Nutrients for raw feeders....

[Can_Man]

well, this probably wont be usefull for most here, but for the others like me I think it will be very useful. When feeding raw we try to make sure our little friends are getting everything they need. When we look at AAFCO recommendations they are often given in % or X amount per KG, dry matter basis, etc..Not very clear to say the least.

Since I control what goes into the food, I wanted to know how many easy to measure mg or grams of a certain vit/min a cat needs per day. The following link provides these data. For example, for calcium, it says .52g per 5.5oz can. So you know an average cat eating one 5.5oz cam needs about 520mg of calcium per day, a kitten double that. The amounts are in range with AAFCO standards. Of course you can live a little less or more and still be ok. But it is a good easy to read guide.

http://www.breeders-choice.com/Cat_Prod ... atcan.html

[Bengal Cat]

Ive been feeding my 2 cats a raw diet exclusively now for some time. I did quite a bit of research and found a good yahoo group with quite a bit of reference material, knowledgable people, and a very good raw recipe thats balanced properly for cats. Be very careful if your triing to make your own food without the proper research. I was fortunate enough to find a homeopathy vet in my area and had her check out the diet from the raw yahoo group. She said it was an excellant diet and I should have no problems with it.

Just a side note Can_man you posted a link to breeders choice as a reference. Many of those vitamins are already present in proper quanities in the raw ingrediants. But be careful of the quanities that are shown on the nutrient analysis chart if you are triing to supplement. For example the chart shows 4853 IUs of vitamin A per can. Thats much much more than is required. The homeopathy vet I talked with recommended 5,000 IUs of vitamin A per week. Not per feeding. So just a note of caution.

For those interested the yahoo group is "rawpaws"

[~dawn~]

Originally Posted by Bengal Cat

Ive been feeding my 2 cats a raw diet exclusively now for some time. I did quite a bit of research and found a good yahoo group with quite a bit of reference material, knowledgable people, and a very good raw recipe thats balanced properly for cats. <<snip>>

For those interested the yahoo group is "rawpaws"

Thanks for the group info Bengal Cat. I've just started looking into this for my girls. I'm hoping to get over the "ick" factor soon