Whole prey diet?

I want to feed raw but I'm worried I would get the amounts of specific types of meat or bones wrong and I would malnourish my cats but with whole prey (I would buy whole prey and butcher it and ensure they get every piece I just say whole because it bassicly is) anyways, is there a ratio of body weight to food weight for whole prey and is it 2-4% of the cats current body weight like frankenprey and would it change depending on prey item? for example I would feed rabbits guinea pigs and possibly large rats if I feed 2 pounds of rabbit would I also feed 2 pounds of guinea pig? Thanks in advance

There is a ton of information in this thread: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/264154/raw-feeding-resources

If you're doing the frankenprey/PMR, you want to aim for 80% meat, 10% bones, 5% liver, and 5% other organs. Depending on the animal, you may need to remove some bones. You're aiming to replicate what they get in the wild, such as mice, and some animals (like chicken) have a much higher percentage of bone. Similarly, some animals are fattier than others. So what animal is being fed does matter. But there are many guides available in the link above to help figure out that balance.

Thanks but I'm asking for help with whole prey not frankenprey It says I don't want to do frankenprey.

I feed a modified PMR with a rotation of a number of different proteins. I feed a set amount of food at each meal even though the amount of fat in the different proteins varies a lot. Once you figure out how much food your cat needs as a percentage of body weight, I suspect it'll be the same. Two mice may make up one meal; one quarter of a guinea pig may make up another.

What you may want to do is weigh your kitty weekly for the first couple of months until you're comfortable kitty's weight is stable (assuming you have an adult, not a growing kitten). If you have a growing kitten, just feed however much they'll eat until somewhere between 9 months and a year, when their appetite tapers off and settles in.

tylerwaugh said:

Thanks but I'm asking for help with whole prey not frankenprey It says I don't want to do frankenprey.

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My apologies. I wasn't aware there was a difference in the protein/bone/fat/organ ratios and such. 

I haven't fed rabbit, I'm not sure how small you can get - but if you are chopping up large rabbits then your cat might not eat the larger bones, so it wouldn't be a balanced whole prey diet.  I feed mice / rats on occasion although I can't get enough variety in whole prey items to feed it 100% of the time.  Only 2 of 4 cats will eat mice (even though they all eat raw / frankenprey).  I also have to chop them in half for them to get eating and not played with / taken off with to hide in my closet....

I know this doesn't really answer your question but it is worth thinking about - mice are fairly expensive and it takes quite a while to transition cats to eating them.  Two of my cats eat frankenprey but won't eat mice for some reason...  I buy subadult mice that are around 60-90 grams so that one is a meal for the cats that will eat them.  

Can you get more smaller prey items like quails or chicks?  I'd try to feed a bit more variety and add some fowl in if possible - but before you buy lots be sure your cat will eat it!  

LaraLove said:

My apologies. I wasn't aware there was a difference in the protein/bone/fat/organ ratios and such. 

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Well, prey model raw attempts to model ... whole prey. The guidelines for the model were most likely developed for those feeding raw to dogs, as the prey of cats (most common being mice and rabbits) tend to have lower bone-to-muscle/organ ratios. Mice and rats are about 5% bone; adult rabbits 10% (and most cats don't hunt fully adult rabbits if eating a diet that is mostly rabbit). Most cats only need 6% - 8% bone.

But when feeding whole prey - when it's actual stuff a cat would eat if hunting (well, size-wise), then one doesn't need to worry about the macronutrient content, unless feeding larger animals (like rabbit) that might have too much bone.

Here's a table (link in the raw resources thread) to the profile of common prey of the cat: http://catcentric.org/wp-content/up...ge-of-some-Common-Prey-of-the-Cat-06-2002.pdf