Cat refuses to eat bones

First the miracle,
I posted a year ago about one of my cats, Toda, who had chronic diarrhea. After 18 months and hundreds spent in vet bills and antibiotics both the vet and I were stumped. His diarrhea was so bad he'd just walk around and it would constantly ooze from him poor raw hiney..
After trying every possible cat food I was like, screw it I'll try chicken breast.
Literally within 24 hours he was no longer oozing, a complete flip of tje switch! And though he still has extremely soft almost diarrhea stool his bum is no longer raw and I don't have poo everywhere!

He's a picky eater, only eats cooked, cut up (yes, i have to cut bite size pieces-i dont mind the extra work as how happy and healthy he finally is) chicken breats. I've done research and I worry about the calcium intake..of course stumbled upon a horror post where a cat broke its legs because of its raw diet...
Anywho, he won't eat bones. Any ideas? Would maybe canned salmon (if he eats it) work? The bones are super soft he might not even notice they're there...

gabrielleszoo said:

 I've done research and I worry about the calcium intake..of course stumbled upon a horror post where a cat broke its legs because of its raw diet...
Anywho, he won't eat bones. Any ideas? Would maybe canned salmon (if he eats it) work? The bones are super soft he might not even notice they're there...

Click to expand...

Don't believe every "horror" story you find online. Many are untrue or don't provide accurate information. Sometimes people are quick to blame diet or something when the actual cause is something else.

A raw or home cooked diet would not cause broken legs unless it was severely calcium deficience.

Is your cat is eating only cooked chicken that has nothing else added to it? That is not a complete diet because it lacks all of the necessary vitamins and minerals a cat needs. You need to supplement the cooked chicken. Please see this article about home cooked diets and resources: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/264153/home-cooked-cat-food-resources There is a link there to a thread with recipies. But the easiest way to provide supplementation is to use a pre-mix such as EZComplete or UStew. You cook the meat, add in the pre-mix, some water, stir to combine, and portion out into serving sizes or daily meal sizes and freeze what you won't use right away.

Some cats just won't eat raw meaty bones like chicken necks. And that's ok  You just need to provide an alternate source of calcium mixed in with the meat.

gabrielleszoo said:

First the miracle,
I posted a year ago about one of my cats, Toda, who had chronic diarrhea. After 18 months and hundreds spent in vet bills and antibiotics both the vet and I were stumped. His diarrhea was so bad he'd just walk around and it would constantly ooze from him poor raw hiney..
After trying every possible cat food I was like, screw it I'll try chicken breast.
Literally within 24 hours he was no longer oozing, a complete flip of tje switch! And though he still has extremely soft almost diarrhea stool his bum is no longer raw and I don't have poo everywhere!

He's a picky eater, only eats cooked, cut up (yes, i have to cut bite size pieces-i dont mind the extra work as how happy and healthy he finally is) chicken breats. I've done research and I worry about the calcium intake..of course stumbled upon a horror post where a cat broke its legs because of its raw diet...
Anywho, he won't eat bones. Any ideas? Would maybe canned salmon (if he eats it) work? The bones are super soft he might not even notice they're there...

Click to expand...

As @LTS3  says you must add supplements to the chicken breast. Just feeding cooked chicken breast will cause nutritional deficiency. 

You don't have to feed bone, but if you choose not to feed bone you have to feed a calcium alternative, which is typically eggshell calcium. This is not optional, if you want to feed chicken breast, which is great, you need to add the proper pre-mix to make the food complete. 

In your post you referenced cooking the meat. Do you mean cooked bones? Cats CAN NOT eat cooked bones. The bones become brittle and will injure the cat.

Also, the bones must be small enough. Some chicken bones may even be too big... my cats always leave certain parts of chicken bones behind in their bowl.

As others said, homemade diets must be balanced and there is a lot of info out there on how to prepare it whether cooked or raw. Remember the rules for each are different because cooking meat destroys nutrients so they must be added back in for cooked diets. A diet of raw meat is best for cats but it must be balanced with the right proportion of meat, bones, organs, and livers OR made with a premix which is just a powder you can add to chopped or ground muscle meat such as chicken breast. TCFeline is a premix for raw meat I have used with chopped chicken breast; cat approved!

There is... I forget what it is called, but you can buy powdered bones to use instead of feeding meaty bones.

My kittens learned to eat meaty bones gradually over a couple of weeks. They didn't start out knowing how to eat the whole thing. It takes time, at least for my kittens it did.

Really glad to hear the kitty is feeling better! Commercial foods contain weird things that give cats various health problems. You and I are 2 of the many people who have seen their cats' health problems disappear after we stopped feeding that stuff to our cats.

I had the same issue with my kitten eating neck bones. He is only three months old, and would sometimes leave bone behind, I am assuming because he had a hard time breaking the bone small enough to swallow.

I needed him to eat the bone to balance his diet, so I added gizzards to strengthen his jaws and I take a meat masher to the neck bone portion. Now, he is able to chew the mashed bone no problem.

I will try giving him whole bone in another couple weeks.