Raw Feeding EDUCATION Series: Dr. Karen Becker
ISN'T RAW FEEDING EXPENSIVE?
People are often pleasantly surprised to learn that raw feeding actually costs LESS than feeding high quality commercial food, which still lacks the nutritional value of raw. The monthly cost of raw feeding really depends on the appetite of your cat. If you put in the time and effort to make your own raw food and source out all the required ingredients for a good price and the meat/organs in large quantities from a butcher who charges a fair price (you want to make sure and buy top quality, human grade ingredients rather than those they sell as "dog food" which are not always the best quality) you can feed an adult cat for about $1.50 - $2.00 per day, depending on the appetite of the cat. This is much more cost effective than feeding high quality canned food which can cost up to $10 per day, depending on the brand(!) and still not have the perfect nutrition of well made raw.
People are often pleasantly surprised to learn that raw feeding actually costs LESS than feeding high quality commercial food, which still lacks the nutritional value of raw. The monthly cost of raw feeding really depends on the appetite of your cat. If you put in the time and effort to make your own raw food and source out all the required ingredients for a good price and the meat/organs in large quantities from a butcher who charges a fair price (you want to make sure and buy top quality, human grade ingredients rather than those they sell as "dog food" which are not always the best quality) you can feed an adult cat for about $1.50 - $2.00 per day, depending on the appetite of the cat. This is much more cost effective than feeding high quality canned food which can cost up to $10 per day, depending on the brand(!) and still not have the perfect nutrition of well made raw.
We offer the following brands of raw food, each with a variety of proteins, in our online store Jewelspride Pet Products:
- irRAWsistible
- Natural Instincts
- 3P Naturals
RAW CAT FOOD RECIPE
An adult male Bengal might eat approximately 1-2 cups of this food per day and a kitten only ¼ - ½ cup per day – it all depends on his size and activity level. A cat will never over eat raw, so feed your kitten as much as he cares to eat, 3 times per day until he is 6 months old and then cut back to twice a day, but increase the amount given at meals.
We have been tweaking our recipe quite a bit for the past year or so, and we are now basically following THIS recipe to the letter: RAW FOOD RECIPE.
**SERVING TIP: Take the frozen container out of the freezer before bed and place it in the refrigerator. By morning, the food will be thawed enough (but still icy, the way our cats seem to prefer it) to chip off small pieces and serve on a plate. We believe the cats prefer it slightly frozen because the texture mimics that of prey... the crunching seems to satisfy the need to crunch through the small bones of prey such as mice or rabbits.
*WANTING TO PURCHASE FOOD FROM US? We offer our cat food cut into single serving sized 2 inch cubes and packaged in Ziploc freezer bags. This price may fluctuate based on the cost of ingredients, but we have held steady at this price now for a few years. We do not ship or deliver the food - it must be picked up directly from us.
We charge $10 per kilogram which covers the cost of our ingredients with a little bit extra for our time. You can expect to feed a full grown bengal anywhere from 1/4 to 1/2 a kilo of raw food a day, again, depending on their size and appetite (so in the range of $2.50 - $5 per day for a large adult who has a very good appetite). We find smaller female adults eat the lesser amount in that range and an active breeding stud would eat in the upper part of the range. Kittens obviously start off eating much less. Most people order about 7 or 8 kg from of us per month to last them for a month, give or take. It's always difficult for us to track individual consumption as we group feed all our cats. We usually go by what our clients tell us as they have direct experience feeding only one or two cats at a time.
