- Joined
- Nov 4, 2016
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I need help and a really quick jump-start for making home-made food, so that I can start transitioning Malý and Hezký asap - and be able to go as slowly as possible.
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Malý and Hezký are 2.5 year old sister + brother tabbies. They rescued me when they were only 4 weeks old. They were in pretty rough shape when they first got home but with formula and lots of love, they perked right up. After the 1st week they refused to be syringe-fed, but they drink their formula out of their saucers. I slowly added canned food to it by the end of the 2nd week, they wouldn't take the formula at all. [Even tho I told them their doctor said they should.]
This is the Cliff Notes version of the Tale of Two Tummies:
The brand of food they'd been eating for 15 months was bought out. The company denies that there were any changes made in the ingredients. They're lying. Both were extremely sick, especially Hezký.
In the last 14 months, we have tried brand after brand after brand. They made it clear when they were only a few months old that they like chicken and turkey and that is it. Right now, the turkey is getting kind of iffy too.
With all of this trial and error, I'm as sure as is reasonably possible, what ingredients they just cannot digest. Hezký is more sensitive and just one meal with the wrong ingredients and he'll be sick for two days.
We've pretty much gone through every reasonable canned food there is. Right now, the only thing I've been able to find - that they'll eat - is Nutro.
I just found out Friday night, that Nutro has had seventy-eight recalls from 1998 thru 2014. [The article is dated Jan. 2014] I'm sick. I'm done with mass-produced food. I had just ordered another month's worth for them. That will be here in a couple of days. So I've got a month to figure this out.
I've been pouring through the freeze-dried/dehydrated/air-dried/raw/heaven knows WHAT else . . . and when I weed out the ones with ingredients they can't eat, that are potentially harmful or that we've already tried and they just don't like - I've got 2, maybe 3, options - and I can't really afford any of them.
This leaves me with home-made. I have zero problems with that, I'm a stay-at-home cat-mom. But I do need help.
I'm not going to do raw just yet. I'm going to start with cooked, with the plan of moving to partially cooked, chicken and turkey. Both to ease their tummies into it and to ease me into it.
I need a really quick jump-start for this so that I can start transitioning them asap - and be able to go as slowly as possible.
Just bare-bone minimums - what do I need to get us through the 1st month? Point me to somewhere you trust. I need to do some massive cramming on supplements and recipes. I've been studying http://www.catinfo.org/ for two days and I can do this. I do need more sources and help.
Once I get them off Nutro, I will actually be able to breathe and will fine-tune everything. Which I'd assume is an on-going process anyway.
Funny thing is, this is the diet I was looking into to help raise Maly's siezure threshold.
Many thanks in advance!
THE NO! LIST:
ANY FORM OF Grain - [exception = flax]
ANY FORM OF Starch - potatoes, peas, yams, sweet potatoes, etc
alfalfa [grain - duh]
montmorillonite clay
psyllium
garlic powder
cranberries
sulfate mendione
sodium ascorbate
fishmeal
bisulfate mendione - synthetic vitamin k3
D2
plant ingredients
carrageenan
=====
Malý and Hezký are 2.5 year old sister + brother tabbies. They rescued me when they were only 4 weeks old. They were in pretty rough shape when they first got home but with formula and lots of love, they perked right up. After the 1st week they refused to be syringe-fed, but they drink their formula out of their saucers. I slowly added canned food to it by the end of the 2nd week, they wouldn't take the formula at all. [Even tho I told them their doctor said they should.]
This is the Cliff Notes version of the Tale of Two Tummies:
The brand of food they'd been eating for 15 months was bought out. The company denies that there were any changes made in the ingredients. They're lying. Both were extremely sick, especially Hezký.
In the last 14 months, we have tried brand after brand after brand. They made it clear when they were only a few months old that they like chicken and turkey and that is it. Right now, the turkey is getting kind of iffy too.
With all of this trial and error, I'm as sure as is reasonably possible, what ingredients they just cannot digest. Hezký is more sensitive and just one meal with the wrong ingredients and he'll be sick for two days.
We've pretty much gone through every reasonable canned food there is. Right now, the only thing I've been able to find - that they'll eat - is Nutro.
I just found out Friday night, that Nutro has had seventy-eight recalls from 1998 thru 2014. [The article is dated Jan. 2014] I'm sick. I'm done with mass-produced food. I had just ordered another month's worth for them. That will be here in a couple of days. So I've got a month to figure this out.
I've been pouring through the freeze-dried/dehydrated/air-dried/raw/heaven knows WHAT else . . . and when I weed out the ones with ingredients they can't eat, that are potentially harmful or that we've already tried and they just don't like - I've got 2, maybe 3, options - and I can't really afford any of them.
This leaves me with home-made. I have zero problems with that, I'm a stay-at-home cat-mom. But I do need help.
I'm not going to do raw just yet. I'm going to start with cooked, with the plan of moving to partially cooked, chicken and turkey. Both to ease their tummies into it and to ease me into it.
I need a really quick jump-start for this so that I can start transitioning them asap - and be able to go as slowly as possible.
Just bare-bone minimums - what do I need to get us through the 1st month? Point me to somewhere you trust. I need to do some massive cramming on supplements and recipes. I've been studying http://www.catinfo.org/ for two days and I can do this. I do need more sources and help.
Once I get them off Nutro, I will actually be able to breathe and will fine-tune everything. Which I'd assume is an on-going process anyway.
Funny thing is, this is the diet I was looking into to help raise Maly's siezure threshold.
Many thanks in advance!
THE NO! LIST:
ANY FORM OF Grain - [exception = flax]
ANY FORM OF Starch - potatoes, peas, yams, sweet potatoes, etc
alfalfa [grain - duh]
montmorillonite clay
psyllium
garlic powder
cranberries
sulfate mendione
sodium ascorbate
fishmeal
bisulfate mendione - synthetic vitamin k3
D2
plant ingredients
carrageenan
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