Commercial Raw Brands - Pros and Cons

[furryfriends251]

Originally Posted by Ritzpg

RadCat is a good commercial raw brand, single source protein I believe. Good consistency with a fair amount of blood. Not sure where in New York you live, but I would think you could buy some commercial raw at your local high-end pet stores.

I picked up some Rad Cat samples today from a store that sells that brand. It may be worth even asking the store to order some samples for you so you can figure out if they at least like the brand.

Rad Cat is the only premade raw brand that I have seen actually offer free samples without needing a coupon for it. Which is very nice, since it is spendy stuff to buy only to find out your cat won't eat it!

[koobe]

Okay, I have tried many brands of commercial raw and planning to try more.

When I first started raw feeding my kitties, I tried Primal. I do not like it, because it is in 1oz nuggets and they turn "brown" too much because of the large surface area. Sometimes even gray.

When I first moved to Seattle, a pet store gave me a few samples of Vital Essentials raw to try. This brand said they use the "alpha" prey model, which means they put more organs in the mix than any other brand. It is definitely more bloodier than other brands I have fed. But one of my cats threw up after eating it because it contains beef liver. So this brand never appears in my house again.

There are 3 brands I constantly feed now:

1) Rad Cats - I buy 24oz tubs. I have 3 cats so they can finish a tub in a day. This is the first commercial brand my cats like. It has high moisture content and feeding instructions on the tub said feed 6-8oz per cat per day. I somehow feels like I am putting more money in water. This brand carries chicken, turkey and lamb. One of my cats is allergic to lamb, so I only buy chicken and turkey. The few times I buy lamb for my other 2 cats, they do not like it.

2) Feline's Pride - According to consumer research, it is one of the best commercial raw cat food (the info may be old). It is in 2.5 lbs. My cats finish them in 3 days. It comes in chicken, turkey, cornish hen, duck and rabbit. I like that they use real bone, not bone meal.

3) Natural Pet Pantry - It is a newly discovered local Seattle brand. They come in 1/2 lb bag or 1 lb bag in chicken and turkey only. Sometimes they have ducks. My cats LOVE this brand, esp the chicken. They use calcium powder. The meats are not too finely grounded, which is what I like.

I recently found a new brand called Fegnion from NY. The company said they are the only company that uses a single source of meat for all their products. They carry chicken, turkey and rabbit. Wait until I clear some of my freezer space, I will be trying that.

The bad thing about feeding commercial raw is that they are all grounded, which does not promote chewing for my cats. When I was planning for my move, I switch my cats to full commercial raw (I used to make my own raw too), and now they are just too lazy to chew, not even a small piece of chicken meat

I have also tried at least 3 types of raw premix too. None of them really impress my cats.

[Auntie Crazy]

I'm terribly sorry it took so long to get this up (and it's not even the completed "polished" version I wanted to post), but I was side-tracked. I've had a larger than usual number of folks needing help transitioning their kitties to raw lately, and I had a couple of articles accepted for publication - one of which wasn't even written at the time of acceptance! (That's a deadline that needed quick attention. LOL!)

All excuses aside, here is the link to the Commercial Raw Product Overview. Click, read, comment and share, please!! (Click here instead if you're using Excel '97-2003.)

Best regards.

AC

[Fyreflie]

Wow AC thanks! I feel like we might be going back to a partial commercial blend at times and this will really help

[dweamgoil]

Originally Posted by Auntie Crazy

I'm terribly sorry it took so long to get this up (and it's not even the completed "polished" version I wanted to post), but I was side-tracked. I've had a larger than usual number of folks needing help transitioning their kitties to raw lately, and I had a couple of articles accepted for publication - one of which wasn't even written at the time of acceptance! (That's a deadline that needed quick attention. LOL!)

All excuses aside, here is the link to the Commercial Raw Product Overview. Click, read, comment and share, please!! (Click here instead if you're using Excel '97-2003.)

Best regards.

AC

Wow! Very nice job. I decided to order from Hare Today for their evening canned replacement meal. I got mostly ground, but it was a lot of different proteins, which I liked; Goose, Turkey, Goat, Venison, Beef, etc.

I know they will not have any issue eating it. I just hope that there is no problem digesting the ground raw at night for Egypt. Please keep your fingers crossed for her!

[onetwo]

I tried opening your spreadsheet and it said it was incripted. My comp sucks too and has a very big difficulty opening files from others. Would it be possible to copy and paste the spreadsheet or the info???

[Auntie Crazy]

Originally Posted by onetwo

I tried opening your spreadsheet and it said it was incripted. My comp sucks too and has a very big difficulty opening files from others. Would it be possible to copy and paste the spreadsheet or the info???

The file isn't encrypted; it's in Excel. There are two links, Excel 2010 and Excel '97-2003.... I'm betting you need to click on the Excel '93-2003 version (http://catcentric.org/wp-content/upl...ew-Initial.xls).

Regards.

AC

[onetwo]

No I tried both of them. My computer has Works and its a 2010 laptop. I used all my limited computer knowledge to try to open the file. Nothing worked...

[Auntie Crazy]

Onetwo, I've converted the file into a PDF: http://catcentric.org/wp-content/upl...ew-Initial.pdf

Sorry about that!!! I didn't want to invest in a PDF converter just yet... and then found out today that MS Office 2010 applications come with a built-in PDF converter. Who knew?!!!!

AC

[11201ny]

Originally Posted by Auntie Crazy

Funny you should bring this up at this time, Dweamgoil. I've been doing some research into commercial raw lately - including calls to individual manufacturers - and I'm just about ready to post the results on CatCentric.org.

What surprised me the most is the variation on meat / bone / organ / other stuff percentages between manufacturers.

As I've worked with folks to get their cats transitioned to raw, I've noticed a couple of things of interest. One, if fed alone and not in a rotation with other products from other manufacturers, Nature's Variety seems to have the potential to lead to constipation. At 15% bone (which you have to call the company to find out), I'm not surprised.

The second, it seems to make a difference how the animals that become the food are fed. In other words, corn-fed beef have the potential to cause a negative reaction that won't be seen when feeding grass-fed beef. I've seen folks thoroughly convinced their cat can't tolerate chicken or beef, only to find out - after much cajoling and some trial and error - that they don't, in fact, have a problem with the protein source itself, only with what that animal was fed.

If you're interested in the spreadsheet, Dweamgoil, I'll send you a link when it's up (should be late today or tomorrow).

Best regards.

AC

Great article!