Mimi lived the first year of her life on home brand cat food then when I adopted her I was feeding her "Science formula" a dry cat food that is advertised and recommended by Vetrinarians UNTIL I found out the ingredients - mostly grains and apparantly it is very high in sugar. Now she eats fresh kangaroo mince available from pet shops, a very abundant resource here in australia, and she´s never been happier.

You are lucky that you found it out... We don´t have kangaroos in the shops, so chicken must be ok for us
But it´s strange they put sugar into cat food. I´ve never seen it in our food ingredients.

My cats love roo too. I only give it to them twice a week though as I have found they become to fussy and only want that all the time!!!
I were you MimiH I would feed your Mimi other types of food as well as roo by itself isn´t very a very balanced diet I wouldn´t think.

My cats love kangaroo meat, especially Constantine. It is high in protein, low in fat so will be good for them but not all the time. Cats in the wild will only eat flesh caught by themselves but when they do, they are also eating bones, skin, fur and feathers which are all good for their diet and digestion. Unfortunately, in these modern times, we can´t all go hunting every day for our cats´ food and have to rely on the supermarket or butchers. Yesterday, I bought a kilo of roo mince from the
supermarket, It was just over $7 for the kilo (2.4lb). It will feed Lucky and Constantine probably for four, maybe 5 meals each for their dinners.
MimiH, I stopped buying Science formula for the same reasons and now buy Optimum cat biscuits. They contain no added flavours, preservatives or artificial colourings. I think, together with raw meat, fish and chicken, the biscuits provide all the other ingredients my cats require. Lucky has lost weight and is maintaining a healthy coat, white teeth and no bad breath which she had before and Constantine is maintaining his sleek and lean physique! Go with your choices but remember that if we humans eat highly fatty, sugary foods with no fresh fruit and vegtables, we are going to be overweight and have lots of health problems as we get older. If we keep to a balanced healthy diet, we are all going to live to a ripe old age! It is the same with our cats. Common sense prevails always.

We have always given all our animals the option of "Roo" meat,it is so much beter for them than Beef Mince,a vet will "always reccomend roo over beef mince,in the summer months cats and dogs can get "hot spots" ( a rash caused from "red meats!) it is low in fats also high in protein,i "never give my animals Chicken "Mince" because it is full of fats also everything else (crushed bone,offal,pretty much the whole of a chicken!i worked in Butchers shops for years,so i know what goes into our "mince" products and chicken mince for pets is dreadful !...Far better to buy the thighs of chicken to mince,at least you know what your pets are eating!...when the meat is already minced you can"t see what the contents are!.. raw wings are o.k for cleaning kittys teeth,it is as Kempton says,Common sense prevails always! just to add that pet supplies is far cheaper for Roo Meat,we pay no more than $3 per k.g !! (Aus $)

I have heard that Kangaroo meat can be really addictive and that cats will only eat that after a while but sounds like you can mix it up with other cat food. We give our cats prawns as a treat once a week but i might give the roo meat a try

I´ll have to try roo as well, as I have been wanting to take Cosmo and Arhea off can food. I was even thinking of making some meals as they love gravy, but hate the idea that canned food has too much sugar or salt. Does anyone have any recipe suggestions?

Roo is good for humans as well as cats, it is very lean. But be sure to brush your cat´s teeth, as it does not offer any "scrubbing" action like the dry kibbles do. Greenies might help with that, but the kitta treat Greenies are hard to find in Australia right now - something about changing over the doggie formula, and it all got pulled off the shelves.

Sugar in Science Diet? Shocking! It seems to me that most cat products here in Australia are inferior to what I am accustomed. Something to do with quarantine, and a small population means there is not the variety of brands and availability.

Of course, Science Diet is now owned by a human food producer, so sugar would make sense from that perspective - always trying to find the "addictive additive".

As for the bones and offal being in chicken mince - wouldn´t a wyld kitta eat the whole bird?

I can see how roo would be addictive - it is very strong and meaty, and a cat could get so used to that he wouldn´t eat anything but. I would be careful with that.

I was given a cat recipe book but never used it as i hate the smell of fish!! I´ll dig it up and let you know the title and author Taniuska

That would be great Maobrien... I want to give it a go and see how the cats take to it

The book is titled "The Ultimate Cat Treat Cookbook" by Liz Palika and the ISBN is 0-471-79255-1. Looks like it´s published in the US but must be able to get it here as someone bought it for me. Lots of recipes and looks great but as i said i can´t stand the sight or smell of any type of fish :fishN) - let me know how you go

You Ozzie cats have all the good stuff even though kangaroos are cute and all but I think my Cleo would like roo too.

Too bad kangaroo meat isn´t available in Canada. It sounds healthy and good for the cats and I´d be curious to give it a try too.

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Kangaroo patties are really nice to eat straight off the barbecue!

Mix a quantity of roo mince with beef mince (half and half and depends on the quantity needed).
Add a chopped onion
pinch herbs
dollop of tomato sauce
1 egg to bind
salt & pepper to taste

Mix all up together. Make burger shapes and coat in flour. Bung on the hot BBQ and they are lovely and tasty! You can add grated carrot, diced bacon for an even better flavour or whatever you like. Any leftovers can be diced up and fed to your cats! They will love them!

Thanks for the book details Maobrien.... I am going to try ebay first..., otherwise I´ll go to amazon. I´ll let you know how it goes.

KANGAROO CAN KILL YOUR CAT! Do not feed it to them................... I gave my persian Sasha Raw Kangaroo mince from a pet food manufacturer for over 5 years as her main sourse of food. Just last October I started to notice she was losing her apitite, i just thought she was having an off day. It lasted a week and she was becomming drowsy and running into things. Her back legs started to go stiff and she kept throwing her back back as if she had no idea where she was. I took her to the vet and they didnt know what was wroing, kept her in over night and gave her antiobiotics. By the morning she got worse and I could hear her through the phone crying while the vet was telling me that they dont know what is wrong and that she may not make it through the day. He said they had never seen a cat act like this before and that it seemed to be something wrong with her nervous system. I took her straight to the vet emergency hospital and they straight away ran tests. She was completely depleted from Vitamin B (Thyamin). It had started to affect her brain and pretty much sent her spastic. They said that it was from the kangaroo meat as her main diet. I thought i was doing the right thing by feeding this to her and she loved it and wouldnt eat anything else. Apparently it has a preservative added to it which destroys the cats vit B. They straight away gave her thyamin injections and she slowly came good. I however had to feed her 3 to 4 times a day for 3 weeks through a tiny tube which had to be put through a small hole in her neck. She however is now back to her normal self and healthier than ever. She now eats and loves Whiskas cat food. I am so lucky to still have her, I warn everyone to this day not to feed their cat Kangaroo Meat!!!

I found this article today written by a vet that may be of interest;

8. KANGAROO :

We now come to my preferred choice of meats – kangaroo. Fresh kangaroo meat has been widely used in Australia as fresh pet meat for over 30 years, and more recently, it has made significant in-roads into the pet food industry, with sales of roo meat in supermarkets escalating dramatically over the past 5 years.
Kangaroo meat is widely available in Australia at most pet supply outlets, and in supermarkets. Due to increasing demand, the price of kangaroo has unfortunately increased significantly over the past 2 years, now retailing for $4.00 + per kg. Roo meat has never really been used in processed canned and dry foods, most likely due to cost and price levels, as the beef by-products they do use are cheaper for the major can manufacturers to source.
Nutritionally, kangaroo meat is superior to all the farmed meats. It is low in fat (3 - 4%), high in protein, and high in vitamins and minerals. Because kangaroo is not farmed, the meat is truly free range, and organic. Kangaroos graze on a very wide variety of pastures, wild grasses, shrubs and trees, and as a result of this variety, they enjoy excellent health, and their meat has a wide array of macro and micro nutrients.
Kangaroo is a highly suitable meat source, and is a natural prey animal of the wild Australian dogs – the Dingo. Kangaroo is considered a “cooling” meat, as it lives in a very dry and arid environment, and as such, is ideal for treating pets with food allergies. Also, because it has never been widely used in processed pet foods, it is also a very unique source of animal protein, and is very valuable when formulating a diet for pets with food allergies.
Kangaroo is not farmed in Australia, hence the meat itself is considered “wild game” meat, and is, by nature, free range and organic. Kangaroo numbers have escalated in Australia since the 19th Century, with modern farming practices opening up large areas of grazing land.
Culling of kangaroos is vital, both to prevent over-competition with domesticated farm animals (primarily sheep and cattle), but also to prevent massive overpopulation in good seasons, where kangaroo numbers can escalate out of control. Culling of Kangaroos is a very closely controlled, government regulated, exercise. Every year, aerial surveillance is undertaken to record accurate population numbers, and a cull quota is established for each state, to maintain an appropriate sustainable base population. Kangaroos are shot in the wild by professionally accredited shooters; every shooter is licensed and must purchase government issued ear tags, which are immediately attached to any kangaroo that is taken. It is the specific number of tags issued that, in turn, control the cull numbers. Kangaroos must be killed with a single clean head shot. There is no stressful period of mustering, handling or transport involved at all.
The kangaroos are transported to a local chilled container, which is then transported to the local processing plant. Every animal is inspected by a government appointed meat inspector, and then approved for processing. Carcasses to be used for human consumption are processed in separate production areas, and have a second inspection before being cleared for HC. The quality of meat used for HC is no different to that harvested for pet food, and differs only in the processing and inspection stages.

SUMMARY – KANGAROO
Without a doubt, the best fresh meat available for pets, anywhere in the world. We are indeed fortunate in this country to have such a high quality meat source, correctly handled and inspected, that is available at a price where the choice cuts of meat itself can be used for pet food.
Perfectly suited for both dogs and cats – rates as THE BEST 10/10

Not much use for those of you who live out of Australia

Pickles wont eat ´roo i have bought the gourmet mince from the supermarket which is ´roo. he turns his nose up at it. If i get Raanii started on it pickles might catch on.

Squeak loves roo, Piper loves roo. Chookums was lukewarm about roo, had never been given fresh meat until she was 12 or so (when I came into her life). Connor would eat cooked roo and rice (rice cooked with roo in broth to make it taste stronger) if we took away all other food (when he was sick), but that was not his preference.

There´s a new raw roo product here called BARF (Bones and Raw Food). Appropriately named because it´s smelly stuff, rank, really really rank. Piper won´t touch it, and she usually loves raw roo. We´ve ended up feeding it to the magpies and dragons. They´ll eat it. But it´s kind of expensive for wild critter food!

KANGAROO CAN KILL YOUR CAT! Do not feed it to them................... I gave my persian Sasha Raw Kangaroo mince from a pet food manufacturer for over 5 years as her main sourse of food. Just last October I started to notice she was losing her apitite, i just thought she was having an off day. It lasted a week and she was becomming drowsy and running into things. Her back legs started to go stiff and she kept throwing her back back as if she had no idea where she was. I took her to the vet and they didnt know what was wroing, kept her in over night and gave her antiobiotics. By the morning she got worse and I could hear her through the phone crying while the vet was telling me that they dont know what is wrong and that she may not make it through the day. He said they had never seen a cat act like this before and that it seemed to be something wrong with her nervous system. I took her straight to the vet emergency hospital and they straight away ran tests. She was completely depleted from Vitamin B (Thyamin). It had started to affect her brain and pretty much sent her spastic. They said that it was from the kangaroo meat as her main diet. I thought i was doing the right thing by feeding this to her and she loved it and wouldnt eat anything else. Apparently it has a preservative added to it which destroys the cats vit B. They straight away gave her thyamin injections and she slowly came good. I however had to feed her 3 to 4 times a day for 3 weeks through a tiny tube which had to be put through a small hole in her neck. She however is now back to her normal self and healthier than ever. She now eats and loves Whiskas cat food. I am so lucky to still have her, I warn everyone to this day not to feed their cat Kangaroo Meat!!!

Hi,as i have said previously,for the past 30 yrs,i "always" fed "all" my cats and dogs on Roo,added with a "varied diet" (5 dogs)....4g/s/d all reaching the age of 16-18yrs,which is a wonderful age for a German Shepherd,also my 6 Kitties lived to the same age as my dogs,they all had a varied diet,and didnt just eat "Roo Meat"... how boring!,when you purchase "any" pet meat,whether it be beef,chicken,roo meat,it is a known fact that a pet supplier will add "preservatives" to the meat which gives a longer "SHELF LIFE" for the product,and keeps the colour of the meat looking fresher than it actually is! i will "not" buy any meat for the pets or ourselves iff it contains any "preservatives!...i worked in butchers shops for years so i do know that it is added for that purpose,it should say on the packaging iff there is any "preservatives" present!....i honestly feel that it was"nt the ROO meat that made your kitty poorly but the added contents of preservatives can have a very nasty effect on both humans and animals,always ask your pet suppliers iff there is anything added,cats as you know are usually very "picky" about food etc, so it is possible that the added "preservatives were added years later otherwise i dont think it would have taken so long for your kitty to be affected by the roo,you would have noticed long ago any symptoms occuring... for all the kitties that have tried Roo,and didnt like it,i reckon it is the "Additives" they dislike the taste of,i know for a fact that supermarkets are the worst offenders for artificial flavourings,and Preservatives,i agree with Maobrian on the readout of roo,also the summary.