As far as bones go, the problem with bones is that <b>cooked</b> bones splinter and can cause obstructions. But raw bones are not only surprisingly easy to chew and do not splinter, but they are actually digested and broken down in the gut. :) They also provide a fantastic dental workout so dental chews/cat toothbrushes and toothpaste/expensive dental prophies under anesthetic etc become unnecessary. One of the biggest changes I've noticed in my cat is that he has no odor to his breath- at all. There's nothing. In the couple months he's been eating raw, his teeth have gone from being covered in tartar and having a nasty brown color near his gums, to being spotlessly pearly white- even his molars! Raw bones are nature's toothbrush :) Also, since they require the cat or dog to chew, they slow down gulping of food which actually lowers the risk of choking. ;)

I think raw is great for dogs and cats if dont properly which sounds like you did you research. I just personally dont have the meat storage space or the time to feed raw.<br /><br />I do have a cat with dietary restrictions, i dont know exactly what all he had trouble with but when i put them on a corn, soy, wheat free diet when he was little the problems went away, then when i returned from 2 years in the Peace Corps he was starting to stink again so i switched to 100% grain and by-product free and now feed Blue's Wilderness diet. its like $38 for a big bag but that lasts me for a few months as i only feed 1/2cup for 2 cats split into 2 meals a day. I would feed a bit more but the one with dietary needs is over weight (15lbs) but i need to start feeding my other kitty a bit more as she is now down to just over 10lbs and doesn't need to loose much more.

I'm a bit nervous about giving my cats meat with bones in it [at thanksgiving, i always take the meat off of the bones when i give the neck to them lol].. is that an issue with raw bones? idk how I'd feel giving small chicken neck bones to my cat.<br />Also, one of my cat has his molars removed from dental surgery so he's on canned food... yet he still eats hard food [the vet said he could, wtf??], I don't know how hard it would be for him to chew up raw meat

My cat took right to raw meat, but I did introduce it slowly to him- first, I got him strictly on canned food (partially because it can be dangerous to feed kibble and raw within 12 hours of each other because they digest at such different speeds) and then it also makes it easier to start adding raw into the canned :)<br /><br />Here's how I switched my cat over- times for each stage can be adjusted depending on how quickly your cat takes to it. And instead of premade, you can grind your own meat- but never, ever feed ground raw meat from the superstore, it's a haven for bacteria and is just generally not good for them! Also mixing really finely chopped chunks instead of premade can work too.<br /><br />First: I got him on 100% canned food for about a week. <br /><br />Second: I got some premade raw (which is usually ground and with either bone dust or small chunks of bone- this one had small chunks of bone) and mixed about half of it in with the canned food. You can change the amount of raw to mix in with the canned depending on how your cat does with it. Gradually increase this amount until your cat is eating straight premade. <br /><br />After he had been eating straight premade for a little while and had gotten used to the taste of raw meat, I started mixing larger chunks of raw in with the premade. I gradually increased the size of the chunks until he was eating whole chicken hearts and chunks of meat about that size mixed into his premade. :) The more chunks he would eat, the less premade I gave him, until he was having no trouble eating stew-meat sized chunks.<br /><br />At that point, I started introducing some bone. Since the premade I'd been giving him already had bone hunks in it (and finding a coarse grind premade is what I would recommend) the bones weren't an entirely new experience for him, but I started slow. Buying a package of chicken necks or wings is a good place to start, and cut them up into bite size chunks and mix a chunk or two into the chunks of regular meat that your cat is eating. Gradually increase the size of the chunks of raw meaty bone that you give until your cat can handle a whole chicken neck or breastbone on their own :) I use necks, breastbones, and backs, cut into moderate sized chunks, and I divide up two neck-sized bones for a week's worth of food and mix it in with the muscle meat, that way he gets the dental benefits of bone every day but I still keep it within the 80-10-10 percentage. <br /><br />As far as organ meats go, some cats love them (mine included) and some cats aren't so fussed. It's necessary that 5% of the diet comes from liver and 5% comes from some other secreting organ such as kidney (heart, and chicken gizzards both count as a MUSCLE meat, and not organ meat!). Kidney is probably the cheapest and easiest to find. I buy lamb kidneys at one of the nearby grocery stores and two of them is the perfect size for a meal for my boy.<br /><br />When following the 5% liver and 5% other organ (lets say kidney), that usually means one meal of each in a 20 day/3 week period for my boy. So what I normally do is feed kidney one week, have one week of just muscle and bone, and then the next week feed liver, and the week immediately following the liver week I feed kidney again. However, since it's supposed to make up a total of 5% each, it doesn't have to be just one meal- you can cut a meal's worth of it into little bits and feed it with muscle meat meals over the course of a week or so if your cat doesn't take well to organs. Mixing finely chopped kidney or liver in with slightly larger chunks of muscle meat is a good way of hiding it. You can also try feeding organs from different animals- chicken or lamb liver instead of beef, for instance. <br /><br />I haven't yet moved onto whole prey yet with my boy, I want to order some from Hare-Today but I don't have a credit card so I haven't actually managed to get a chance to order from them yet, but I know lots of people that do and highly recommend them :) I'm going to try going to the pet store and getting some feeder mice and maybe pinky rats and start Quetzal off with those. From my understanding of people who feed whole prey, it's best if you start by chopping the whole animal into pieces, even if it's small, then the cat will be more likely to recognize it as food. Whole prey is awesome, but I'd probably recommend it most for a cat who's been eating prey model for some time already and who definitely knows that raw meat = food, and is less likely to turn their nose up at something with fur. :)

Here is a site I found on myths about raw feeding, I found it very helpful! Especially in my concern about raw bones.<br /><br />http://rawfed.com/myths/

I support raw food diet's all the way. My family doesn't have the time or money for my cat though. We usually feed her Iam's and on Sunday we have fish and take 1/4 of the cooked Salmon (North Atlantic lol) and give her some. Cat's unlike dogs are strict carnivore's correct? I'm always a bit nerves and read the labels when I buy her food haha <br /><br />

Thanks for that site link! I'd like to start feeding Dakota raw, but I don't have to money for it right now. No place locally will higher me because of my age.<br /><br /> I feed my dogs Taste of The Wild, it's the best thing I could find locally.<br /><br /> But we do feed raw beef knuckles for his teeth, they are so white. And before we started feeding he had brown on his back molars. That is no longer the case.

The thing is - I'm not sure if that site ships to Canada but I imagine shipping frozen foods would be expensive.<br />How hard is it to make the transition from hard & wet food to raw food for cats? I just can't see my cats leaping onto a dead guinea pig or w/e and chowing down in one try

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Danngg thanks for that site! Very nice :)

It's really not that expensive if you know where to buy your meat and what cuts are cheap :) I buy a lot of heart- both beef and chicken- as a main muscle meat, which is quite cheap because people don't really like to eat it but is extremely rich in taurine and super healthy :) Also there are websites like <a href=http://www.hare-today.com>Hare-Today</a> that offer online ordering of raw meat specifically for pets, and their prices are extremely reasonable. ^_^ <br /><br />Asian markets are also awesome, I've found some great stuff at asian markets for super cheap. <br /><br />I'd say I average between $15-20 a month at the absolute most for my cat.. less if I find myself some good deals. :)