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greg, read your entire post. It was good. Geez, I feel so nervous about feeding raw to my 16. Not to mention how to go about it correctly. This is not like preparing food for one cat!
I've been to a number of vet clinics in my area over the years and IME most of the vets there had little feline dietary knowledge. In fact, the first vet I saw with Tucker pushed nothing but dry prescription food (which caused many problems, another story)!
I think there is a "CYA" fear for vets when it comes to handling raw food, and the possibility that some people won't or don't understand what a balanced/complete diet is for a cat. It is much safer to suggest something that's either on their shelf or has the AAFCO label on it.
I am transitioning our cats to raw now. Our oldest has been on it for a month now and is doing great. The improvement in his fur alone has been amazing.
Please help me. I feed 16 cats a day! What, where, how do I get the raw and prepare it safely and buy it right? I am pulling my hair out of my head trying to do this right if I want to do it. I feed 16!
[quote=catsmom21;33723303]Martha when I went raw with my cats I joined a raw feeding forum and got all the guidance and support I could ask for. I really think that's the best way to go about it.
Great idea. I never thought of that! I am desperate because my beloved Orange Boy is slowly going to die from his IBD and his fur looks all dry and of poor quality now,etc. and I love him so much. ANd I want to feed my other cats right. But I have 16 cats to feed every day!!
"As for prey model raw, there are also a couple of sources where you can actually obtain whole ground prey such as poultry, rabbit, cavies (guinea pigs) and so forth. "
But I need paint by number help. I need what sources, where, do they deliver, everything.
Martha, there is also a facebook group for raw feeding for IBD cats. PM me for the link if you would like to join.
Thanks, I will! I am on FB! Martha Mooney Waltien anyone is welcome to ask me to be their friend, I write all about my rescue work and animals.. I will friend you only if you are not a weirdo LOL!!!!
30to66at55
I did NOT go to veterinary school (I was going to but im not good with math so I went into animal behavior and zoological science and management instead.
however I WAS a certified Veterinary technicial and have worked with 3 vets who ALL confirmed that nutritional courses are limited and taught BY pet food company reps...
and as Grammyof5 already posted directly form the tufts site
I can also say from direct experience veterinary offices recive monetary and equiptment compensation for selling "prescription diets" (ontop of the very small mark up for petfood)
one vets office I worked for got a brand new ultrasound machine courtesy or Mars (the owning company of Royal canin) when they reached a bag sales goal, they also recived a new xray maching from colgate Palmolive (the owners of Hills) then they met a set minimum bag order over the space of a year (I cant remember how many bags it was, something like 5000 bags of food ordered...
veterinary schools and teaching colleges get much of their learning equiptment funding from "sponsorships" by these large companies, purina, Colgate-Palmolive and Mars being the major ones.
xray machines, ultrasounds, autoclaves ect are NOT cheap and teaching colleges and veterinary offices alike depend on generaous donations, scholarships ect to help fund the purchase of large expensive pieces of equiptment...
just like other colleges rely on such things for similar stuff, the community college I whent to has a contract with coke, it only sold coke brand and in return got a bunch of kickbacks for equiptment...
I believe you. I am a former psychiatric social worker (MSW) and let me tell you the THINGS drug companies will do to get you to use their drugs! (Although many drugs work to really help people, but they are also used too much.) But I get it about the influence they have.
All the cats I feed.. my own two - Charcoal and Lily, the pregnant stray now inhabiting my basement and the two foster kitties in the downstairs apartment all eat Sheba chicken pate.
Why? Because it has less than 5% carbohydrates. Actually, it is closer to 3%.
No more stinky butt. Lily is losing weight and her blood glucose is down - even the stray's coat is nice and glossy despite the draining of pregnancy. Much less stool in the litter boxes. Itchy foster kitty is no longer itchy.
Martha anne I def suggest looking into the raw feeding groups, for you either pre made raw (would be expensive though) or whole prey (mice, rats, baby rabbit, chicks) would be easiest, I don't even feed my cats in bowls, they eat on the kitchen floor so I can run the Swiffer around afterwards lol. id think that would be the easiest for you. while giving you an EASY optinamal prey model (don't have to worry about meat to bone to organ ratio when feeding whole) but theres LOTS of groups for cats that can definatly easily break it down for you to help out.
in terms of the salmonella, theres been studies done that found that dogs and cas are Resistant to salmonella thanks to the ph of their stomach acid rather than the length of the digestive tract,
obviously in a pet fed a bad diet or one with a comporimised immune system that stomach ph could be off and thus those pets would be suseptable then to salmonella, but as a generality a HEALTHY cat/dog is not likely to get salmonella/e-coli issues. the salmonella risk is mosty to the humans handling the food.
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