Author Topic: Advice please, Raw food, how much to feed?  (Read 1922 times)

Offline rachelburdett20

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Re: Advice please, Raw food, how much to feed?
« Reply #8 on: February 20, 2011, 23:40:20 PM »
A fully grown cat weighing 4.5 kg requires approx. 130 g of meat spread out over 2-3 meals - found this on the felini complete reveiw on zooplus

Offline rachelburdett20

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Re: Advice please, Raw food, how much to feed?
« Reply #7 on: February 20, 2011, 23:33:50 PM »
Gillian, thanks for you replys, what do you think of the nautual instinct pure range, could i add a powder supliment to it? how much do your cats roughly weigh??

Offline Gillian Harvey

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Re: Advice please, Raw food, how much to feed?
« Reply #6 on: February 20, 2011, 16:44:36 PM »
thanks for the replys, bit difrent to what the guy at darlings told me....now even more confused, he said a large cat would only eat 80-90 grams a day.......think is going to be more expensive than i thought, dam!!

Hmmm, that doesnt sound enough. Although I don't measure, I'd think mine prob average around 100g per meal going by when I'm feeding tinned - raw is usually a dollop or two on the plate just going by eye!  ;) - thats 2 meals per day, morning and evening. Then they also get a snack at bedtime, so its prob just over 200g per day, say around 250g.

Darlings does work out quite expensive, although good product. Natural Instinct is also good (although price wise I don't theink they are going to be much diff to Darlings) - they've only got dog stuff on their website at the mo I think, but they do cat food as well, I've been involved in the cat food raw trials - and its gone down well with the gang! http://www.naturalinstinct.com/

When I make my own mix, I just use mince/chuncks from the supermarket, add a bit of offal and heart and mince up some chicken wings for the bone content (most of mine havent got many teeth now, so can't do the crunching bones sadly)

Offline Fire Fox

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Re: Advice please, Raw food, how much to feed?
« Reply #5 on: February 20, 2011, 16:08:59 PM »
Darlings are new to raw feeding cats, triggered by the demise of Food4Cats. It's cheap to raw feed if you are prepared to make you own mixes or have a friendly butcher - frozen bone-in chicken, pork liver and pork kidneys are all around £1.40 a kilo in the supermarkets.  :wow: Obviously that isn't free-range/ organic but neither is sensibly priced commercial cat food.

I didn't raw feed full-time so I wasn't obsessive about getting the balance of bone-meat-offal-fat spot on. Noah's 200g was comprised of one chicken heart (ox is sold chopped), two small cubes of liver and kidney (liver ready sliced, kidney chopped by me) plus chicken portions to 200g (~one large thigh or two drumsticks). If you have mogsters that won't crunch the bones you would need pet/ dog mince, or you could add bonemeal to human mince. I found chopping the bones in two with poultry shears encouraged Noah to eat them. There was no problem persuading Noah to eat offal, anything bloody went first!  :evillaugh:
:'( My beautiful Noah rescued 13/02/09, adopted 11/10/09, taken 11/02/11 :'( You deserved so much more.
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Offline rachelburdett20

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Re: Advice please, Raw food, how much to feed?
« Reply #4 on: February 20, 2011, 13:12:53 PM »
thanks for the replys, bit difrent to what the guy at darlings told me....now even more confused, he said a large cat would only eat 80-90 grams a day.......think is going to be more expensive than i thought, dam!!

Offline Fire Fox

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Re: Advice please, Raw food, how much to feed?
« Reply #3 on: February 17, 2011, 18:47:15 PM »
There are definitely suggested feed rates on the net, but my Google-fu is weak today.  :-[ I fed Noah (6.5kg and indoor only) 200g per day and seem to recall that was within the expected range. For a greedy cat I was surprised he seemed satisfied with that. As you note, you need to take into account activity levels and weight management goals, can't recall seeing a feline plan that detailed (I advise on human nutrition and there are such charts/ calculations for us).

For Lucy I'd be inclined to allow her to dictate her own feed rate; if she tends towards grazing you might try three meals a day, tho it may not be possible to work that into your schedule. For Mia the best advice I can give is to search or post on the Bengal forums as it's relatively common for Bengal breeders to raw feed. I hope Lucy and Mia get as much enjoyment from raw as Noah did.  :Luv:
:'( My beautiful Noah rescued 13/02/09, adopted 11/10/09, taken 11/02/11 :'( You deserved so much more.
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Offline Gillian Harvey

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Re: Advice please, Raw food, how much to feed?
« Reply #2 on: February 17, 2011, 17:46:28 PM »
Its difficult to say, depends on individual cat really, but I tend to work on feeding a little less of raw per meal than I would feeding tinned - nothing scientific to that really lol, just that raw generally tends to be more filling and satisfies the appetite quicker - but there again, I've got some cats who would eat more and others who would eat less, and I've never measured food out anyway.  :innocent: Sorry, not much help really  :)


Offline rachelburdett20

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Advice please, Raw food, how much to feed?
« Reply #1 on: February 17, 2011, 14:17:13 PM »
Hi

This has probebly been discussed before but the search things not working

I have just ordered a darlings taster box so i can switch (gradualy) my two cats on to raw food, I did quiz the guy as to how much to feed them but the guy i spoke to could'nt give an acurate answer

They are both female, neutered

Mia is 3 and is 5.6 kg - she needs to be around 4.6

Lucy is 16/17 and is 3.5 kg - she could do with gaining a good 500g - 1kg

any advice/ sugestions apriciated

thanks

Rachel, Lucy and Mia

 


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