When I began feeding raw about 18 months ago, I used a grain free diet.  It
meant putting in alot more veggies, and so I had to put in more bribe food
to convince them to eat.  Also, both my cats and my dog had constipation
problems with this diet and so I eventually decided to try out the
Pitcairn-Frazier style wich does add some grains.  My pets do very well on
it, and they prefer the taste so I have been able to cut down considerably
on the bribe foods.  It doesnt mean my diet is better than the grain free,
its just what *my* pets do well on.  You have to research and try out things
to see what is best for your cat.    The diet I prepare resembles the
recipes on the link except I do not add garlic or alfalfa, and use Quinoa
most often (wich is not a true grain, protein is of higher quality and amino
acids well equilibrated).  I use salmon oil but am now questioning the use
of any fish oil, for its seems that it is close to impossible to get any
wich is not contaminated or rancid.  I will need to find althernatives.
Taurine is not a problem with raw meat, but personally,  I make sure they
get heart where it is most concentrated.(from free range chickens in my
case)
I would find it difficult to use a commercial all prepared diet because
research, and most importantly, the health of my pets make me change and
adjust all the time.

All the luck.

Elaine

--
My cats:
http://www.PictureTrail.com/gid906206
Article fran?ais sur le d?griffage
http://chakashiva.tripod.com/degriffage.index.htm

So they stole Pitcairn's recipes and are now selling them. That's kinda
lame.

For me, there are two main reasons to feed a more natural/raw diet to my
pets. First, for their oral health which benefits greatly from ripping
and chewing large pieces of meat on the bone on a daily basis. And
second, to have control over what they eat and to know they are getting
healthful, wholesome, minimally processed food.

There's also the less-important reasons that it's quite a bit cheaper to
home-prepare their food and that my dog at least doesn't do as well with
grains as without them.

You lose all of these benefits by feeding an expensive commercially
prepared minced diet.

What about taurine? It's found in meat (though denatured by heat and
processing hence the need to add it back to extruded kibbles), and is
particularly high in the heart which is included in some of the mixtures
you listed. I wouldn't worry about taurine.

Why do you want to avoid preparing your cat's diet yourself?

-Alison in OH

Hank, I found a few more suppliers of frozen raw. If you are willing
to pay more for a frozen food, one with less carbs would be more worth
your money. I haven´t checked all their formulas for carbs though,
only the first one.

http://www.naturesvariety.com/feline/
http://www.stevesrealfood.com/
http://www.naturalpluspetsupplies.com/frozen%20food.htm
http://www.nudimensionsnutrition.com/guidelines_for_feeding.htm
http://www.sitstay.com/store/edibles/food1.shtml
http://www.naturallyraw.com/

I've been feeding my cats a raw diet for almost 4 years and they're doing
really well on it.  I make my own because it's a lot cheaper to do it myself,
plus I have the advantage of knowing exactly what goes in their diet, rather
than depending on a pet food company.  I guess as far as the pre-made raw diets
go, this one doesn't sound too bad.  Actually, the recipes seem familiar, much
like in Dr. Pitcairn's book, especially the polenta one.  I would rather see
them use whole body fish oil instead of olive oil though.  I don't use alfalfa.
I believe there is some controversy about its safety for cats.  If you want a
good book to learn the basics, The Ultimate Diet by Kymathy Schultze is pretty
good.  You also might want to check some of the raw feeding groups at Yahoo.
If you email me privately, I can give you a link to subscribe.

Lauren
________
See my cats:  http://community.webshots.com/album/56955940rWhxAe
Raw Diet Info: http://www.holisticat.com/drjletter.html
http://www.geocities.com/rawfeeders/ForCatsOnly.html
Declawing Info: http://www.wholecat.com/articles/claws.htm