Wellness batch variations LONG

Marina wrote:

On 16/01/2011 01:19, wrote:

Everyone who knew and cared about feline nutrition was dogmatic about
raw food. ... Whereas those who thought cooked food was
fine would post recipes that even I could see was lacking in proper
nutrition... Yet canned cat food is cooked, so I know it's possible!!

I think they add stuff like taurine after the catfood has been cooked.
The taurine is, I think, the big issue.

Also, calcium. They would naturally get that from the bones of prey.
So a cat food manufacturer has to add a certain amount of it to the
canned food (and dry). There are other nutrients as well, but I don't
remember what they are. The main thing I took away from my research into
the subject is that it's impossible to create a generic recipe for home
cooked cat food that has the right balance of nutrients, because it all
depends on what type of meat you're using, as well as some other factors
which I now forget. And apparently, at least according to a number of
people, that balance has to be *exact*.

I don't know, maybe the people I was talking to were more fanatical
than I would think is necessary. I got most of my information from an
email list called "whole cat health", a group focused on holistic
approaches to feline health. Which I think is great, but they were
very insistent that one should feed raw food - ideally by buying a
whole animal such as a chicken, and grinding the whole thing up in a
meat grinder so the food will have bones and organ meats along with
the muscle meat, and would contain the right amounts of taurine and
calcium and other stuff. This probably is an excellent way to feed
your cat, but I am simply not willing to do it. The gross-out factor
and the phobia factor make it impossible for me. (Is this what you
do, btw?)

At one point, I said that if I couldn't find out how to make decent
cooked food for my cats, I was just going to continue feeding them
Friskies, because at least Friskies hadn't needed any recalls. This
was in 2007 and was before I discovered Wellness brand. Anyway, this
statement deeply offended the moderator and main guru of the list,
and she was terribly sarcastic with me, so I didn't think I was going
to get anywhere with that group. But you wouldn't believe how ignorant
most people are about cat nutrition, even those who cook their cats'
food. I didn't trust their advice at all. It's lucky that I discovered
Wellness and just decided to switch to that.

I wish you had this vitamin pill for
cats that we have here. A few years ago, they changed their name from a
very Finnish-sounding name (Pirskatti) to the more international
Multicat, and I thought they were probably going to start exporting it,
but I don't know if it's found its way across the pond yet. I believe
it's popular in Germany, at least.

I'll look around for it. I seem to remember hearing about nutrient
supplements for cats who ate home-cooked meat, but at the time I was
as suspicious of that stuff as I was of commercial cat food. I mean,
how could I be sure where *that* was manufactured and what had been
added to it? I wanted to feed them food that was sold for human
consumption, because I figured the food safety regulations would be
more strictly enforced. This was before the poisoned toothpaste and
milk and all that.

LOL on "international". Sad but very true.

Joyce

--
Teach a child to be polite and courteous in the home and, when he
grows up, he'll never be able to merge his car onto a freeway.

On 17/01/2011 02:16, wrote:

I don't know, maybe the people I was talking to were more fanatical
than I would think is necessary. I got most of my information from an
email list called "whole cat health", a group focused on holistic
approaches to feline health. Which I think is great, but they were
very insistent that one should feed raw food - ideally by buying a
whole animal such as a chicken, and grinding the whole thing up in a
meat grinder so the food will have bones and organ meats along with
the muscle meat, and would contain the right amounts of taurine and
calcium and other stuff. This probably is an excellent way to feed
your cat, but I am simply not willing to do it. The gross-out factor
and the phobia factor make it impossible for me. (Is this what you
do, btw?)

No, I buy them ordinary muscle meat, mostly beef. If I can find organic
pork, they get that. I don't buy them chicken, because there are no
free-range or organic chickens for sale in Finland, or the few that are
available are directly snatched up by restaurants. I refuse to buy the
ordinary ones, because what kind of animal lover would it make me if I
supported the factory farming of chickens?

But my niece has told me of a breeder of Russian Blues, who gives only
raw chicken wings to her cats. That's their only food, and they thrive
on it. I don't know if she gives them the supplement too. Maybe you
could try that? A word of warning, though. I did try that a couple of
times, but Caliban insisted on dragging the wings around the flat,
growling fiercely, before he ate them, so he made a terrible mess. I
would also find half-eaten wings here and there on the floor, and that
would probably gross you out as much as grinding whole chickens.


--
Marina, Miranda and Caliban.
In loving memory of Frank and Nikki.

In article ,
Marina wrote:

But my niece has told me of a breeder of Russian Blues, who gives only
raw chicken wings to her cats. That's their only food, and they thrive
on it. I don't know if she gives them the supplement too. Maybe you
could try that? A word of warning, though. I did try that a couple of
times, but Caliban insisted on dragging the wings around the flat,
growling fiercely, before he ate them, so he made a terrible mess. I
would also find half-eaten wings here and there on the floor, and that
would probably gross you out as much as grinding whole chickens.

hahahaha!

There seem to be a lot of commercial "raw diet" or "freezedried raw
diet" products now. If one distrusts any commercial cat food one might
not trust those either, I guess, but if I decided to feed my cats a raw
diet I would be looking into those before embarking on grinding up whole
chickens.
--
Stef ** **
** cat-and-dragon.com/stef ** firecat.dreamwidth.org**
**
Curiosity is a lust of the mind. -- Thomas Hobbes

"Stef" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Marina wrote:

But my niece has told me of a breeder of Russian Blues, who gives only
raw chicken wings to her cats. That's their only food, and they thrive
on it. I don't know if she gives them the supplement too. Maybe you
could try that? A word of warning, though. I did try that a couple of
times, but Caliban insisted on dragging the wings around the flat,
growling fiercely, before he ate them, so he made a terrible mess. I
would also find half-eaten wings here and there on the floor, and that
would probably gross you out as much as grinding whole chickens.

hahahaha!

There seem to be a lot of commercial "raw diet" or "freezedried raw
diet" products now. If one distrusts any commercial cat food one might
not trust those either, I guess, but if I decided to feed my cats a raw
diet I would be looking into those before embarking on grinding up whole
chickens.

I've been doing the raw diet thing with my new cat since November. I'm
lucky enough to be able to buy whole ground chickens (with bones and organs
included) from a farm that ships here. I don't own a meat grinder. I do,
however, have to cut up the extra organ meat (livers and hearts) by hand -
which is hard work despite the gross-out factor. The worst part about the
entire thing is the awful rotten smell that raw meat gets if I don't rinse
the sandwich bags I use to portion out the meals before I throw them out.

Before I discovered the farm I order from now I was going to try out TC
Feline, which is a dry mix that you add boneless chicken thighs and liver
to. A lot easier to deal with, and much less gross-out for the average
person. I decided against it only because I was able to easily obtain whole
ground chickens with bones and organs included.

Marina wrote:

But my niece has told me of a breeder of Russian Blues, who gives only
raw chicken wings to her cats. That's their only food, and they thrive
on it. I don't know if she gives them the supplement too. Maybe you
could try that? A word of warning, though. I did try that a couple of
times, but Caliban insisted on dragging the wings around the flat,
growling fiercely, before he ate them, so he made a terrible mess. I
would also find half-eaten wings here and there on the floor, and that
would probably gross you out as much as grinding whole chickens.

That does sound kind of gross, but must have been pretty funny, too.
All of a sudden, tame, ultra-domesticated Caliban shows you his inner
wild cat?

Mostly I'm just a bit germ-phobic, so handling raw meat, or getting
bits of it on things, is what really bothers me about it. If I had an
all-stainless-steel kitchen that I could hose down afterward, I might
consider it!

Also, Licky likes to stash all sorts of things in hidden places, and
the idea that it might be part of a raw chicken wing makes me shudder.
It would probably just sit there and rot and then start to smell. Then
again, I'd probably be able to find it pretty easily - just follow the
ant trail.

Joyce

--
- Your mom and I are going to divorce next month.
- What??? Why! Call me please?
- I wrote Disney and this phone changed it. We are going to Disney.
-- damnyouautocorrect.com

I tried a few cans of Wellness turkey (from the New Jersey plant). The
cats liked it so it is just the chicken from that plant that they don't
like. I have informed Wellness about this and they will look into it.
In the meantime, I will use the turkey.


---MIKE---
In the White Mountains of New Hampshire
(44° 15' N - Elevation 1580')