Raw-fed cat no longer eats bone-in chunks. Ideas?

Hello,
My kitty has been exclusively raw-fed since he was very young. He would wolf down a wingtip from a chicken in minutes. I usually feed him ground whole prey, with boneless chunks added in. Once a week, he gets a chicken neck or wingtip. For the past few weeks, he has been refusing to eat larger chunks of meat. I have to cut them into smaller pieces or he leaves them behind. As for wingtips, he ignores them or plays with them and makes a mess, but does not eat them. He has no dental problems that I can see, and his vet was impressed with the state of his teeth and gums at his last checkup.

Any ideas? Should I be cutting the wingtip into smaller pieces? I have been leaving it whole or at most cutting it in half, for fear of creating a choking hazard.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

It sounds like it could still be a dental problem, but if you've definitely ruled that out...

Have you changed the feeding dish or location?  Are you serving food cold when you used to serve it warm?  Any change in the type of meat you're feeding?  Did she get a piece of chicken wing caught in her mouth, so she's developed an aversion to chicken?

If not...I've noticed that my cats like having a variety of foods, and in particular have a low tolerance for chicken.  They get tired of anything fed to them for more than 2 days in a row, and they'll stop eating it - then when I bring out something else they pounce on it like I've starved them for a week.  Is your chunky meat always chicken?  Try another meat that cats tend to like:  turkey, rabbit, pork, goat, quail.

To my shame, my cats have proven to be huge fans of junk food.  If they were people, and I asked them whether they'd like to go to a nice restaurant (raw whole grinds) or McDonald's (Friskies Chicken & Tuna), they'd jump up and down and shout "McDonald's!!!" every time.   I suppose they are not so different from us that way.  Maybe your kitty is just saying she wants something more to her taste.

Sophie1, many thanks for your detailed response. I will try your suggestions. I also plan to take him to the vet for another dental check. Better safe than sorry!
My kitty definitely prefers Fancy Feast to any of the raw meals that I painstakingly prepare [emoji]128516[/emoji] I tried it a couple of times when he was a kitten, and his enthusiasm for the Fancy Feast was borderline offensive [emoji]9786[/emoji]️

silverpersian said:

Once a week, he gets a chicken neck or wingtip. For the past few weeks, he has been refusing to eat larger chunks of meat. I have to cut them into smaller pieces or he leaves them behind. As for wingtips, he ignores them or plays with them and makes a mess, but does not eat them. He has no dental problems that I can see, and his vet was impressed with the state of his teeth and gums at his last checkup.

Any ideas? Should I be cutting the wingtip into smaller pieces? I have been leaving it whole or at most cutting it in half, for fear of creating a choking hazard.
 

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I have a similar issue -- well one of my kittens, it's not that he won't eat or attempt bone-in chunks anymore, but he seems to be leaving bone behind increasingly, and I watch him eat and he works at it, but it just seems much harder / takes a lot longer for him to consume it than my other, younger kitten, so eventually, after it falls out of his mouth 10 or 20 times, he gives up (and if the younger kitten gets to it, he'll usually be able to eat all of it pretty quick). I know he'll finish everything if I break down the chicken wings and necks smaller for him (I do chop them into a few pieces at this point) but I want him to do this on his own, and I'm wondering if the risk of choking is increased if I chop / smash the bones, rather than him doing it. I noticed you were wondering about that too -- anyone have information on this? I feel like I'll also be interfering with his process of figuring it out if I make the bones smaller for him, but then there is the concern that he won't get enough bone and that the other kitty will get too much -- both of their bone ratios will get thrown off -- if one kitty is finishing off the bones for the other. Easy enough to make sure the other kitty doesn't eat his, but might I need to add a calcium supplement to his food temporarily to account for the reduction of bone intake as he develops this skill? Hope it's okay that my post is about a similar problem, rather than an offer of advice...

I think part of the problem with my cat is laziness. He knows that I will give up and replace the bone-in piece with something that takes less work to eat, so he holds out for that.

You may want to try Cornish hen for a while if you are not already. The bones are smaller and softer. My cat usually finishes Cornish hen pieces instead of batting them around or ignoring them like he does with chicken wings.

I haven't tried that -- good idea. So far for bones they've had rabbit, chicken wings, chicken necks, and some meaty goat bones (I remove the big bones). My older kitten struggles with both the chicken and the rabbit. I was planning to try quail and I will look out for cornish hen, too. I also feed some whole prey so they both get bone that way, but it only makes up a small portion of their diet at this point.