Anyone do this?

[ravynwriter]

I currently have three kitties, one elderly and two who are seven months and still growing. In a couple of months, a fourth kitty, also elderly, will be joining our fold.

Right now they are all on a diet of a freeze dried kibble mix- I can never remember the name. I keep wanting to call it Into the Wild but that's a separate brand than the one I get. It's a vaccuum packed freeze-dried kibble mix. It has a similar name to Into the Wild. 

I supplement this with whole ground rabbit or whole ground poultry (duck, turkey, or chicken), bones organs and meat, but their primary intake is the kibble mix.

One of my kittens, Pipsqueak, refuses to touch any kind of wet food. She will only eat dry. Doesn't matter if it's canned, raw ground red meat, poultry, fish, nuh uh. 

Does anyone else feed their kitties a mix of a high quality dry food and supplement with raw, and how do your kitties do with it?

Right now, both kittens are growing very well and are very healthy, sleek and glossy. My older kitty isn't so sleek and glossy any more and has a bit of that skinny 'old cat' look to her, but the vet says she's very healthy for her age. 

All are on free feed at the moment as the two younger are still growing and the older one moderates herself very well and never overeats. As the two younger get to full growth I will wean off the free feed and go to a schedule, to help keep them from getting overweight. 

Any other suggestions? Thoughts? Funny pictures?

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

Just bumping this up for you since no one has replied.  It might be helpful, however, if you could provide the name of the freeze dried kibble mix.   Does it have some raw in it?  I'm a little confused on that part.  Is that why it's freeze dried...because it's part raw? 

I honestly don't think many people feed raw and KIBBLE. I know some people will do raw and canned, but not the other (that I know of)

 

[ravynwriter]

I appreciate you doing that, thank you.

I finally tracked down the name of the food. It's Great Life Grain Free. It isn't freeze dried raw but has freeze dried ingredients? I've been feeding it only a couple months. Honestly, I'm so terrible with names I had to go to the pet store and take a picture of the bag, just so I'd remember the name long enough to get home and post it. I could point out the bag itself from a police line up, but for some reason the name keeps escaping me. I linked a website about it below:

http://www.doctorsfinest.com/product_p/gfccf.htm

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

Interesting.  I think that's the first time EVER I've seen jicama listed as an ingredient in cat food! 

Well, since you aren't getting any responses to your question, I'm guessing no one else feeds raw and kibble

.

Just out of curiousity, how old IS your current senior?  I'm surprised since she does eat raw that her coat isn't better, and that she's losing muscle tone (as you describe her)  Would she eat MORE of the wet raw and less of the kibble if you gave it to her?  OH!  BTW, that kibble IS freeze dried RAW, per the website. 

Great Life has CANNED food.  Have you tried that with Pipsqueak?  Maybe you could try that and powder up some of the kibble and put it on top to try to get her to eat some.  OR just powder up some of the kibble and put on top of the Wet raw and see what happens.  Have you tried that?   Does she drink plenty of water?  That's really important since she doesn't currently like anything other than the freeze dried food.

 

[ravynwriter]

 Just out of curiousity, how old IS your current senior?

My senior will be sixteen in January. The new senior coming in the next month or two is about the same age.

I'm surprised since she does eat raw that her coat isn't better, and that she's losing muscle tone (as you describe her)

I was as well, but according to the vet she's perfectly healthy and in really good shape for her age. She had a full checkup only a about two months ago, blood panels, etc, and a dental. It's only been about the last year that she's started LOOKING old, losing muscle tone and she's started to go notably gray. As for her coat, you got me there. She's been on a high quality food interspersed with raw her whole life, but her coat has always looked kind of unkempt and greasy, and she gets random patches of dandruff. Nothing horrible, just a few flakes here and there. She's never been terribly big on grooming herself either, even when she was a young and hale. I think the muscle tone thing is just her age. She doesn't do much- basically just switches where she's bedded down, uses the litter box, eats and drinks. Occasionally she can be stirred to play with the laser pointer or hiss and swat at the two younger kitties if they bump into her, but it never lasts long. 

Would she eat MORE of the wet raw and less of the kibble if you gave it to her?

Highly unlikely. It doesn't seem to matter what I feed her- kibble, raw, or canned food. Whatever it is she only eats a very specific amount and then she's done. She's always been that way.  Though it doesn't stop her trying to beg a taste of my dinner every now and again. 

​OH!  BTW, that kibble IS freeze dried RAW, per the website.

Oh, good to know! All I kept seeing was 'freeze dried ingredients'. I took that to mean some of the ingredients in the kibble had been freeze dried before being added in.

Great Life has CANNED food.  Have you tried that with Pipsqueak?  Maybe you could try that and powder up some of the kibble and put it on top to try to get her to eat some.  OR just powder up some of the kibble and put on top of the Wet raw and see what happens.  Have you tried that?   Does she drink plenty of water?  That's really important since she doesn't currently like anything other than the freeze dried food.

I haven't tried the Great Life canned yet with her. I could give that a shot, but every other wet food- doesn't matter what it is or what it's mixed with- she will not touch it. I haven't powdered the kibble but I have mixed it in with the raw so it's mostly dry to try and tempt her.  Even just a tiny bit mixed in with the kibble to get her to taste it, nuh uh. She'll ignore the entire bowl for that tiny bit. I could give your suggestion a try though- if she refuses it Simon would always eat it. He'll eat anything, unlike his little sister!

She does seem to drink plenty of water, but that is part of the reason I'm concerned she'll only touch dry food. I've NEVER had a kitty that will refuse all wet food, flat across the board.

Then again, I've never had a kitty like her in a lot of respects. Sometimes I wonder if she's not really a kitty at all but some sort of affectionate alien life form that is masquerading as a cat to study the world's TRUE dominate species...the feline.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

My old girl will be 16 in January too!  She's a ratty looking thing....everyday we find new mats in her fur

   My hubby brushes AND combs her each day, and always ends up getting some of the mats out, but next day there are more. And she is down to 4.5 pounds, but she's a kidney cat, so that's why

   We never did put her on low protein when she got diagnosed, but she STILL lost weight, and lots of it, along with muscle mass. 

My girl is actually pretty active.  She goes up and down the stairs a few times a day,  jumps up on the kitchen counter to eat several times a day, runs anywhere my hubby is for pets, bats at "the boys" , and every time we go into the garage, she charges out there before we even know it

That's funny about thinking maybe Pipsqueak is an Alien in Cat's clothing!  Very cute

 

[ravynwriter]

Yeah, she's an odd little duck. I've had or had contact with a LOT of cats over my time, but Squeaker is unique. She's the only cat I know that wags her tail when she's happy (held up high and vertical but enthusiastically wagging left and right). She's also the only kitty I know, or that my vet has seen, that has the odd little clumps of white fur on her back. I'm familiar with black kitties having little stray white hairs here and there but hers are just odd.

Then there's the 'no wet food thing', and I swear to God her tongue is rougher than any cat I've ever had! I can tolerate kitty kisses quite well- which is good, because Simon loves nothing more than to give kisses. But when she decides to give kisses it's like one swipe of the tongue and my skin feels ready to peel off!