I think I'm ready....

[princessesme]

I needed to see everything visually, so I put together a rough draft menu guide for feeding them. Since I want to do boneless and supplement for the calcium, I noted the NOW and eggshell powder options on the side. Since I haven't started this yet, can anyone provide any feedback on what I put together? There some are some days that the total oz is a little lower, but I figured I would give a sardine on those days. I went heavier on Mondays, by just a little bit, since they will have a little bit different feeding schedule that day, due to school.

After reading through the information and everyone's tips and help, I plan on prepping in the beginning in the week into meals so we can just thaw and feed, after adding the supplements. Also, just out of curiosity, what is the difference between the eggshell and Calcium Hydroxyapatite? Is it just a cost thing? I only have 2 kitties so I may just stick with the NOW CH.

PossibleFoodSchedule.JPG

• princessesme
• Sep 3, 2012

Another question -- Say I forget to thaw out their meal or whatever, if I were to feed a can of wet or freeze dried raw, would I need to adjust my menu for the week? I plan on making a vet appointment with a new vet, since we moved (who is a holistic vet), so hopefully in the next few weeks, he will be able to meet Esme and Naku and I can get his feedback on the menu.

 

[ldg]

I was reading another post about how much calcium to supplement based on different meats, and I think that's where my head started to really spin. Can you typically use the same amount per ounce, for most meats?

Yes. It balances out over time. :nod: I use those measurements regardless of the protein (rabbit, chicken, etc.) or the cut (thigh, breast, etc.).

Liver, kidney & most other secreting organs have higher levels of phosphorus. They require (again, balancing out over time) 50% more calcium per ounce - but they're not typically fed in ounces, being such a small portion of the total diet. IMO it's not a good idea to feed "organs" at one meal - most cats will throw up or get diarrhea from a meal of entirely organs. I split the liver portion into two meals, and the other secreting organ into two meals. So my cats get four organ meals a week (the balance of the meal is a meat). Basically, the way it works out for the amount I feed my cats is 2/3 meat and 1/3 organs (1 ounce of meat and 0.5 ounce of liver or kidney, basically). So for a non-organ meal, I add one capsule of NOW MCHA (the actual name is microcrystalline calcium hydroxyapatite :lol3: ). For an organ meal, I add 1.5 capsules. With the eggshell powder, for a non-organ meal I add 1/32 teaspoon and 1/64 teaspoon; for an organ meal, I add two 1/32 teaspoons. And these are the measuring spoons I use:
The "smidgen" is 1/32; the "drop" is 1/64.

OK, more on frankenprey.

If you feed meat, bones, and organs in the right balance, theoretically you don't need to add any supplements. Many frankenprey feeders don't use any.

A few of us on TCS use some. Here's a discussion, for when you want to take the time: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/244024/if-making-home-made-what-supplements-do-you-use-and-why

I choose to supplement with taurine (1,000mg capsule split between 8 cats every-other day), an omega 3 supplement (though I'm switching from Pure Alaska Omega salmon oil to NOW Neptune Krill oil, and I'm upping the amount from splitting a 1,000mg capsule between 8 cats at each meal (3-4 drops at each meal) to 500mg of krill oil at one meal a day), a daily probiotic sprinkled on the food, and ... liquid Vitamin E.

Let's see... Draco asked about the supplements people use, and how they use them. That's in this thread: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/246234/taurine-and-other-supplements

I've stopped feeding them the egg yolk twice a week - they stopped eating it. I give it once a week, mixed into a ground meal now. Egg yolks are packed with nutrition and omegas. :-} Many frankenprey feeders also provide sardines once or twice a week. The packed-in-water, no salt tinned sardines. Great source of omega 3. :nod: Again - I have too many cats that do not reliably eat them. I do continue to offer them once a week, but .... because they don't eat all of them is part of the reason I've bumped the amount of omega 3 supplement (krill oil now instead of salmon oil) I'm supplementing. :nod:

But I am also giving them 1/16 teaspoon (the "pinch" in the Norpro measuring spoons :lol3: ) of egg yolk lecithin daily - this is for hairball control, and it seems to be working. :cross: (I buy the

I alternate eggshell with the NOW MCHA weekly: one week eggshell powder, one week NOW MCHA. I do that because of the expense. I want them to have the benefit of bone - and freeze dried bone retains the nutritional profile of real bone, so I like that. But it's expensive to feed 8 cats with freeze dried bone. :lol3: On the other hand, I like the trace minerals in the eggshell, so I like alternating them.

NOW...... All of that said, I do not feed strict frankenprey. Neither does Carolina. And I'll discuss more on that later, but have to run - I'm late for feeding the kitties. :lol3:

 

[princessesme]

Thank you so much Laurie for the detail of your posts! They are EXTREMELY helpful! After reading through the supplement thread, it seems many of the posters follow supplementing similar to Dr. Pierson's recipe, which I was looking at (I just won't be grinding). I know you have posted some of the links for supplements that you use and it seems, most everyone uses, but does anyone have a preferred brand of Vitamin E? Or should any Vitamin E be good?

It seems that the NOW brand of supplements seems to be pretty good. I already have some of their Taurine, but am adding more stuff to my cart based on all of the stuff I am reading. Another question I have, is how is everyone determining how much Omega-3's to supplement? Are there any quick calculators anyone has found? I definitely don't want them to be deficient in any vitamins or have too much O6's.

I purchased some sardines already and I let them split one the other night. They both ate it right up, but I think I will grab some supplements, just in case they don't continue to chow down on them.

Based on posts of yours and I believe Carolina's and some others, are you guys feeding the ground meals from Hare Today as well? I think that was what I read. I have checked out there site over the past few weeks and definitely love their assortment. I know Esme is not a ground fan, although, it was commercial, so maybe I will have more luck with the real deal. I guess, we will see when Rad Cat comes.

Amazon will be loving me this week with my supplement purchases.

I'm also going to stop dragging my feet and finally join Costco for us humans and the cats for meat. Their diet is definitely getting me motivated to do a couple of things like I wanted to do, like check out the farmer's market here as well, to see what the local farmers offer.

As I am finishing this post, I found the Getting Started Questions thread, so time to go read some more!

On a side note - We have been transitioning Esme to raw with the Call of the Wild (Naku is back on wet at the moment due to not eating anything with Call of the Wild and while we wait for RC), and she has essentially transitioned herself to 100% raw in a matter of days. She will no longer touch her wet food. Not that I am complaining! Her poo status seems to be perfect, since she does not cover her poops, hers are easy to determine

I finally got to see how much less it stinks and much smaller they are!

 

[ldg]

I'm going to have to take a look at the spreadsheet you put together later, I'm having really bad internet right now - hope I can even get this to post.

I use the Solgar liquid vitamin E. It works out to 20 IU per drop. If you buy the 2mg, I think it is, it comes with a dropper. I use less than Dr. Pierson recommends, but that's because I don't grind, and I add the omega supplement at the time of the meal. Part of her use of the vitamin E is for preservation during long freezer storage. I give one drop every other day.

The omega supplementation... I've seen really conflicting things. I initially based the amount on Dr. Pierson. mschauer did an analysis of my menu, and I adjusted the omegas/sardines to arrive at an omega 6: omega 3 ratio of around (or a little less than) 5:1. So I don't know the basis of the omega 3 recommendations when it's on a per-weight-of-cat basis. I was using the supplements in a two-fold way:

1) to target ratios of natural prey (Calcium: Phosphorus (Ca) ratio of about 1.3:1 and omega 6: omega 3 ratio (O6:O3) of 2:1). The omega 3s in the meat we feed are so much lower than in their natural prey that in the end, I didn't want to give them SO much sardine or salmon oil or krill oil or whatever that was needed to get down that low, given the source isn't natural for a cat, you know?

and

2) to adjust for the fact that the prey isn't whole; that it isn't fresh kill, etc.

BUT.... seven months into this, I'm not nearly as nuts about it as I was at first. :lol3: I can see the results in my cats, and I "get" that they're getting what they need from the meat, organs, calcium, and omegas I'm giving them. The additional stuff - probiotics, taurine, vitamin E... are more ... "precautionary" in nature, really. Although I do feel strongly about the probiotics. In the wild, the cats often eat the stomach and intestines, so they naturally get "probiotics" with every meal. And really, it's just that the GI is such a HUGE part of the immune system. The raw diet naturally provides the right environment for the "right" bacteria to flourish. So for younger kitties starting on raw, I guess the probiotics may not be as important. But for my kitties, most of them being 10 years old and having eaten a crap diet for so many years, I think it's important. And the more I've learned, the more I feel that even if a probiotic isn't used with raw when they're younger, when they're older it should be. And I'll probably start sparsely using digestive enzymes for them when they - knock wood - hit 13/14 years old. :nod:

Just blathering there... but where I originally wanted to go was not being strict frankenprey. I did try to feed the 5% liver, 5% other secreting organ. But Shel, just like he can't keep a bite of beef down, can't really keep any amount of liver or kidney (or pancreas or thymus) down. I tried giving him less, cutting the pieces REALLY small and coating them completely with lots of freeze dried Whole Life chicken powder. That kind of worked, but didn't always. And Tuxie loves the kidney, but has trouble keeping the liver down. Spooky and Lazlo HATE liver and kidney, period.

In the commercial raw foods, many have liver in them - and up to 20% of the food - and many don't have that "other secreting organ." So I decided to stop driving myself crazy trying to figure out how to get them to eat something they hate or keep down something their body doesn't want.

Instead of driving myself nuts trying to get them to eat the stuff, I used Carolina's suggestion just to use the freeze dried liver. I know Stewart's Pro-treat freeze dried chicken and beef livers are raw. I don't know that Etta Says is - I should call to find out. But as Spooky won't eat Stewart's pro-treat, but she LOVES the Etta Says beef liver - it doesn't really matter.

SO... :lol3: I use the Call of the Wild frequently - but not all the time - for Lazlo. I offer him FD liver - he eats it, he doesn't... he's getting something from the COTW. I still give him the probiotics, the omega 3 supplement, and the taurine. Would I do this if he weren't a cancer survivor and needed the anti-inflammatory and extra immune support? I don't know. :dk:

Spooky gets Etta Says beef liver cubes. She eats basically one at every meal - which is probably a lot, but she LOVES it crushed up on top of her food.

Sheldon gets freeze dried Stewart's Pro-Treat chicken liver instead of fresh liver; same for Tuxedo. Tuxedo does eat the kidney (and loves it :lol3: ), but Shel, Spooky, and Flowerbelle get freeze dried liver instead of kidney.

The others all eat fresh kidney and fresh liver.

I also feed several meals of ground each week. I tend to use ground rabbit rather than rabbit meat. It's cheaper, and it's easier. :lol3: But my cats like the ground Llama and the ground goat - and there again, the ground goat is easier and cheaper than the goat meat. And the kitties LOVE hearts - and I can't find them locally. I feed them turkey and duck hearts. I skip the chicken hearts, because they're really high in omega 6s compared to the others (same with pork hearts, which basically have the same profile as chicken hearts). I order all of this stuff from Hare-Today. I do order the Alnutrin supplement for bone-in meals. I dethaw the 2 pound chubs, mix in the alnutrin and water, and package them up for meals and re-freeze. :nod: I also love having these on hand, because if I get busy and forget to dethaw food for a meal - as I package things up in 12 ounce batches, it takes a while, even with warm running water, to dethaw. :lol3: The ground stuff I freeze squished out flat, so it dethaws really quickly. :lol3:

And if I substitute one protein for something else at a meal, I don't worry about it. If I get back on schedule - great. If I don't, and I'm just "off" for the week, I just start over on Sunday (which in my mind is the start of a week). I just make sure I work the liver and kidney in there - or the freeze dried liver.

You'll be FAR more attentive initially. And then you'll get into a routine.... and you'll see your kitties thrive like they never have before. They'll be so soft and silky you can't keep your hands off of them, :lol3: , and feeding them this way will just become.... second nature.

My kitties do have gastric upsets from time-to-time. And, knock wood, they pass quickly. I (try) to keep DiaGel on hand for this if someone has a bout of diarrhea, I give them a dose or two as needed (12 hours apart). It basically is an all natural way of treating any "environmental" bacteria they may pick up. But our kitties - other than Ming Loy, who is physically handicapped, and Billy, who we just couldn't find a home for - were all health-challenged in some way. They're also all older, and I think they're more sensitive than many kitties are to ... who-knows-what. I also have a feral colony that I care for right outside, and some have become friendly to the point I pet them, they rub on my legs and arms - so who knows what I'm bringing in here. I try to be careful, but I don't change my clothes each time I go outside and encounter a cat.

Sorry I can't take a look at the spreadsheet right now!

 

[princessesme]

Thank you again Laurie!! I read through your post earlier, but my brain is pretty much fried today, so I am going to re-read it tomorrow.

For now though, I did want to give an update on the raw status. I put in an order for Rad Cat last week from Only Natural Pet, but for some reason their systems did not automatically note my account as paid when they got my money through Paypal! So -- they didn't ship my order!

Thankfully the customer service lady I spoke with was super nice and sorted it all out for me, called me back to let me know their deliveries were done for the day and she would try to expedite my order, due to their error.

I am not sure if anyone has posted this, but apparently Only Natural Pet only ships raw on Tuesdays. Just thought I'd share that info.

The good thing is though, I put in my order from Hare-Today (which I live in Southwestern PA), so I should have it by Thursday with standard ground shipping!

For now, I grabbed some assorted meats like: duck hearts, ground rabbit, ground venison, and I got small orders of goat and llama for them to try! I'm quite excited and it's definitely nice that I can mix the Alnutrin in and then freeze it.

Since Naku has been back on wet for a few days (although, you can tell he wants raw, but won't eat COTW) I will slowly transition him again to be sure his tummy doesn't get too upset!

I am excited about the next few weeks. Will have Rad Cat and Hare-Today products on hand, while I learn Frankenprey! I am hoping Esme will go for some of the ground, since it will be great in a pinch. Thank goodness for deep freezers.

I think I should be ready to begin frankenprey feeding on Sunday, with all of my orders coming in.

Has anyone noticed if some cats do not like the bone meal versus the eggshell powder? I ordered eggshell, just in case this is the case. I am definitely trying to have all of my ducks lined up.

 

[carolina]

Hi
Sorry for the delay, I saw your PM, but I was out of the country fora bit, and with very limited access to the net.....
With that said, Laurie covered pretty much everything..... I feed pretty much the same way she does - we kind of "evolved" the same way, I think :lol3:
I do a few things differently, as I have fewer cats, and as you will soon find out - no cat is like the other :doh3:

So, here we go:

I feed what one would call "Boneless Frankerprey" - I don't think that exists, but we made it up, and stuck :lol3:
Basically, as you can gather from Laurie's posts, it has the frankerprey concept, but instead of feeding bones, we supplement it with Calcium - I personally use eggshells - my kitties love it - no problems here whatsoever. I use the same tiny spoons Laurie uses, Highly recommend them; would be no one without them!
I started raw with Nature's Variety, then quickly switched to Rad Cat, then Mixed in Hare Today, then Nature's Menu, then Frankerprey - reason being, once I gave them a chunk of meat, they refused ground :nod:
So, for Ca - I use eggshells - 1/32 tsp per oz of meat.

For Omega 3, I give each 500mg of Krill oil a day - I do not give them sardines -they hate it.

For Taurine, I give 1/16tsp per meal of NOW foods Taurine - I buy the powder, 100% pure Taurine, from Amazon - probably overdoing, but they can't overdose on it, so I rather be on the plus here than missing.

I do not feed any organs - raw, at least - they either hate, or . So they get one cube of Etta Says Freeze dry chicken liver a day - they do not get any other organ.

They also get one capsule of probiotic, 10Billion CFU a day, on their first meal - same Laurie uses.

The above is for Lucky and Bugsy...... Hope eats her food supplemented with Call of the Wild - she doesn't get liver cubes because it has liver in it already.
She does get probiotics though, and I do add Taurine from time to time even though CTW already has Taurine in it.

For Diarrhea/tummy issues, I use Diagel - I always have it on hand - this is not a supplement, but I am adding it in here, as I think everyone feeding raw should have it :nod:

They eat a variety of meats..... Lucky only eats Turkey and Chicken, and sometimes she eats Pork, but only if mixed 50/50 with Turkey or Chicken, otherwise she will

I think this is it..............
I know it sounds like a lot.....But once you get a hang of it, you go into an auto pilot - you just add the supplements in order and know immediately if something is missing. It gets simple, quick and easy to prepare, serve, and clean up after the meals. It all becomes a routine, second nature, really.
Stick around, you will get there - the beginning can get a little rough around the edges, but once you establish a routine - and I can't stress enough how important a routine is, it all falls into a place.
Pick up a feeding spot for the kitties, a feeding schedule, and stick to it. From there, vary the meats, work at your kitties pace. Watch their system - don't go too fast.... Do one meat at a time..... Introduce the meats slowly - once they are eating that meat at 100%, trouble-free, add another one to their menu.
TMI, maybe, but poop is a great guide :lol3:. Feed a meat for a full day, then watch the litter box. Kitty does well, increase the percentage of the meat (if you are introducing from canned), or move on to another meat. Kitty has soft poop, slow down. Usually soft poop from raw doesn't last long - just a warning to slow down.
Probiotics are crucial.....
Hope this helps a bit -
Good luck!

 

[sbjforumman]

I know it is mentioned that they might like one brand and not another.  Anytime I've fed any of my cats meat of any variety they have always chowed down pleasantly. Is there actually much of a concern that they won't eat if if you buy a huge batch?  I figure they might prefer one over the other, but I just don't see my cats rejecting meat in any real form.

 

[princessesme]

Whew - I think I have absorbed quite a bit of information over the last few days. I know for sure, I will be a little crazy at first, but hopefully the auto-pilot will come soon enough. I will have to figure out a supplement schedule with their meals, since my boyfriend will be doing the AM feeding and I will be doing both mid-day and PM due to our different schedules. I am planning on starting everything on Sunday. I also grabbed S&C's Freeze Dried Chicken, just in case anyone decides to be a stinker every now and then.

I gave Naku a little bit of Primal Beef & Salmon this morning with his wet food and he ate a little bit. I think at this point, the less red meat, the better. I almost wonder if he is "red-meat'd" out since that is all he can eat for wet. I tried the Chicken with CoTW again, but he was not interested. He would pick it up like he wanted the chicken, but drop it because of the CoTW.

The Hare-Today stuff should be here tomorrow and then S&C's on Friday. Then, all of the supplements will be here Friday too. So hopefully some of these options work for him!

After reading numerous discussons and suggested posts above, I ended up getting all of the following (some I already had):

NOW Taurine

NOW Hydroxyapatite

Trying a different digestive enzyme right now until I get Prozyme, which is Fresh Digest

Etta Says! Chicken Livers (I have a bag of Pure Bites Beef Liver right now and Esme is not a fan, Naku is on and off)

Egg Yolk Lechitin (I am really looking forward to this, since Esme definitely needs some hairball treatment, but doesn't like most hairball products)

NOW Neptune Krill Oil 500mg

Natural Factors Acidophilus & Bifidus (10 Billion CFU) - will start this once I finish up their Proviable DC

Solgar Liquid Vitamin E

and those lovely little measuring spoons!

Now I just need to sit down and calculate who gets how much of what at each meal. I know if I have a chart on the fridge, it will keep us both sane when it comes to feeding time until we get it down pat. I ordered some duck hearts, so I am hoping they like that. I also have to go on the hunt for some secreting organs. That should be fun. I am thinking that the Asian grocery store I occassionally go to will have some, so I will just had secreting organs to my list of items to stock up on since it is so far away.

Thank you again! You guys are awesome for helping all of us raw newbies!

A Diagel question ... I took a look at this stuff on Amazon, but could not figure out if you are only getting one syringe or what. Do you guys typically order from Amazon or somewhere else?

I have to say, I am a little stressed but also excited to move from commercial raw to more homemade raw (although, commercial will definitely be kept on hand for "oh crap, i forgot" moments,

)

 

[ldg]

One thing to add here... for the krill oil, the NOW Neptune Krill oil capsules puncture easily, but they don't "drop" well. I'm going to be using 500mg for Flowerbelle and Billy - one capsule at each meal. I just started it tonight for Billy, and rather than dumping the whole thing on there, I just oozed out "one drop," (more like 3 LOL), and I'll slowly increase it. I'll do the same for Flowerbelle. All of the other stuff they've had before - calcium, taurine, vitamin E - and the egg yolk lecithin is given in a small amount as it is. But the krill oil will be new to their systems, so as when introducing anything else, I'd go slowly.

 

[princessesme]

One thing to add here... for the krill oil, the NOW Neptune Krill oil capsules puncture easily, but they don't "drop" well. I'm going to be using 500mg for Flowerbelle and Billy - one capsule at each meal. I just started it tonight for Billy, and rather than dumping the whole thing on there, I just oozed out "one drop," (more like 3 LOL), and I'll slowly increase it. I'll do the same for Flowerbelle. All of the other stuff they've had before - calcium, taurine, vitamin E - and the egg yolk lecithin is given in a small amount as it is. But the krill oil will be new to their systems, so as when introducing anything else, I'd go slowly.

Thanks for the heads up!

Edit:

From some of the reading I did on the various fish oils (salmon, krill, etc), I think I might stop at the dollar store and get some "capsule" dedicated pliers. I already got a little basket to keep all of their vitamins in from the dollar store, that way it's like one stop drop (or sprinkle, but drop sounds better

).

 

[ldg]

Well, the krill oil Carolina was using (MegaRed) was really hard. But I found a softgel - and that's the NOW Neptune Krill oil. :lol3: They're both made with the same krill oil - just in a different package. I don't need pliers - it's just as easy to pierce as the salmon oil capsules are. Everything else are capsules you can pull apart and sprinkle on (or in the case of the egg yolk lecithin, use the little spoon to scoop out). :lol3:

 

[carolina]

You are soooooo almost ready
BTW, here is where we get the eggshell: http://knowwhatyoufeed.com/shop_online.html
It's all the way on the bottom of the page :nod:

 

[princessesme]

You are soooooo almost ready

BTW, here is where we get the eggshell: http://knowwhatyoufeed.com/shop_online.html
It's all the way on the bottom of the page

Thanks! I forgot to add that to my list. I bought it lastnight.

I think I am going to try and stick with the calcium hydroxyapatite, but want to have the eggshell available.

Considering Naku was purring and rubbing on the supplements I have already, I think he won't mind them.

Considering he does not like CoTW.

Edit:
Have Alnutrin coming too with the Hare Today ground order.
 

 

[ldg]

It's SO exciting. I remember when all my stuff first started arriving. :lol3:

Of course... I had to use a bunch of Fortiflora for several of them at first, and a lot of liver powered on top, or Whole Life freeze dried chicken... but it was still fun (just as fun as it was frustrating at times! ).

 

[carolina]

It's SO exciting. I remember when all my stuff first started arriving. :lol3:
Of course... I had to use a bunch of Fortiflora for several of them at first, and a lot of liver powered on top, or Whole Life freeze dried chicken... but it was still fun (just as fun as it was frustrating at times! ).

Oh yeah - those things too, especially Fortiflora and Whole Life Chicken to make magic powder :lol3:

 

[princessesme]

I seriously have to check out this Whole Life Freeze Dried Chicken. I mean, right now, the Pure Bites freeze dried chicken does the job (sorta..). Thank goodness I have a whole box of Forti Flora on hand, since apparently, once I started feeding chunks rather than commercial ground to Esme, she didn't need Forti Flora! Naku is kind of hit or miss with it.

Hopefully Esme will eat the Hare-Today ground (since it is homemade, versus commercial) for the rest of this week.

If not, I will definitely be trying Forti Flora and at least she is a CoTW fan.

I also fed Naku a piece of fresh chicken liver tonight. He was a little hesitant, but he ate it.

I am going to give it a try with Esme later when she wakes up.

 

[princessesme]

MY HARE-TODAY ORDER CAME!

It kind of stinks that I live a little too far to drive and pick it up from there, but on the plus side close enough that my order comes in 1 day! I olaced my order Tuesday night and it shipped yesterday and was on my doorstep today! I was really looking forward to mixing it up with the Alnutrin and into meal size portions, but since it came so quickly, it needs to thaw out in the fridge. So, by the time I get out of work tomorrow or Saturday morning (probably more convenient) I will be able to split them all up. I got a big bag of duck hearts, so I am going to give them each a heart and see how they take it.

I also got my Stella & Chewy's Chik, Chik, Chiken and fed them a little bit (since I was running late tonight). It was definitely odd mixing it with water and mixing it up, but they ate it in nano-seconds. I went back downstairs to get my Hare-Today into the fridge and within 30 seconds, Naku was behind me. I'm thinking, he was just being nosy, but he was actually done! Then I opened the door to Esme (they have to be fed seperately because for a long time, they had different diets, but he also will eat her food,

) and she bolted out. My initial thought was that she hated it. Nope!

She licked the bowl clean!

So, this weekend will be busy while I get a meal chart together (with figuring out measurements for supplements) and seperating the meals, but my boyfriend is willing to help.

We made an agreement, he would keep the litter boxes clean and be on poop patrol (to let me know what it looks like and if I need to slow down) and do the deep cleaning of the boxes, if I divy up their meals.

Now for a good laugh... and maybe I am just crazy... but when I saw their first raw poops the other day my immediate reaction was "Awwww, they're so cute! They're so tiny!"

 

[ldg]

I must say, I was SO GLAD that Carolina and Lauren were transitioning at the same time I was, because Carolina was a little ahead of us, so already had the poop experience. Because without the forewarning, I would have wondered what was going wrong! :lol3: Mine also poop less frequently. Chumley continues to have a BM daily, but he's the only one. Some only go every 2 -3 days! So a LOT less poop scooping!

And YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Honestly, I'm really happy they like the S&C rehydrated. I have that here as a back-up for when someone's feeling a bit fussy. I've also wondered... as mine are all older, and some starting to face issues related to age (Lazlo had/has cancer, and underwent chemo from Aug - Jan) ... what happens if anyone has to stay in the hospital for any reason? I doubt they're going to dethaw and feed them raw. So having the freeze dried raw (or even the freeze dried meat treats - I use Whole Life) as a back-up REALLY ups my comfort level. :nod: I make sure to give them a few treats, even of just the dry chunks of the S&C, from time-to-time, to remind them that they "like" it. :lol3:

FYI, if your kitties are like Carolina's and mine, hearts are going to be their favorite food. My kitties BONK for those duck hearts. I also get them turkey hearts, but those are much messier to cut up. :lol3: And no clue why, but mine also LOVE gizzards. :dk: I'm glad, because I don't feed bone, and those are chewy and "gritty," so I think they get more dental benefit from those than anything else.

HAVE FUN TRYING NEW FOODS! I know you'll want to try everything. Just TRY to go slowly. :lol3:

Of course... I did offer little tastes of everything as I bagged up all my new meats when they first arrived. :lol3:

 

[princessesme]

I definitely will have to keep myself from getting overly excited. I figured tonight was the perfect opportunity to get them just a teenie bit of Stella & Chewys before their PM meal in a little while. I agree, I think Stella & Chewys will be a great option if they have to be boarded (which they will for traveling), but that is only once per year, if that for a few days.

So, I'm kind of thinking that Naku just doesn't like Primal anymore because we tried the Beef & Salmon again the other day (which he ate in the beginning of the transition), but he turns his nose up to it now. From Hare-Today, I bought some rabbit (1lb only) and I think I will try it with him down the road once again, if not maybe will Esme like it. It will be nice to toss in some hearts for part of their muscle meats, if they love them, to give them some variety.

I think for the next day or two, until I can get the Hare Today thawed and mixed, I will give Naku S&C's, since I do want him to have some form of raw (even if it's rehydrated freeze dried), while eats up the CoTW chicken. Ever since the rabbit vomit fest, I see to have 2 happy little kitties on raw. I'm sure, since I am now switching to homemade and still in the beginning raw stages, I will have many adventures to come.

I think with an arsenal of Rad Cat, Hare Today, and S&C's on hand as back-up to Frankenprey, I have some options to keep me sane when they are being difficult.

 

[ldg]

SO? SO? SO? Did you dethaw any? Have you fed any? What did they taste test?

:lol3: