Chewy with her Raw Beef Tendons

Cats jump around a whole lot and at ultra-high places too. So Mom would give Chewy more raw beef tendons to hopefully, prevent arthiritis as she gets older. We also get them, a lil' more than her in fact since she's a lil' smaller than us.

Some natural raw foods that are high in glucosamine and chondroitin... (all raw) chicken feet, tendons, cartilages, bone marrows, basically any parts of an animals' connective tissues like joints etc.

Here's a good explanation of the differences between tendons, cartilages and ligaments in case you're wondering:

''All of them are connective tissues.

A ligament is a short band of tough fibrous connective tissue composed mainly of long, stringy collagen fibres. Ligaments connect bones to other bones to form a joint. Some ligaments limit the mobility of articulations, or prevent certain movements altogether.
Ligaments are slightly elastic; when under tension, they gradually lengthen. This is one reason why dislocated joints must be set as quickly as possible: if the ligaments lengthen too much, then the joint will be weakened, becoming prone to future dislocations. Athletes, gymnasts and martial artists perform stretching exercises to lengthen their ligaments, making their joints more supple. The term double-jointed refers to people who have more elastic ligaments, allowing their joints to stretch and contort further.
The study of ligaments is known as desmology.

A tendon (or sinew) is a tough band of fibrous connective tissue that connects muscle to bone. They are similar to ligaments except that ligaments join one bone to another. Tendons are designed to withstand tension. Typically tendons connect muscles to bones; together a combination of tendons and muscles can only exert a pulling force.
The origin of a tendon is where it joins to a muscle. Collagen fibers from within the muscle organ are continuous with those of the tendon. A tendon inserts into bone at an enthesis where the collagen fibres are mineralised and integrated into bone tissue.

Cartilage is a type of dense connective tissue. It is composed of cells called chondrocytes which are dispersed in a firm gel-like ground substance, called the matrix. Cartilage is avascular (contains no blood vessels) and nutrients are diffused through the matrix. Cartilage is found in the joints, the rib cage, the ear, the nose, in the throat and between intervertebral disks. There are three main types of cartilage: hyaline, elastic and fibrocartilage. The main purpose of cartilage is to provide a framework upon which bone deposition could begin. Another important purpose of cartilage is to provide smooth surfaces for the movement of articulating bones. Much like other connective tissue, cartilage is composed of cells, fibers and a matrix.''

 So anyways, you can get beef tendons or pig tendons here in Singapore. Beef are of course thicker and more expensive than pigs'. But they're all non-organic, well, at least Mom hasn't found the organic ones, yet, if they're even sold here. Note that tendons are pretty rich foods so go easy in the initial stage. Mom feeds me and Cotton one each (about 20g each), Chewy and Lauryn about 10+g each every alternate days.

 Here comes the world's greediest cat!

You can also choose to dehydrate the tendons and make them into chew treats for us. But Mom prefers to give them to us raw. Try it if you haven't! They smell heavenly... but Mom thinks they stink and calls it an acquired taste.

Weird.

Here's Chewy playing with it




Picture of the raw beef tendons!

usually about 9 in a packet (250g) with varying thickness