New Raw Feeders Chronicles

Thanks, mschauer.

I'm located in Canada and not too many of the raw food brands are available here even in Toronto. I'm happy with NV since my cats love all their products. My only concern is that it is also for dogs. Does this make any difference since cats require more protein in their diet?

Originally Posted by birco

Thanks, mschauer.

I'm located in Canada and not too many of the raw food brands are available here even in Toronto. I'm happy with NV since my cats love all their products. My only concern is that it is also for dogs. Does this make any difference since cats require more protein in their diet?

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That used to bother me also. My understanding is that foods formulated for cats are also appropriate for dogs but not necessarily the other way round. So the dog/cat foods are formulated for cats but can also be fed to dogs.

Originally Posted by birco

I've never tried the home made recepies and wondering are they supposed to be better than using store bought raw food?

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Here is my understanding of the order of food, from best to worst:

whole prey raw diet
homemade ground raw diet
commercial raw diet
commercial canned diet
commercial dry diet

I just tried to summarize the categories but obviously there are diets that fall in between. The homemade versions are considered better because you can control what goes into them and they are more fresh than those purchased in the store. Of course these all have to be made appropriately, otherwise a poorly made raw diet (lacking all of the proper nutrients) would fall closer to the bottom. At least this is my understanding.

Just thought I'd post a little update. Maggie is still doing excellent on the raw diet. Her stools have completely normalized and she is now turning her nose up at all canned food with the exception of the avoderm. Even then I can tell she still prefers raw over that. Since I'm so tired of cutting up chicken bits every day for her, I've decided to go ahead and purchase a grinder for now. I don't plan to grind long-term, but I think this is the best way to get her used to eating bones and organs with her meat. At least this is the most successful path I've seen with others who have transitioned their cats to the whole prey model.

I've taken her off the InstinctsTC as she vomited her first full meal on it and have been adding individual supplements as needed (taurine, salmon oil, eggshell). With the whole chicken grind I'll continue to do the same (except the eggshell) since it's unknown as to how freezing affects vitamins and taurine. I'm still planning to cut up chicken breast/thigh meat to give her as treats and to keep building her jaw strength. I will also try giving her chicken/turkey necks but I'm not sure she's ready for that yet. I'll post back here on how the whole grind goes.

I hope all is still going well with everyone!

Good to hear that Maggie is still doing well.

Maybe you answered this in another post but what about Aussie? Does she eat raw?

Originally Posted by tamgirl99

I've taken her off the InstinctsTC as she vomited her first full meal on it and have been adding individual supplements as needed (taurine, salmon oil, eggshell).

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How are you determining what supplements you need to add? If you haven't checked out www.holisticat.com you might want to. It is an excellent source for raw feeders.

I'll post back here on how the whole grind goes.

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I don't know if I'll ever go that far with raw feeding. I'm interested in how it goes for you.

Jeta is still doing quite well on the raw. I've tested her urine a few times and it is always in a good acidic range. As a reminder that was my primary reason for wanting her on raw. She is prone to struvite crystals and acidic urine helps prevents them.

As for the others, I'm not making much progress. They sometimes get fussy about eating and when they get like that I feel like I have to give them their canned without the raw mixed in. In my more rational moments I realize I'm mixing so little raw into it that it can't be the reason they won't eat. Hurricane Ike was a bit of a disruption also. I was getting low on raw for Jeta and didn't want to run out. I was able to restock yesterday so that isn't a concern anymore. I'm determined to get them on raw. Doing it slowly is better than not doing it at all.

My cats are doing great on their TC Instincts raw diet. My husband is amazed at how FAST they polish their bowls. I'm loving it as honestly, I have always DESPISED the odor of wet food and now there is NONE! Litter box is less smelly, too!

Still have my hold out cat who only likes kibbles. I'll keep trying.

Cally

Originally Posted by mschauer

How are you determining what supplements you need to add? If you haven't checked out www.holisticat.com you might want to. It is an excellent source for raw feeders.

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That's a good question and one that seems highly debatable from what I've been reading. Some think that whole prey doesn't need supplementation and if my cat was eating this way fresh daily, I would tend to agree. However, most of us prepare this food in advance and freeze it so I've been supplementing the basics since no one really knows how much of this is lost in the freezing process.

For now I'm following Dr. Lisa Pierson's recipe on catnutrition.org. She has the same thoughts about those extra supplements (i.e. kelp) as I do so I'm following that for now. Basically, I'm only supplementing E, B complex, salmon oil, egg yolk and taurine. However, I made my first batch and Maggie wouldn't eat it. So, I ended up cutting up some thigh meat for her. On top of that, I usually have to hand feed each piece to her. She prefers to eat it dangling from my fingers than trying to pick it up off a plate.

Since she's decided not to eat the more simple ground mix, my next plan is to cut up thigh meat, add a bit of liver, and some crushed egg shell. Then I will also put the E, B, taurine and salmon oil in. I'm going to leave the egg yolk out this time in case that's what she's turning her nose up to. This process gets very frustrating at times!

Aussie is not yet eating raw. I've offered a few things to her but she walks away. The other day, I cut up teeny little pieces of breast meat (about half pea size) and doused them with parmasean cheese. Sure enough, she started licking the parmesean and sucked one of the chicken bits up. After she ate it she looked at me like, how dare you try to sneak that past me and walked away. She will be a much longer transition, but Maggie is my main focus for now since her IBS problems are the main reason for the switch. Aussie has the early signs of renal insufficiency so I have to be careful about how I put her on raw and will talk to my vet about that after her next blood panel.

We had a breakthrough with FELIX! Last night he ate a tiny beef ball the size of a pea that I put in his bowl. He waited until he finished the kibble, but he ate it. Tonight, my dh put a slightly larger meat ball in his bowl, and he ate it FIRST!!!!

There's hope!!!!

Cally

Originally Posted by pee-cleaner

We had a breakthrough with FELIX! Last night he ate a tiny beef ball the size of a pea that I put in his bowl. He waited until he finished the kibble, but he ate it. Tonight, my dh put a slightly larger meat ball in his bowl, and he ate it FIRST!!!!

There's hope!!!!

Cally

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That's great! At least you know he will eat it!

Don't be too disappointed if he still takes a while to eat a full raw meal. Coco occasionally nibbles at Jetas' raw. Last night she ate about half of Jetas' raw and this evening ate a couple of chunks of raw chicken but she hasn't come close to eating a full meal. Worst, Zara did eat full raw meals for 2 weeks and then just stopped eating it. She'll still eat chunks of raw chicken but not if I mix it with the needed supplements.

I hope Felix isn't as fickle as mine!

Felix was a feral as a kitten/young cat, and I know he loved mice. I'm hoping the taste of the meat will reawaken his instincts. He's horribly obese--17 pounds now with an all time high of 18.2! He needs to lose about 4 more pounds and I see raw as the only way that's going to happen. The grain free kibble has helped some...but he needs raw for at least one of his meals each day.

Cally

Originally Posted by tamgirl99

I made my first batch and Maggie wouldn't eat it.

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Originally Posted by tamgirl99

Since she's decided not to eat the more simple ground mix, my next plan is to cut up thigh meat, add a bit of liver, and some crushed egg shell. Then I will also put the E, B, taurine and salmon oil in. I'm going to leave the egg yolk out this time in case that's what she's turning her nose up to.

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It could also be the strong odor of B complex, salmon oil, or he just doesn't like the meat. Could also be your kitty likes his food at a different temperature. I assume you have calculated how much egg shell powder, liver & all other supplements to add per lb of meat in order to balance Ca ratio? If you haven't, for short term feeding it's okay but I wouldn't do it long term.

Originally Posted by pee-cleaner

He's horribly obese--17 pounds now with an all time high of 18.2! He needs to lose about 4 more pounds and I see raw as the only way that's going to happen. The grain free kibble has helped some

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Cally, even if you can switch Felix to grainless canned food it'll help w/ his weight and the transition to raw. Some cats took to raw right away but I think most cats need a transitional period. It took me ~ a month to switch my cats to eat 100% raw.

Rone,

Thanks for the suggestion but Felix is as turned off to canned food as he was to raw. I tried.... He'd rather have a slice of bread or a cracker (not that I'd give him that!)...sigh.

I'll be patient. The more raw we can get into him, the better. All I have is time. I just don't want his obesity to cut his life short as he's only 3.5 right now.

C

Originally Posted by pee-cleaner

I'll be patient. The more raw we can get into him, the better. All I have is time.

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Cally, I understand. Although transitioned to raw was a breeze, our kitties are stubborn in other ways. For instance our male cat would only accept NV freeze dried; before it was parmesan cheese. His sibling doesn't like any water added to her food.

Originally Posted by Rone

It could also be the strong odor of B complex, salmon oil, or he just doesn't like the meat. Could also be your kitty likes his food at a different temperature. I assume you have calculated how much egg shell powder, liver & all other supplements to add per lb of meat in order to balance Ca ratio? If you haven't, for short term feeding it's okay but I wouldn't do it long term.

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Hi Rone! She actually wouldn't eat any of the ground before I added any of the supplements, which is why I've just decided it has to be the texture. And yes, I have all of my calculations handy for ensuring proper Ca ratio's in my own recipes, as well as the other supplements. She is still eating 1/2 canned so I haven't been too worried about supplements, but I want to find a complete raw meal that she's happy with so I can move her to 100% raw. I eventually want her on the whole prey model but that's going to take some time as she refuses to touch meat with even the smallest pieces of bone in it. She's a smart one!

I've had a slight set back. I haven't prepared my new homemade raw diet yet because she's started refusing the meat even on it's own. I thought the first time that maybe I had left it in the fridge too long (around 36 hrs) and it was starting to go bad or something. So I got a new thigh out of the freezer and after much coaxing, she finally ate a few pieces. This morning she refused to eat it again and literally sticks her tongue out after she sniffs it and then walks away.

I'm thinking it may be the thigh meat. She started out on breast and never refused it, so she probably just prefers the lighter meat to the dark. I'm going to pick up more breast meat tonight and see if that is what is deterring her. I will continue to keep dark meat in her diet since it's higher in taurine, so hopefully she won't eat around it. I may pick up some Nature's Variety chicken medallions if the store has any in stock, just for variety purposes. I prefer whole prey but as picky as she is I have to have variety. Oh these crazy kitties!

I hope silly Maggie gets back on track.

Jeta is still eating mostly raw but she definitely isn't as enthusiastic about it as she was at first. I have to cajole her a bit to get her to finish what I put out for her. I think she needs more variety. I currently cycle through NV Organic Chicken, NV Chicken&Turkey and homemade Turkey. I occasionally give her some canned. She'll eat a little venison but not a full meals worth. I'm going to get some Feline's Pride. When I got that before she really seemed to like it.

I'm not making much progress getting the others transitioned. One problem is that I've had trouble finding canned foods that they will eat consistently. Mixing the raw in with something that they sometimes turn up their noses at even without raw is making for slow going. But I'm not giving up. I'm determined to keep plugging away. It will take as long as it takes.

I have never in my life experienced a picky cat until I realized canned/raw was better for them than dry and made the switch. Why is it that they never seem to get tired of the same old boring dry food all of the time but when it comes to canned/raw they have to have variety?

I really hope the store has the NV medallions. I'm tired of cutting up lots of meat only to end up giving it to the dog as a treat.

I got some Felines Pride this weekend. I got 2 1/5 lbs each of chicken, turkey and cornish game hen. Jeta likes them all! She's cleaning her plate within a few minutes again like she used to. The FP plus the Nature's Variety plus the turkey I mix up should be plenty of variety for her!

Zara likes the cornish game hen and chicken and Coco likes the chicken but neither of them eats enough to make a meal.

I'm still mixing small amounts of raw into canned food for Zara, Coco and Toby. I think it's going to take a long time to get them on all raw.

I hadn't seen this thread until now!! Its great.So far I have given my kitty some fresh raw chicken breast and he wolfed it down. Wouldn't touch the bit of liver i put down. I gave him the fresh chicken breast in a little bowl on its own next to his usual wet food and a little bowl of dry. The fresh raw chicken breast was the preferred choice!! I was dancing round the kitchen with delight!! I have been doing some research somewhere and read that the commercial raw that suit both cats and dogs is not advisable? I don't think I can get anything like that in the U.K, if anyone knows if i can i would be grateful!!! It would be good to try him with something that has the whole caboodle because otherwise I will just have to dive in and do it all myself. I am quite looking forward to it though! My bf although not that interested in helping prepare the food is very much with me on the raw issue which is great. My plan is to ease him in gently and hopefully in the new year we shall have our mincer/grinder and I am already sourcing decent high grade free range non messed with chicken!! I can't wait. I love my little lad. I shall keep reading this thread, I hope it is on going so I can get some good tips and I will keep in touch with how well mine is doing. Good luck everyone