"Natural"diet for cats?

[happyhippy]

Hi all,I'm starting to re think how I feed my cat.She is 10 yrs old and up until now has ate commercial type cat foods.I would like to change her over to a more natural diet,and I'm thinking raw meat/fish with a small amount of vegetables.I know some people could argue that commercial pet food has apparently got all the "extra"vitamins/minerals added,but really is all that necessary?With human food items its all about traceability,so why not pet foods?For example,my cat has at the moment duck and lamb meat pouches.I really don't think the company that makes them would be using the choicest of duck fillets,or say a shoulder of lamb so what meat do they use?Ground up heads of these creatures???????I am thinking about asking the company for a run down of the meats used and where they come from.My sister recently sent me a YOu Tube video from America,and it really opened my eyes to the pet food industry.So do any of you feed your dogs/cats a natural meat type diet?If so what?Offcuts or something more substantial?Please share,I'd appreciate your views/suggestions,thankyou!

[daddymatty82]

i know horse meat would be a part of the meat sources they use in dog and cat food. but maybe if you went to a poultry market and bought up a few cockerels put them in freezer with ducks also from the local poultry market that would be cheapest option as you can get cockerels at under a quid from market then if you want to feed lamb that would be £80 a whole from the abattoir. next year im going to start feeding my JRT on real meat but that will only be cheap meat from market like cockerals ducks odd turkey if there will be any about after xmas im looking into it as if i fed my dog a whole chook that would be nomore than 30p a day and a max of £1 a day for a whole bird

[jampot]

cats are true carnivores so there really is little or no need for the added veg mater in commercial cat foods ( dogs do need this tho they are more omnivorous) so for a "natural" cat diet raw meat and fish would be it . as long as they are able to go out and hunt up anything they need you cant buy like frogs, bugs etc (my cat loves spiders !!)

[Thomzo]

I've read somewhere that cats need a high fat content in their diets. So mine get the bacon rind, chicken skins and any other bits cut off my meat. I've also trained my neighbours to pass me any frozen meat that's out of date. The cats also get the end bits of cheese that have gone a bit stale, which they adore. I've also found that a great way to get them to clean their dirty paws, just pop a little bit of yogurt on them.

I also found out, by accident, that they like roast pumpkin and cupcake cases (they eat the whole thing if I let them).

Zoe

[oldjerry]

Velcro,my remaining cat,will only eat the best (or more precisely the most expensive) meat with jelly cat food.....however,what she REALLY likes is rats,and loads of them.(and interestingly,given the above point about ground up heads in processed cat food,she loves the head the most,often bringing me in the rest as a little present).She kills on average,3or 4 a week,sometimes she just leaves a long thin tail to show me just how much she loves me.

[contadina]

For our dogs we buy collo di pollo (which translated means chicken necks, but is basically all the bits of a chicken which don't get sold as separate cuts) for €1 per kilo or get given whatever the butcher hasn't sold at the end of the day. I mix this with pasta and some blitzed veg in a ratio of around 50% meat, 25% pasta and 25% veg. We're just getting a rabbit enclosure sorted though, as I'd prefer they ate a leaner meat.

[MandyWB]

We have 2 semi-feral cats and (on the advice of our holistic vet) feed them raw chicken wings. They get one each per day but both are good hunters and also eat whatever they catch.

[happyhippy]

Thankyou all for the replies,I appreciate you taking the time to share your idea's.Yes I'm thinking of visiting my butcher's and asking him for any offcuts ect(pay for them of course)and see if our cat will take to it.I have thrown her the odd bit of steak offcuts or whatever and she seems to really enjoy them.Do cats "need"biscuits though?I know most of it is advertising ploys,and well reading the back of some of the cat biscuit boxes our cat probably gets more nutrition than we do!
Some of the cat food is very expensive,stuff I'd never buy because I refuse to get caught up in just because it costs more must mean its better mentality.Yes it also makes sense not to include the veg part,because lets face it,if our cat was living wild she'd hardly need pea's and carrots! Any more idea's,please share as I'd love to hear them.

[contadina]

I personally wouldn't give pets any commercial pet foods. I'm sure some are better than others but most consist of meat by-products, rancid grains (cereals make up the bulk so not very balanced), chemicals/flavourings and soya (which dogs and cats find hard to digest).

[JulieSherris]

Have you done a search online for the BARF sites?
BARF is Bones And Raw Foods for animals & yes, from there you can check out what raw foods they sell - typically it's minced raw meats, frozen & packaged. I like to feed our gang on raw foods, after all, tinned pet foods have been around for 80 years, but folk had pets before that!

We don't eat processed foods every day & I don't see why my pets should either. Have a word with your local butcher - they will give you bags of bones & meat every week - and it could be beneficial to you both, because if you do at least some of your meat shopping there, you won't feel quite so guilty about taking it!!

Typically here, the butchers are also fishmongers, so it's not unusual for me to bring a bag home & find nearly whole salmons in amongst the liver, kidneys, bones etc. Yes, cats like bones too & it's great for their teeth.
Chicken bones (UNCOOKED) are great for cats because they are slightly softer & so the cat will quite happily munch their way through them.
As for the veg part - well, why not try growing some cat-nip grass for them? At least they will be getting some greenery as well when they want it.

Good luck with it, look forward to a happier kitty!!

[energysaving]

Your biggest problem is going to be convincing the kitty to give up dried food.
That stuff is seriously addictive, because of the carbs - think of an office full of women and a plate of biscuits (assuming it's not diet morning) You better not try and take them away.

We have switched our cats to Applaws (wet and dry) which is not cheap, but the girl cat was getting heavier and heavier on the mainstream dried stuff. She was very unhappy about it, but she did keep eating. She doesn't really like the dry stuff, so she only eats a little.

It's apparently dangerous to allow them to starve themselves, and if your cat's a real junkie, it's going to be hard work.

They don't need the dried food, it's for our convenience and the food industry's benefit, as they've trained us to believe we need to feed our mainly carnivorous pets on soya and other cereal waste products.

ES

[happyhippy]

Thanks once again for your thoughts and idea's.Its abit of an eye opener when you start delving into whats in pet food.Not that I expected it to be the choicest of ingredients!Its always baffled me why cat food has fish varieties?I would'nt imagine too many cats out there in the wild being bothering to try and catch fish?????When I have more spare time I will have a closer look at the Barf website and also do some more research on this issue.Thanks once again everyone.

[fruitcake]

Really interesting thread and around something I regularly debate with my neighbour. My cat seems to like a real mix of stuff - she prefers the pouches to dried food and kills something most days - although I'm jealous of oldjerry at the mo re the rats - the cat has recently brought 2 in, 2 days in a row and proceeded to let them loose in the house - i was soooooooooooooooo not impressed. At least todays catch came in dead.
I like the idea of going to the butchers for stuff - will defo follow that up

She also loves cheese, sechaun (sp?) duck, bacon rind, chicken skin - even if its covered in spices and herbs and has taken to sitting on the floor waiting for us to finish our tea to see if there's any scraps for her - it's a disgrace..
I tried her on fresh fish heads once but she wasn't interested , but if you open any smoked fish, prawns or tinned salmon then she appears from nowhere........

[The Riff-Raff Element]

This might not suit everyone - and I am sure that there are people who would condemn me for doing this (pet food manufacturers, for example )- but I take full advantage of my hound's omnivous habits and feed her as many table scraps as I can. She gets toast crusts, cereal dregs, odds and ends of pasta, fish skins, any left over veg (except broccoli, which she won't eat), trimings of meat, anything that can be picked off a chicken carcass after making stock, pretty much everything left over really. I keep a bit of commercial food in just in case, but usually if she's running a bit short I just add a little extra pasta or rice or spuds to to the pan for her.

I must say she's in fine fettle - fit as a flea and contented to boot.