Using Stella and Chewy's dry?

cindycrna

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Hi I'm new to raw as my elderly cat would NOT go for anything but Fancy Feast. We now have 2 kittens and I have trying to at the very least supplement with raw. We adopted a 4 week old barn kitten Lewis and when he was 9 weeks old, got him a "brother".  Here is my problem. Leonard (now 6 months old, ) came from a high end shelter 6 weeks ago. He had been on dry Science Diet (blech!) in the shelter so I put it on the shelf and started feeding Wellness Core kitten dry and canned. Then 2 weeks later, started him on Stella And Chewy's and it's gone downhill ever since.

 Long story short, he developed fever and anorexia.  He was barely eating and shivering so off to the vet.  Temp was 103.5. Labs drawn, all normal. No FIV, No FLV, + coronovirus but normal globbulin.  Abdominal Ultrasound normal.  Gave him Covenia (won't do that again), an NSAID and Cerenia. He feels best for 6 hours after the NSAID, then the fever comes back.  When not better after 10 days, back to the vet with a temp of 103.1. Trying a round of doxy now.

He is still quite picky about eating, mainly because he doesn't feel well I suppose.  He picked at the S&C wet, is eating Blue Wilderness dry and has some Science Diet in a dish because at this point, he just needs to eat. I have opened over 20 varieties of canned and he says no to all. What he does like, and so does my 14 week old, is crumbled S&C dry. Is it safe to feed this dry? He seems a bit constipated which is understandable. When a cat WON'T eat canned or wet, would it be better to just go to dry food rather than S&C not reconstituted? I am hoping when we get on the other side  of whatever is making him sick, he will eat better.
 

LTS3

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Any freeze dried raw food can be fed dry. Ideally it should be rehydrated but some cats will only eat it dry. Encourage your cat to drink plenty of water to stay hydrated. Dehydration can make constipation worse.
 

lisahe

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Any freeze dried raw food can be fed dry. Ideally it should be rehydrated but some cats will only eat it dry. Encourage your cat to drink plenty of water to stay hydrated. Dehydration can make constipation worse.
I agree with each point here and just want to add that homemade chicken broth might be helpful if Leonard won't drink water. Boiling a chicken piece or two (any cut, with nothing but water, no salt or vegetables) for a while can give you a nice broth that's a good drink on its own or a good liquid for rehydrating food like Stella & Chewy's. Our cats generally get plenty of water from their wet foods so don't drink water out of bowls very often or like food that's too thinned with water... but they'll lap up just about anything with extra chicken broth.

Good luck, I hope Leonard feels better soon.
 

missmimz

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I really wouldn't feed it dry. It's pretty high on phos/bone dry, because it's meant to be rehydrated, S&C is also super boney, so I'd be worried about those bone pieces without water. I did feed it dry for awhile, because my oldest cat wouldn't eat it wet. He ended up having a high pH and a few crystals in his urine, so I found a trick to get him to eat it wet. I crumble it up into a bowl and then drizzle water on top that way the top is mostly dry, but the water is underneath, so when they lick it up they get all the water. It worked really well to teach my kibble addicted older kitty how to recognize wet food as food. 
 
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fufpaw

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I happened to have run across their answer to this question while shopping on Amazon a few days ago.
Ideally, our products should be rehydrated with cool or warm (never hot) water prior to feeding. Cats don't typically instinctually drink enough water - by rehydrating, you ensure your cat is getting plenty of hydration. However, we realize that's not ideal for all animals. If you know your cat is drinking plenty of water at mealtime, then yes, they can be fed our products without water added.

Please feel free to reach out to our customer service team if you have any further questions.

Thanks!

Stella & Chewy's
So it's OK as long as the cat is drinking too. I'm sure you know how cats need to get water from their food but in your situation you need to get the cat eating something, so whatever works.

Have you tried offering the cat a piece of raw meat, like from the grocery store, to see if that appeals to him? If that doesn't work, maybe try boiling it a bit to make it more aromatic
 
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cindycrna

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Crystals is enough to make me not want to try. Thank you for your reply.
 

daven212002

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I started off feeding dehydrated Stella and Chewy dry to my cats as the eldest was very impartial to kibbles. Serving S &C dried was the only way to trick her into thinking that it's a snack. She enjoyed it a lot but the problem would be that she would puke at times and it turned out that the food was too dry for her. I then started to rehydrate the pieces when feeding them and it got better. I am now using rehydrated S & C pellets to transition them fully to a raw diet. I would rehydrate with bone broth and at the same time put the raw meat under the rehydrated S & C. So far so good. I think rehydrating the pellets is important to prevent puking, fever and dehydration.
 
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