Taking the plunge into raw.

auntie crazy

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Ok. *deep breath* I'm doing it! I'm going to start feeding my beloved furbabies a raw diet. For now, it'll just be in the evenings but at some point, when we are all comfortable with the raw food model, I expect to go 100% raw. If I can pull all the pieces together, I'll be using the whole prey diet.

I'm a little nervous, but I'm so completely convinced that it's the right thing to do for them that I can't justify keeping them on a commercial diet any longer, even if it is a canned, nearly 100% grain-free diet.

So, from everything I've read, I need to take it fairly slow. I'm going to go out this weekend and purchase chicken, quail, turkey and maybe duck meat parts, then chop them up into bite size pieces and offer them as a regular part of the evening meal. Eventually, I make those pieces bigger and add in pieces of organs and then pieces of meat with little bitty bones and then bigger bone-in pieces and then VOILA!, I should have them right where I want them. *grin*

One of my brothers-in-law is a chef and he said he'll be happy to give me all the organ meats they routinely throw away. I didn't talk to him long enough to know how frequent he serves those kinds of meals, but he cooks for a really large number of folks, so it should be a fairly good quantity each time.

*rubs hands together* This is going to be interesting!

Any suggestions, advice, or tips you raw-food experienced folk think might be helpful is greatly appreciated. At this point, I'm most interested in how/where you purchase what you need, how often you feed what parts of the prey, and how you made the transition for your cats.

Thanks!!!!!!!
 

sharky

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so of my raw is delivered , some is commercial pet store found and some is my food made into food


been threw the hold thy breathe many times ...

Three took right away , ie set food down and they ate .... one will eat about a teaspoon when she feels the need ... the others well they like a little here and there ( these three are current and prefer my friend who is a chef s homemade , my pup rotates between cooked and raw ) .... Whole prey is a hit with two currently ( dog and cat ) but it is too messy for me ...

Remember you do not have to balance ever meal
 
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auntie crazy

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I'm comfortable with the whole "you don't have to balance every meal" concept but all I've ever read is that the foods need to be balanced "over time." How much time? A day? A week? I can't imagine it would go beyond balancing the diet within a week's span of time?

(BTW - Thanks for the PM. It's great to be able to correspond directly with someone who's already done what I'm preparing to do!)
 

sharky

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according to my vet ( who had some fun with me trying to micro manage each meal
) it is over a month to 6 weeks for balancing ....
 

chris10

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I buy necks 40-80lbs at a time from my local butcher. You may be able to find a local raw feeders network in your area that do bulk buys on meat. I have a friend thats a part of one and will sometimes let me get in on the meat deals. They usually are fantastic deals.

Organs I get from local stores. For supplements I buy taurine (no hearts in my area) from the store and salmon oil I get off of ebay.

When I fed ground food I use to buy bulk whole chickens from Costco (bulk warehouse store)

Good luck
 
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auntie crazy

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Well, that wasn't very well thought out.

I couldn't wait until the weekend, so I picked up some chicken on the way home tonight. I worked late, so I was really late when I finally walked in the door.

So late, in fact, that the cats, ALL the cats, began snatching chicken off the plate and fighting with each other while I was hacking pieces off.
I could NOT keep up with them.

All total, they ate nearly a pound and a quarter of half-frozen chicken in their first raw meal. (and, yes, I did say half-frozen!)


Guess I can't prepare and serve at the same time anymore.
 

sharky

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Originally Posted by Auntie Crazy

Well, that wasn't very well thought out.

I couldn't wait until the weekend, so I picked up some chicken on the way home tonight. I worked late, so I was really late when I finally walked in the door.

So late, in fact, that the cats, ALL the cats, began snatching chicken off the plate and fighting with each other while I was hacking pieces off.
I could NOT keep up with them.

All total, they ate nearly a pound and a quarter of half-frozen chicken in their first raw meal. (and, yes, I did say half-frozen!)


Guess I can't prepare and serve at the same time anymore.
I had that with my pup... I thought she 13 yrs she wont understand a theigh leg combo ///lol I have video to prove me wrong
 

mschauer

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Congratulations on deciding to go raw! It sounds like you have done your research and have come to an informed decision. Your kitties would thank you if they could!

It sounds like you are going the whole prey route. That's the best of the best! I'm stuck at feeding ground.
I like it when I see posts like yours. It reminds me that I need to work on getting them to accept at least some chunks.
 
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auntie crazy

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Hi, Mschauer!

Yep, I'm going straight into whole prey. If I'm going raw, I might as well go all the way. And, hey, no grinding!


They ate even more tonight, but at least I was better organized this time. It's clear I have to put food down for the kittens quite separate from the adults and get them pretty full before I put down the grown-ups food. Otherwise the kittens steal the others' food and run off with it, which causes the adults to grab pieces and start running, too, and I just can't have raw meat all over the house.


Plus, if I cut great big chunks for my two piggies, it really slows them down so my delicate girl can eat in peace - that's a very nice perk, as I don't like how thin she is.


I'm AMAZED at how much they're eating. I was originally going to feed them canned in the morning, raw when I got home from work and canned again before I went to bed - they've have always had three meals a day and I wanted to stick with that - but they might not need that third meal. We'll have to wait and see.

I can't find a forum for folks who feed their cats naturally. Does anyone know of one, other than the yahoo list? (I already have too many emails - I don't need another one just to get access to a forum.)

This is so much fun!
 

mschauer

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Originally Posted by Auntie Crazy

I can't find a forum for folks who feed their cats naturally. Does anyone know of one, other than the yahoo list? (I already have too many emails - I don't need another one just to get access to a forum.)

This is so much fun!
It sounds like it's going great for you! It's amazing that all of yours are diving right in. Two of mine took to raw ground right away. One of those will also eat chunks but not the other. A third will nibble at the raw but won't eat a meals worth and the fourth wouldn't touch raw if he was starving to death!

Below is a site that has a forum. The site is dedicated to all aspects of natural care of cats and they are big into feeding whole prey raw. Access to the forums requires a fee but it's only about $25 a year if I remember correctly and there is a "try it before you buy" option. The number of regular posters is rather low but it's more active than any other raw forum I've found. The site also has tons of good information available outside the forums.

www.holisticat.com

BTW - You don't have to get emails from Yahoo! groups you've subscribed to. That's an option you can turn off.
 
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auntie crazy

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Tonight, they all got chicken gizzard pieces and shared a whole Cornish Hen. Everyone ate the gizzards, but holy cow, those suckers were NOT easy to cut. I seriously need to upgrade my knife set.

The hen was interesting. I wanted to see how many of the cats, if any, would venture to eat bones, so I threw the two wings down first. Surprisingly, Spencer, one of the kittens, grabbed the first one ('though he worked on it for quite a while, he didn't get far eating it), and Meghan ate the other one. It was really weird hearing the bones crunch, I've got to tell you. I'm SOOOO conditioned to think BONES = BAD, BAD, BAD!!, and I kept wincing.


I also cut off some of the ribs with a bunch of rib meat still attached. Spencer and his sister, Heather, ate them with no problems at all.

I don't know if I've mentioned it here or not, but I had had several conversations with the shelter about Heather's slow growth and thin body while I was fostering/socializing her. I even asked them if they would do a blood panel when she went in for her spay (they refused). They kept telling me some kittens grow slower than others. Well, finally, finally!, my little girl is putting some weight on! And it's only been three days with a single raw meal each. Although..., er.... she's been eating A LOT with each of those meals.


Something else I've noticed is the condition of their fur. Right up front, I'll be honest and say I've always rolled my eyes at folks who've talked about a difference in their cats' fur after only a few days on a new diet. I mean, come one, it takes several days for fur to grow! However, my cats' fur really is softer, most especially the two shorthairs (Spencer and Meghan), and, interestingly enough, I've noticed another difference on my other skinny girl, Rachel. She's always had a patch of slightly oily fur on her back, near the base of her tail - this patch is now nearly gone.

So I'm wondering, maybe the change in diet affects their skin condition and that's why their fur feels different? Or maybe it's a change in their saliva and it affects their fur when they groom?

The things I'm learning!

Tomorrow, I'm going to pick up some rabbit, quail, chicken and turkey from a local butcher and spend some time cutting and packing single meals to cover the next week (or two, if I can get enough), so I don't have to do it every night. That part gets tedious real quick!
 

sharky

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YES diet has been proven to change skin condition
..

this is silly but it helped me...

Big cats chew bones
Big cats chew bones
Little cats get minced bone
Little cats get minced bone:_)


mine are learning about whole raw bones...
at the drag through house
 
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auntie crazy

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Hi, Sharky!

Do you mean your cats are new to bony meals, too, and are dragging them through the house?

My cats eat on a long narrow table. Tonight, I've set up a separate one for the kittens and tomorrow, everyone will be able to eat sitting quite some distance away from each other (the three cats on the original table that all five were using and the kittens on their own table). I am hopeful that this will allow them to become comfortable enough to stop running away with the food, 'cause that's making ME uncomfortable.


Do your cats growl while eating? Everyone but Rachel was growling tonight. I had to laugh, and I'm happy they like their dinner so much, but I'd rather they just relaxed a bit, you know?
 

sharky

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for the last few yrs I have given grd so they got grd bone... a few months ago I got brave enough to try "whole" ...lol.. Good thing I have a floor sanitizer


lol... I used to have meal time but on raw times it is playtime... 13 yr dog included
 
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auntie crazy

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Originally Posted by sharky

lol... I used to have meal time but on raw times it is playtime... 13 yr dog included
I TOTALLY feel your pain.
 

mschauer

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I'm glad it's still going so well for you!

How old are your kitties? I'm still surprised (and jealous!) that they all took to raw so easily! Kittens I would expect to take to it pretty easily but at least a couple of yours are adults, right?

Originally Posted by Auntie Crazy

So I'm wondering, maybe the change in diet affects their skin condition and that's why their fur feels different? Or maybe it's a change in their saliva and it affects their fur when they groom?
Diet can certainly affect the oiliness of skin which in turn affects the appearance and texture of fur. I didn't notice much change in the fur of my raw eaters but they both had soft shiny fur to begin with. Their fur may be a bit shinier now but I'm not sure.

The biggest difference I saw was in energy level. My two raw eaters are relatively low key type kitties. They have always liked to play but in a low key kind of way as opposed to the other two who are maniacs when they play. I noticed within a couple of days that the raw eaters had more energy. They're both better at entertaining themselves than the other two and it's fun watching them pounce on visible and invisible objects, darting here and there for no reason and chasing the others through the house. All things they did before but just do a lot more of now.

I'm looking forward to your next update!
 
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auntie crazy

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Mschauer, three of my cats are 2.5 years old, two are kittens. I don't know why they've taken to raw so quickly, but maybe it's because I've always fed a really large variety of foods? There's usually between 15 to 21 different flavors in any given two-week period.

We had chicken breast again tonight (no bones), along with chicken heart and some chicken liver. Everyone ate what I gave them, although I helped the adults along with some freeze-dried chicken sprinkles. They started eating quite eagerly, but I think they began to tire halfway through and needed an incentive to finish.


Each kitten got a small whole chicken heart, but the adults got two large hearts cut down for them. That was a little...um, gross.
They bled when I cut into them, and kinda squished, too. (Cats aren't the only ones who have to get used to the whole "raw" thing!
)

No one ran off with any pieces tonight, so my separation scheme worked, yay!

My shopping trip lasted three hours and was rather disappointing. The butcher shops were closed (don't know why I just assumed they'd be open today), so I had to go hunting through several grocery stores. I picked up a couple of Cornish Hens and whole small chickens, as well as a couple packages of chicken hearts and gizzards. Not much variety, but at least enough to last 'till next weekend.

Dealing with the whole bird is confusing. I pulled the first one out of the package and then just stared at it for a minute. What the heck am I supposed to do with this thing? I finally pulled and cut the legs off, then pulled and cut them into two pieces each. I also pulled/cut the wings off, but left them whole. Then I cut off the breast meat and diced it. Finally, I cut the ribs off the spine on both sides.

I'm thinking I'll feed the kittens the diced breast meat and the ribs with meat for dinner tomorrow and the adults will each get part of a leg. If anyone's still hungry, I'll give them a wing. Everyone will also get a small piece of gizzard. How does this sound to you experienced folks?

I'm rather distressed about the shopping trip because it looks like my cats are thinking about not eating the canned food anymore, and I'm absolutely NOT ready to feed them a 100% raw diet. Last night, they refused their bedtime meal. I wasn't too, too concerned 'cause they've been eating so much during their raw meal. But they also refused the canned breakfast I gave them this morning, even after I sprinkled it with the freeze-dried chicken. They ate the chicken and whatever food was stuck to it, but left pretty much everything else.

I'm feeling pressured to get this whole thing together and soon. I don't want my guys hungry, and I don't want them missing any of the nutrients they need either. At day four, I'm thinking this is an awful lot of work!

Four very satiated cats.
 

sharky

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Take a deep breathe ... balance is relative and as long as you vary things you will likely get it ( yes I use a supplement just in case ) .... 4-8 weeks is what the vet said for over all balance just two days ago , I asked when I needed help with a pup cold

ribs are well loved here and mom likes the less mess
 
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auntie crazy

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Today marks a full week my crew's been eating raw dinners, and all is going splendidly well.

I've given them bone-in chicken wings, thighs, and drumsticks, as well as deboned and diced chicken from all parts of the carcass. They've shared a Cornish Hen and eaten chicken hearts, liver and gizzards. Everything has been devoured eagerly, if slowly.


The only issue I've run into is procuring desirable foods, but I'm hoping I'll be able to get that straightened out over the next week or so. No one's shown any sign of being tired of chicken, but the sooner I can get a steady source of various meats, the happier I'll be.

FuzMugly, thanks for the link. The site looks interesting, though no one has responded to my registration yet.

Some other good news - I found a raw cat food forum called, naturally enough Raw Cat Food. So all you raw feeders (especially long-time feeders), please pop on over, we sure could use your advice.

I'm picking up some squirrel this weekend - I'll let y'all know how it goes. In the meantime, I'll leave you with this pic of a happy, well-fed Spencer.
 
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