Turkey and crickets and meeses, oh my!

Bought a dozen crickets for the cats today and dumped them in the tub. Every cat had a taste; no holdouts!

Also decided my freezer was never going to be empty of the mice until I did something about it. So I defrosted a handful, sharpened my knife, gritted my teeth (NOTE: IF YOU'RE SQUEAMISH, STOP READING!!!), and...

...gutted the suckers. *shudder* The things we do for our cats.

And after all that drama, only the two kittens were interested in eating them. And they still refused to JUST eat them. (Why oh WHY do cats have to toss mice? Is that Rule #11 in some secret kitty handbook passed down through the generations or something? Can't they eat them exactly the same way they eat everything else? Well?)

Since I really do want my cats to have at least one mouse per week (after all, I've got 200 hundred of the darn things), mostly for the brain and other organs (small as they are), I believe I'm going to have to get really down and dirty and not just gut them, but cut them up into bite size pieces and rub turkey or chicken juices on them.

I've got another handful defrosting now. I'll let y'all know how it goes.

Originally Posted by Auntie Crazy

Since I really do want my cats to have at least one mouse per week (after all, I've got 200 hundred of the darn things), mostly for the brain and other organs (small as they are), I believe I'm going to have to get really down and dirty and not just gut them, but cut them up into bite size pieces and rub turkey or chicken juices on them.

I've got another handful defrosting now. I'll let y'all know how it goes.

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Well if they won't eat them, send em to me

Seriously tho, maybe your thought of dissecting them and putting them in with turkey juice would work. What if you just grinded them, or chopped them, and put them on the plate with whatever else they are having? Would the kitties just pick the "good stuff" out and leave the meeses?

I would not be buying mice to feed my cats. Our barn cats caught them but didn't always eat them. Just left them as presents on the steps. They got regular dry food to eat.

I only saw them eat rabbit or ground squirrels - not the mice.

Hi, Snake_Lady! My intent is to eventually have them eating the mice with the least amount of prep on my part (i.e. gutting only), so no grinding and, hopefully, a three part chop and a dip in turkey juice should do the trick.

And no, I'm not sending you my two hundred frozen mice.

GoldenKitty45 - Mice are a perfectly suitable cat food. In the wild, cats don't catch mice and leave them; they catch and eat them.

Kibble fed kitties are food/taste-compromised. You might not know it, but kibble is sprayed with a mixture (often containing animal digest) to make an unsuitable food attractive to our pets. It works so well that kibble fed cats are, by and large, kibble addicts. It's one of the reasons transitioning kibble kitties to anything else is so darn difficult.

Originally Posted by Auntie Crazy

Hi, Snake_Lady! My intent is to eventually have them eating the mice with the least amount of prep on my part (i.e. gutting only), so no grinding and, hopefully, a three part chop and a dip in turkey juice should do the trick.

And no, I'm not sending you my two hundred frozen mice.

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Darn..... I had to try

On your topic though: Meeces are something the two younger ones will eat. Kizzy I've given up on raw....but the kittens continue to get whatever.

However, I do chop em up otherwise they are dragged around my house

I hope your solution works

Is it necessary to gut the mice? 'Cuz I know cats in the wild just eat them whole and don't leave anything....when they eat a rabbit or ground squirrel, they leave the guts, but a mouse goes down whole. Just munch, crunch, and down the hatch.

We do feed some raw now (chicken or hamburger) and canned and dry. Our guys love the raw - just can't afford to feed them totally raw. I can cut up the raw chicken and add pieces of hamburger to the canned food. I don't dare give them chicken wings because they would drag them all over and make a mess on the carpets.

Originally Posted by Willowy

Is it necessary to gut the mice? 'Cuz I know cats in the wild just eat them whole and don't leave anything....when they eat a rabbit or ground squirrel, they leave the guts, but a mouse goes down whole. Just munch, crunch, and down the hatch.

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Generally speaking, only cats that're really hungry eat the abdominal contents of their prey. The first two times I fed mice, Allen and the two kittens ate the whole mouse, after that, nope, only the top half. I would far, far, FAR rather gut the little suckers then stumble across what the cats' left behind that last time. Two little legs and a tail, all smeared. Not cool.

Haha, that's funny (and gross). All the farm cats I've seen just eat the mouse whole. And my mom's outside cats did that, too. Barely even chew it, just a couple crunches and then they swallow it whole. With larger prey they do leave the guts. I suppose house cats might not be in such a big hurry to eat their mice and can afford to be pickier.

Originally Posted by Willowy

Haha, that's funny (and gross)...

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Yeah. I came across the...remains...unexpectedly. I'm quite sure they heard me two neighborhoods down. My throat hurt. *shakes head*