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- Jun 9, 2012
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I have a picky eater. He's about 1.5 years old, I hand raised him from 1 week after we found him in a shed and started feeding him raw food (no bone, with supplements - bone in meat is hard to come by in Sweden) when he was about 6-8 weeks old.
He gets 40g in the morning, 45 in the afternoon, 70-80 at night. He will not eat chunks on his plate unless they are small enough to just swallow, otherwise he stops eating when he finds a chunk of meat. Most meals he refuses to eat any of it unless I sprinkle treats on his food. In the morning he eats about 50-75% of his food. Afternoon meal he sometimes eats without treats and usually clears 90% of the food. The night time meal he never eats without treats and he usually clears 75-90% of it. His weight is good, because he's a youngin' and gets plenty of exercise. He's pretty steadily always around 9.6 lbs.
My problem is, I would really like to feed 2 meals instead of 3 (so their digestive tracts can rest between, as nature intended) and to not have to sprinkle treats into his food. My older cat eats all of the little one's leftovers, plus his own allotted 125g a day and he acts like he's always starving (he weighs in consistently at 12.6-13 lbs). My older kitty was around 16 lbs before I started feeding raw, and now he doesn't lose anymore weight, and I try to be tough but it's hard when your baby is acting all frantic to get a little extra food, like his life depends on it.
There is a 3rd cat in the house whose feeding is not up to me, she gets moist canned food throughout the day whenever she wants it and I cannot prevent my cats from eating her leftovers. I think that's what my little one is always saving himself for, especially in the morning! He seems to think if he only eats a little of his breakfast he can run upstairs and sample her leftovers.
As a side note, my older cat grazed on dry food and was fed moist from a can his first 5 years, until I decided he needed to lose weight and finally researched and learned about proper nutrition. He took to raw food immediately, the first time I gave him a chunk of thigh it only took him about 30 seconds to figure out how to gnaw on it with his teeth. My little champ! Now if only the little one could follow his example, lol.
TL;DR: How do I get my super picky eater to eat bigger portions of raw food?!
Any help and suggestions will be greatly appreciated!
He gets 40g in the morning, 45 in the afternoon, 70-80 at night. He will not eat chunks on his plate unless they are small enough to just swallow, otherwise he stops eating when he finds a chunk of meat. Most meals he refuses to eat any of it unless I sprinkle treats on his food. In the morning he eats about 50-75% of his food. Afternoon meal he sometimes eats without treats and usually clears 90% of the food. The night time meal he never eats without treats and he usually clears 75-90% of it. His weight is good, because he's a youngin' and gets plenty of exercise. He's pretty steadily always around 9.6 lbs.
My problem is, I would really like to feed 2 meals instead of 3 (so their digestive tracts can rest between, as nature intended) and to not have to sprinkle treats into his food. My older cat eats all of the little one's leftovers, plus his own allotted 125g a day and he acts like he's always starving (he weighs in consistently at 12.6-13 lbs). My older kitty was around 16 lbs before I started feeding raw, and now he doesn't lose anymore weight, and I try to be tough but it's hard when your baby is acting all frantic to get a little extra food, like his life depends on it.
There is a 3rd cat in the house whose feeding is not up to me, she gets moist canned food throughout the day whenever she wants it and I cannot prevent my cats from eating her leftovers. I think that's what my little one is always saving himself for, especially in the morning! He seems to think if he only eats a little of his breakfast he can run upstairs and sample her leftovers.
As a side note, my older cat grazed on dry food and was fed moist from a can his first 5 years, until I decided he needed to lose weight and finally researched and learned about proper nutrition. He took to raw food immediately, the first time I gave him a chunk of thigh it only took him about 30 seconds to figure out how to gnaw on it with his teeth. My little champ! Now if only the little one could follow his example, lol.
TL;DR: How do I get my super picky eater to eat bigger portions of raw food?!
Any help and suggestions will be greatly appreciated!
