What @jherold said 
Here is the AVMA’s official policy:
“However, the AVMA discourages feeding any raw or undercooked animal-sourced protein (e.g., meat, poultry, fish, egg, milk*) to dogs and cats because of their risk to human and animal health. The AVMA supports the production and feeding of diets that have been processed using methods that reduce or eliminate the risk of illness due to pathogenic contaminants.”
I am unaware of any other certification for whole nutritional requirements in the raw pet food industry. Is there one? I’d be happy to learn of it.
We use TC feline or EZ complete and whatever protien source we have available/my husband hunted/is on sale. This is by far more affordable for us than feeding all canned, which I tried to shop sales for a while. It’s also easier for me than doing a lot of math to make it myself.
We make up a ten lb ish batch at a time and I weigh them out until portions that I freeze for later. It’s tedious sometimes to do all the pre portioning, but my one cat is fat on air and it’s the best way I’ve found to keep her consistent. We use a grinder attachment for our KitchenAid.
Our oldest cat is 4, so I don’t know if I can provide insight on overall health, but I’m happy with it so far! I’ve been afraid to mention it to my vet though as I’m not sure what his opinion is.
At one point I was researching simple ways to feed raw because I truly dislike the hours it takes me to prepare the 50lb of chicken meals. While I didn’t dive too deeply into how balanced these things were, there are now quite a lot of supplements that are intended to be used with X amount of raw meat, varying based on what mean you’re using. But their cost was getting up there close to even moderately high quality canned food, so didn’t make sense for the reasons I was making raw
But it CAN be done, if you’re not doing it to cut cost, and you don’t mind handling raw meats to be cut/chunked into portions, for a lot less work than the recipe I use
I think those “balancer” type products (supplements really) can be cheaper than pre made raw if you have or can get a good deal on the meat. I’m not sure what it works out to per lb of food but imagine it probably makes more sense for our dogs (60-70lbs each) than our cats (8-10lbs each) financially.
I did thoroughly peruse Chewys catalog (again) for pre made raw and for high protein, low carb, legume free kibble without a ton of success. I found two kibbles we might try but all of the pre made raw they offer are ungodly expensive for our size dogs. The My Pet Carnivore 80/10/10 grinds aren’t terrible at $4-7/ lb depending on the protein (chicken is closer to $3/lb) and they have decent variety along with seasonal products. They also do whole prey for those that may be interested. I think feeder mice would be great for our cats but again my SO is too much of a softy to feed anything that looks like what it is (dead animal).
We aren’t hunters (see above) but I was wondering if hunters or butcher shops would have good deals or give away organs or bones from deer. Heck I’d even buy all the not for human consumption bits of a deer off of someone if we could get it processed and wrapped up but I don’t know if those are viable or even good ideas.
When I’ve run the numbers on feeding my cats, purchasing meat + completer (ALNutrin in my case) + dried liver is less $$ than feeding canned. It’s significantly less than pre packaged raw. That’s buying chicken or beef or pork at Costco, not on sale.
Needing to purchase a grinder, or freezer, or invest a significant amount of time, can change the math.
Oh absolutely! Pre-made raw, balanced foods are $$. But for me, they don’t save any money (and some were more $$) compared to the canned foods which aren’t even top of the line (many of which would be around $3/cat/day to feed, fine for 1-2, not ok for 5-7)
there very well may be some complete supplements now that would be cheaper than what I was feeding in canned foods, as I’m sure there are a lot more options now than even just a few years ago
A grinder pays for itself pretty quickly if you’re feeding several cats, it just takes longer if you’re feeding only 1-2. Even the basic chest freezer at $300-600 doesn’t take long to pay for itself when you’re feeding 5+ cats, and you can get one even less than that if you’re willing to look for used
one does need to do the math to decide what it’s worth to you
I’ve got the process down now so I can get some of the things ready to throw in the grinder ahead of time but yes, it still takes several hours once I start grinding, for the amount I make.
Thanks. 
It’s astonishing that they assume that people aren’t aware of the need to avoid cross contamination of utensils and surfaces (and hands) when working with raw animal proteins. It’s simple matter of keeping raw away from cooked, and cleaning utensils, surfaces and hands.
Apparently animals can become ill from salmonella? The manner in which chicken is processed today 
would keep me from feeding it raw to any animal.
There are a lot of people out there who a) let their pets lick their hands and faces 
and b) don’t regularly wash their pets food bowls, let alone after every meal.
The average person would still be unlikely to get sick under these circumstances, but the elderly, young kids, and immunocompromised could certainly be at higher risk.
“let” LOL! No, I don’t let our cats or dog get in more than 1 lick before I put a stop to it, I’m just laughing (with you!) at the idea 
True, and I certainly don’t wash our pets’ food bowls daily, but do at least weekly. I mean, they’re licked clean, they’re stainless steel or ceramic (pets don’t need to be licking out of melamine or plastic on a regular basis anyway), and it’s not like anyone’s sticking their fingers IN the bowls.
I would imagine the bigger issue is that cats are in their litter boxes, covering up their pee and poop, occasionally scraping right on top of a piece of poo or clumped urine, and no doubt some of the “clean” litter they do contact has been whisked over a tootsie roll or 2, and then they walk on us, we pick them up, they sleep in bed with us, so it’s not like they’re truly clean animals anyway
It’s truly not that difficult to work with raw meats if you put a few non-negotiables in place.
But I DO get it, if you’re compromised enough, raw may not be something you want to introduce as another risk factor.
Take a look at Open Farm, I feed their grain free, legume free kibble. It’s $$$ but my dogs do very well on it
Nutrition isn’t really taught in medical school either. Just a short few months, if that.
There isn’t. My point with AAFCO is that what they allow as ingredients and how those ingredients may be stated on the label --some of which is not transparent (on purpose)…
My company works with AAFCO, FDA, USDA, and the NASC plus fifty-one states’ departments of Ag —many of whom have their own labeling and ingredient requirements.
Ever go to an AAFCO meeting, or a USDA Organic Standards meeting?..it is there you see who the players really are and their influence…
100% false.
We also don’t receive kickbacks from nutrition companies, which is a commonly held misconception. Or, at least, I’m still waiting for mine.
It’s not 100% false, it’s mostly true. Nutrition is a drop in the bucket for vets, just like it is for human MDs. It’s not a focus at all. It’s concentrated mostly on what toxicity, deficiencies, and major imbalances cause diseases, not much more than that. The number of vets who STILL think that no food should be more than 10-11% protein, regardless of amount fed, is proof that they weren’t taught actual nutrition
@JB
How often per day do you feed your cats the raw? Once? We are weaning off dry food (one kitty prefers it over the wet of course) with increasing wet food. They still get multiple small meals per day but if/ when we switch to raw multiple meals may be a PITA and I’m not sure if necessary.
FWIW, i found that my cats stayed fuller longer when they were getting daily meals of raw meat/bones/organs.
Both meals.
I guess that depends It IS a smidge more work than feeding canned food, and for sure dry. It’s less “more work” when the season and the current pickiness will allow for eating the food right out of the fridge, but often that’s not ok for at least some of them so I nuke it just long enough to be “not cold”
The nice thing about the raw is that a serving is pretty small compared to even high quality canned, simply because there are zero fillers (well, my recipe anyway). I have a few kitties who think that’s just the most ridiculous thing to give them like…3 bites so I generally mix in some water to the whole container when I start using it, so the meal is bigger but due to water (which is always good for kitties). But they’re all grabby hands by the time the next meal comes around, so I personally can’t say they’re more satiated, but it’s cats, so YMMV lol
Where did you get your veterinary degree, JB?
Be nice. Snark not necessary.
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