Once you’ve decided to transition your cat to a raw food diet, you’ll want to explore the different types of raw food diets available. Understanding the options will help you determine which one is the best fit for both you and your cat.
Ground raw food
Among the different types of raw diets available for cats, ground raw food stands out for its convenience and versatility. It is particularly effective for cats transitioning from commercial canned food. This diet involves grinding raw meat, offal (such as liver, heart and kidney), and bones, then adding supplements to create a nutritionally balanced mixture. Ground food does lack the texture needed to work your cat’s teeth and jaw, so it’s important to supplement with meat chunks or small meaty bones (such as chicken wing tips) to help maintain dental health.
You have two options: commercial raw food, prepared and packaged for you, or homemade raw meals, which you create in your own kitchen.
Commercial raw food diets for cats
Commercial raw food comes pre-packaged and frozen in portion sizes, ready to defrost and serve. While it can be a more expensive option, commercial raw diets are more convenient for busy pet parents who need a quick and easy feeding solution. Just transfer the appropriate portion into your cat’s bowl, and you’re all set!
Advantages
- Convenience: Buying pre-made raw food removes the need to handle raw meat, offal, and bones which is helpful if you’re squeamish. It also spares you the kitchen mess and time commitment involved in preparing homemade raw meals for your cat.
- Balanced nutrition: Commercial raw foods are typically formulated to provide all the essential nutrients cats need for a healthy diet. They are designed to meet dietary standards and ensure your cat is eating a complete and balanced diet, so there’s no need to add any additional supplements.
Disadvantages
- Bulk purchasing: You often have to buy commercial raw foods in large quantities.If your cat is a fussy eater and doesn’t like the brand or specific type of food, you might end up with a lot of unusable product, potentially wasting a lot of money. Finding storage space for bulk purchases can also be challenging, especially if you have limited freezer capacity.
- Soft texture: Many commercial raw foods are processed to a very soft consistency, similar to baby food. This can be easier for some cats to eat, but doesn’t provide the same dental benefits as chewing on raw bones or chunks of meat.
- Questionable ingredients: Some commercial raw food products contain food ingredients that are not suitable for cats, such as onion, garlic, or yoghurt. These ingredients may cause digestive and other issues, especially for cats with sensitivities or underlying health conditions. Always read the labels carefully to ensure that the food you’re purchasing is free from harmful additives and meets your cat’s specific dietary needs.
When choosing commercial raw food, our advice is to look for reputable brands that use high-quality human-grade ingredients. You also want to ensure they are transparent about where they source ingredients from and their manufacturing processes. Ensure that the product is free from harmful additives or preservatives, and that it provides a balanced and complete diet that meets feline nutritional requirements.
For the first six months after transitioning my cats to a raw food diet, I fed commercial raw food because it was convenient. Charlie has IBD, so I was particularly cautious about what I fed him. I was surprised to find commercial raw products claiming to be suitable for both ‘dogs and cats’ really weren’t. They contained onion and garlic, which are toxic to cats, or yoghurt, which can cause issues for lactose-intolerant cats. My advice: always read the labels carefully! You want to ensure you know exactly what you’re feeding your cat, especially if they have health issues.
Homemade raw food diets for cats
Homemade raw food diets primarily consist of raw meat (either in chunks or ground), offal (organ meats), and raw bones (such as chicken frames). It’s a popular choice because it’s cost-effective and convenient. You can prepare large batches, portion them into meal-sized amounts, and freeze them. However, it does require a powerful meat grinder if your recipe requires you to grind bones. One of the key benefits is you have complete control over the ingredients, ensuring you feed a high-quality diet.
>>> This is the homemade raw cat food recipe that we feed out cats and recommend.
Advantages
- Freshness and quality: Sourcing fresh, high-quality ingredients allows you to maintain control over what your cat eats. You can also avoid the preservatives and fillers often found in commercial raw foods.
- Cost-effective: Over time, preparing homemade raw meals can be significantly less expensive than purchasing pre-packaged commercial raw food. Bulk buying raw meat and organs can also contribute to cost savings.
- Customised diet: You can tailor a homemade raw diet to suit your cat’s specific health needs, preferences, and any dietary restrictions, leading to better health outcomes.
Disadvantages
- Time consuming: Meal planning, sourcing ingredients, and the raw food preparation process requires significant time and effort. This can be a hurdle for busy cat parents especially when you’re starting out feeding raw.
- Nutritional balance: Ensuring a balanced raw diet with the correct ratio of vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients is crucial. This may involve additional research or consulting with a feline nutritionist or veterinarian and can seem complicated and expensive.
- Handling raw meat: Many people are uncomfortable with handling raw meat and offal, which can be off-putting. Proper hygiene practices are also essential to avoid contamination and foodborne illnesses.
- Initial costs: Feeding a homemade raw diet may be cost-effective in the long run, but you will need to invest in equipment like a meat grinder, storage containers, and supplements to begin with.
Prey model or ‘frankenprey’ diet
The prey model replicates what cats would naturally eat in the wild. It includes muscle meat, organs, and edible bones fed in controlled quantities over a week. This approach, also known as ‘frankenprey,’ often combines different species of animals to create a complete and varied diet. The standard meal composition is 80% muscle meat, 10% bone, 5% liver, and 5% other secreting organs.
- Muscle meat (80%): forms the bulk of the diet and provides essential proteins and fats.
- Bone (10%): edible bones supply necessary minerals like calcium and phosphorus.
- Liver (5%): a rich source of vitamins A and B, liver is a vital component of the diet.
- Other secreting organs (5%): organs like kidneys and pancreas provide additional nutrients and enzymes.
Meals are usually served in chunks, which encourages natural chewing and tearing. This activity helps maintain your cat’s dental health by cleaning their teeth and strengthening their jaw muscles. You can include different types of meat and organs to provide a varied and balanced diet for your cat.
Beware there is a steep learning curve! You’ll need to understand and calculate the correct proportions of meat, bone, and organs to ensure a nutritionally balanced diet. This can be challenging for those new to raw feeding. The prey model diet involves strict feeding programs, so careful planning and dedication is key to success.
Whole prey diet
The whole prey diet involves feeding entire prey animals such as mice, small birds or rabbits rather than butchered meat. This approach is the closest to a cat’s natural hunting and feeding behaviour in the wild. Cats with a strong hunting instinct are more likely to accept this diet. Whereas, indoor cats that have been fed commercial diets all their lives, may not immediately recognise whole prey as food.
Feeding this diet is straightforward but finding a reliable source of whole prey can be challenging and often involves higher costs. Feeding whole prey can also be emotionally difficult for some cat owners to handle.
Deciding which raw food diet to feed your cat depends on your comfort with handling raw ingredients (meat or prey), the time you have for food preparation, and your cat’s preferences. Always ensure the raw diet you choose meets your cat’s nutritional needs and is balanced and complete.
Do you feed your cat a raw food diet? What’s your preferred method of feeding raw?
This is an excellent post. I can’t believe how horrible the ingredients are in commercial cat foods. It makes sense if we clean up our own diets, to clean up our pets, they deserve the best nutrition also x
We just transitioned our dog to a raw diet and are now preparing to do the same thing with the cats. I think we probably will go with a commercial raw since there are so many good ones on the market and time (or lack of time) is an issue for us.
I fed Eamon, my cat, a raw diet for many years. But he was the only one of my crew that would even touch the stuff. The girls tried to bury it, run from it or kill it. That made the house quite a mess, I gotta say. And, then Eamon decided he wouldn't eat it anymore, either.
Many raw diets just don't smell like anything, and I wonder if that lack of scent put Eamon off his meals. Now that he's a senior, he seems to like foods that are higher on the stink level. That's just a guess, of course.
It is really interesting to see all of these aspects of raw cat food! I think that if I started feeding raw I would start out with a commercial diet with the end goal of doing a grinding diet. If I could afford to buy anything in bulk, feeding raw would be a much more realistic idea for me. I'm sure my kitties would like it once they got used to it.
I've never fed raw. Never even heard about it until I started blogging. With eight cats and limited freezer space, I would be making food constantly. Have any studies been conducted to determine cats are healthier and live longer on a raw diet?
The head peep was researching what it would take to make raw for us, but we have very little freezer space, so that's not practical right now. It seems like some people would feed commercial raw not only because they are squeamish about grinding but because storage space for a big enough batch to make the effort worthwhile might not be available.
True, that. And the time. Mom's time is soooo constrained right now. She was thinking about ground bu you're right about the teeth issue. It would be AWESOME if some company would come up with a supplement you could add to ground raw and – presto – balanced diet!
Yeah, she's looking for an easy way out MOL!
We have never tried raw food. Mommy things she may be a little squeamish and probably couldn't do it. I have to say, it would probably fun to catch a real mousie some day!
Maybe one day when the mom has more time, she'll start making raw food for us.
I must confess I never considered feeding my cat raw food. Canned food is very convenient and my cats loves it. In Portugal I never saw pre-packaged commercial raw food. I don't think we have it here.
the down side to frakenprey is that if you have multiple cats you might end up with cats who don't eat appropriately.
I have one of my cats who won't chew meat. period. she certainly will not chew bone. She's amazing because her teeth are pretty clean so it is working for her, but I have to grind to ensure even distribution of nutrients to the whole crew.
I would love to feed raw, but I am squeamish and I was worried about the cost of feeding 15 cats. I also worry I would mess up the supplement part and they would lack taurine. etc.
Lots to think about. I'm curious if you have access to more or better quality meat in AU.? In the U.S. buying organic is expensive and we are a culture of convenience. I admire your dedication to feed and prep your own raw which is a cat's ancestral diet. We feed a combo of raw, grain-free wet and dry only as treats (when I don't have time to make my own).
We aren't currently eating any raw, but I think it would be cool to have some raw meat and bones to chew on! I chew on the paper plates my canned meals are served in, so my human thinks I do have a need to gnaw on something.