Diet: Raw and...bread?

Originally Posted by JenC511

Coaster, she never started attacking bread until we started the raw.

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Of course, that makes sense. When you started raw, she was deprived of the carbs she craves.

Originally Posted by JenC511

. I'm just going to let her eat what she wants until she either starts getting fat or has any other issues.

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I really don't think that's a good idea. Then she WILL get fat, and by the time you notice that a cat is overweight, you've really got your work cut out for you. Invest $60 in a pet scale and weigh her every week. If she's gaining weight, you're feeding too much. If she's losing weight, you're not feeding enough. It's very simple. And vets are so impressed when you take a cat in and say, "She weighs eleven pounds, four ounces," and the vet weighs her on his scale and she's exactly eleven pounds, four ounces.

sorry, didn't intend two posts

Tim, she lost a little over a pound during her surgery ordeal, and she's a fairly thin cat, so I'm not yet worried about her becoming obese. I will purchase a scale if this keeps up.

Don't worry...I'm not going to wait until she's 10lb (she's very slinky at seven pounds) before I start to get concerned. This is all fairly recent.

As for craving carbs, I'm just confused about where all the carbs would have been hiding in her diet before we switched to raw. She primarily ate Wellness and Nature's Variety grain-free formulas and no dry food (and by "primarily", I mean she ate a little Meow Mix literally once or twice in the time we've had her). All of our treats are freeze dried chicken or venison with some vitamins.

As I am reading this thread, I am just in awe!!!! My snowshoe, Jasmine, is the carb queen!! It all started when she was a kitten, it was christmas time and she managed to steal two HUGE pieces of pound cake off the counter and eat them over the course of a few days. I have come home to find my freshly baked muffins missing all their tops and the bag ripped open, she has destroyed many loafs of bread and she just loves carbs. I thought she was the only one but now I now she isn't alone!! The baked goods are safly stowed in this house.
In regards to the raw, I feed everyone here raw and the same thing was happening to me. I would give everyone 2 meals a day, 4 oz per cat per day, and they would always act like they were starving!! They would clean their plates and beg for more. I was wondering if they were all getting enough so I decided to start giving them all a midnight snack. ( It was getting so bad, they would wake me up a 3am because they were hungry). After about 4 midnight snacks, ( I would actually feed them their "snack" at 9 pm , not midnight), they stopped cleaning their plates and begging for food all the time. I think Sharky is right, at first they might be getting used to the new food and how much faster it digests, so they might think they are hungry all the time, but after they have eaten it for a while, they will probably level off and stop acting like starving kitties. At least that's what mine did

Jen, if she was ever on dry food at some point during her lifetime, she could still have a carb craving. And, as pointed out, after a transition to raw, a cat can feel hungry because less quantity is needed and is digested faster. That could trigger a return of the craving. I really don't think that your little bread tiger is nutritionally deprived. But the sweet potato is a good idea. I occasionally mix some in just for the extra fiber.

This thread is fascinating. My girls are also newbies to RAW, and while I haven't had any problems, my Willow has gone a little more nuts for carby foods. She gets more violent than usual if you're eating a pastry, for example. SHE WANTS IT! Molly and Buffy haven't shown any signs of a "carb deficiency," but they still go nuts when they come across the last little baggie of kibble (California Natural sample bag that I got AGES ago and can't bear to throw out, being the pack rat that I am). I have to have it stored away, or else they'll rip it apart. But they won't go for bread or anything like that.

I'm going to try sweet potato for Willow and see what happens.

If she wasn't having these problems when she was eating no grain low carb wet foods, before the switch to raw, then I'm not entirely sure that it's a carb addicted issue. Also, I believe, but would have to check the packaging or nutritional info, that most premade raws have a fair number of carbs in them. Certainly more than the natural all-protein based raw diets (I guess mostly homemade). So, I'd think there'd be more carbs in a premade raw diet than there are in most canned no grain wet foods, although..I guess it would depend on the particular type of wet.

Regardless, though, she's getting carbs. I tried to use the formula I was taught to figure out what percentages on the NV site, but I don't recall if the formula is right. Math is not my strong point, and I didn't write the formula I was shown down so I don't know if I'm doing it right or not.

As far as how much they eat... mine seem to regulate themselves and as long as Noel continues to lose weight, and the rest of them don't start getting pudgy, I don't see the reason to limit them, really. I just let mine free feed according to how much they want/need. Every so often I have to adjust to meet their needs, though. If they finish everything off, then I put a little more on the plate next time. If there is extra left over several meals in a row, then I cut back for a while. They seem to regulate pretty well on the raw, whereas they didn't on dry or wet.

You free feed raw??

No, not free feed. I put down a set amount, according to what they generally eat, and I put down several plates from which they eat. Whatever isn't finished within a certain amount of time, is thrown away.

I do however, allow them to determine how much they eat. They're not given a set limit according to guidelines. Khan will sometimes (although has been eating less since we've gotten the grinder and added bone).. eat over a pound a day by himself. In fact, some times, that's close to a pound and a half, which is as much as all the other cats put together eat in a day, generally.

They only get fed twice a day.

I did say free feed, sorry for the misconception. What I meant is.. they're free to feed as much as they want during their scheduled feeding times. So they are free feeding, as in.. they're deciding how much they get, not me. But the plate is not left down all the time.

Although, just as a note.. they do say that cats systems are designed to deal with bacteria, and the short intestines are designed to deal with a short digestive period which limits bacteria growth. Some studies have shown that cats will eat meat that they've killed earlier in the day and then come back to it later on, after they've buried it. Or so I've read. I've also read that they only eat what they kill fresh. Hard to say.

Some cats self-regulate their diet. You're lucky if yours do. Mellie does, but I'd have two furry orange pumpkins on my hands if I let my boys eat as much as they want. And just in time for Halloween, too.

Well, if you see Noel, my domestic, in my signature.. you'll see she's the result of free feeding dry for 10 years of her life. My cats have only just all gone to raw in the last few months (although the two Bengals were on it since December). She has lost weight regulating her own diet, since she's been eating raw. At some point I may have to cut back on her food again, but until she stops losing weight, I don't see a need to do that. My Mau was a bit pudgy on free feeding dry, and she's now a proper weight since the switch to all raw. Khan has gained the weight he needed. And they've all been maintaining thus far, with of course, the exception of Noel who is still losing. She's still got about a pound or so to go, I think. I'm going to take her to weigh in on Monday, I think.

Thanks Coaster, Sharky, and everyone else. The bread has been locked up for several days, and she's not tearing the house apart looking for it, so that's good.

Thanks for explaining that the raw digests so much faster, it's likely she's still adjusting to it. I was having a "moment" where my reading comprehension wasn't quite functioning, lol. I couldn't figure out why she would want carbs now, but not before.

Originally Posted by CatsAreBetter

Well, if you see Noel, my domestic, in my signature.. you'll see she's the result of free feeding dry for 10 years of her life.

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she looks just like Bea who's been free fed dry for 3 years now.

now she's on scheduled feeding times and gets mostly wet food (I can't get her to eat raw yet) and both the kittens are on raw with just a little dry food.

I've noticed however that the kittens are STARVING now and eating a lot more than they were the canned. this thread shed a little light on that, thanks guys.

Yeah, it took some time for my crew to adjust to eating all protein. In theory, they *need* protein and not carbs, so the higher protein diet they're eating, the less they need to eat. Supposedly, from what I've read, this is why carb fed kitties are more prone to weight loss, because they have to eat more high carb food to get the needed amount of protein, so are therefore eating more calories.

It took them awhile to adjust, and stop eating so much, and I had to "work up to" raw with the dry food junkies (Joyeux came on a raw diet and Khan went through almost two years of not eating anything regularly, so adapted to the raw diet like we'd been depriving him). I mixed the raw with wet and eventually just eliminated the wet, and I was surprised that they took to it as easily as they did.