anyone feed their cats raw?

[dobesgalore]

From what I understand, heart is one of the best sources of taurine. I'm not sure how true that is, it's just what I read more than once. I am fixing to start adding heart to Psyco's diet.

[Jax's Mom]

Yes, heart is the highest source of taurine! Before I could get turkey hearts I fed beef hearts. I was surprised to find turkey was even higher than beef. The darker the meat, the higher the taurine level.

There was a study done that fed cats raw, ground rabbit. The cats looked great. Poop didn't smell. But then a cat died and they found that there was a taurine deficiency. That scared me enough to check into a taurine test. It runs around $200. But you would have to keep testing regularly to make sure the levels are good. So I found the website with the taurine information to compare what I'm feeding him to the recommended daily amount.

If you grind your food, then you really should add taurine. From what I read, the air hitting the surface of the meat will degrade the taurine content.

Here are the sources I found....

http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/vmb/aal/pdfs/spitze.pdf

Cat Food Ingredients: The 4 Essential Groups - The Daily Cat Brought to You by Iams

“Cats have a higher protein requirement” than dogs or people, says Dr. Joseph Wakshlag, assistant professor of clinical nutrition at the Cornell University School of Veterinary Medicine. Cats require 2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight each day, compared with 0.8 grams per kilogram in humans and 1.3 grams per kilogram in dogs, he says. High-quality protein sources can include chicken, salmon, egg and other meats, poultry or fish sources.

Protein in meat chart and information
meat-protein chart | Nutrient chart | Vitamins and minerals in common meats and proteins

Meat and meat products in human nutrition ... - Role of meat and meat products in human nutrition

Calculator
raw chicken breast: saturated fat, trans fat, calories, cholesterol, ... - Wolfram|Alpha

Minimum Required Daily Allowance of Taurine Daily

Nutrient Requirements of Cats, Revised Edition, 1986
(Taurine Section starts on page 13)
Nutrient Requirements of Cats, Revised Edition, 1986

400 mg/kg (it's not clearly if this is daily, weekly??)


Recommended Daily Allowances - Feline: Protein
Wiley InterScience :: Session Cookies
10mg/kg body weight

Cat Owner's Home Veterinary Handbook

http://books.google.com/books?id=9lGTIbY...p;q&f=false

[Jax's Mom]

Cracker's Daily Diet

Weight: 5 kg

Taurine requirements at 20mg/kg body weight = 100 mg taurine daily
Protein requirements at 2 g/kg body weight = 10 g protein daily


1 oz beef heart = 18.48388704 mg Taurine = 8 g Protein
1 oz turkey leg meat= 86.7495312 mg Taurine = 8 g Protein
2 oz chicken neck = 33.1122452 mg Taurine = 8.48 Protein
1 oz canned Salmon = 34.89825912 mg Taurine = 6.79 Protein
Minimal Chicken Liver

173 mg Taurine/day and 31 g Protein.

I feed just a thumbnail size of liver daily.

(I have changed his diet so I really need to redo this but it will give you an idea of what is needed. The beef heart and turkey meat have been replaced with turkey heart.)

Since I"ve started feeding him RAW, his muscle tone is better. He's a himalayan so it's really hard to see but I can feel his muscles under his fur and his belly no longer sags. His teeth have cleaned right up! They are still stained from the...gulp...Science Diet ID food. The cat box does NOT smell at all.

I still wasn't happy with his coat and added the 1 oz of fish (now sardine) and it's made an amazing difference in just a couple of weeks.

From what I read this weekend, extra Taurine processes through the kidneys and flushes out of their system, similar to Vitamin C, so chance of "to much" taurine is nonexistent. If in doubt, add the taurine!

[Jax's Mom]

Do you add taurine to the meat for the snacks? Heat, cooking, deplete the taurine and other enzymes. How to you correct that?

And I'm asking because I seriously thought about making "taurine bombs" for Cracker to make sure he had enough taurine.

Also, cats get the majority of their fluids from meat. They do not drink alot and that, in itself, is causing many health problems for them so by feeding them dehydrated meat it's depleting their fluids. Do you rehydrate prior to feeding it to them since you are supplementing their meals with it rather than using it for snacks?

Here is another excellent article on feline nutrition.
Feline Nutrition

[papillonsandpitbulls]

I feed half raw and half canned so I don't really have to make sure the raw is balanced, like I do when feeding 100% raw (to my dog). Hearts are a good source of taurine, though.