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Caramel said:
Honestly, he's became alot less sensitive with his teeth, its helping him gain musculature (we exercise him ontop of this) without dropping weight, hes more entergetic and playful aswell. We were on Viva Raw before hand (which again is amazing he did well on it, but we intially switched bc its easier to order his and the dogs food from the site at once) Thats great to hear! I didnt know raw/freeze dried raw could help dental issues. The viva raw is looking really nice, it has a rabbit formula and I was actually looking for that! It seemed to be frozen raw, though. How is feeding completely raw? Its not anything I have any experience with yet and would absolutely love to if I can afford it. . Now im curious about how you exercise him lol. The exercise my boy gets is us taking turns chasing each other XD He likes to run up, tap my ankles and sprint off. Ill follow and poke him, run away & hide, and hell gallop after me, repeating the whole thing again. Its adorable, I love doing that with him lol |
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Felix likes it more than half and half, its a bit tricky we bulk bought and stored in a freezer and thawed it out the night before. It is NOT something to be left out. If its out at room temp or your freezer breaks it is dangerous so having ice on hand during rain season is def a need. theres pros and cons, depends on your animal honestly. But Felix was alot more entergetic and playful on it, it can help with some stomach issues i ebleive aswell. OUr dogs are on 14 of their food being kibbel the rest is from oru local buther and we hydrate with the same native pet half bone broth half goat milk depending on the meat they get that week we add the sockeye salmon oil.
Before goign full raw i suggest you test feeding it! Also adding toppers can make it more mentally stimulating
We exercise our boy with hikes, we have a slatmill for the dogs so we put him on their rarely bc of his tail, we also have like a cat wheel that we put liquid treats on (we watch him on all of these because he could get caught, but with the wheel just put it at the top to motivate him then just keep putting it ahead of him!
Willow Grove said:
Caramel said:
Honestly, he's became alot less sensitive with his teeth, its helping him gain musculature (we exercise him ontop of this) without dropping weight, hes more entergetic and playful aswell. We were on Viva Raw before hand (which again is amazing he did well on it, but we intially switched bc its easier to order his and the dogs food from the site at once) Thats great to hear! I didnt know raw/freeze dried raw could help dental issues. The viva raw is looking really nice, it has a rabbit formula and I was actually looking for that! It seemed to be frozen raw, though. How is feeding completely raw? Its not anything I have any experience with yet and would absolutely love to if I can afford it. . Now im curious about how you exercise him lol. The exercise my boy gets is us taking turns chasing each other XD He likes to run up, tap my ankles and sprint off. Ill follow and poke him, run away & hide, and hell gallop after me, repeating the whole thing again. Its adorable, I love doing that with him lol
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I would definitely try it first. Im sure he would like it, but its always a safe bet. I would absolutely mix my boys food or add toppers but hes a picky little thing. I tried it once with his two favorite foods and he turned his nose up at it 🙄 He needs things alone or he wont eat it. . I think ill try freeze dried for a while before venturing into true raw if that does end up being something I want to do. . Oh cool! My boy tolerates his harness but hes too nervous outside to go anywhere other than part of our yard. Thats great that you can take him out! |
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OUr boy was nervous too we honestly just got him used to the feelings of rocks, pavement, dirt, clay, et and put jim on things that are slightly unstable helped him a good bit!
If you ever need suggestions with toppers i can def looka t sum! We used sardines sometimes or catfish.
Willow Grove said:
I would definitely try it first. Im sure he would like it, but its always a safe bet. I would absolutely mix my boys food or add toppers but hes a picky little thing. I tried it once with his two favorite foods and he turned his nose up at it 🙄 He needs things alone or he wont eat it. . I think ill try freeze dried for a while before venturing into true raw if that does end up being something I want to do. . Oh cool! My boy tolerates his harness but hes too nervous outside to go anywhere other than part of our yard. Thats great that you can take him out!
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Oh thats a good idea! . Thatd be great! I just dont know if he would actually eat any ^^' Ive offered him various freeze dried organ meats and sardines on a couple different occasions and he wont eat it. He wont take most treats, either; just churus. |
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I've studied in the animal industry for 1.5 years, during my time something I was extensively intrigued by was feline nutrition. Especially since there's so much talk online, people who swear by something that another days will kill your cat. It's wild lmao. sorry this post is more statistical, and fact-based than opinion and anecdotal evidence based. Might still be of use 🙂 I stuck specifically to peer-reviewed and academic papers, journals and such so what I've found is that despite commonly thought "freeze dried means no/less pathogens" while it does reduce moisture, it doesn't steralize the food. And the pathogens that are frozen can remain essentially dormant for up to years the removal of water essentially only stops pathogens from multiplying. But generally become active again when rehydrated. The biggest documented difference is that the freeze-dried foods have less bacterial growth than raw foods, but pathogens are still present regardless.It's not uncommon for a raw food to be positive for pathogens (particularly salmonella spp, listeria monocytes, E. coli and campylobacter). In saying that, out of all the raw foods diets I have ever heard of, the only one I'd comfortably consider feeding my pets is the viva raw. They go to extensive lengths to ensure their foods are as high-quality as possible, and are entirely balanced and complete. They also have a whole panel breakdown of their foods. As well as a named professionals with valid qualifications who've contributed to formulating the food. Although, they've still had issues and recalls with live pathogens in their foods, I'd trust them over any others that I've looked into. I tried so hard not to get carried away, I think I kept it fairly short 😂 If I find the time, I'll link a few studies I've found incredibly helpful, just so that you're not simply taking a random person word with literally 0 proof of anything genuinely being true. |
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Thats very interesting! To be honest, I didnt know people thought freeze dried raw meant completely safe; raw is still raw! When dealing with raw food theres always risk, I doubt theres any company out there who hasnt had some sort of recall, pet or human.
. Honestly I wouldve loved to read the entire bit you had in mind, no need to try and keep it short :) I would love the links to those studies you mentioned, it seems like a good idea. This is something im very serious about doing as I think his health will benefit. As long as the food are balanced, ive only ever heard good things about feeding raw, especially for cats. My cat is my baby, I want him to have the best nutrition available to me! He is currently on high quality kibble & canned food, but I believe he can do better. His coat doesnt look too great and he could stand to put more muscle on |
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Oh awsome!! Honestly same, when I got my kitten earlier this year it sent me down a researching rabbithole. And for the most part, good vs bad types of foods come down the the induvidual, specific foods. Not necessarily a type of food. Like there are good and bad kibble, canned/sachet, raw foods, grain-free foods, any type of food offered really. It's less of a 'one type is good for all'. This one is from the Minnesota uni, talking about *how* to freeze dry food. The specific part is "Freeze-drying or lyophilization is a dehydration technique based on the sublimation of water in a product. This means that the product’s water content transitions from a solid to a gaseous state — or from ice to vapor — without going through the liquid state. There is no heat treatment step in the freeze-drying process. So it doesn’t kill illness-causing microorganisms such as bacteria and viruses. In fact, if present in the food, these microorganisms will be preserved and can start growing again if moisture is added back to the food." And essentially the study didn't find any clear evidence that makes raw-diets any better for pets nutrition, than any other commercialy sold foods. I may be going on a bit of a side tangent here lmao. But heres another journal that was released from my country and it mentions that raw diets can alter gut microbiomes, increasing bacteria that specialize in digesting protein and fat (Fusobacterium & Clostridium). This isn’t directly beneficial to health, but it’s an interesting change that seems positive. Honestly no matter how much you reasearch, or effort you put into chosing pet food, there will always be pros and cons to every food type, and brand. You will never find a 'perfect' food unfortunately 🙃. In my opinion though orijen/acana is one of the best and most species-appropriate cat foods, and safe. So I think you're are already doing very well by your cat giving him acana and orijen. Both are AAFCO complient. Both primarily rely on animal products for the nutrients and proteins. Their foods are well above average. |
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Ok I was finally awake enough to actually read all of this instead of just skimming it lol . Ill have to read those articles when im off work, but from what youve added they seem very interesting :) . That is a very unfortunate truth XP Nothing in life is perfect, not even pet food. But, what you said is why I went with Acana and Orijen. Im glad a friend of mind told me about it, I never knew they existed before she did! |
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Warming, with Sleet and Heavy Icing
