Question about raw food

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CD and BigMac

CD and BigMac

Member Since 2009
How long do you leave the food out and available for your kitties?

For canned food (water added) I leave it out several hours or until one of the kitties eat it, whichever comes first. :cool:

But today i'm testing a raw diet and so far the interest has been minimal...just a sniff and a couple of licks. Could be kitties weren't hungry or they don't like it 'yet.'

Thanks!
 
I've left it out for an hour or two - my cats like it so it hasn't lasted long. I personally wouldn't feel comfortable with many hours left out even though cats are resistant to food poisoning.

If it helps at all, three of my kitties were hesitant about raw at first and one seemed almost afraid of it - she'd run away from the bowl. (The fifth loved it from the beginning.) Took a few weeks for them to all start liking it. Hopefully yours just need a little time.
 
Thanks Camille! :mrgreen:

I sprinkled some Fortiflora on it and Mackie came back and ate about half of it. That is encouraging. But I will pick up the leftovers now... it's been about 90 minutes of exposure.
 
For the most part I can't leave food out for any length of time because I have two Hoovers who would gobble it up in no time, but on occasion I have left raw out for several hours.

Years ago, I asked Jojo about this. She free feeds raw. She reminded me that kitties in the wild do not refrigerate their prey after a kill. They simply cover it up and come back to it later. :mrgreen: :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
 
Yes, no refrigeration in the wild and I also had no concerns until I saw that Dr. Lisa now recommends partial cooking to kill surface bacteria. I think it's important to remember that most of us are using meat from the supermarket and we don't know how it was handled or what it came in contact with before it went in our shopping basket. Also to keep in mind that "in the wild" is not synonymous with safe. Worth considering, IMO.

The situation may be different with raw bought from a supplier - I guess it depends on where they get their meat and how they process it.
 
LIke Camille pointed out, IMHO, it depends on whether you are grinding the food yourself. If you're buying ground chicken or turkey, I wouldn't leave it out for more than an hour or two.

FWIW, it took Gizmo a little longer to become interested in a raw diet. I ended up mixing some canned in with the raw and gradually decreasing the amount of canned.
 
The food I bought is frozen Nature's Variety. I also have some Rad Cat but haven't tried that yet. I am encouraged that Mackie seems somewhat interested. Not wholeheartedly yet but it's a good start.

Sienne, mixing it with canned sounds like a good plan, especially for Mackie. My older lady, Cappi totally blew it off and whined for her regular Fancy Feast. :lol: I will have to sneak in the raw very slowly for her. :roll:
 
When I was free feeding raw, I would freeze it in ice cube trays. Weezer has always been a free feeder, so I would thaw the amount she was likely to eat for her meal and leave frozen cubes out to thaw for the rest of the day. I would leave her dish on top of an ice pack.

BTW, I have a grinder for sale if anyone is interested.
 
Sadly my experience with store-bought raw has not been good in terms of my cats liking it. They like the fresh stuff I grind myself, but it's a lot of work.

To amplify on what Sienne mentioned, supermarket pre-ground chicken or turkey is likely to be much more contaminated than whole meat because the bacteria on the surface and on the grinding equipment (which may or may not be terribly clean) gets mixed into the meat during grinding and multiplies for however long it's sitting in the store. Many people won't use raw pre-ground meat at all unless they get it freshly ground from a trusted butcher. We used to give it to our cats when I was a kid and they never got sick, but I tend to err on the side of caution now and won't use it.
 
Tess seems to prefer the NV to my homemade, fine by me! Lots easier!!! I'll leave it for an hour or 2 if she leaves any. I know Dr. Lisa mentioned in Health recently not to worry too much about leaving it out.

BTW, the NV Chicken/Turkey, Beef, Lamb an Venison are low Phosphorus, which is great since we are watching that for Tess. It's cheapest if you buy the Chubs and portion it yourself. I haven't seen the new "bits" yet. that would be super convenient, so probably more expensive. :roll:
 
CD and BigMac said:
The food I bought is frozen Nature's Variety. I also have some Rad Cat but haven't tried that yet.
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I feed NV raw to the civies. I don't leave it out for snacks. Civies gobble up their raw in minutes so there's never anything left. If they do leave their food untouched, I know that means a trip to the vet is needed.

Do you have the current $5 coupon for the NV raw foods? http://www.naturesvariety.com/nvqc/Sandy_Recovery_Raw

Try sprinkling freeze dried treats or freeze dried raw on top of the NV to make it more appealing. That's how I got Emma to eat raw food :smile: Do your cats like stinky fish? Stella and Chewy's makes really stinky seafood freeze dried raw that you can use for sprinkling on food. Use the pouch ones because those are already in small pieces.

You can get trial sized bags of the NV Raw Bites I don't recall how much the trial sized or regular sized bags cost.
 
My kitties get raw food, from a local manufacturer called Red Dog/Blue Cat Deli. I know someone who works there, and know they are pretty careful about manufacturing, plus the protein suppliers are all organic non-medicated. The Red Dog website says that raw food should be consumed within 2 days of thawing, and shouldn't be left out more than 15-30 minutes. Not a problem in our house - Neko hoovers and the civie will mostly hoover although occasionally one of the poultry meats needs some freeze dried chicken on top. Both will hoover the Nature's Variety when I buy it. Neko switched over to raw very quickly, but the civie needed more convincing. I started him with 1/4 raw mixed into regular wet food, then 1/2, then 3/4. It took a couple of weeks. I make sure I add warm water to warm the meat. I do use an autofeeder, and have one that can hold a cooler pack or ice, in order to keep the meet fresh.

I am using a rotation of 4 different proteins, so they don't get tired of any one flavor. For both kitties, kangaroo is their favorite, although rabbit is a close second.
 
Thank you everyone!
I am taking all of your great ideas and I'm going to work on this raw food project. I was happy to find a local source for Nature's Variety and thought now would be a good time to try it.

Jill, I do feel better about leaving it out a bit longer than 30 minutes. I remember Jojo and Dr. Lisa pointed out that cats' digestive systems are faster than humans so they usually aren't affected as much by 'stuff' as we might be. Although I've been known to eat 3 day old (unrefrigerated) pizza with no ill effects. :shock:

Camille, I really admire those of you who make your own cat food. wow!

Sienne, so far it's been not received well... I mixed the raw with their usual food and got Mackie to eat a bite or two after I sprinkled parmesan cheese on top. But then he walked away. I will lower the percentage of raw to canned and try again. I used half & half and that may have been too big of a change. ohmygod_smile I should have put just a little bit and then a bit more in a few days.

Linda, I like the idea of using a bit of frozen food to keep the rest of it fresher. Haha, not going to be making my own raw food just yet - so no go on your grinder!

Ann, glad to know about the lower phosphorus NV since I need to watch that for Cappi, my 13 yr. old kitty.

Karen, I did get the NV trial pack. I will see if I can get some of the Stella and Chewy's freeze dried stinky fish. Mackie loves fishy food and I've been restricting it so he will learn to eat other stuff. But a sprinkling might really help.

Thanks Wendy, really good info. (Kangaroo, now that IS different!) I checked Dr. Lisa's list of foods and it looks like NV and Rad Cat are careful about their manufacturing. And I guess I was trying to jump the gun by going too fast with offering the raw without mixing it. I tried it straight, no takers. Then half/half with canned. Still too much raw. I will be more patient. Mackie would prefer dry since that is what he ate before I got him. But he switched over to wet after just one feeding. Silly me, I thought maybe he'd switch to raw just as easily. :oops:

I really would like my kitties to eat raw, it's more natural and as a bonus their poo is less stinky (I like that!). Since Mackie is a kitten this would be a good time to start the transition. Cappi, at 13 years is probably going to be more difficult to convince. But you never know! :-D
 
Thought I would chime in.

Fur Ball gets NV instinct raw chicken and seems to do pretty good on it. Initially I was afraid to leave it out very long. I would put it out when I left for work and shockingly there would be some there when I got home after work like 8 hrs later and he would be eating it...ugh. But he has never had a problem. Now that we are on a 'weight loss' plan, and since he is OTJ and doesn't need surf feeding, he will eat all his food over 2-3 hrs. He continues to be happy, playful and doing well.

Hopefully that helps you.

Karen
 
GregFurBall said:
Thought I would chime in.

Fur Ball gets NV instinct raw chicken and seems to do pretty good on it. Initially I was afraid to leave it out very long. I would put it out when I left for work and shockingly there would be some there when I got home after work like 8 hrs later and he would be eating it...ugh. But he has never had a problem. Now that we are on a 'weight loss' plan, and since he is OTJ and doesn't need surf feeding, he will eat all his food over 2-3 hrs. He continues to be happy, playful and doing well.

Hopefully that helps you.

Karen
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Oh wow, this is good to know too... I won't panic in case I forget to pick it up in a timely manner. I usually don't have food out that long anyway because the kitties eat it quicker than 8 hours for the most part.

Glad Fur Ball is doing well and is happily OTJ!! It's a great feeling isn't it? :mrgreen:
 
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