Purrs In Our Hearts - Cat Forum UK

Cat General => General Cat Chat => Topic started by: carl (billy and baggys dad) on December 20, 2006, 11:31:47 AM

Title: Cats and raw meat?
Post by: carl (billy and baggys dad) on December 20, 2006, 11:31:47 AM
Sorry if this has been asked before.

What raw meat is it safe to feed your furbabes? Are there any health benefits associated with feeding them raw meat? Could it make them ill?

Title: Re: Cats and raw meat?
Post by: Susanne (urbantigers) on December 20, 2006, 11:56:54 AM
I give mine raw meat 2 or 3 times a week - as a snack rather than a whole meal but I'm building up to the latter!  They love it.  I feed mainly chicken and beef.  If you're feeding it as more than an occasional snack you need to be careful to give them a balanced diet - muscle meat alone isn't balanced.  So long as it's fresh and kept hygienically there shouldn't be a problem - after all, they dont light a fire and pan fry a mouse in the wild!  Salmonella is obv a possible problem with chicken, but cats have shorter digestive tracts than humans so it's less of a problem for them. 

Some info here

http://cats.about.com/cs/nutrition/a/rawfooddiet_2.htm
Title: Re: Cats and raw meat?
Post by: carl (billy and baggys dad) on December 20, 2006, 12:54:38 PM
Thanks Susanne, thats really interesting. Its mainly for a treat, but I'll read up and if there's benefit in giving them a raw meat diet I might opt for it eventually.
Title: Re: Cats and raw meat?
Post by: Desley (booktigger) on December 20, 2006, 13:29:33 PM
Think Susanne explained it well - just make sure you buy human grade meat and store it well - I have done it for mine, and it has gone down well with them, I just couldn't trust myself to get the right balance for a purely raw diet. You can chop it and freeze it as well, as long as it is fully defrosted.
Title: Re: Cats and raw meat?
Post by: Linda (Bengalbabe) on December 20, 2006, 14:29:12 PM
Bengal boys love a bit of raw - I only feed them this a couple of times a week as a treat (like others).  Funny enough I do cook chicken though, tends to be beef I serve raw (not sure why  :Crazy:)
Title: Re: Cats and raw meat?
Post by: Gillian Harvey on December 20, 2006, 14:34:04 PM
I feed my 10 a raw diet and having been for over a year now. Its important to buy your meat from good sources (like proper butchers - as I call them!), farm shops, farmers markets, and preferably free range or organic. Cats have very acidic stomaches which can deal with any potential bacteria that might occur, they are designed to eat raw meat after all, and as Susanne said they have quite a fast metabolism, so things don't hang around in the stomachs for too long either!

I feed all sorts of meat, chicken, beef, lamb, turkey, guinea fowl, rabbit, plus offal - liver, kidneys, and I also heart (usually lamb or ox)

I've just written an article about how I got started feeding a raw diet in Cat World, its in the current Jan 2007 issue - that might help too.
Title: Re: Cats and raw meat?
Post by: carl (billy and baggys dad) on December 20, 2006, 14:55:50 PM
Cool, thanks very much for the advice. I'll endeavour to root out Catworld  :)
Title: Re: Cats and raw meat?
Post by: Susanne (urbantigers) on December 20, 2006, 15:08:51 PM
Ooh Gillian - I was just reading that article in Cat World at the weekend!  I didnt' realise you wrote it!  ;D
Title: Re: Cats and raw meat?
Post by: Gillian Harvey on December 20, 2006, 15:13:39 PM
He he  ;D Twas meeeee - I took all the pics of my puss cats etc too  ;D
Title: Re: Cats and raw meat?
Post by: Gill (sneakiefeline) on December 20, 2006, 19:46:15 PM
I offered mine some beef and they all went eeeeeeeeeeek what you trying to do poison us................sigh :sigh:
Title: Re: Cats and raw meat?
Post by: CurlyCatz on December 20, 2006, 20:07:37 PM
 :rofl: having a quick scan of posts here and then doubled back thinking holy sh :censored: she feeds her cats FOX...THEN reading more closely i realised you said OX... :rofl: :rofl:

Well some of you know that my cats had their first taste (kind of unplanned really ) of raw chicken and i'd just like to tell you's that they all esp cody have the off cuts of raw chicken now when i am cooking it for tea and cody just LOVES LOVES LOVES it.
Title: Re: Cats and raw meat?
Post by: Gillian Harvey on December 20, 2006, 20:59:20 PM
OX, Lynn - in the words of Fred Elliot,  I said OX  ;D - so I think you mean holy cow  ;D
Title: Re: Cats and raw meat?
Post by: CurlyCatz on December 20, 2006, 21:24:31 PM
LOL yes thats what a meant hehehe