When to start reducing food for growing kittens on raw diet

beth0612

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I have two kittens who are almost 8 months old, and they've been on a mostly raw diet for about 4 months now. As a result of what I think was IBD, they had diarrhea the first three months I had them and I finally knocked that out with a raw diet and good probiotics. They really liked Rad Cat but it's so expensive that I looked to other solutions. I've ordered a variety of meats from Hare Today and it seems I could never get a meat that they both liked--if one liked a meat, the other would walk away from it. However, in the last week they've *both* been eating a lot more, so I've been feeding them more. They were underweight when I got them and getting them onto the raw has been a struggle, so when they both acting like they wanted to eat more, I gladly gave it to them.

Which leads me to ask: when do you start cutting back from kitten portions to adult cat portions? They've been finicky about raw (although it solved the diarrhea problem, which is why I stay with it) and they'd often walk away from a full plate of raw food, so I still feed them at least three times a day because that way I can feed them smaller portions at a time. If we're on a trend of them accepting the raw food more readily, I don't want to encourage overeating. I'm wondering if I should start cutting back to twice a day and trending toward adult portions?

We're trying out mutton for the first time tomorrow so, as sure as I've asked this, they'll start hunger striking again. Wish us luck!
 

LTS3

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It really depends on the kitten. My Aby strated wanting less food around 6 months old. He was eating 4 NV medallions a day and then started to eat less so I just fed him 3 medallions and then eventually just 2 medallions. My other cat has always eaten 2 medallions a day.

Two meals a day may or may not work for some cats. My Aby eats 4 times a day: breakfast, dinner, post-dinner snack of Raw Bites, and a bedtime snack of Raw Bites


Give two meals a day a try for awhile and add in a snack or two if the cats still seem hungry.

What meats have you tried so far? My cats pretty much eat anything although my one cat isn't too fond of HT beef. Chicken, turkey, duck, and rabbit are always bit hits. I have also fed goat and vension in the past.
 
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beth0612

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From Hare Today, I've tried chicken, beef, whole carcass rabbit, turkey, and now mutton. Neither one of them liked turkey or beef, and one or the other has been iffy on all the others. The first time I ordered rabbit one of them didn't like it, but that's what they've been eating again this past week and they couldn't get enough. I ran out though, which is why I switched to mutton and the little girl kitten didn't like it. I've learned from experience that they may shun something for a meal or two and then take to it, so I don't want to rule it out just yet. Some of the other meats get really pricy so I was hoping to find something that they liked that was in the more affordable range.

They had such trouble with diarrhea in their earlier days that I want to make sure I'm feeding them enough and getting them good nutrition. However, boy kitten seems to be on a streak where he'd eat nonstop if I gave it to him so I don't want to overfeed. 
 
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