it sounds like a great recipe, but in researching how dogs and cats assimilate nutrients from their foods, I really think cooking the meat or fish is a big mistake. Here's part of what I know...

Raw meats in general are great sources of B complex vitamins and oil soluble vitamins. Oil soluble vitamins include vitamins A, D and E. Vitamin A’s cousin beta carotene which is found in vegetables cannot be utilized by cats. Therefore, all vegetables should be considered as a poor source of vitamin A for cats. Dogs can, however, convert beta carotene into vitamin A.

All raw meats are a good source of taurine, which is an essential amino acid. Taurine helps with brain and nervous system issues such as epilepsy. Chicken is said to be the best source in terms of muscle meats, but since taurine is more liberally found in areas of the body where there is electrical activity, the heart, eyes and brains are an excellent source of taurine. Taurine also plays an important role in maintaining the health of your pet’s brain, heart, breast, gall bladder, and kidney. A deficiency of taurine can also be a factor in inflammation or swelling, hyperactivity, hypoglycemia, blindness, and death. However, feeding your pet organ meats more than twice a week is not a good idea. they are so high in nutrients that your pets will gain weight if they eat such a rich diet :-)

Raw lamb fat is beneficial in cases of dry skin or dry fur.

The truth of home cooked foods is, if you cook the meat or fish, you end up with something that has as little nutrient value as the canned products you (used to) buy. Buy the meat and freeze it first to destroy the nasty little critters that might be living in the meat; then use that frozen and non-heat thawed food to prepare your pets' foods.

yes! Taurine is extremely important. YOu'll find it in raw meats, especially. Eggs are also a great source. In a raw food diet, it's extremely important to make sure your dog (or cat!) gets enough taurine. Higher concentrations can be found in organ meats - brain, heart (really great)..... a lack of taurine in your pet's diet leads to renal failure.

I know organic is more expensive, but we should ALL be eating organic if we can, and should be feeding our pets organic also. They are far more sensitive to environmental toxins than we are; they're smaller and it doesn't take as much to push them over the edge. Organic is indeed the best way to go, and feeding raw is the best way also.

About the issues with bones. I'm not sure that feeding the "barf" diet is the right way, considering the thought that bones are the storage receptacle in our bodies for storing heavy metals. As bone is created or replaced in the body of an animal, it also stores the heavy metals that an animal consumes in its diet. (what goes around, comes around). If you feed a dog a barf diet, and let them eat bones, do you know that the cow/pig/sheep/whatever that bone came from was eating healthy, non-tainted meal? Additionally, bones contain a high percentage of phosphorus, which negates the value of feeding them the meat (high in calcium). too much phosphorus in your pet's diet will lead to renal failure, and you're right back where you started.

If you supplement with bonemeal, please stop. Bonemeal is one of the worst things you can use. Most bonemeal is prepared from commercially-slaughtered cattle, and it may not even be high-quality beef; think Mad Cow Disease, among others. And, feeding bones or bonemeal pushes the ratio of 2 parts calcium to 1 part phosphorus (in the ideal world of what your pet needs), to way too much phosphorus.

make life more simple and use ground eggshells instead of the bones; it's high in calcium and you can control the source. And, you can buy ground eggshells online.

It's funny. six months ago, having given up pets for a number of reasons in my life, when the pet food recalls started happening, I started digging into nutritional needs in pets and was really surprised at what really IS good for your pets. I had never thought about raw before that; it ended up being a book.... go figure.

Once you get used to the process, raw is simple and as you're all beginning to find out, more than worth the effort. YOu're rewarded with happy, healthy pets with shiny coats and eyes, and no more runny noses.... no more bowel issues, no more smelly cat boxes. Life's good.

But, please consider the bones versus eggshells conversation. Just one more assurance that you're doing it right for you four-legged friends.

I don't know of anyone who's used either. I haven't look at Stellas yet, but Nature's Variety has all the "right stuff" in its ingredients list. Not having any pets anymore, I can't buy it and try it, but I think it would probably be great, as long as it doesn't require any cooking of any sort to reconstitute it. My bet is, it would be a great way to add variety to a raw diet, although I still think preparing it fresh and then freezing it might be better. Freeze drying does remove all the water from the food, and I can't help but think that if you remove the moisture you're also removing the nutrients with it (or at least some of them).

Still, if you feed a raw diet and you take your pet with you on trips, this would be a really great solution to a problem of how to prepare meals for your babies when you're traveling.

Just one woman's opinion. Anybody else out there have any experience with these products?

this post is a month late. Sorry, but I just joined this group. One of the things to consider in issues with your cats vomiting raw food is that when you try to migrate them over from a commercial dry/processed food diet, their digestive systems are completely screwed up. Dry good, comprised mostly of grains, is a completely worthless food. There is nothing nutritionally valuable in grain foods. Processed foods are cooked, and therefore are depleted of most of the nutrients your cat requires to stay healthy. it's a wonder we haven't killed off the entire domestic cat population feeding them these foods.

Oops, got on my soapbox there. What you might want to consider is purchasing some FloraZyme LP (or, if you wish to avoid dried liver, purchase FloraZyme EFA). You can find them on the web. They are digestive supplements and will help calm down your cat's digestive system.

The other thing to do is make sure when you're migrating them to raw is the use ground  meat AND pureed vegetables (a great use for the food processor that's gathering dust in the corner of the kitchen...). Cats are carnivores and they DO want some vegetable matter, but in the wild they eat the partially digested remains of their victim's last meal. By pureeing raw vegetables, your cat will have a better chance of digesting them.

finally, don't overfeed them. A raw diet is so high in nutrients that your cat won't want to eat a lot every day. If you have another other questions, you can contact me if you wish. It's a really easy process to get used to but in the beginning it sounds like a daunting task to "always be preparing meals" for your furry little friend.

Taurine is a no-brainer if you feed your cat a raw diet. In my pet foods book, I made a note about Taurine and its importance, especially to cats, because they don't process it out of their food as well as dogs do.

All raw meats are a good source of taurine, which is an essential amino acid. Chicken seems to be the best source in terms of muscle meats, but since taurine is more liberally found in areas of the body where there is electrical activity, the heart, eyes and brains are an excellent source of taurine. Taurine also plays an important role in maintaining the health of your pet’s brain, heart, breast, gall bladder, and kidney. Taurine helps with brain and nervous system issues such as epilepsy. A deficiency of taurine can be a contributing factor in inflammation or swelling, hyperactivity, hypoglycemia, blindness, and death.

doesn't say much for buying canned food, does it? The taurine is found in RAW meats, especially organ meat. it is practically non-existent in processed and canned foods.

Agreed. Dry food for cats can kill them. Mostly, it shows up in stressed digestive systems, kidney problems, urinary infections. I lost several cats to those problems, only to discover too late that it is the dry food that does the damage. Same statement works for dogs, but we ARE taking kitties here.... cats do require vegetables, mostly for the vitamin nutrients. If you watch a wild cat, it always goes after the intestines first (not the stomach - way too much acid there), so it can consume the partially digested remains of its victim's last meal. (sorry that sounds so gross, but it's true). Then, when they've had what their brains tell them is enough vegetable matter, they move on to the meat. And cats do require a higher proportion of meat to vegetable in their diets.

Do not EVER feed your cat dry food, and actually I wouldn't recommend feeding them commercial food either. Cats are carnivores and need raw meat for optimum health. Why do you want to feed your cat dry food? Ease of feeding for YOU? Cats aren't vegetarian, and they don't eat grain. Or shouldn't eat grain.

If you follow some simple guidelines for preparing meals at home for your cat, you can do several weeks' worth of meals and freeze them; then all you have to do is pull it out of the freezer, bring it to room temperature, (never microwave it, please), and you have a meal fit for the royalty your cat is :-)

hi boys and girls. I'm new to the forum and just beginning to read through some of the posts.

A comment or two on the multivitamin issue. I know people who've been using PetiGreens with good success, although it can be hard to find and expensive. You could use GreensPlus, which is a human food, but if you love your pets you'll feed them what YOU eat, since I hope you eat well and eat really healthy foods. Here's the link for it: http://greensplus.com/index.php/cPath/21_23

it's important to supplement dog and cat food with additional nutrients, because even if you're feeding them organic, raw foods, they still need some supplementals "just in case". Especially if you're pulling them out of a commercial pet food world and bringing them into the world of home prepared foods. Their bodies are so stressed from the lack of nutrients in commercial foods, that the extra supplementation will do them good.