Quail chicks have become a new favorite for our cats, it's not their whole diet as they are far to expensive in my region, the rest of their diet is ground raw food. Kitties love the crunch of the quail! Our cats teeth are getting better too. Even the vet has noticed the reduction in gingivitis and plaque. We are also brushing the teeth to help keep them as clean as possible. Thank you for all the helpful tips, ideas and all the info!
@@jesscaticles Our current vet isn't exactly pro-raw but they are very respectful and supportive of us and their diet, it definitely helps when you have evidence to show them! Our previous vet was "funny" about our raw diet. At first when we didn't tell her about the diet, she was amazed by how healthy and happy our cats were and how our underweight cat with severe health issues was recovering excellently and gaining bodyweight and muscle back. Fast forward a few weeks when we told her about the diet and she literally reverted EVERYTHING good she had to say. She said the tests we took with her for our cats were probably all flawed or it was a paperwork mix-up and that they were actually deficient and was demanding we switch to Hills Prescription Diet. It was absolute chaos and honestly I couldn't stop laughing at her. I tried to be calm and informative at first but it was like talking to brick wall, it was just getting so outrageous I couldn't help but laugh. We did prepare for this though and had some other good vets in mind. We just packed up our cats and left, filed a complaint and moved onto the next vet. Took the same tests with the new vet, they came back exactly the same and just as perfect as the last vets tests lol (we get our cats tests for parasites, infections, vitamin/mineral levels, etc... Throughout the year to make sure they don't have any relapses with their health issues and to make sure we are doing the raw diets correctly for them)
I replaced all my plastic storage containers with glass. I also only use filtered water in my pets' water dish and to process their raw foods. Thank you for breaking down your raw food prep and ingredients. 😻
I'm from Lithuania, where it is quite common to eat organs, I love using chicken hearts in chilli con carne and various stews. Cow tongue, boiled with garlic and served cold and sliced with mayo and horseradish sauce is another favorite :)
Jess, (and of course Jericho), thank you for explaining this in more detail. I was beginning to become very overwhelmed with the whole process of switching my babies over to raw. I am grinding the turkey/chicken thighs, lamb, and beef, then adding alnutrin. I also grind the heart, liver, and kidney and add that to their ground meat. I was going crazy trying to make sure that I got everything into every meal. Since I am just starting out, I portion their food into covered ice cube trays and I thaw one for every meal. I then give each half and mix it in with their food. Lil'bit, my boy, is more willing to accept the changes than my Angel, my girl. So far this is working. My plan is to continue adding more raw and less canned until they are both 100% raw. At that point I will begin adding whole prey but, as you said, baby steps.
Jessica, questions? * So the PMR meals are frozen. * Then placed into the refrigerator to thaw. * When serving, does the cold food from the fridge have to be warmed a bit before serving, or served cold? Will the cat eat meat chunks, chicks and whole quail cold? That's my confusion. Thanks Jess.
You can use premixes that include bone rather than whole bone. I have a video about premixes here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-3YaS51xXU7M.html For multiple cats, do the best you can (:
One of my cat's is unable to eat bone. For him I use a premade 5 days a week. The other 2 days I make him a homemade meal and than I add eggshellpowder for calcium 🙃
64 thousand dollar question: can I just feed my cat whole raw prey (thawed from frozen, and cut to size as necessary) with like, the egg yoke once a week, once they are transitioned, and would this be a complete diet? Certainly seems so in theory but, strangely having a hard time finding videos about this. If so, what whole raw prey would you recommend taking into account - sourcing (recommendations?), nutrition, cost. Any special considerations for small growing kittens as they get used to to whole prey food? Elderly cats who are used to this diet? All hail simplicity!
I really wish I was able to do these things. But I can't do my cats meal prep right now, as it is mentally too overwhelming. My boyfriend is currently doing the meal prep daily for me, so that I only have to feed them. And we just feed them wet cat food. With the occasional cooked chicken meat thrown in if we have some left from our meal lol. Doing a meal prep weekly would help. Currently we have 3 containers per day... which would mean 21 containers... that's a lot!! Mostly in terms of storage space. We don't have much freezer space :( and two cats means a lot of food lol.
With raw you don't have to feed as much compared to wet food. I actually posted a video comparing them today: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-YYGvD9wZgSA.html I use 1 container per day for Jericho's daily portion so it isn't as much. But I understand with more than 1 cat it can get space-consuming!
@@jesscaticles do you weight the portions out on the day itself or doesn't that matter as much? We have 1 portion in an auto feeder and the other 3 portions in the 3 containers I mentioned.
So, my question. I have access to full rat, mouse, rabbit, pig, and fish. Full animals. Should I just chop it up? I was thinking about grinding it up first since I need to transition off kibble
I'm also thinking about starting chickens here soon, but either way I have access to full everything. I want ideas to help introduce this into my pets diets
Excellent video! Right now I need the convenience of the beginner style raw food which I do. Where can I find a list of “upgraded” raw snacks (not a whole balanced meal) that I can feed once a week (or when I have time) that’s easy to just buy at the grocery store - such as one egg yolk. I’m vegan/ don’t know anything about meat and don’t know what’s appropriate and safe (from the grocery store) for them to snack on!
You can use fresh meat and eggs as toppers. I cover that in this video: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-zc1eCxKSPjk.html Or healthy treats would be dehydrated/freeze-dried meats and organs. Some options in this video but may not be available at your local pet store: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-nWBj9b0S2VE.html
My senior cat has been an outdoor cat(coming in at night) her whole life up until 3 yrs ago when we moved to another state and we have many ferel cats so now she's inside. She prefers wet food, can I switch her from kibble to wet without the transition period?
No, any new food that your cat is not currently eating requires a gradual transition. I have a full transition guide here: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-tTV0FSxDE-w.html
Yes very true! I definitely want to get one of those eventually. For now those glass containers are very helpful much better than using jelly jars lol thanks for the tips on hearts!
