Question for Pet Owners - Raw Food Diet for Pets?

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I'm interested in hearing opinions from pet owners as to whether or not they observed a marked improvement in their pet's coat sheen and less dander after putting the animal on raw pet food. My cat's coat is not too bad but he has a bad dander problem that veterinarian just feels is allergy based and referred me to a pet allergist veterinarian who's fee is ridiculous high to run the tests. Current feed is Purina Beyond. I've tried him on the boutique brands of dry kibble and his skin problem was worse. The Purina Beyond has been the best so far.

I'm quite burned out on having an animal in the house and on pet ownership in general just complicates travel plans finding someone to stop by, feed, and clean out litter box, but he is a left over from when we were a family. My late wife rescued him in 2009. Our son has since married and moved out so it's just me and this 30 lb gray tabby until my fiancee and I marry next year.


 
30-pound...? That's huge for a cat. My guess is just changing the cat's diet to something more 'lean' will do wonders. If you don't mind my asking, what do you feed the cat now, and how much of it?

Also, how old is the cat?
 
He must have an allergy. My dog is allergic to grain. He can only have certain foods and if a neighbor gives him a treat he will break out.

On the other hand my oldest cat just turned 24! He gets around fine still but his teeth are worn down so he is stuck with canned food.
 
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I ended up with
a special needs dog. Cooked frozen ground turkey with rice and froze individual meals in zip lock sandwich bags. Not expensive or all that time intensive
 
One thing I do somewhat frequently for my cats, even though they're fine on cans of Friskies and dried "grain-free" cat food (by choice, not necessity), is cook up chicken breast and make a special mix out of it.

I trim the chicken breast of fat, cut into strips, cook low and slow just enough until it's cooked through just barely. I then shred it, and mix with a pouch of two of the "gravy treats":

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The result is a big batch of moist, flavorful chicken that they love. Not expensive at all. I use this in place of the Friskies cans from time to time, and supplement with the dried food. It's low fat and high in protein, and the dried niblets cover all the other necessities.
 
Our border collie at 15 showed signs of kidney disease or other major problems. After a blood cleansing at the vet we put him on a lot more "real" food rather than the usual dry "junk" dog food....not much better than human cereals. Let's face it, pet food from the store is mostly junk. If humans were eating like that we'd be appalled. I don't see any real downside to a healthy natural diet full of vitamins and minerals...similar to what they would have eaten in the wild. For about 18 months we had our old dog back...like he was 10-12 again. But another 6 months and that disease came back like gang busters. There should be a ton of stuff on line about proper pet diets.
 
Our cat looks to be your cats twin, only she weighs 11 pounds. We took her to the vet last week for a dry skin problem. The vet gave her a cortizone shot, her second in two years. He said it's not uncommon this time of year. This condition does seem to happen only in the early fall...IDK. We feed her the Blue Buffalo dry food.
 
Not trying to be overly critical of your cats weight.....But, How much exercise does he get? It may be a dumb question on my part as I'm a dog guy & don't really know how you would get a cat to be more active?

A Niece of mine dumped her Shih Tzu on us about 2 years ago & he had real bad skin issues & Badly over weight, Wife took him to the Vet, Basically got the same spill you did. I exercise him with my 2 female Pit Bulls which is pretty brutal for such a lazy dog, I don't treat my animals for fleas & ticks.....I treat my entire yard (I'm guessing he was getting doused with something).
I also shaved all his hair off so he didn't die from a heat stroke & bath him with a dry skin medicated shampoo.
I feed all 3 dogs dry Purina Puppy Chow with a little milk & a scrambled egg a piece ONCE a day.

He now has no skin problems, Very active during the day, Sleeps all night & has about 5% body fat. My Pits have less than 1% but I don't want to push it to far. He's not the most obedient dog but I also have to take a step back on that as well.
 
First off Purina is CARP! If you don't believe it look up pet food recalls. Naturopathic Vets are most very proud of themselves. Google natural cat foods and it should bring up quite a listing for you. I have a Jack Russell and Trevor has roughly the same problem as your cat. I switched him over to a new food made by Instinct they also make cat food and they also specialize in some raw foods for pets dogs and cats. It has seemed to take care of most of his problems I also pick him up some range chicken when my local market has it on discount. At first he was sure about raw food but seems to like it just fine now! I also ad a little fish oil to his food once or twice a week and his itching is gone now. I also ad a little plan Yogurt to his food.
 
he's always been rather sedentary. Vet said one thing is he is a large frame cat and might have a smidge of Maine Coon in his background? But 30 is pretty much his set point weight. He gets less than 8 oz of food a day, three feedings on avg. He was already de-clawed all four paws and neutered when we rescued him. he was basically a stray living in one of the framed out new houses in the neighborhood under construction. He hadn't eaten in a while, at that time Vet estimated his age at around 1 yr this was April 2009. I've heard that cats that have experienced starvation to some degree as a young cat will, if adopted, get big?

We'd tried him on Blue Buffalo back in 2010 but he got struvite crystals in his urine and Vet said the food caused it and put him some expensive Science Diet prescription diet for urinary tract health which right before we dropped it was selling for $36 for a 5 lb bag at Pet Smart. It was then on to some boutique dry foods but Vet said no grain free because that is what caused the crystals.
 
That cats morbidly obese.

Local pet stores have medium and higher grade kibble brands.

Dry high quality is best for teeth and health overall - never seen any evidence animals live longer or better on raw , and I know for sure between wet, raw, and kibble whats easier on you. You may have to wean a bit but the animals will eat sooner or later. Especially that guy- doubt he's missed many meals.

Many many animals have some kind of sensitivity to one food ingredient or other and one has to rotate in and out all the grains meats and mixes to see what works and doesn't and actually be diligent about it- the small 5-10Lb bags are good for experimenting then when you find the right formula buy bigger
- its tough work sometime but we settled on a few brands and mixes we have had related luck with.

Wifes a mobile pet groomer - she sees way more animals than almost, and we " dog sit" a very few clients very fussy animals so we have a lot of data to formulate our opinions on the matter.

UD
 
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Your vet can take a blood sample and send it off to Spectrum Labs for allergy testing. You can then compare the results (think of it like a UOA!) to the ingredients in pet food and find something suitable. It's not worth guessing. Save yourself the trouble and get it right the first time.

Also, your cat needs to lose a lot of weight. Your vet can help you with that as well, but you need to limit food significantly.

I add fish oil to one of the dogs' food daily, which resolves his skin/dander issues. Bear in mind that it's pure fat and calorie-dense.
 
Our cat is a good sized cat at 12 lbs. and gets just under a half cup of dry food. We were using Taste of the Wild cat food and now are using Hills science diet weight loss dry food. The Hills made her coat super soft. I would try cutting back his food a bit. The Taste of the Wild is grain free but the Hills is not.

No way I would go through the hassle of making cat food or doing the raw thing.
 
Orijen, enough said.

The pet food industry is the dumping ground for food not fit for human consumption. Buy it from a local store and take it back if it doesn't agree with your pets. They will give you full credit.

One cat has struvite crystals so she gets a 3:1 ratio of Orijen to urinary SO.
 
I have had very good success with Majestic (formerly AFS) raw diets in cats and dogs. Much improved skin and coat health and easy weight loss and weight management. Probably 1/4 the waste and 1/10 the associated oder. Been feeding this for almost 20 years now.
 
Originally Posted By: SirTanon
30-pound...? That's huge for a cat. My guess is just changing the cat's diet to something more 'lean' will do wonders. If you don't mind my asking, what do you feed the cat now, and how much of it?


That cat looks like it could take down a steer and be down to a pile of bones by night fall. ;-)

Sometimes simply placing a domestic animal on a weight restricted diet will show a marked improvement in its coat.

BTW, that looks like a home that would belong to a guy who rides MotoGuzzi.
grin.gif
 
I thought my cat was HUGE at 20lbs. Rescued her at age 13 and she has since gone to 19 lbs..not much better :p Apparently the last owner fed her blended up meat milk shakes....
 
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