Raw feeding interview with: Dyllis of @twomanylegs
The “Raw Feeding Interviews” is a series of interviews to fellow raw feeders! It is aimed at providing different points of view and raw diet examples for several cats other than mine.
In this fourth interview, let’s welcome Dyllis from @twomanylegs. Dyllis shares pictures of aesthetic raw food bowls as well as animal wellness advices! Be sure to check her profile out :)
- Can you present yourself and your pet(s)?
I’m Dyllis and I run Two, Many Legs on Instagram. I have 2 raw fed cats at home, Froggy and Pink though I usually call them Gygy and Peenk haha. I also have a raw fed community cat, Tangyuan, which translates from Mandarin as “rice ball”. I rescue and foster as much as I can, my rescues are transitioned to raw, or weaned on raw, they then go on to find raw feeding homes.
Tangyuan, my community cat waiting for his meal
- What are you feeding your cat(s)? Prey model or not? NRC? Supplements or not?
I started as a prey model feeder, first feeding 80-10-10, then moving on to 80-10-5-5, it’s now that I feed NRC influenced prey model plus. Learning about the NRC guidelines has helped me to make wiser and better estimations when it comes to feeding according to ratios, like how I know I need way less than 5% liver to meet vitamin A requirements. It has also made me aware of common nutritional gaps that comes with ratio feeding, and I do audit my recipes according to NRC standards every now and then just to double check and make sure everything’s fine.
I strive to feed as wide a variety as I can, something I generally see more in PMR feeders compared to NRC feeders, I’m also comfortable feeding ingredients that I don’t have nutritional analysis of, typically these would be the weird parts that we humans don’t eat. I believe that the numbers are good and needful guidelines, but we need not be slaves to them and end up being stifled and restricted. This is especially so for healthy animals that can afford more leeway in their nutrition!
Yes, I do use supplements, by supplements I presume you mean things like vitamin E, zinc picolinate etc, not whole foods supplements like bee pollen and kelp. I always reach for whole foods first, but if it’s a gap I cannot fill with whole foods, or if the animal just refuses to eat something I’ve no qualms reaching for supplements, it still beats leaving it as a nutritional gap.
The supplements that I typically reach for, for my cats are zinc picolinate, vitamin E, probiotics and B-complex. Some whole food supplements I love are mushroom matrixes, bee pollen, blue mussel and oyster powders, kelp, berry purees, and raw goat milk.
- Since when are you raw feeding? Was it difficult to switch them to raw food?
It was only 3 years ago that I officially had my own house cats! Before that, I was largely feeding community cats and involved in TNRM for many years. I first read about raw feeding when I picked up Dr Ian Billinghurst’s Give Your Dog A Bone, from a public library. That was more than 10 years ago, everything just clicked in my head, and I devoured book after book that would teach me more about raw. It was also around that time, that I decided to offer some raw foods to my community cats. We started with just plain old ground beef from the supermarket mixed in the commercial foods I was also feeding them. Some took to it immediately, some didn’t. One of them took 9 months of convincing before he was willing to eat raw, hah it was tedious but definitely worth the effort!
Gy and Peenk were part of a litter of 5 kittens I rescued as neonates, they were weaned on raw, so really that’s the only food they know, they have never had kibbles or canned food their entire lives.
Tangyuan was one of those community cats that took to raw immediately, I’m lucky I didn’t have to transition him!
Gygy working through the chicken neck bones
- Why did you decide to start raw feeding?
In the beginning, from what little I knew, it just made sense. I was already spending lots of time reading labels in pet stores, trying to find kibble that has as little plant matter as possible, I was looking for canned foods that had meat, I was looking to feed them a variety of proteins beyond just tuna and fish.
When I read about how cats and dogs thrive on raw, everything just clicked in my head. Of course that’s species appropriate! Of course fresh is way better than processed! Of course a varied raw diet would be so much more enjoyable than the same old hard brown bits everyday.
The more I read and learnt about raw, more pieces of the puzzle clicked into place, things like how the gnawing and crunching raw helps with dental health, how cats need moisture-rich diets etc. It just made so much sense. This is food that they are made to eat.
- Did you see any difference in your cat(s) after starting to raw feed them?
My own cats no, because they have been on raw all their lives, but I have seen transformations in my friends’ animals after switching to raw. We see dramatic improvements in their coats, and in one instance, this cat who has had bald patches for most of her life, starting growing fur again. We also see way lesser occurrence of hairball vomits, significantly better digestion and of course, less poop more pee.
A regular meal for Gy and Peenk. They eat once a day only
- What are the pro and cons of raw feeding for you?
The main pro for me is that they thrive on it. Good food is such a foundation to health and immunity, that’s the only pro I need and it outweighs all the cons. Cons would be keeping up with meal prep! Hahaha, making sure I have everything I need, the time and effort involved, the freezer space it takes up. And the never ending learning it comes with. Actually that’s a pro, it’s a pleasure to learn more and do better.
- How much do you spend every month to raw feed?
What a timely question! I just started tracking my raw expenses this month! I spend about S$220 (~157 USD) a month to feed 7 adult cats, this is my meat, bone, organ cost, it excludes extras and supps. I don’t think I spend more than S$250 (~180 USD) a month typically, with everything in.
Raw weaning 6 hungry monsters
- How much time do you spend every month to prepare their food?
6 hours every 2 weeks? 12 hours a month, I guess.
- How did you learn to raw feed?
Reading incessantly from as many sources as possible, from PMR feeders, from dog feeders, from NRC feeders, from human nutrition sources. It opens up so much more information, but with that comes with necessary weeding and discernment to see what can be applied and what cannot. I was actually planning to get my Cert.CN in feline nutrition earlier this year, but the course has been pushed by the institute, I’m hoping it will open up soon!
Rudolph, one of my rescued kits being possessive with his whole prey quail
- Anything else you would like to add?
Everybody starts somewhere. There is no shame in what you have been feeding your animals in the past, and it’s never too late to start. Raw feeding doesn’t have to be an overnight throwing out of all kibbles and stocking your freezer with meats. It can just be offering a tiny smudge of raw to your cat to get the first lick. Some raw is better than no raw. Even if you cannot feed full raw because of your circumstance, some raw will make a difference.
Also, don’t be afraid to reach out for help! And when you do receive help, soak it all in, we all learn and do better!
Thank you so much, Dyllis, for this interview!
I hope you enjoyed reading about another person’s insight into raw feeding. Stay tuned for the next interviews!
If your cat is raw fed and you’d like to be part of the “Raw Feeding Interviews” series, send us an email.