In earlier articles, we mentioned the Prey Mannequin Uncooked food regimen—a preferred option to stability a uncooked food regimen—and its flaws because it’s not sufficient to supply a balanced food regimen. I additionally offered an improved option to feed a Prey Mannequin Uncooked food regimen: the PMR+ which is just a Prey Mannequin food regimen tailored to raised match the dietary necessities of cats as outlined by the NRC.
On this article, one can find my take, as a feline nutritionist, on PMR+ in addition to a calculator that can assist you get began with uncooked feeding.
The substances
Meat
Muscle meat is the primary a part of the food regimen, accounting for 64% of it. It’s best to range between at the very least 3 totally different meat sorts and feed round half of the meat as purple meat.
For extra particulars on which meat could be fed uncooked or not, consult with this text on muscle meat.
Be aware of the fats content material of the meat you might be feeding, as a high-fat food regimen might not present sufficient protein on your cat. It’s best to intention for 30% to 40-45% of the energy as fats, which signifies that you need to feed meat containing round 5% to 10% fats as fed.
Coronary heart
Whereas it isn’t necessary, as a part of the meat it’s extremely really useful to feed as much as 20% of coronary heart and different taurine-rich organs akin to tongue, lung, and gizzards.
Uncooked Meaty Bones
Uncooked meaty bones ought to account for 20% of the food regimen. Uncooked meaty bones are important as a supply of calcium within the food regimen. Equally to the meat, you need to range between 2-3 sources of bones on your cat. You could find extra particulars on which sort of uncooked meaty bones you may feed in this text.
Typically, in a PMR food regimen, you will note the advice of 6% to 10% of edible bones. On this calculator, for the sake of simplicity, I think about each the bone and the meat round it and never solely the edible bone half.
Liver
Liver must be round 1% to three% of the food regimen. Feed the decrease proportion for ruminants (like beef, lamb, veal) and duck liver as they’re richer in vitamin A and copper than different liver.
It’s best to range between 2-3 various kinds of liver. Nonetheless, you may’t feed solely hen and pork liver as they don’t present sufficient copper.
The standard advice of feeding 5% liver in a Prey Mannequin food regimen is simply too excessive and can present pointless excessive ranges of vitamin A and copper. The Prey Mannequin food regimen is supposedly based mostly on the recreation of prey. Nonetheless, anatomically the liver represents solely 2% to three% of the physique weight of omnivores and 1% to 1.5% of the physique weight of herbivores. [1]
Different organs
Different organs akin to kidney, spleen, mind… must be round 7% to 9% of the food regimen. As for the opposite substances, you need to range between organ sorts in addition to animals.
Fish
Fish must be round 6% of the food regimen. Whereas fish is just not initially within the Prey Mannequin uncooked food regimen, it’s troublesome to meet the vitamin D necessities in addition to omega-3 with out it. I like to recommend feeding small oily fish as they’re wealthy in vitamin D and omega-3 whereas being decrease in heavy metals than different fish. Uncooked fish must be frozen for at the very least every week earlier than feeding it.
