How to start feeding your dog or cat raw

Posted on 4 September 2017
By Dr. Jill Tack
Posted in best diet for pets, cat, cats, dog, dogs, raw
0

We had a great time last month at RawFest, sharing with everyone how a raw diet enriches your pet's health and their life, But we don't only celebrate once a year, we are all about eating raw 365 days of the year! If you're interested in starting your pet on a raw diet and feeling a little overwhelmed or aren't sure what raw can actually do for your pet, let us help you out by answering a few commonly asked questions.

What are the Benefits of a Raw Diet?

Raw as a part of an animal's diet in any fashion is beneficial. Even if it's only 10 percent of their daily diet or you are just adding raw goat's milk to your pet's food, it's the blend and balance that's important. Combining the correct portions of meat and raw bone and organ for both cats and dots and some fruits and vegetables for mainly dogs is the key. The benefits of raw are vast and many are evident quite soon after a switch, within 14 to 21 days if not sooner:

shinier skin and coat
less dander
smaller amounts of stool
less stinky breath
less water consumption

We get a lot of compliments about how soft our cats fur is here at the store. Cats especially benefit from a raw diet because of the high moisture content. This high water content aids cats as the natural moisture helps in urinary issues such as kidney blockages, kidney stones and bladder stones.

What is a Great Way to Feed Raw?

Frozen food is a great way to start feeding raw to your pet. Our freezers here at the store run at negative 5 day and night so the food comes to us frozen and stays frozen until you get it home. If you plan to feed it within a couple days, it needs to go in your freezer as well as it needs to stay frozen. Dogs typically tolerate frozen food that is thawing in the fridge for five to six days, Cats are a bit more finicky. Once you thaw frozen food for your cat, they should consume it within probably the three day mark. You can thaw frozen products in some cold water or your fridge and reapportion it into smaller amounts or usable amount. So maybe for cats, that's a portion that is maybe two days worth. You can then refreeze the remainder and pull it out to thaw as needed.

What is a Good Portion Size?

An 11- to 12-pound cat should be eating about 6 to 8 ounces a day so that's two small cans of cat food if you feed canned food. Dogs two years and older and fifty pounds would be eating a pound a day and a 100-pound adult dog would be eating two pounds a day

Is Raw a Complete Diet?

This can be also a tricky question. Depending on the company that you choose, we actually have lots of variety here at the store. We have complete diets, non-complete diet and then we also have raw bulk items or we have prey models which have no fruits or veggies. Some diets like Vital Essentials offer a complete diet but if you just add raw meaty bones such as chicken neck or back, or duck necks into a diet, that would not be complete.

All raw products at The Pet Beastro are grain-free as the binding quality quality of grain isn't need in raw to hold kibble together, for example.

What are the Benefits of a Raw Diet?

What is a Great Way to Feed Raw?

What is a Good Portion Size?

Is Raw a Complete Diet?

Comments