Does anyone raise rabbits for meat for their cats or dogs? Raise chickens or other rodents? I need to know all about raising rabbits only living off of the foliage. I do know it is very possible, and I need someone who really knows what they are talking about, no offence there.

What percent of their body weights do you feed CATS for raw meat? I know dogs you feed 3 to 4% of their body weight of raw meat.

Thank you for any suggestions,
Madilyn

Lydia used to know a fair bit about raw food diets for cats but I don't think she raised any animal specifically for this purpose.
I will be surprised if any members here do raise animals for that purpose.

protein is 28% in my book on cats there is lots of info though, with vitamin's. I dont think you can just have a diet of just rabbit as after a while you lack the abilty to make iron or something. Dont really know if it as the same for cats. I just feed ours dryed.

http://dels.nas.edu/banr/cats.html This may help.

You actually can feed dogs and cats just raw. That is the way that their systems work. Just plain kibble is very unhealthy if it has any plants or grain in it, because they can not digest it. Especially corn.

Raw meat helps them not poo nearly as much, because they are digesting it all, and more of it goes to growing if they are kittens, or if they are adults, it helps their immune systems, and health in general.

Laddie, my kitten, is always going out and catching mice and other rodents to eat, and his coat is beautifully silky, and he is growing amazingly. Pete, our dog, has an alergy to corn, and this is the reason we started really looking into raw feeding.

John, may I ask who exactly is Lydia? A member? We have decided that we need to raise our own meat for the pets, because of it being so much healthier. I am very happy we have looked into this.

We used to raise rabbits commercially. We had maybe 500 bunnies at a time, always breeding them and having more litters to ship off, so I know a lot about raising rabbits. Now we are considering a small bunch, to raise for the pets (one dog and two cats).

I don't think I was quite talking about protein and other vitamins, though Lorna. Sorry. What I meant more was what percent of their body weight do you feed them of raw meat. They will eat all of the animal, and get the nutrition they need. The only part they won't usually eat is the gall bladder, or sometimes they won't eat the hide.

So about feeding the rabbits only foliage, how can you do this? I have read that it is definately possible. Other people do it all over. I used to always think that you couldn't do that, but I guess so, since some people on some other fourm do it, and theirs are healthy.

-Madilyn

Yes I dont doubt you can just give them a raw diet. My book does not say about how much weight wise just carry's on with calories ect. I just dont think rabbit only is healthy. Mabey a talk with the vet is need if you cannot find this Lydia? Sorry I have not been much help. Bet he will love the diet though Moz and Mika go crazy for bits of raw meat!

They wouldn't be getting a pure rabbit diet. It would be variously rabbit, squirrel, goat, and sheep. Since we have the sheep and goats that we home butcher, and the squirrels that are wild (they ARE LEGAL in Washington to freely take, because the population is so huge, and they take over. So we use they for a purpous), we can feed them that too. The diet would be the larger percent rabbit meat though.
Do you know who Lydia is before I have to wait for John to tell me?

Yes Lydia is a member, although she hasn't been on for a while. She works in a small pet shop and was fairly into raw food diets. You can search for her in the members area and use the email button to contact her and she may give you some advice.

Thanks John, I'll try that.

What should I type in for that though?

At the bottom of the forum home page there is a button "members list", click on that and it displays all members and you can re-arrange by letter, date joined etc. Just click on L and scroll down till you find Lydia then click on her and you will get contact by email option.

Thanks.