Advice on taking the plunge into raw?

[nwfn]

I have a few questions about starting my cat on raw. As a kitten, she was extremely picky and refused to eat it, along with 90% of the other foods I tried to tempt her with. Now she's 18 months, and she has become a better eater, but she's still not the kind of cat who will gobble her meal.

Right now she's 8.6 lbs, and she eats one can of Go per day and 2 tablespoons of Orijen dried food. In the morning I feed her half a can of Go and a tablespoon of Orijen. She has the other half of the Go tin in the evening and another tablespoon of Orijen at bedtime. My end goal is to replace the canned food with raw and replace the Orijen dried food with some freeze-dried treats that will work in her puzzle feeders.

How can I convince my cat to eat a meal in 15-30 minutes when that's not her habit? Does it make sense to try tempting her to eat the raw food by using FortiFlora? (She would probably eat wood if FortiFlora was sprinkled on top, but I'm not sure how healthy FortiFlora is.)

Can you recommend any particular brands of raw food? I have access to 3P Naturals, Amore, Club Feline, Primal, and Red Dog Blue Kat, with the latter two being the easiest to acquire. I'm leaning toward Primal because the 1oz nuggets seem like a useful size for easing her into raw without wasting crazy amounts of food.

Any other advice is appreciated too. I'm also reading through old threads here to see if I can pick up any useful info.

 

[ritz]

I'm on a tablet, computer in shop, so briefly and excuse typos. Leave food done for 15 to 30 minutes then pick up. No more food til next timed meal. I am not familiar with some of the brands you mention. Primal is pretty good, not sure if it one of the brands that has a relatively high bone content (watch consistency of poop). Do weigh the nuggets if you have a scale. I have found in one commercial raw product that the sizes vary. Fortiflora is kitty crack, but has its place. I wonder if sprinkling freeze dried treats including liver would serve the same purpose. Good luck and keep us posted.

 

[LTS3]

Originally Posted by nwfn  
How can I convince my cat to eat a meal in 15-30 minutes when that's not her habit? Does it make sense to try tempting her to eat the raw food by using FortiFlora? (She would probably eat wood if FortiFlora was sprinkled on top, but I'm not sure how healthy FortiFlora is.)
Can you recommend any particular brands of raw food? I have access to 3P Naturals, Amore, Club Feline, Primal, and Red Dog Blue Kat, with the latter two being the easiest to acquire. I'm leaning toward Primal because the 1oz nuggets seem like a useful size for easing her into raw without wasting crazy amounts of food.

I assume you are only considering frozen raw foods thare are complete diets? If so, Primal Pet is a good one. Nature's Variety Instinct Raw Bites and Stella and Chewy's Morsels are two other good ones if your  local pet stores have that. Petco sells Nature's Variety but not Stella and Chewy's. The store that sells Primal Pet should also have Stella and Chewy's or be able to order it for you.

1 oz nugget sizes or the kibble shaped raw bites are perfect for cats

Offer one nugget or the equivalent in bites and see how long it takes your cat to eat it.  You can use FortiFlora or a little canned food to make the raw more appealing. FortiFlora is great to get cats to eat new foods. It's basically animal digest, the same yummy stuff many dry foods are coated in. In my experience, the yummier the food tastes, the more quickly a cat will eat it. My cats gobble up their raw food in under a minute.

 

[nwfn]

Thanks, this is helpful info. I'll probably buy some Primal, then, when I next buy cat food in a couple of weeks. Meanwhile I might order myself some FortiFlora or another temptation to encourage her with the raw food.

 

[LTS3]

Crushed up freeze dried meat treats work great to get cats to eat raw food

You can also take regular hard treats or dry food and crush them up finely with a hammer or food processer. Some cats might go for a little canned food gravy or tuna juice (use only the tuna in water kind)  on top of the raw. Sometimes I use a little of the Stella and Chewy's 3 oz pouches to sprinkle on top of the raw when my DMH is a little finicky.

 

[nwfn]

Today is day one of getting Miss Chloe to try raw food. I got the Primal Pronto bite-sized raw to start with; it thaws quickly, and I don't expect she'll eat a full meal of raw for a while anyway.

So far I've tried putting the raw next to her canned on the plate, sprinkling crushed hairball pill (which she loves) onto the raw, and mixing the raw bites in with her favorite freeze dried treats. No interest so far; she just eats around them or ignores them entirely. For her next meal, I'll try sprinkling crushed dried food onto the raw to get some interest, since her dried food is her favorite food ever.

Not sure what I'll try if that doesn't work - maybe FortiFlora or the sauce from her favorite canned food. I could keep putting some raw next to her canned on the plate and hope she gets interested, but she's not a very food-motivated cat, so I'm not sure if that will yield results.

 

[ankitty]

Have you tried mixing the raw food into your usual canned food? My cat didn't eat raw first, but after I mixed small amount into his regular canned food, he ate it. You can then slowly increase the amount of raw until it becomes all raw. 

 

[LTS3]

 
Today is day one of getting Miss Chloe to try raw food. I got the Primal Pronto bite-sized raw to start with; it thaws quickly, and I don't expect she'll eat a full meal of raw for a while anyway.

So far I've tried putting the raw next to her canned on the plate, sprinkling crushed hairball pill (which she loves) onto the raw, and mixing the raw bites in with her favorite freeze dried treats. No interest so far; she just eats around them or ignores them entirely. For her next meal, I'll try sprinkling crushed dried food onto the raw to get some interest, since her dried food is her favorite food ever.

Not sure what I'll try if that doesn't work - maybe FortiFlora or the sauce from her favorite canned food. I could keep putting some raw next to her canned on the plate and hope she gets interested, but she's not a very food-motivated cat, so I'm not sure if that will yield results.

I was in a similar situation when I adopted my DMH when she was 6 months old. Getting her to eat raw food was difficult. First I offered a little bit of raw food in a separate bowl next to her canned food. She ignored the raw of course. Then I snuck a teeny piece into her canned food. She seemed to know something was wrong with the food but still ate it. I did that for a few days. Then I added a little bit more raw to the canned. She wouldn't eat that until I added freeze dried raw to the top. After a few days of that I just gave her only raw with freeze dried raw on top. She was a little reluctant to eat it at first but after a day of fussing started eating only the raw. I think it helped her seeing my Aby gobble up raw food to finally understand what the funny mush was.

 

[lisahe]

 
Have you tried mixing the raw food into your usual canned food? My cat didn't eat raw first, but after I mixed small amount into his regular canned food, he ate it. You can then slowly increase the amount of raw until it becomes all raw. 

This is helpful the other way, too! I mix raw food into canned food the cats don't want to finish. And they'll eat just about anything if I crumble a Stella & Chewy's pellet on the top.

Good luck!

 

[nwfn]

Success! She'll eat the Primal Pronto raw "kibbles" if they are warmed in water and mixed with her canned food. I'm not mixing in much yet, just about 1/2 oz daily. I'll keep her on this amount for a couple of weeks and then ramp up further. I'm happy with Primal Pronto so far; it's great to have such small amounts of raw food to mix in while she's adjusting.

Also, I'll admit I've left the raw out for more than the prescribed 30 minutes. It can take up to an hour for her make a good dent in her food. I suspect that cats eat hour-old prey in the wild without dying, so I'm not going to get too hung up on the 30 minute limit.

 

[nwfn]

Let's talk poop. Last night, I was woken at 3:30am by the most awful smell emanating from the cat's litter box, which is located about as far as possible from my bed in my 650sq ft apartment.

This cat's poop has always been really smelly -- the smelliest of any cat I've ever had -- but the vet hasn't found a problem with her. This was a serious 11/10 on the smell scale, though. Wow. I don't know if the raw caused it; I thought it was supposed to result in less smelly and smaller poops. The consistency was fine, no diarrhea, color and size normal for her. Her behavior today has been totally normal too. That was an epic poop, though.

 

[furmonster mom]

I don't feed commercial raw, so my experience may or may not apply here. 

I know that when I've given extra organ meat, stools will be a bit looser or smelly.  It happens.  Usually things are back to normal within a couple days.

 

[LTS3]

It might take a few days for your cat's digestive system to acclimate to the raw food.  So there might be some stinky poop for a few days. If the poop is still stinky after a week, it may be the particular Primal food. Switch to a different formula and see if that helps. My Aby had horrible stinky poop whenever he ate NV venision

He doesn't eat that anymore and the stinkiness has gone down.

 

[slykat12]

I found that my cats poo is less in volume and less stinky when on 100% raw. She loves primal frozen turkey-the 1 oz nuggets. She is 15 months and 10 pounds-not overweight and chows down 5 a day easy.

 

[lisahe]

 
I found that my cats poo is less in volume and less stinky when on 100% raw. She loves primal frozen turkey-the 1 oz nuggets. She is 15 months and 10 pounds-not overweight and chows down 5 a day easy.

Same here on all counts! Our cats eat a combination of raw and canned food and even at about 60-70% raw, the rest canned, their poop is minimal and not very smelly at all. It's strange -- and, of course, very pleasant, not to smell the litter box!

Like @LTS3, I wonder, too, @nwfn, if maybe your cat's digestive tract is adjusting to the new food. I hope things smell better soon!

 

[nwfn]

No more serious poop incidents for a couple of days. I'm feeding her small meals 4x per day and sticking with the 1/2 oz total of raw. So far, so good. I plan to bump it up to 1 oz next week.

 

[abbyntim]

Sounds like it's going well.

Wanted to add that my cat Tim is another who took pretty stinky poops when he first transitioned to raw. He's about 65-70% raw now and the rest canned, and his poop rarely smells, though once in a while it does.

 

[maureen brad]

When I started with Raw I fed my cats Primal. I did sprinkle a little Fortiflora on it and it did the trick. You won't need to use it forever, cats get used to raw pretty quickly.My cats are now super excited at meal time.that wasn't true when they were on dry or canned.

 

[ruaryx]

Wow, this is really interesting.  I did make a small attempt to transition my cat to raw but she wasn't having any of it.  Reading this now, I do wish that I kept at it but she's the type of cat that doesn't like cat treats or table scraps.  Also, I have never heard of freeze dried food before!  And this is coming from someone who likes to read cat food reviews online for fun.  

I hope you guys don't mind me adding a few questions here.  For one, did you see any physical health benefits from feeding raw?  I know less smelly poops was mentioned.  Next, in regards to canned, freeze dried, and frozen raw, how would they be ranked from most expensive to least?  Finally, what kind of foods do you use as "kitty crack" to entice a reluctant eater?  Sasha usually goes for tuna water.  

@nwfn  I hope you keep updating us.  :]

 

[nwfn]

Hmm, I never did try the FortiFlora trick. I'm still adjusting her really slowly. I'm going on a business trip next week, so I plan to hold off until I get back before doubling her raw intake to 1 oz. She's so darn picky that I figure I'll keep transitioning her at a glacial pace so she hardly notices.

My two cents on price The canned food I buy (Go) is about $2.20 per 5.5oz tin, which is a day's worth of food for my cat. The raw Primal Pronto turkey formula was around $8 for 1lb. If I were feeding her only that, it would last 4 days, so about $2 per day. And the affordability improves for the 3lb bags that I plan to switch to when she's on 100% raw, so I'm coming out ahead financially from this transition. Then again, the more unusual meats like rabbit are waaay more expensive than chicken or turkey. I recall doing the mental math at the store and coming out to around $3/day even with the 3lb bags for rabbit. Freeze dried is more expensive than frozen raw for the same meats from what I've seen. I'm in Canada, by the way.