anyone here feed raw meat to their cats?

[stuntcat]

OR, what do you think about giving cats raw chicken?

I don't even buy myself meat anymore, but I got a $2 pack of hearts and gizzards for my oldest cat Tonka and I've given him a little of it every night. I froze it in little bits wrapped in plastic, it's so economical :)

A friend told me it was good to do, then I looked it up because I was still afraid but I found a few people saying it's good for cats and helps them live longer.. which I guess is all I need to know but I want to get other people's opinions anyway.
My Tonka gobbles it down! It's weird to me, since I never tried this before.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. I've offered it to mine, but they won't eat it.

I've heard you need to be careful where you get it so you can be sure it's safe for them; apart from that I really don't know much about it.

[stuntcat]

3. I saw it for sale online especially for cats

so maybe that food is safer somehow. I should find out how that's different.

[jgraz]

2. My GF feeds her cats only raw food

It's mostly ground turkey and/or chicken, but she adds a bunch of supplements to it. They're both doing great and her 15-yr-old looks and acts like a kitten.

[stuntcat]

4. 15!!

That's how old my Tonka is and I don't know what I'd do without him, that's why I started giving him a little raw stuff- because my friend said it helps them live longer. He didn't like the ground stuff too much so that's when I got the hearts and gizzards. The other two cats don't even want to try it but maybe if they see Tonka doing it every day they will too.
I feel better about it now.. I was just scared about messing with Tonka's health. Thanks you's :D

[Lorien]

7. 15 is only "middle aged" for a cat. We've been taught to expect a shortened

life span for our pets by major food manufacturers because most pet foods don't promote health. I learned this while doing pet adoptions out of a holistic "human grade" pet supply store here in Orlando. I regularly spoke to customers with cats and dogs who were in their early 20s, some even older (heard of a 27 year old cat once). Most of the owners of the very old animals were feeding raw or freeze dried raw, so I've been trying to get mine to eat more raw ever since I learned about it.

For more on USDA human grade pet foods: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=243x4388

[jgraz]

8. I've been thinking that for a while, but I've never read anything to confirm it

All of our mammal pets (1 dog, 2 cats) are rescues. I just adopted a somewhat decrepit 14-yr-old poodle last year and she's totally turned around on raw food. My GF's cats were both sick with various auto-immune and digestive problems when she adopted them. Now they're both doing great on her homemade raw food.

I feed the puppy Aunt Jeni's (http://www.auntjeni.com), but the cats can't tolerate it so they get homemade.

[stuntcat]

12. I'm SO happy when I hear of the 20-something cats

I want Tonka to make it too!
The oldest I've had was 18 when he died, he did pretty good even though he was so overweight. That 7 cat years to one human year stuff is BS.

[jgraz]

9. Here's the supplement she uses

http://www.felineinstincts.com

They have powders for boneless and bone-in meat, plus a lot of special-needs supplements.

[japple]

5. I feed my 15 yr. old cat, Tiny, freeze dried raw food.

It's Nature's Variety Freeze Dried Turkey/Chicken medallions. You can get it online at petfooddirect.com. He loves it and is rather spry for an old bugger.

[Lorien]

6. I do. I mix Prairie Nature's Variety raw medallions into canned human grade

cat food (because they won't eat just the raw on it's own). They also love the freeze dried raw chicken and turkey, as another poster mentioned. I get mine from www.sitstay.com

[China_cat]

10. You can also get them fresh frozen mice

if you want a natural diet for them

http://www.frozenrodent.com/htm/pricelist.htm
http://www.rodentpro.com/catalog.asp?prod=3&label=frozen_mice

[stuntcat]

11. Thank you's all for the sites and info!

I've always had cats and I've never fed them raw meat before so this is totally exciting to learn about :headbang: