Raw feeding really doesn’t have to be hard and complicated. You don’t need to be a scientist to feed your cat a healthy fresh food diet. In this blog, I’m going to go over some truly easy ways to feed your cat raw food.
freeze dried raw
First up, freeze dried raw food. There are several complete freeze dried raw foods made for cats. The nutrition has been “locked in” by the freeze drying process. They are super easy to use, too. You pour out the amount you want to feed at a meal, and then add water to rehydrate it. That’s the most important thing to remember—freeze dried foods MUST be fed rehydrated. Freeze dried raw foods have even less moisture than kibble. And we already know that cats need to eat a moisture rich diet, which I wrote about here.
Freeze dried raw is a great option for folks who are a bit squeamish about handling raw meat. My vegetarian daughter has a much easier time using freeze dried raw than other forms of raw because it is less “icky.”
commerical frozen raw
Next up, commercial frozen raw. These are frozen foods that also offer complete nutrition. They include meat, bone, and organ and then either whole foods and/or supplements. Make sure you choose foods that are made for cats, not dogs. Cats and dogs have different nutritional needs, which you can read more about here.
Frozen raw foods come in tubs, rectangular size bricks, sliders, patties, nuggets, and bite sized pieces. There are lots of different sizes and shapes when it comes to frozen raw. But they are all easy to use. You only have to thaw the food in the fridge, then scoop into your cat’s dish, and serve. That’s it.
meat completers
Using meat completers is another easy way to feed raw. A completer is a pre-mixed powder that contains the ingredients and supplements needed to make nutritionally complete food when added to meat and/or meat and liver.
These are a serious game changer, imho. They are like using a boxed mix to make cake. You still get delicious cake, just some of the steps have been done for you, rather than being made from scratch. Here is an earlier blog where I did an overview of different completers.
Most people who use completers want to make their cat’s food, but don’t want to source, prep, and measure out all of the individual ingredients to do so, for various reasons. Completers truly make it so simple and provide confidence that the food you are making for your cat is nutritionally solid.
I still remember the first time I made food with EZComplete. I followed the directions and mixed together plain boneless meat, water, and the EZComplete powder. That was all that I needed to do—and I could hardly believe it! I thought for sure I must have missed something because it was WAY too easy. But nope, I didn’t, and it is really that easy.
Big pet food wants to convince us that only their “scientists” with advanced degrees could possibly know how to make our pets’ food. Nah, I don’t think so. We seem to do okay with feeding ourselves and if we have them, our human children. I think we can figure out how to feed our pets, too, thank you very much.
whole prey
The last super easy way to feed your cat raw is considered more controversial–whole prey, which I wrote about here. While this way of feeding can be emotionally difficult, especially at first, it is ridiculously easy because your cat does all the work. You thaw the animal in the fridge overnight and hand it to your cat the next day. Done. Your cat gets all of the benefits of doing the work to eat their meal as nature intended. Easy peasy!
So there you have it, some truly easy ways to feed raw. No spreadsheets, no measuring, no formulating needed—that aspect of food preparation has been done for you.
Give raw a try
I sincerely hope that reading about these easy ways to feed raw will encourage you to check out which are available where you live and maybe give some a try some with your cat. You don’t have to switch to a completely raw diet. You can offer some meals of raw in rotation with your cat’s canned or cooked food diet, too.
Any amount of raw that you include will benefit your kitty. It doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Most of us needed some time to get used to feeding raw, baby steps are always appropriate.
Let me know in the comments below if you have any questions or comments about these options! And be sure to follow the.raw.fed.feline on Instagram for examples of these ways to feed raw.
