Raw rabbit bones

mythkeeper · Sep 22, 2014

Hi all!

Have been feeding my girl, Mattie, a raw diet for about 1 month now. Today I have her a rabbit shoulder meaty bone (last two joints) to chew on. She ate it all escept 3/4 of the biggest bone.

Now I'm freaking even though I read on here that raw bones are o.k for them to eat. This was a young fryer rabbit, organic. I'll worry now I guess until I see that she processes this without any problems but am concerned about the bone that she did eat.

Any thoughts on this? I normally feed Primal raw nuggets and supplement from time to time with the whole meat. She seems to be a cat that needs slightly more meat to bone ratio in her food to keep her poop from being too crumbly.

Thanks for your input and knowledge.

Brenda

sophie1 · Sep 22, 2014

Mattie will be fine! Most of the cats who own the posters on this board eat bones regularly like we eat potato chips. I think there are one or two that had trouble with ground bone but if that were the case with Mattie she'd have had the same trouble with the Primal grinds. The one thing you might want to watch for is constipation, if the amount of bone was a lot more than she's used to. If you think constipation is likely try giving her a little pumpkin, or some fresh liver to balance out the bone.

I ordered some of the Hare Today rabbit chunks for my cats as a weekly treat, and within about half an hour they demolish it leaving nothing but a cleaned hunk of whatever part of the bone was too big to eat. I don't know what it is about rabbit but it's like kitty crack to my two.

mythkeeper · Sep 22, 2014

You are right about the rabbit being like kitty crack!! I guess its because it is something they would catch on their own if they had the chance

. Because Mattie was a rescue and picked up off the street by animal control (she had a litter of kittens with her) I am betting that she was fending for herself for awhile. She needed no coaxing to eat the raw food and knew exactly how to attack raw bones.

One reason for feeding the rabbit is that the vet thought she may have food allergies (constant scratching when I got her, particularly around the face and head) and so I was feeding the Royal Canin rabbit hypo-allergenic diet for about six weeks. Then, after much reading, I decided that more than likely Mattie wasn't handling all of the other junk present in most high carb cat food. So, I switched to Primal Rabbit. Now, I notice that the scratching comes and goes with Mattie and if it is allergies, I think it is something airborne OR, even more likely stress related. Mattie was a nervous wreck for the first month I had her, even licked a bare spot on her belly which has grown back in.

But, I'm totally delighted with the raw diet. Her coat seems heavier and healthier already and although I don't think she has gained weight, she is starting to look like a full grown mature cat. I think she had her kittens before she was a year old. I also give her a dose of Nordic Naturals Omega 3 every day.

I do watch her poop to make sure it isn't too dry which is one of the reasons I decided to give her meaty bones to supplement the Primal. The poop tends to be dry and crumbly although it is as large as her pre-raw diet poop. And as others have said, it does not smell bad which I find amazing! I also give her 1/8 teasp. of Miralax on days she doesn't get the raw boney meat.

I only wish that I had know about feeding raw about 15 years ago when I had my girl that had IBD. She lived to be 15 even with her health problems, but it was a constant struggle balancing cortisone and trying to find a food that she could tolerate.

ritz · Sep 23, 2014

Ritz loves rabbit, and the bones are the right density for her. And have a different nutritional profile than chicken, which she gets plenty of.
One thing about rabbit I've always wondered: the rabbit I buy is commercial grade, that is, not organic, made for human consumption (not wild). Such rabbit is, I believe, very low in fat. (Ritz needs to watch her girlish figure....) So I wonder if the reason she always wants to eat more rabbit is because she's still hungry (versus: still has an appetite). I know cats have to have a certain amount of fat in their diet to feel full.

mythkeeper · Sep 23, 2014

You know, that could be - I've also heard that cats need more fat. Mattie is always on the look out for any bits of cheese that we drop on the counter or floor - and she absolutely will drive you wild if you have real butter.

I think that I'm going to try to Primal Pheasant in a week or two and see how she likes/does on that. I swear that this cat eats more expensive food than I do but she is so very worth it!

silverpersian · Sep 23, 2014

I mix rabbit and lamb for that reason. I would alternate them, but the little guy won't eat the lamb by itself.

Ritz said:
Ritz loves rabbit, and the bones are the right density for her. And have a different nutritional profile than chicken, which she gets plenty of.
One thing about rabbit I've always wondered: the rabbit I buy is commercial grade, that is, not organic, made for human consumption (not wild). Such rabbit is, I believe, very low in fat. (Ritz needs to watch her girlish figure....) So I wonder if the reason she always wants to eat more rabbit is because she's still hungry (versus: still has an appetite). I know cats have to have a certain amount of fat in their diet to feel full.

sophie1 · Sep 23, 2014

mythkeeper said:
You are right about the rabbit being like kitty crack!! I guess its because it is something they would catch on their own if they had the chance

. Because Mattie was a rescue and picked up off the street by animal control (she had a litter of kittens with her) I am betting that she was fending for herself for awhile. She needed no coaxing to eat the raw food and knew exactly how to attack raw bones.

One reason for feeding the rabbit is that the vet thought she may have food allergies (constant scratching when I got her, particularly around the face and head) and so I was feeding the Royal Canin rabbit hypo-allergenic diet for about six weeks. Then, after much reading, I decided that more than likely Mattie wasn't handling all of the other junk present in most high carb cat food. So, I switched to Primal Rabbit. Now, I notice that the scratching comes and goes with Mattie and if it is allergies, I think it is something airborne OR, even more likely stress related. Mattie was a nervous wreck for the first month I had her, even licked a bare spot on her belly which has grown back in.

But, I'm totally delighted with the raw diet. Her coat seems heavier and healthier already and although I don't think she has gained weight, she is starting to look like a full grown mature cat. I think she had her kittens before she was a year old. I also give her a dose of Nordic Naturals Omega 3 every day.

I do watch her poop to make sure it isn't too dry which is one of the reasons I decided to give her meaty bones to supplement the Primal. The poop tends to be dry and crumbly although it is as large as her pre-raw diet poop. And as others have said, it does not smell bad which I find amazing! I also give her 1/8 teasp. of Miralax on days she doesn't get the raw boney meat.

I only wish that I had know about feeding raw about 15 years ago when I had my girl that had IBD. She lived to be 15 even with her health problems, but it was a constant struggle balancing cortisone and trying to find a food that she could tolerate.

Congrats on starting the raw diet! I'm so glad it is working well for Mattie.

Why does she need the Miralax? I'm no vet but I don't think it's a good idea to give it routinely. Her poop sounds normal for a raw-fed cat. My cats sometimes have big poops too, but if I break them apart they are hollow with a core of hair or ingested cat grass. They've never had problems with too much bone, but if I give them Hare Today grinds without plain meat chunks to balance out the bone, their poops get whitish and drier. I err on the side of too much because the bone-rich poops are less likely to "cling-on" and end up in the middle of my bedroom floor.

Anyway before I got off on that tangent, was going to suggest probiotics instead of the Miralax.

ritz · Sep 24, 2014

silverpersian said:
I mix rabbit and lamb for that reason. I would alternate them, but the little guy won't eat the lamb by itself.

I do the same thing: mix rabbit with something like beef. If skinless chicken breasts are on super-duper sale, then I mix the chicken breasts also with a higher fat meat, like beef or pork.

mythkeeper · Sep 24, 2014

Someone on another thread had suggested using Miralax if the poop seemed very crumbly and also I've seen Mattie scooting her butt on the floor a few times since feeding raw. I didn't want her to get constipated or have so much trouble with pooping that she would avoid the litter box. However, I agree, don't really want to use the Miralax if not necessary. How do you give probiotics and how much? I take them myself so am familiar with why one would use them and what they do.

And yes, her poops do seem to have hair in them and just disintegrate if you try to mash them. I know all this sound graphic, but I think we all are on the "poop watch" when we have cats. I guess I was afraid the crumbly texture might be irritating to her in some way. Sigh, I do worry and obsess too much I guess.

So, I am assuming that these dry, crumbly poops are normal, than they should not cause the cat discomfort. As for the butt scooting - I know she is worm free as she has had fecals twice in the last 3 months and was just treated 1 month ago for tape worms. Also, I use Revolution once a month.

Thanks for everyone's replies. I do find this subject of raw feeding very interesting.

sophie1 · Sep 25, 2014

It sounds like Mattie might be a bit constipated. The extra bone on top of the balanced Primal nuggets, and that might simply be too much for her. How about balancing the bone with boneless meals? If you do this regularly, you should add 10% organ meats to each boneless meal, and give at least 4 boneless meals for each meal with bone (assuming the rabbit chunks are 50% bone). Ideally the organ would be half liver and half other secreting organ (like kidney), but all liver is probably fine.

Lots of people here give probiotics to their cats. I only did that once after one of my cats was prescribed an antibiotic. I just opened a human probiotic capsule and added about half of it to his food. Interestingly, it gave him diarrhea (I did it twice). So that might have been too much.

Raw rabbit bones

mythkeeper

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sophie1

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ritz

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silverpersian

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