Cat recently diagnosed with IBD - I have a few questions

[samus]

My cat won't even eat the freeze dried treats everyone speaks so highly of. I guess they don't have much scent to her? I made my cat a batch of cooked food a few months ago that she ignored for the first week I tried to feed it to her, but then she got used to it and started eating it. And now that I found a meat grinder I guess I don't have any excuse not to do it again.... (A stick blender is not sufficient!)

Did you try feeding partially cooked to ease him into it? (Like, quick pan toasting the top/bottom of the raw food.) That's my plan for transitioning my cat.

I was doing a lot of reading about cooked and raw food and taurine, and it turns out cooking doesn't destroy taurine, but commercially cooked foods have compounds in them that promote the growth of gut bacteria that break down the taurine once the cats eat it. Once paper I read suggested it might be the compounds from the Maillard reaction (what creates the delicious flavor on seared/browned meat), so I was wondering if lightly cooked (maybe boiled?) food would be better for IBD cats. I really think that a large part of IBD is gut flora related (especially IBD acquired later in life), maybe cat "prebiotics" are just meat that's not overcooked.

 

[ty3535]

My cat won't even eat the freeze dried treats everyone speaks so highly of. I guess they don't have much scent to her? I made my cat a batch of cooked food a few months ago that she ignored for the first week I tried to feed it to her, but then she got used to it and started eating it. And now that I found a meat grinder I guess I don't have any excuse not to do it again.... (A stick blender is not sufficient!)

Did you try feeding partially cooked to ease him into it? (Like, quick pan toasting the top/bottom of the raw food.) That's my plan for transitioning my cat.

I was doing a lot of reading about cooked and raw food and taurine, and it turns out cooking doesn't destroy taurine, but commercially cooked foods have compounds in them that promote the growth of gut bacteria that break down the taurine once the cats eat it. Once paper I read suggested it might be the compounds from the Maillard reaction (what creates the delicious flavor on seared/browned meat), so I was wondering if lightly cooked (maybe boiled?) food would be better for IBD cats. I really think that a large part of IBD is gut flora related (especially IBD acquired later in life), maybe cat "prebiotics" are just meat that's not overcooked.

Hm, I hadn't thought about the taurine angle. Enzo also won't touch the freeze dried. I think instead of transitioning him to a raw diet I'll try the limited ingredient wet canned first. I also just purchased a powdered pre/probiotic digestive supplement I plan on using. But I have to put all of this on hold until I can get him to eat on his own after his URI is cleared up.