NUTRITION INFO

FOOD

First  ask  yourself - What is the best food for a cat? Yes, you are right, it is a mouse.  That mouse is not cooked, it is not clean and it is not bacteria free.  If we love our cats, we should offer them the food as close to a raw mouse as possible. General comment:  For healthy cats, pick canned foods that are below 10% calories from carbohydrates, at least 40% calories from protein, and approximately 50% fat calories or less.

We love our cats, so we feed raw food in our cattery but we also understand  that making it is not for everybody, so we offer al so  some modifications.

The simplest and easiest for the owner would be:

 KEEP THE BEST DRY FOOD AVAILABLE  FOR 24 HRS AND  FEED THE BEST CANNED FOOD 2x per day.

Yes,  I know, some people have a problem with raw meat - so cook it. Cook it slightly only, to kill  the surface bacteria,  but still to save some nutritious values.  Taurin is the most important. If you cook the food, add Taurin powder, please  ( Can buy at Revival  animals.) Taurin is in raw red meat, hearts, liver. You can get very good cat food info on the website of Dr. Lisa PIERSON - https://catinfo.org/commercial-cat-foods/ and https://catinfo.org/making-cat-food/ as well as Utube - Dr. Karen Becker : The Best and Worst Pet Food or Kitty Nutrition or several other Dr. Becker videos.

1/ DRY FOOD AS A SNACKS:

Our  kittens  have their  dry food available for 24  hrs - to nibble on, whenever they want.  In our cattery they use it a little, but we  feed raw food twice a  day and some canned wet food. Dry  is just a snack.

At this time we use ROYAL CANINE for kittens,  Hills Science Diet for kittens and Wellness dry and wet food  for kittens - choice at least of three foods  -  available to them  ALL THE TIME. From time to  time we change one - not to develop picky eaters.

Please offer them the same dry food for the start ( transfer to a new home is very stressful,  so try to keep some important things the same,  at least for a few weeks - till they adjust.

There are some better cats foods available than we use,  but remember - here it is mostly just a snack.

If you plan to feed more  dry,  my advice would  be -  try to switch slowly to the best ones - Cats are carnivores. Choose dry  food with maximum of ANIMAL PROTEIN,  fat is OK,  but MINIMUM of carbs.  Wellness, Blue Buffallo and better. You will save on vet bills.

2/ MAIN FOOD - RAW MEAT 

We make our own raw  food for them and for many years we follow the recipe of Dr. Lisa Pierson - the Veterinarian.  She used  to  use frozen  rabbits.  We use chicken legs instead. Her websites was modified over years.  Here is one - catinfo.org

We get inexpensive chicken legs ( with bones) from Wal-Mart,  beef heart ( whole ones  from Starter Brothers),  chicken gizzards - heart and stomach,  chicken liver and beef liver, eggs with a shell,  grind turkey,  grind beef,  grind pork shoulder...)  and an electric grinder . Since you cannot grind raw chicken skin, we skin the legs and cook the skin first.  Than it is easy to grind.                                                            We  grind chicken legs with bones.

( There is much more taurin in legs than in breasts and also price is better,  but whole chicken should be just fine. ) We slice beef  heart and grind it ( even more taurin,  than chicken) or we use chicken hearts and gizzards instead.  We may add grind turkey or grind beef or  grind pork. You cannot feed cats by meat only,  without  bones,  because Ca to Ph ratio is important.  With meat only they would get too much  Ph and  no Ca.

Than we grind eggs  boiled with the shells,  half way only,  yolks still liquid - adding more Ca. (Never raw egg whites, please.) It is all mixed together, placed into smaller containers or plastic  bags and frozen.  Even if we wash all the meat before grinding very well, we hope that freezing it for some days or weeks would still help to kill Salmonella.  Before feeding this mixture, we still add  VITAMINS from Revival  or Alaskan  salmon oil and so on.

Cats stomach juice is so much more acidic than humans,  so Salmonella should not be a problem for them.  ( I think killed mouse would have more in it than only Salmonella and still - it is the best food for them. )  I know, it is difficult to go through all of that, when you have only one or two cats.                    But it is still possible,  if it is a little modified.

You might hear that pork is not best for cats. It is just a myth from the past. Today's raw pork is just as safe for cats as beef or chicken. Our cats love it for years

3/ RAW FOOD MODIFIED:

As I said, you just cannot feed raw meat only, since it would be too much of phosphorus and not enough of calcium and other minerals.  But you still can feed raw.                                                                                NO GRINDER :  Buy FRESH grind chicken, turkey,  pork, beef  meat  and freeze it in a little ice cube tray. Than mix it with the best wet food and  with the powder bellow.  No grinding meat at home.

 Look at the website of www.foodfurlife.com  from  NJ. You can get their powder,  buy your grind turkey or chicken or pork or beef,  as fresh as possible and mix it with their powder.  It will add the calcium as well as all other necessary ingredients,  which whole mice have but grind plain meat does not.  And read their articles too.  Very educational.  The package bellow is enough for  130 meals.  Of course - if you have problem  with raw, you can add this to your cooked meat.  It will never be as nutritious as raw would.  I do not have my own experience with it.

      .

4/ MORE MODIFICATION  

If your cat will not go really crazy after raw, mix it with canned  food.  Get Friskies from  Costco and add if to her food  for smell and water content.

You can also feed your cat sometimes  just with canned wet food.  Wet has 70% of water in it, so it is still important,  since cats never drink  enough.  It may save you money on vet bills, but your cat will not live as long as when fed raw.

WHAT  ELSE OUR KITTENS  AND CATS GET:

We use goat milk, fresh, evaporated or dry ( from Wal-Mart) which is much easier digestible for kittens and cats. Sometimes we mix it with Half & half - if mama cat does  not have enough milk.

Milk is safe to give till age of 12 -14 weeks.  After that,  SOME kittens  MAY become lactose intolerant.  Just the same like with people.  People from the North tolerate lactose very well.  They were used to raw milk for thousands of years,  since their milk stay fresh  longer.

People from Mediterranean have more lactose intolerance, since their milk  in hot weather was changed to yogurt or kefir and  all the lactose from it was digested by bacteria, so lactase was no more needed later in people's  lives.  It means -  your Persian cat  may not tolerate lactose, but your Russian or Norwegian will.  If your kittens will stop tolerating  goat milk after 12-16 weeks old,  you  may switch to yogurt.  Just plain yogurt,  no additives!!!  No pectin, starch or other thickeners, please. We feed probiotics.  In the past we used just powder from Revival,  but now we use a lot of yogurt too.

So - our younger kittens get goat milk, sometimes mixed with Half and Half and we  make our own yogurt from full milk in Instant  Pot for those who would have loose stools from milk later in their lives. Very easy. 

Than - the food is also used for  helping the digestion,  correcting stools,  please them or  bribe them.

With raw food their stools is firm and very small, not smelling bad. BIG difference than when feeding dry food  only.

Our cats  get sliced and cut raw chicken hearts and gizzards.  They get chicken or beef liver, sliced raw when constipated,  cooked and sliced when stool  is loose.  Sometimes they get a little of canned tuna - or mostly only a water from the can -  to make  their food smell better and increase the appetite.

The hit - specially  for young kittens,  just starting weaning - 4 -5 weeks old:  boiled chicken legs,  blended in blender with  broth.  It is something like a human Baby food in those little glass jars. EVERYBODY  LOVES  IT !  Nursing moms usually eat it before babies get the chance!

Alaskan  Salmon oil may be added to their raw food  for omega 3 and better coats - for those, who love fish  (some do not).  Not  plants based  omega 3 - they cannot digest it. They also love tiny shrimp.

But this is another  subject - and yes, we use many different food additives, like Probiotics, Taurin, vitamins, Forti flora ,  L- lysin and more.  If, This is what we order from Revival.  Please read their articles on the Learning Center.