minimum amount, four pounds, and the shipping was $55, as much as the food.
That is out of the question for us with 4 cats. They go through a little over 1 lb of food a day. About 30 to 35 lbs a month. I can't buy things online. The prices they charge are outrageous, then there's the S&H fees. All I really want to know is how much of what or which supplements have to be added per lb of raw meat w/liver. I'm being overwhelmed with information on all the sites and no one has posted that information. I'm wondering about just pulverizing a vitamin/mineral tablet for humans and just adding that. But how much would I add? What bout baby vitamins? Has anyone tried them? An 8 lb human baby would probably need the same as a 8 to 10 lb cat - no?
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$30 in gas once every 4 months is doable for me. I am actually in a very low income bracket but my own needs are few. I don't smoke or drink or eat out, I don't buy clothes or wear make up or get expensive haircuts. I don't use a cell phone or buy electronic gadgets. I budget very closely so I can afford to feed my cats this food as a part of their diet.
I would love to feed it as the complete diet and get all the slaughterhouse waste and garbage out of their diet. I can well afford meat (chicken, fish, turkey, beef, pork) from the local stores, but the prices they charge online are a total outrage.
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I just recently made all the computations to find out exactly how much it is costing me now to feed my cats, with their canned, commercial raw and homemade raw.
Total cost per cat per day for food and supplements is $1.14 per cat.This figure includes:
All food: canned, the commercial raw products,(and any shipping and/or taxes) and the meat bought from the grocery store
All supplements: calcium, vitamin E, vitamin B, taurine, krill oil, egg yolk lecithin, probiotic.(and any shipping and/or taxes)
Gas expense to get the Rad Cat frozen raw (I have to travel 200 miles round trip)
the added expense of freezer bags for the raw meals,
the expense of extra paper towel use for preparing raw food
This figure is based on all purchases dating back to May 2012 through February 2013.
How many cats is this all feeding? I don't recall how many you have. Mine go through a lb a day of canned/raw food. I would need at least 30 to 35 lbs a meat a month alone. Our vans get about 20 miles per gallon unless on the highway. And gas here is $3.60 gal and up. I assume the supplements last you months. How much do you add per lb of the raw meat you buy at the grocery store? For example... how much vitamin E and B do you add? Do you have a gram scale?
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However, the figure will drop as time goes on because the supplements will not need to be re-purchased for another six months at the soonest. So that will shave off a few cents as the weeks pass. In addition I
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have just found a store that is relatively local that is willing to get in the Rad Cat. Now I will be driving only 40 miles round trip rather than 200 miles, though they are charging a little more.
When they were on a canned only diet, they cost on average $1.20 per day per cat for food only. I was not supplementing with krill or egg yolk lecithin at that time.
OK, right now, with the kibble midnight treat or snack and the canned and raw food, it's costing us somewhat less than $2 a day. Some days they eat more than other days.
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So adding in the raw the way I have done is saving me a little money. Not much, but the benefits are so great that even if it wasn't costing less, it would still be worth it.
People who feed 100 % homemade raw do save even more, some claim 80 cents per cat per day, but I am not sure, with their figures, if they are adding in things like paper towel use and freezer bag expense. But I doubt I will ever go to 100% homemade raw, or even 100% raw using commercially balanced products and homemade.
The bags and containers I would rinse and reuse. For us to travel and snow-bird and have the cats, we do have to budget. Neither of us get anything but S.S. to live on - no pensions. We have some retirement-savings and an emergency account for the cats.
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As much as I dislike the stuff in commercial canned diets, I have found one I can live with that all three cats will eat. And I think it is important that they be used to eating some commercial canned food, in case they ever need to be hospitalized. Or if I ever need to be, for that matter, and I have to have someone coming in to take care of them.
You have three cats. OK, I didn't remember. Little Callie eats like a hog and has added another can and some raw to the daily fare here. As close as I can figure it, each cat eats 4 to 6 oz a day excluding the small amount of kibble treat - but kibble is cheap by comparison, even the premium brands. They consume perhaps an oz a day each, of kibble.
I was wrong in my figures before about how much Rad Cat I buy at one time. I don't know where I got that 33 lb figure, I must have been asleep when I was doing my figures, LOL.
I usually buy 18 pounds of RadCat frozen raw food at one time, that is twelve 24 oz. containers, and it lasts me a little over four months. I only bought it online once. It was a one time thing, because I needed to see if it was going to be a food I could work with. I had a very specific reason for wanting the Rad Cat, so once I was sure, I was motivated to find a retail source. After that I found the store up north I was driving to, 100 miles (one way) once every four months to pick up an order of twelve 24 oz. containers. Now I have found a store 20 miles away who will order it for me and I have just placed my first order with them, yay.
I have two cats who each eat one ounce a day of Rad Cat, so I use two ounces a day. The third cat does not get Rad Cat. The other foods in their daily diet are Stella&Chewy's Freeze Dried Raw (re-hydrated), freeze dried raw tripe (for the cat who doesn't get Rad Cat) Prey Model raw and canned. Proteins and brands and foods are rotated.
Rad Cat proteins are chicken, turkey, lamb. Only one cat eats the lamb.
Stella&Chewy proteins are chicken, and duck&goose. Only one cat eats the tripe (which is balanced all by itself) and she is the one who doesn't get the Rad Cat, she gets tripe instead.
Prey model meats are chicken breast, chicken thigh, turkey breast, turkey thigh, chicken gizzard & hearts, cornish hen (all parts) and beef. And the chicken liver of course. One cat does not eat beef. She gets turkey thigh (her favorite) on beef day, which is Sunday.
Sunday is also the day they get their egg yolk. And other treats such as sardines, freeze dried turkey hearts, freeze dried duck hearts or things I might be trying out.
I buy a "savings pack" of any given meat, cut it up into one ounce portions into ice cube trays, freeze them, then store them in doubled freezer bags with date of freeze, date of purchase, date of "use or freeze by" and which bag number (1 of 3 for example) it is, then store them in the freezer. My apartment is tiny and my freezer is an ice box inside the refrigerator, so I bought a table top freezer for their food. It is too small, and I have to store my Rad Cat, when I pick up an order, in a box with my name on it, in a friend's chest freezer.
I re-use freezer bags too. But I double bag freezer meat. Since I prepare foods weeks or months in advance, and the bag of food currently in use is opened fairly regularly, I want to make sure those freezer bags are still sealing well, so I only reuse them once, for raw meat for the cats. My own food I re-use bags many times before finally chucking.
I don't make up food by the pound so I can't advise you on how to add supplements that way.
I would not recommend using a human multi-vitamin. One, they are full of fillers you don't want cats to have and two, they are not balanced nutrition for cats. I buy each supplement separately, in capsule or powder or liquid form (depending on the supplement) though I do know someone who has created a "supplement mix" that can be added to meat by the pound, I'll see if I can find the link and send it to you.
I feed home made raw by the ounce. I add the supplements (tiny amounts) per meal. Meaning: the supper meal is their Prey Model meal. They get an ounce of muscle meat, one tenth of an ounce of liver, and the teeny amounts of each supplement, amounts that were figured for me by someone else (B, E, calcium, taurine) sprinkled over the meat, plus the krill oil every other day. I bought a special set of measuring spoons for this purpose. Very tiny spoons.
The way I do it is not a common way to feed raw. Most people don't do it the way I do it, but this is what works for me.
The best thing to do is to join a raw feeding forum and ask your specific questions. Everyone's questions are different, that's why a raw feeding forum can be so helpful. You can read all the existing threads, and get ideas on what other people do and what they go through, but since everyone's situation is unique, it's best to ask your own questions rather than trying to find the answers you need from other threads.
There isn't any reason you can't feed all home made raw, whether you grind it or feed it in a prey model method, or both.
But I am just not knowledgeable enough to advise you in your specific needs. Most people probably think the way I do it is complicated and nuts. There ARE people who can advise you, but you need a forum devoted to raw feeding for that.
PS daily intake:
Moderately active 7 year old, 9 lb 8 oz cat eats 4.2 oz total a day.
Highly active 9 year old, 10 lb 4 oz cat eats 4.2 oz total a day
Extremely active 3 year old, 7 lb 2 oz cat eats 4 - 4.5 oz a day
I weight them weekly, sometimes adjustments have to be made.
Last edited by catsmom21; 04-03-2013 at 05:50 PM..
I was wrong in my figures before about how much Rad Cat I buy at one time. I don't know where I got that 33 lb figure, I must have been asleep when I was doing my figures, LOL.
I usually buy 18 pounds of RadCat frozen raw food at one time, that is twelve 24 oz. containers, and it lasts me a little over four months. I only bought it online once. It was a one time thing, because I needed to see if it was going to be a food I could work with. I had a very specific reason for wanting the Rad Cat, so once I was sure, I was motivated to find a retail source. After that I found the store up north I was driving to, 100 miles (one way) once every four months to pick up an order of twelve 24 oz. containers. Now I have found a store 20 miles away who will order it for me and I have just placed my first order with them, yay.
Is this a private Feed Store or a chain like PetsMart? I wish I could order something good for them and pick it up locally. We could afford up to $2.00 lb. Of course that's about $60 a month.
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I have two cats who each eat one ounce a day of Rad Cat, so I use two ounces a day. The third cat does not get Rad Cat. The other foods in their daily diet are Stella&Chewy's Freeze Dried Raw (re-hydrated), freeze dried raw tripe (for the cat who doesn't get Rad Cat) Prey Model raw and canned. Proteins and brands and foods are rotated.
WOW! You have a regular kitty-restaurant going there. All our kitties are able to eat the same food so that makes feeding them easy. Callie is doglike in that she eats anything including plain bread if she can get it. We can't leave anything on the counters. The other cats don't touch our food. Here's a recent pic of the little stinker in the RV. She about 6 months old here.
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Rad Cat proteins are chicken, turkey, lamb. Only one cat eats the lamb.
Stella&Chewy proteins are chicken, and duck&goose. Only one cat eats the tripe (which is balanced all by itself) and she is the one who doesn't get the Rad Cat, she gets tripe instead.
Prey model meats are chicken breast, chicken thigh, turkey breast, turkey thigh, chicken gizzard & hearts, cornish hen (all parts) and beef. And the chicken liver of course. One cat does not eat beef. She gets turkey thigh (her favorite) on beef day, which is Sunday.
Sunday is also the day they get their egg yolk. And other treats such as sardines, freeze dried turkey hearts, freeze dried duck hearts or things I might be trying out.
I buy a "savings pack" of any given meat, cut it up into one ounce portions into ice cube trays, freeze them, then store them in doubled freezer bags with date of freeze, date of purchase, date of "use or freeze by" and which bag number (1 of 3 for example) it is, then store them in the freezer. My apartment is tiny and my freezer is an ice box inside the refrigerator, so I bought a table top freezer for their food. It is too small, and I have to store my Rad Cat, when I pick up an order, in a box with my name on it, in a friend's chest freezer.
I re-use freezer bags too. But I double bag freezer meat. Since I prepare foods weeks or months in advance, and the bag of food currently in use is opened fairly regularly, I want to make sure those freezer bags are still sealing well, so I only reuse them once, for raw meat for the cats. My own food I re-use bags many times before finally chucking.
Hey! You're a crazier cat lady than I am. I buy the heatys and gizzards and slice them in smaller bits so they don't get dragged around the house. I make portions and save them in the freezer in those tiny plastic containers sold at the Dollar stores. They hold about 2 oz of food each. I wash them and reuse them over and over. They also get some of whatever meat we're having for dinner. No, fat, just nice cuts of what we would eat ourselves.
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I don't make up food by the pound so I can't advise you on how to add supplements that way.
I would not recommend using a human multi-vitamin. One, they are full of fillers you don't want cats to have and two, they are not balanced nutrition for cats. I buy each supplement separately, in capsule or powder or liquid form (depending on the supplement) though I do know someone who has created a "supplement mix" that can be added to meat by the pound, I'll see if I can find the link and send it to you.
I would appreciate that. This way I can make up 1 lb packages for the freezer and thaw one each day.
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I feed home made raw by the ounce. I add the supplements (tiny amounts) per meal. Meaning: the supper meal is their Prey Model meal. They get an ounce of muscle meat, one tenth of an ounce of liver, and the teeny amounts of each supplement, amounts that were figured for me by someone else (B, E, calcium, taurine) sprinkled over the meat, plus the krill oil every other day. I bought a special set of measuring spoons for this purpose. Very tiny spoons.
I'm going to pick up this Krill oil you mention. I know I wont find Taurine in the stores here, I already looked. That's why I buy turkey heats when I can get them. These chewy hearts and gizzards keep their teeth sparkling white... and one is almost 4 years old already.
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The way I do it is not a common way to feed raw. Most people don't do it the way I do it, but this is what works for me.
The best thing to do is to join a raw feeding forum and ask your specific questions. Everyone's questions are different, that's why a raw feeding forum can be so helpful. You can read all the existing threads, and get ideas on what other people do and what they go through, but since everyone's situation is unique, it's best to ask your own questions rather than trying to find the answers you need from other threads.
That's what I was doing.... overwhelming.
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There isn't any reason you can't feed all home made raw, whether you grind it or feed it in a prey model method, or both.
But I am just not knowledgeable enough to advise you in your specific needs. Most people probably think the way I do it is complicated and nuts. There ARE people who can advise you, but you need a forum devoted to raw feeding for that.
PS daily intake:
Moderately active 7 year old, 9 lb 8 oz cat eats 4.2 oz total a day.
Highly active 9 year old, 10 lb 4 oz cat eats 4.2 oz total a day
Extremely active 3 year old, 7 lb 2 oz cat eats 4 - 4.5 oz a day
I weight them weekly, sometimes adjustments have to be made.
I need to weigh mine. One is getting a little fatter than I like but she's a couch potato. A sofa slug. Her idea of a rip-roaring time is to take long naps, eat, visit the litter pan, take another nap.... we got her from the shelter as a 9 month old and she has never been active or playful.
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I don't live in a big city. When I lived in NYC I could get anything including an entire pig for roasting, not so here in TN. There were butchers everywhere. 
Just sayin'.... yikes! I'm glad you can afford it. 
I would freeze it in 1 lb portions. Between the 4 of them they can surely consume a lb a day.
For us to travel and snow-bird and have the cats, we do have to budget. Neither of us get anything but S.S. to live on - no pensions. We have some retirement-savings and an emergency account for the cats. 
There ARE people who can advise you, but you need a forum devoted to raw feeding for that.
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