Frankenprey suggestions?

So my kitten decided he did not like ground raw meat at all anymore because he of course is king of the house --___--  I've been trying a 'frankenprey" diet and actually it's been easier than ground

basic questions:

-How to best get more omega 3s into him? He has absolutely stopped eating canned sardines (in spring water, from trader joe's) and I'm not sure if drizzling fish oil on his food works well, or if he would even eat it? Other small fish he has also turned his nose up on

-when you guys provide other protein such as beef or pork, what part of the animal are you feeding? [I source from local markets, both western and ethnic]

I have a 9 month old Siberian cat (large breed cat, slow maturing). He currently gets 2 meals a day of 3oz each. He has dry kibble (cat&kitten orijen) that he can "work" to get out of the puzzle feeder throughout the day 

Per week, he gets 9 oz of chicken heart (3 meals of 3oz)

-3oz of pork kidney

-3oz of chicken gizzards

-3 oz of chicken liver

-3oz of duck 

-21 oz of the primary protein of the week. I cut up whole cornish game hen and/or chicken currently 

on saturdays he eats one egg yolk at noon 

Is this a healthy diet? Am I missing something fundamental? He has turned his nose up at duck by itself for whatever reason (i currently mix it with liver). I have rabbit in the freezer that I have yet to thaw out and portion out.

Would chicken/game hen be enough for him if he dislikes other proteins? 

Thanks in advance for all advice from the more knowledgeable and more experienced 

[also to note when ground he rejected duck and rabbit and beef]

Your meal plan looks nice and healthy to me. I'm sick and don't want to do math right now [emoji]128512[/emoji] but I see that you're giving a healthy amount of liver, kidney & heart which is fantastic. Just make sure the bone you're feeding is equivalent to roughly 10%.

I don't feel comfortable feeding the same protein for an extended period of time for several reasons but the most important to ME is preventing a protein allergy. I have one cat who developed a chicken allergy because that's what I fed him exclusively.

I now feed as follows:
- 1 month of Rabbit only
- 1 month of Pork only
- 1 month of Turkey only

And then I start the cycle over. That's just my way of feeding and I don't know if it's "right" but that's been my strategy for a few months and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that my cats will continue to thrive.

In regards to your Omega 3 predicament, I'm not sure if your guy will eat it drizzled on his food. You can try to mix it in with the egg yolk you feed him. There is also a really great fermented fish stock made by Answers Raw Pet Food. It is a very nutritious and bioavailable supplement, high in Omega 3. My cats love it and I rotate this product in lieu of krill oil every other month. (As you can tell, I like to rotate [emoji]128521[/emoji]). I'll post the link below.

http://answerspetfood.com/fish.html

Thank you for your response!

I was under the impression if I fed chicken/hen whole it would be the right amount of bone over time? Is that incorrect? Percentages confuse me, plus he won't eat the large bones of chicken and harder bones of turkey etc. so it's even tougher haha 

When you feed pork what parts of the animal do you feed? 

I will look into that fish stock thank you!! 

When I feed Pork, I feed boneless pork meat, pork heart, pork liver & pork kidney in the morning. Then for dinner, I feed pork meat/bone/organ blend from Hare Today and I add some extra eggshell to make up the lacking calcium in their breakfast meal to balance the whole diet.

I actually do the same for Turkey as well. Boneless Turkey meat, Turkey heart, Turkey liver, Turkey kidney, Turkey gizzards for breakfast then Turkey meat/bone/organ chub from HT for dinner. I don't have to add the extra calcium to their dinner meat because the chubs of Turkey are bone heavy so it balances my boneless breakfast meal perfectly.

For rabbit, I feed raw, meaty chunks of Rabbit and rabbit organs for breakfast & rabbit meat/bone/organ chub for dinner.

When I portion and freeze rabbit chunks from HT, in little sandwich bags, I give each bag, with about 2½oz meat, two squirts of Iceland Pure Unscented fish oil. I've used the sardine & anchovy and the salmon. My cats don't like fish, but they're OK with this fish oil. I also use this fish oil in the homemade raw ground food. One cat gets the majority of his daily food as the rabbit chunks, and I was concerned he wouldn't get enough omegas from the ground food, and started adding the fish oil to his morning chunk of rabbit. It's worked out well, he used to have dry fur and dandruff, but now his coat is soft and no dandruff. I get the Iceland Pure Unscented fish oil on Amazon, the price for the 33oz bottle is good.

This is really helpful. I'm new to all of it! Where do you all purchase the product ? (Ive only found pork or chicken gizzards and liver in local markets ) Does the bone usually come with? And where the heck would I find rabbit and duck portions ?!?!

Also, to op Nikokat.. I have read about the food puzzles. Only saw a picture of one. It looked boring to me! What about those? Are there many styles of these?

KalebKat said:

This is really helpful. I'm new to all of it! Where do you all purchase the product ? (Ive only found pork or chicken gizzards and liver in local markets ) Does the bone usually come with? And where the heck would I find rabbit and duck portions ?!?!

Also, to op Nikokat.. I have read about the food puzzles. Only saw a picture of one. It looked boring to me! What about those? Are there many styles of these?

Click to expand...

Are you in the US? Hare-Today.com is a popular place to buy novel proteins and organs. You can get boneless meat or meat with ground up bone and organs included. Independent pet stores often sell chubs of raw meat for pet food use. Some brands have novel proteins like vension and rabbit. Bravo and Blue Ridge are two brands you can usually find in pet stores.

hey kalebkat there a bunch of different designs. I chose this one 

 

hey kalebkat there are a lot of different kinds. I got the northmate catch interactive feeder for cats on amazon and it works well ! 

thank u for the responses everyone! I've successfully figured out that I can drizzle fish oil onto chicken hearts and he will eat it yay! If he decides down the line not to eat it then the local pet store says they can order the answers petfood supplement for me haha 

I'm getting a little sister for him on Friday and I sure hope she is not as picky as this little man! 

To answer your question

LTS3

yes I am in the US. thank you for the Hare-today suggestion. I'm not sure yet what kind of diet Kaleb will be getting. I've been considering a raw food diet such as Primal or Rad Cat. I've never done this but from what I understand it is safe. The other option is to buy the meat and prepare it myself. Does everyone else here find that it saves you a lot of money to do this? Is it considered healthier ? I do already buy a healthier canned food. Primal, Dave's, Natural Balance, and Weruva are what we opt for. But why buy the meat and prepare it that way? Does anyone here buy meat and serve it raw? I'm sure it has to be cooked to some degree. I'm really just searching for answers on what is more cost effecient and also healthier in the long run. Of course buying raw food, or freeze dried raw is more expensive. This is a very tough decision for me because I want my kitten to have the best and be healthy. I'm not as concerned as far as putting out the extra costs if I decide on raw, but I'm also keeping in mind that buying the meats myself and cooking them ( I guess that would be done in a slow cooker with the bone ) myself is a cheaper option.

To Nikokat, thank you for shooting out the link . I was curious about these. Also,  I was wondering how your cat is doing with the one you bought him? Some of them look pretty tricky. At first glance my impression of the one I first saw was that it would require to much effort but then I saw this one :



This one looks simple enough for easy release of the food while also being challenging as well:



I might be investing in one soon. I've spent over 500 dollars on my cat already since February so he might just have to wait until the next holiday passes before I invest in any new *things* for him. haha

Prepared raw is definitely easier but it was MUCH cheaper for me to buy meat at the store and portion it out appropriately. and quality canned food gets $$ when you have a hungry kitten  

By the way you won't be cooking the meat at all. RAW food diet is important! 

He does well with the feeder, cats are a lot more agile with their paws so he pulls out kibble if he's hungry. I don't want it to be too easy because then he will get fat haha 

NikoKat said:

 
Thank you for your response!

I was under the impression if I fed chicken/hen whole it would be the right amount of bone over time? Is that incorrect? Percentages confuse me, plus he won't eat the large bones of chicken and harder bones of turkey etc. so it's even tougher haha 

When you feed pork what parts of the animal do you feed? 

I will look into that fish stock thank you!! 

Click to expand...

I keep it simple when feeding bone to my kitten. Depending on what is available at the time when I prepare, I give him chicken wings or chicken necks. 

There are other bones weak enough for him to chew through, but the measurements are easier to attain with these pieces. Chicken wings are made up of 46% bone, and chicken necks are 75% bone. I won't go into the math here, but when you have your ideal bone content per day, divide it by the bone percentages to get the weight of chicken to feed. ex. 10 ounces of neck bone needed per day --> 10/.75= 13.33 ounces per day

Also, in the beginning, I found he was chewing around the bone and not able to break it down. I did a few things to get him to consume bone:
1) Smashed the chicken necks to help break down the bone

2) Fed him chicken gizzards. Because it takes a lot of chewing, it built up his jaw strength.

He is now able to break down chicken neck without any issues and gizzards remain a portion of his meat diet.

I use perfectlyrawsome.com as a bone measurement reference:

http://perfectlyrawsome.com/raw-fee...-bone-guide/bone-percentages-in-cuts-of-meat/

They have noted the following Raw Meaty Bones (RMB) safe for cats as: Chicken Wings, Chicken Necks, Duck Feet, Cornish Hen and whole Quail

nikokat , in school I learned that meat should atleast be seared for bacterial reasons