New to raw feeding

Hello I'm new to feeding raw. I have 4 cats I will be feeding it to one is 10 yrs old, 6 yrs old and two that are a year old. They were all on a canned diet before except for my 10 year old cat she ate some kibble and canned only because she would change her mind on which she wanted me. I finally realized commercial food wasn't the best when she started throwing up the dry and some wet. I gave her some raw chicken breast and she loved it to my surprise so I bought TC-Feline premix chicken with liver finally came in today fixed it and now she won't eat it without wet food mixed in. How do i get her to eat it without having to mix wet food in? Any advice will be greatly appreciated.

It's definitely okay to mix in wet food at first to get her to eat the raw food.  You just need to gradually add less and less wet food over time until she is eventually eating all raw (this might take a while, it might not).  Good luck!   

Mixing the two is fine in the beginning. Another approach is to use various toppers to coat the raw food in - FortiFlora works well,as do crushed freeze dried treats (such as Purebites) or even things like finely grated parmesan cheese. Whatever works, basically. My girl loves freeze dried raw - that can make a great topper too. Just crush it into a powder.

As your girl likes straight chicken breast, you might have more luck with prey model raw. It's more work in the beginning as you have to get your head around how to make it balanced, but I know some members here have has great success with it.[article="31138"][/article][article="31714"][/article][article="32339"][/article]

I have fortiflora it helped at first then she stopped and then I added the wet food which she finished the rest off. I'll have to try the treats on top maybe it will help. Thank you both so much. I definitely still have more research to do but this is just the beginning. One question though I fed her a raw meal with wet food this morning at 8. She was laying on me just a little bit ago and I noticed her paws and ears are a little warm. Is that normal?

It could be - how warm is it where you are? If it's a warm day, that's the most likely explanation for her feeling warm. Also, remember that she'll gain heat from your lap - our body heat is one of the reasons cats like to sit on us.

Whatever the reason, it's almost certainly not related to the food changes. So long as she's well in herself it's absolutely nothing to worry about.

It's 71 outside but 74 in my house she was laying on a box before she started laying on me. Do cardboard boxes retain heat? She's acting normal and everything I just wanted to make sure it wasnt related to her eating raw.

That's plenty warm enough to make her feel warm to the touch. It's not something to get worried about at all

Thank you so much for the reinsurance. I actually just thought of two more questions one related to the raw feeding for my cat cali and one not related but it is about raw feeding. The first question what type of meat do you buy like from a special butcher or from the meat section? Second question not related I take care of 17 feral and stray cats would a whole raw chicken be enough nutrition for them or do I still need to feed dry food as well?

Meat should be good quality fresh meat. Regular store bought or butchers is fine, so long as you NEVER get pre ground meat. Go for whole cuts only.

However, my preference would always be to use specialist suppliers (such as Hare-Today). There are much stricter standards on things thing acceptable bacterial load on meat for raw feeding than on 'human' meat (where the expectation is that the meat will be cooked, killing off the bacteria in the process). Pre ground meat from these specialist suppliers is fine too.

The other advantage of these specialists is that they usually offer all the ingredients needed for prey model raw, and all in appropriate sizes for small cat mouths. It can be easier to get a wider range of meats too.

A whole raw chicken is NOT suitable for cats - a lot of the bones will be too big to be safe. It's not an area I know a lot about, however. @mschauer and @LDG can tell you far more than I can.

This thread may help too (and don't forget to check out the links in the prey model raw article in my first post):-
[thread="293406"][/thread]

Columbine said:

Meat should be good quality fresh meat. Regular store bought or butchers is fine, so long as you NEVER get pre ground meat. Go for whole cuts only.

 

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Also make sure the meat hasn't been enhanced with anything. Pre-packaged supermarket meat, even whole cuts, may have be enhanced with things like broth, flavorings, salt, etc. Some of the store brand pre packed meats at the local supermarket says "enhanced with chicken broth". I always read the label and buy the packages that don't have anything added to them.

Similar to the suggestion of Hare-Today.com, independent pet stores may sell chubs (rolls) of raw meat for pet food use. Some are just meat with no bone and organ, others are meat with bone and organ. If you wish to use TC Feline, you need to use the meat without bone and organ.

LTS3 said:

Also make sure the meat hasn't been enhanced with anything. Pre-packaged supermarket meat, even whole cuts, may have be enhanced with things like broth, flavorings, salt, etc. Some of the store brand pre packed meats at the local supermarket says "enhanced with chicken broth". I always read the label and buy the packages that don't have anything added to them.

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Very good point, and one that hadn't occurred to me (guess that's what comes of being a long time veggie ).

Ill definitly look into their site this is really just to get her into eating raw i plan to get a grinder and the supplements once i get the money or even into eating prey model raw. I can never find whole turkey meats just grounded up with rosemary extract added it i didnt think it was good for cats so i didnt buy it. She used to eat beef everything because she wouldnt eat anything else but she got sick and started throwing up from it so i assumed she became allergic to it would she have the same effect to raw beef? For my feral cats would just raw meat with the Nupro for cats supplement be a good diet?

Are you talking about this product http://www.nuprosupplements.com/cat-formula.html? It is not meant to used with plain raw meat, just as a supplement to regular commerical pet food. You should look into a pre mix such as Alnutrin. Pre mixes are used with ground meat. Some band sof pre mixes are meant to used with only bonless organless meats. Others are for meat with bone and organs. There's al ist of pre mixes here: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/264154/raw-feeding-resources I'm not sure how feasible it is for you to grind meat up for 17 ferals. You'd probably need to do a huge batch every week or so.

I thought so but wanted to make sure. I want to try Alnutrin but i cant order from the internet besides amazon. The only premixes on there are TC feline and Better in the Raw and my cat Cali is allergic to beef in canned foods and im nervous to try raw or beef in powder form she had stopped eating and kept throwing up so Better in the Raw is out the picture.  Figured that out once i did the math heh. I gave all my cats part of a chicken wing only two of them would eat it the other two just meowed at me till i cut the meat off of the bone. I want to try Prey Model Raw with the two that would eat off the bone but the only places to get organs and meats is from the food stores and i can only find liver for the organs but i know i need 5% liver and 5% secreting organ. What is the other secreting organ for? Also how do you feed the percentages over a week?

Britt- you can order Alnutrin from www.hare-today.com This is also where I order all my meats and organs. They have a great variety of everything you would need to feed a cat a healthy diet. I order my Alnutrin there I get both kinds ( for meats with bone and for meats without bone)

 Be patient with your cat. It is harder to transition an older cat to raw but it can be done.  I used to use Fortiflora and that works well but is not the healthiest thing to put on food. I recently learned about Nutritional Yeast. This can be sprinkled on food to get a cat to eat it. It is ( from my cats point of view) irresistible. It is also very healthy. I have begun to put it on popcorn. I learned about this from Ingrid King of www.theconsciouscat.com. I buy the nutritional yeast at whole foods but I am sure it is sold elsewhere. Keep trying with your cat, she will come around.It is worth it.

Maureen Bradley said:

 
Britt- you can order Alnutrin from www.hare-today.com This is also where I order all my meats and organs. They have a great variety of everything you would need to feed a cat a healthy diet. I order my Alnutrin there I get both kinds ( for meats with bone and for meats without bone)

 Be patient with your cat. It is harder to transition an older cat to raw but it can be done.  I used to use Fortiflora and that works well but is not the healthiest thing to put on food. I recently learned about Nutritional Yeast. This can be sprinkled on food to get a cat to eat it. It is ( from my cats point of view) irresistible. It is also very healthy. I have begun to put it on popcorn. I learned about this from Ingrid King of www.theconsciouscat.com. I buy the nutritional yeast at whole foods but I am sure it is sold elsewhere. Keep trying with your cat, she will come around.It is worth it.

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I cant order from hare today right now but i plan to in the distant future. Good news my cat Cali finally ate a whole meal of raw without any toppings!   Lets hope she keeps eating it but she seemed to really like it. Just ordered another bag of TC-Feline the original version without liver. She loved the taste of raw liver so im hoping that helps her continue to eat it since with that one i have to add raw liver. 

Didn't know if I should make a new thread or not but have a question I take care of my sister's cat because right now she lives in a apartment and it's alot of money to keep pets there well I started her on a PMR diet and she has become very aggressive with it but only when there's food she'll attack the other cat to get their piece of chicken wing even though she has her own. Just now I fed some of my strays and her on the porch and she got so mean she caught onto one of their eye lids and would not let go no matter what I did and normally they get along fine. She gets so aggressive I have to feed her in a cage now. Is this normal should I stop feeding her PMR?

Britt said:

Didn't know if I should make a new thread or not but have a question I take care of my sister's cat because right now she lives in a apartment and it's alot of money to keep pets there well I started her on a PMR diet and she has become very aggressive with it but only when there's food she'll attack the other cat to get their piece of chicken wing even though she has her own. Just now I fed some of my strays and her on the porch and she got so mean she caught onto one of their eye lids and would not let go no matter what I did and normally they get along fine. She gets so aggressive I have to feed her in a cage now. Is this normal should I stop feeding her PMR?

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This is a bit late, but I think feeding her in a cage is fine. Otherwise, you can feed her alone in a separate room.

Ok thank you!