Another option other than pre-packaged raw is air dried or freeze dried. Still raw but dried out so it can’t grow the same bacteria. Freeze dried can then be rehydrated. Both are pretty damn expensive though.
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An article warning about problems with many homemade cat food recipes.
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For 99% of pet owners home cooking is not a practical or safe way to feed their cat or dog. If you distrust the pet food industry the best thing you can do is fight for it to have the same standards as human food.
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URGENT RECALL on ‘My Dog 100g Beef and Liver 12 Pack’ sold in supermarkets and many specialty stores. http://mydog.com.au/recall-notice.pdf
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I used to feed my indoor Burmese cat Royal Canin dry food from the vet but for some reason she went off it. I tried the Science diet (also from the vet) but she wouldn’t even taste it. In frustration I bought a bag of Friskies indoor from the supermarket and, voila, she loves it. It only costs $4.00 a bag compared to the vet’s food at over $60 (although a bigger bag). she’s happy and so is my budget. She also gets chicken necks and cooked chicken occasionally. She won’t have a bar of anything seafood related including human fresh fish.
My Toby has gone off fresh cat mince of all kinds. Its trash day tomorrow and I will be throwing out about $12 worth of cat food. He loves the Science Diet Vet Essentials dry food (only available from the vet where he is treated, at least at a decent price) and Aldi “Cachet” brand dry food. But he has gone super fussy on his wet food… and eats it in relays, no matter how little I give him at a time. One spoonful will be half eaten, as will a whole pouch or (small) can. Its making me crazy.
If you ever have trouble with your cat or dog being fussy, remember a lot of specialist stores offer money back guarantees on the more expensive brands. That can take some risk out of trying stuff.
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Thanks for the suggestion, but these are Aldi and Coles things. and once you have cut a pouch of meat off the strip, thats it. I’m fairly convinced it isnt Toby being fussy except to the extent that he refuses it randomly. Usually when he wont eat the coles stuff, he will eat the aldi stuff. The problem though, is that I believe that the meat probably isnt stored at the right temp and its already going “off” by the time he gets it. But that is not something I could prove. Its just a theory.
Supermarket brands usually use byproducts rather than whole meat, and they do sometimes have extra preservatives because they tend to go through more warehouses before reaching the end consumer.
Full disclosure: I work in a role related to the pet specialty industry.
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It could be the excessive amount of preservative not the meat being off that makes it less attractive.
Could be except he will eat one pouch and then reject the next from the same group. And all those that follow. Well he is back on standard pouch food now, I cant afford to keep throwing it out. He refuses fresh people mince and chicken, either raw or cooked, and the only thing he likes of people food, really, is raw carrot of all things. He practically mugs me for it. Lord knows where he picked that up (he was a year old when I got him) but I give him small bits to chew on if I am having one for munchies late at night. Maybe he was brought up with rabbits.
Cheaper foods often change the formula depending on what’s cheap at the time. The way to identify this is by looking for things like ‘and/or’ ‘byproducts’ etc. That could explain why your cat could reject some but take others. They can be different ingredients in each pouch.
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THat could explain it. Maybe time to bite the bullet and go back to Science Diet cans which is what they were feeding him at the RSPCA. Couldnt call those cheap!
No they’re certainly not. There are some in between options price wise. And remember texture can often be bigger for cats than taste (as they have far less taste buds than humans)
This (and its Aldi -Cachet- counterpart) in 3 different flavours is what he has been getting.
https://shop.coles.com.au/a/a-national/product/vip-fussy-cat-cat-food-prime-mince-steak
Yeah the things I see when I look at the ingredients is that and/or, as well as preservative 220 (sulfur dioxide) which some humans have intolerance to and I’m unsure what research is out there regarding it for cats.
Once again full disclosure, I work in a petcare related role.
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A wonderful site to follow if you are interested in what is happening in the USA to Pet Foods despite the legislation that they have over there…
Today’s email shows photographs of foreign objects found in Dog and Cat Food - and this is happening here in Australia too which is even more frightening!
We need legislation NOW to protect our beloved pets and the food we feed them.
Please sign Choice Australia’s Petition in the campaigns section.
Cheers to all Pet Owners and those that care 
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It’s always going to happen regardless of legislation. Human foods are recalled all the time. The question is whether our legislation puts good standards in place that force reported issues to be properly investigated and recalled. A recall occurring is not evidence of a wider problem unless it was clearly preventable or mismanaged.
I would like to spend a second talking about the source though. Please remember people posting on Twitter is not a reliable source of info. Working in this area I’ve seen people make all sorts of bizarre claims. Especially with things like mould (which can occur on food stored incorrectly) and foreign objects (which people sometimes drop in their own food).
Additionally this website evidently makes money from selling “alternative” options. Thus has a clear financial motivation to present a particular image.
For my own conflict of interest declaration, I work in a petcare related industry but receive no direct benefit from the sale of the products in question.
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To clarify though, I believe there needs to be much stronger standards for pet foods in Australia. I just don’t believe any “alternative” options are ever going to be safer. They can be just as prone, if not more prone to issues (particularly relating to vitamin deficiency, hygiene and injury risk from bones)
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