is raw chicken meat only boycotted by my cat or is this common?

[vl4d]

hello, everybody. 

recently one of my cats started to boycott chicken meat. i believe it has something to do with the smell of the fat, because he has no problem to eat a chicken breast from the grocery store, but he won't eat the breast when it's from a whole chicken cut in pieces by me, with the smell of fat still present. are there more raw feeders experiencing the same problem? chicken is actually a easily available source of meat with bones and it would be less convenient and less diversified to rely only on rabbit as meat with bones, if this continues.

is there a way to make him to like chicken again or should i give in and cut chicken from the menu?

this is his menu so far: rabbit(whole, belly meat, kidney, hearts, lungs), turkey(hearts, gizzards, legs, liver), chicken(whole, hearts, liver) and duck(hearts, breast). then the occasional dove or one day chick twice a week. 

he and his brother absolutely dislike beef and all parts of lamb, also horsemeat and deer weren't appreciated. 

so cutting chicken from the list would affect the diversity of protein sources, wouldn't it?

on a different note, can chicken meat actually be the source of food allergies? 

 

[ldg]

Chicken meat can be a source of allergans, but not because of the chicken itself, it's what the chicken was fed. Some people found "chicken allergies" resolved when they fed organic chickens, or locally raised chickens fed a more natural diet (vs factory farmed supermarket chicken). Sometimes just buying the "vegetarian fed" chicken at the supermarket helps.

But most cats are attracted by the fat. How often have you been feeding it? My cats aren't happy about eating anything more than one meal at a time. I switch up proteins at every meal.

Perhaps try leaving it out of the rotation for a few days to a few weeks, and see if interest in it is renewed? :dk:

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

None of mine really like chicken.  One of mine loves turkey, but will not touch chicken.  Another one will eat chicken thighs, but must have toppers on them, and whines about it when I serve them

, so I don't dish them up very often.  I rarely serve breasts, mainly because of the same reaction

.  But mine love beef. (and HATE rabbit

)  I guess they think they are mightly hunters

.  They go for the BIG game.

 

[vl4d]

i try to rotate the various meat types. i really think, it has to do with the smell, since he eats the breast, as mentioned, but boycottes thighs with skin on them. on the other hand he doesn't might to eat turkey tighs with skin. more or less the same goes for gizzards. turkey yes, chicken no way. he can starve from breakfast until the evening and not even touch it, when i serve him the chicken again. very picky customer. i'll leave it out of the rotation for a couple of weeks and try chicken from a different source. maybe he likes it better. 

as for allergies. he has an eczema around the ears. can raw meat be a possible cause? it would be a bummer. the vet said, that the eczema can have many causes, but on the positive it may not come back after the treatment. so i guess, i'll have to wait and see first.

 

[peaches08]

Could it be that one or the other meat is enhanced? That might be the difference that the cat is picking up on.

 

[ritz]

I agree with everyone.

I only add, somewhat off point:  Ritz likes everything.  But when I put some meat out and she balks at eating it, I respect her nose/smelling ability and throw the meat away.  This is especially true of poultry; it tends to turn bad very suddenly.  I'll feed her the same chicken in the morning and she'll eat it; ten hours later, she'll refuse to eat it.  (I try to buy meat when it's at its pull date.)

 

[hersheys mom]

Hi.. Been a while since I've been on this site, my kitties have been keeping me pretty busy. Your cat is not alone. My cat won't eat anything but raw chicken, and only when it is ground up (Dr. Pierson's recipe). She will not eat a piece of cut-up chicken, and won't snack on chicken wings. She will also not eat dark meat (takes after me). I have noticed she has an aversion to fat also. No mater how nicely I grind her food, she manages to leave all particles of fat in the bowl. So now I just leave it out. She gets extra taurine as I freeze her food (make 9 lbs of it at once), and extra Omega 3 oil. She also gets bone meal as she doesn't seem to like the real thing, even finely ground. The only other protein I can get her to eat is pork, and only 2 small chops per 3 lbs of chicken.  Today I am making another 9 lbs of food, and am going to try something new. I noticed she is getting tired of the same food day in and day out (but won't eat anything else) so I am going to put pork in one 3 lb batch, lots of chicken hearts in another 3 lb batch, and the normal recipe for the last 3 lb batch. I put the food in small bags (about 2 days worth of food each bag) and mark them so I know which has the port, hearts or is plain. That will give me an idea of her preferences. This is a risk, as if she doesn't like the one with the hearts, I just wasted 3 lbs of perfectly good chicken. So it will get slowly added to the future batches as I can't afford to waste it. So, back to the subject, no, your kitty is not alone. Mine was totally feral, trapped in the wild, and won't eat anything but chicken. I know she ate other proteins in the wild, but this is what she likes. LDG (Laurie) is an excellent source of knowledge on cat quirks and cat nutrition. She has helped me out dozens of times with my used-to-be-feral-but-now-adorable-house-kitty, who is doing great by the way, Laurie.

Lei-Ann, Hershey's Mom

 

[ldg]

Sorry for the thread hijack, and hopefully you'll see this Lei-Ann but is she still bitey at all? Chumley doesn't use his mouth at ALL any longer!

 

[ronss]

one of my cats like dark meet, the other does not...both like breast filets.....i have been adding some turkey, and a batch i made today, i even added l-lb of fish...i think they were getting tired of just plain chicken all the time.