Hare Today whole ground rabbit, fur and all

I don't use Hare Today whole ground animal as an exclusive diet, but I source other things from Hare Today I can't get (like heart, turkey thigh, etc.). But I do feed four ground meals a week, because I like them to have whole animal, more fresh bone than they otherwise get, and I hide 1/4 egg yolk in each whole animal ground meal. Mine are older, and need the yolk to help prevent hairballs.

So I decided to order 1 pound of the whole ground rabbit, fur and all. I accidentally bought that instead of the regular meat/bone/organ ground rabbit, and didn't realize it until I went to thaw the 2 pound chub. :lol3:

Well - I am NOT upset about this, because it turns out ALL of them, every last one, likes this version better. !!!!!!!!!!!!! :dk: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :scratch:

Even Lazlo, who refuses to eat any ground, eats THIS. OK - I have to form it into little lumps, like bites of meat, but he EATS it. Yes, it is drier.

And funny enough, I just recently stumbled on a study that indicates the fur (and bone) - undigestible animal stuff - acts like fermentable fiber in the guts of cats. They can't explain it, but there you have it.

The abstract of the 2011 study:

"As wild felids are obligate carnivores, it is likely that poorly enzymatically digestible animal tissues determine hindgut fermentation, instead of plant fibre. Therefore, faecal concentrations of short-chain fatty acids (SCFA, including branched-chain fatty acids, BCFA), indole and phenol were evaluated in 14 captive cheetahs, fed two different diets differing in proportion of poorly enzymatically digestible animal tissue. Using a cross-over design, the cheetahs were fed exclusively whole rabbit or supplemented beef for 1 month each. Feeding whole rabbit decreased faecal propionic (p 

That's funny! They must like the fur, then?! I wonder if it gives it a different taste that they enjoy. Maybe more earthy? 

Now, a more serious question. Since cats on raw already have smaller, drier stools, do you think the fur could be an issue in that respect (constipation)? And I guess when you do the stool inspection, you'll have to remember that the hair you see might not be their's but the rabbit's!

:lol3: Yeah - I have NO idea why they like it better. I was really surprised! And for most of them, I add water, so other than Lazlo, it's not that it is drier.

I doubt it'll add to constipation. In fact, if anything, given it helps with what goes on in the colon the way a fiber does for people, it'll probably help Spooky, the only one that really has issues with constipation. For the most part, constipation in a raw diet is related to the minerals. Hair doesn't add to that - it's undigested. When they get constipated related to hairballs, it's the volume of fur balling in their stomachs. I actually hope that being different than their own hair, it doesn't compound the hairball problem, but helps resolve it. If it acts like a fiber in the gut - maybe it does throughout the entire system. :dk:

Wow, who would have guessed that they'd like this better?

Right? Knock me over with a feather!

I've been window shopping at HT, in preparation to order in the next few months, and this is not one of the things I initially thought about ordering.  I'll be looking for updates about how they do on this!

BTW, do you use ever use your supplement mix on HT, or just the Alnutrin/yolk/salmon or krill oil?

I use my supplement. The only thing I add before portioning and refreezing is water and yolk. I'm so used to adding salmon oil and the supplement at meal time. I can't remember the last time I bought Alnutrin.

I too have been 'window shopping' at HT. I've been wanting to buy some one day old quail/rabbit and mice to see if she would like it (she loves chicken heads). I fed prey model raw.
Ritz loves rabbit but it is a PIA to debone when I buy it at the international supermarket. I never thought of ordering it with fur, but now....
Also wondered about constipation, which Ritz is a little prone to.
Any idea how much bone is in the rabbit? I normally feed Ritz bone three times a week (~.67 oz). I guess ground rabbit fur and all would have sufficient bone for one of those three times?

LDG said:

I use my supplement. The only thing I add before portioning and refreezing is water and yolk. I'm so used to adding salmon oil and the supplement at meal time. I can't remember the last time I bought Alnutrin.

Click to expand...

Thanks!  I don't know why making changes in my cats' diet gets me in such an uproar...I still worry about messing something up.    I'll just use mine (yours?) too, it makes sense and they eat it.

I'm soooo jealous of y'all's international markets.  It still just blows my mind that I can't get much here.

Interesting, I had always passed because I tried the quail whole grind once and none of my ferrets or the cat would touch it.  My cat will eat whole prey mice but I always have to skin rabbits for her, maybe I'll try a chub next time I order, worst case my dogs get an expensive snack. 

I feed a small community cat colony--I wish they would recognize raw as food, but they ignore it, looking for Fancy Feast.
When the community cat colony was larger, one or two cats would eat my 'failed experiments'. But they've disappeared or gone to where there is more food.

ritz rabbit is roughly 10% bone.

http://catcentric.org/wp-content/up...ge-of-some-Common-Prey-of-the-Cat-06-2002.pdf

So it should work as a bone-in meal - but a properly balanced meal, not a bone-heavy meal that has enough bone in it to cover more than one meal.

LDG said:

@Ritz rabbit is roughly 10% bone.

http://catcentric.org/wp-content/up...ge-of-some-Common-Prey-of-the-Cat-06-2002.pdf

So it should work as a bone-in meal - but a properly balanced meal, not a bone-heavy meal that has enough bone in it to cover more than one meal.

Click to expand...

Thank you for this!