A raw diet for cats, also known as raw meat-based diet (RMBD) or the BARF diet, involves feeding cats uncooked, unprocessed food, primarily consisting of raw meat, organs and bones. It aims to mimic the diet of wild cats by providing animal protein and fat, essential nutrients and avoiding processed ingredients like grains.

Some of our kittens will go home eating raw. Here is a little tutorial so you can continue making their food at home.

Supplies:

• Grinder (Preferably one that can grind small bones)

• Freezer safe Tubs 8 oz

• Scale

• Cutting board

• Knife

• Bowls

I use and recommend the Weston #22 Grinder. You can find it here.

Any grinder is better than no grinder so if your grinder cannot handle bone then another option you have is to find a local butcher and see if they would be able to help. You can also use bone meal. There is a Bone Meal Brand called NOW that you can find on Amazon and use.

It is very important to know that a RAW diet needs to be complete and balanced, especially in kittens. It needs to consist of 80% meat, 10% bone and 10% organ. Chicken thighs are one of the less expensive meat options but also, I find one of the best. It has meat that is rich in taurine, fat that is essential to cats, and bone that you can use in your recipe. I also like to use chicken liver as it’s one of the milder liver. 

I am going to explain my process of buying and measuring. Get two big packs of chicken thighs with skin and bone, 3 lbs of pork tenderloin, pork shoulder or pork butt and two tubs of chicken livers. You will also need 7 eggs and use the yolk only. 

Once you have all of your items begin to cut and measure your chicken. You are going to debone and place the bones aside to measure later or toss out if you are using bone meal. Cut up the chicken with skin to grind later. Follow this recipe.

8.44 lbs Chicken Thigh with Skin

3 lbs Pork 

1.43 lbs Chicken Liver

1.43 lbs Bone (OR  5 tablespoons of NOW Bone Meal)

7 egg yolks

Keep in mind using the bone meal instead of the ground bones will make your mix a little thicker. Add about a cup of water to the mix to help loosen it up. Once you measure out each item you want to grind everything and mix together. Grind the chicken meat and skin, pork, liver and bone. Add the egg yolk before you begin. Blend it as well as you can together like you are mixing a meat loaf and then place in some 8 oz freezer safe tubs.

How to Feed:

Do not keep a thawed-out tub in the fridge longer than three days. It really starts to go bad longer than this. If you have frozen your meat in some 8 oz tubs this shouldn’t be an issue. Cats need to eat 3-5% of their body weight daily. For an 8 lb cat you are looking at .24-.4lbs of raw a day. A kitten will be eating about that much as well as they are growing and should be given as much as they can eat in one sitting. RAW food can be kept out for 12 hours. What I like to do is feed my cats in the morning. Sometimes they gobble it up right away and sometimes they eat some and come back to it later. This is perfectly fine. It may dry up on top but underneath it's still soft and they will eat it. Then at bed time I give them their dinner and leave it out all night. You are looking at about 1/3 a cup each meal.

When the kittens go home at 12 weeks they are eating in the morning, again mid day and again at night time. If you decide you do not want to continue raw I recommend transitioning them to Tiki Cat wet food as this can be a relatively easy transition before jumping to dry. Never feed your cat dry and raw at the same time as they break down at different rates and can cause tummy issues. 

If you feel like you’re interested to continue but now quite ready to make your own, then I recommend Viva Raw. www.vivarawpets.com