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Old August 21st, 2012, 12:51 PM
kittiesandbirds kittiesandbirds is offline
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Join Date: Aug 2012
Location: Quebec
Posts: 92
Quote:
Originally Posted by Love4himies View Post
I like your attitude .

I make homemade raw and it's really not that difficult if you buy a whole chickens, then you don't have to weigh the bones, add some liver and chicken giblets (kidneys & heart), some raw egg yolks, iodized salt and throw it through a grinder, put into daily bags, throw into the freezer and voila, an hours work for a month worth of food.

If you use only very fresh meat, freeze the food and only thaw it in the fridge and use within 24 hours of it being thawed you probably won't have a bacteria problem.

Cat's digestive systems are meant to eat raw meat, not cooked. Many of their essential vitamins are destroyed by heat, so they only way they can get them in their natural form is through raw meat. Their digestive fluids are more acidic than humans, making it an offensive environment for bacteria growth. Plus, their digestive tracts are so short the food from mouth to anus should be less than 12 hours. Did you know that cats have one of the shortest digestive tracts when compared to body length.

Another interesting fact is that cats don't have amylase to break down carbs into usable form, so any energy or protein from plant matter is pretty much useless to cats. Meat protein is the easiest to extract essential amino acids so that is why cats don't need long digestive tracts, unlike herbivores.

In all the years that I've been feeding my cat's raw, I've had almost no stomach upset and the only time that I get any now is if hubby gives Jasper too many kibble treats . If I had more confidence in my recipe, I would feed them only raw.

Another solution is to buy additives to raw meat, so you don't have to worry about adding bones/liver/giblets/salt/yolks. You can add it to ground beef/chicken/turkey, but you need to know that the meat is freshly ground that day to avoid bacteria growth that can occur in it. http://www.felineinstincts.com/order...derNow-idx.php
I understand about the cats digestive systems being meant to eat raw. I am worried about the source of the meat. When I look at the images I see of how chickens are raised it concerns me. As would the source of any meat.

I worked at a pet shop where they had many snakes the rats where kept in the back in a kind of giant metallic cage that had been purchased off of a lab. It was disgusting because they totally had lost track of what was in that giant lab cage.

This was a long time ago but I bet they still have that cage for their rats today. When I got there I asked about how many rats should be in one square. Barely any light got into the cage which maybe rats appreciate but you could not really see that well inside. The person who was in charge of all the snakes for the region of Quebec explained the whole thing to me. There should have been six rats per square. The person who showed me what and how to feed the rats would open each door, bang it open and shut violently to scare the rats then grab the food and water bowl. The same process would occur to put the bowls back.

I asked if it had ever been cleaned. They assured me it had. After some discussion and asking how? where do they put the rats? we decided I should clean the thing. I brought in some big aquariums and cages and also an old table I had in the basement. I set up a better system to care for the rats. The aquariums for use to put the rats in during cleaning.

When I finally got in there and started taking them out (I am not frightened when it comes to animals or bites and was much more rapid in those days, I did read a very extensive book on rats before starting). I was nearly attacked by one big rat. It turned out her gang were living with the carcass of and old companion. Luckily I had read the book. When I opened the door nonchalantly she was stomping back and forth quickly on her hind legs. As I shut the door I heard her thomp into it.She turned out to be not really aggressive once I had her in a clean environment.

There were approximately 30 rats per square. Obviously these rats had suffered severe neglect. I got the whole stainless steel giant apart and cleaned it. Did this regularly after that. I set it back up with six adults as was the standard for that cage system. It was a horrific sight for the owner of the pet shop to see all the aquariums full of rats. They had no idea they had such a problem. They sell frozen rats to clients for their snakes also.

This is one of the reasons I would never have a snake. Although I don't judge others because I know it's just one of my quirks. I'm just saying I know my limits and my strengths.

This story may seem to have nothing to do with how chickens are kept but I know how easy it is for people to get into a rut and not really notice or care.

Sometimes I see TV reports where someone has filmed the inside of where chickens are kept and I feel like it's deja vu. An employee goes in with a camera and shows us cages were dead birds are left rotting with healthy ect. The next day after being advised that a government official is coming by to check none of the problems are visible. Everything has been made to respond to norms. There are probably some very clean installations and some less clean elsewhere. I've seen some horrible ones on TV. I'm sure there are some very conscientious people out there who have chicken farms.

I know that animals that live outside may have ticks or whatever but they probably don't have the super bacteria that can build up in the kinds of environments where we house massive amounts of chickens then use lots of penicillin on them.

I have to find a way to feed them the best way possible within the restraints of my quirks. It's just one of those things I could see it works well for someone I know but never be able to do it myself. If I can get to one of the outlets that sell the cat food mentioned I hope it's cooked. There must be a way to get the proper mix with supplements by making (with cooked) or buying it.
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