Sorry for the repeated raw food questions, but I am finding conflicting information on here

I am just trying to get things right...

2kg oven ready chicken
400g heart
100g liver
100g kidney
4 eggs
Small tin sardines


but I read the on this topic viewtopic.php?f=6&t=14309&hilit=do+i+have+to+feed+both+kidney+and+liver

that its only 50g of liver and kidney so which is right?


Also I am having a hard time finding kidney, any suggestions on an alternate???


thanks for any info =)

I only just recently began making my cats' raw food at home (previously had been buying pre-made mixes like Nature's Variety and Darwin's) and like you, I too had a hard time finding the kidney at first. Because I was going with a chicken-based recipe, I was thinking that the organs should come from the same animal source if possible. Chicken hearts and livers were easy to find, but for the life of me I couldn't locate chicken kidneys. After briefly speaking with the owner of a holistic pet food shop who specializes in raw, I was told that you don't really want to use chicken kidneys in the cats' raw diet anyway (something to do with chickens not being "grass fed" animals) so he recommended I try to find some good quality beef kidney instead. Luckily I found a butcher-type store that has everything I need at decent prices, so I'll be going there for all the ingredients when I'm ready to make the next batch.

As far as the different recipes go, I'll let someone with more expertise on raw diets take that one!

On the post you linked, Louise says 1kg chicken, 200g heart, 50g liver and 50g kidney with 2 raw eggs

I think perhaps you didn't notice that she was referring to ONE kilo as opposed to two. In this case, the ratio is still the same

As for something other than kidney, you could replace with another secreting organ such as spleen.

For me, depending on what meats/organs are available, I will change bits but try to keep the ratio (1kg meat (including bones) to 300g organs, with 200g being heart).

I made a mix today, and added the following:

Meat:
2.7kg whole chicken
450g lamb shoulder (boneless)
300g goat (with bone)
800g turkey shanks (this weight included the bone, but i didn't chop the bone as it was too big! let the cats knaw the meat off the bone as a treat!)

Organs:
480g chicken hearts
250g chicken kidney
250g chicken liver
450g lamb hearts
100g lamb kidneys
100g lamb liver

Plus I added 200g tinned sardines in springwater (I try and get fresh whole ones when I can instead), 3 eggs and some water.

I also got 400g chicken necks to give as treats and to increase the bone they consume (they are picky lil buggers when it comes to bones!)

This batch was pretty close with the ratios, and gives plenty of variety!

I make this batch to feed my 4.5kg boy and 2.5kg girl (both 6 months).

I have never fed goat or turkey until today, and they LOVED both!!

There are some great raw feeding websites for ideas and information, check out some of the following:

http://rawfed.com/myths/cats.html
http://www.felinenutrition.net/
http://www.rawfedcats.org/carnivores.htm

Good luck with it, but sounds like you are on the right track

Thank you so much for pointing out the 1kg vs 2kg thing. honestly i was staring at it so long and just couldn't figure it out! lol sometimes I wonder about myself.

thanks for the other tips as well. Raw food is a lot of work but i think once i get things dialed in everything will get easier. I'd also like to find a butcher that might be able to slice everything up for me, would make my life so much easier since I hate meat lol

ugh the things we do for our cats

lol yes it does require a bit of time and effort to make food, but just seeing how healthy my babies are makes it well worth it

Their coats are super shiny and so soft!

I have a question too.

I have switched to Louise's recipe for about 3 months now (thank you Louise!), but I use only Chicken and Rabbit. I wanted to feed variety too, but wasn't sure how it's going to affect the ratio.

When you add goat, beef, pork, lamb, turkey, which part do you mix? I am worried if the cats can chew the bones. I don't think they can chew through the bone in turkey leg or T-bone steak,,, so if you mix boneless part of these other animals, do you add extra boney chicken parts like lib cage? I don't eat lamb or goat so never really looked what tipe of cuts are available and what part of bones are soft enough...

Hi - i'm also considering the raw feeding, but find everything too confusing.. anybody kind enough to PM me a simple guide for dummys? or link me a website?

I feed whole ground chicken leg quarters bone and all with wild-trax supplement as recommended.

Everyone will have different recipies and ways of putting it together, this is how i make my food. It does 1 cat, 1 month.

Ingredients
3 whole chickens (appx 4kilos in total)
1/2 ox heart
400g ox liver (sometimes use liver/kidney 50/50)
4 pints of water
6 eggs (i don't always add eggs)

I start by cutting the breasts off the chicken and cutting them into roughly 1-2 inch peices. I then cut off the legs and wings & finally cut the carcass into pieces with a pair of kitchen shears.
The legs, wings and pieces of the carcass are then fed through a grinder, along with the heart and liver/ kidneys. I tip the contents into a plastic bucket along with the chunks of chicken breast, add the water and eggs and mix the whole thing together.

I don't use fish or fish oil as fish aren't part of a most cats natural diet & the coats are in nice condition anyway. I do sometimes use rabbit instead of the chicken and you can use any meat as long as the meat / bone / organ ratio is correct.

There's no need to buy expensive organic meats ( no proven nutritional benefit) just make sure you source fresh and never use pre ground meats.

I think perhaps you didn't notice that she was referring to ONE kilo as opposed to two. In this case, the ratio is still the same

As for something other than kidney, you could replace with another secreting organ such as spleen.

For me, depending on what meats/organs are available, I will change bits but try to keep the ratio (1kg meat (including bones) to 300g organs, with 200g being heart)...