Oddly enough, my cat will eat bone-in pieces of chicken and liver, but won't eat the ground raw reci

[jacobn]

Per the title of this post, my cat will eat bone-in pieces of chicken, including gizzards, necks, and  chopped chicken liver if I put them in a food bowl for him. He takes them out, plays with them and eats the whole bone.  But, because I realize that this is not exactly a balanced diet and I've also invested in a very expensive meat grinder and carefully prepared a recipe that consists of chicken meat, bones, taurine, vitamin E, B,  egg yolks, etc.

However, he barely touches the stuff I've made unless I put a freeze-dried chicken treat center of it for him, and then he sort of pecks at it.  What should I do? I don't think it's an issue of hard vs. soft textures per se, because when I've given him commercial canned paté, he eats the whole thing. While I'm heartened that the cat at least likes the cut pieces of raw food I would like to ensure he has his vitamins and variety, and I've also got like 30 containers of the raw slurry in my fridge that will go to waste. 

Help, what to do?

 

[jacobn]

Oh, I will also add that if I mix the raw ground with the commercial pate, the cat will not touch it. Below, a photo of the cat ( Francis) knawin on a raw bone...

image.jpg

• jacobn
• Jan 21, 2015

 

[furmonster mom]

Is there any liver in your mixture?  Sometimes liver seems to be an appetite stimulant. 

I've also heard some folks have had success with a little sprinkle of Florti-Flora as an attractant.

 

[jacobn]

There is liver in the mixture! I have not tried Flora Forti but can order some. There is also fish oil in the mix, which I gather can turn off some cats?

 

[furmonster mom]

Oh yes... fish oil can be a turn off.  My cats hate it, so I give it to them in capsules about twice a week.

 

[emandjee]

I also think my cats are not fond of fish oil (from the capsules), either. The smell is probably overwhelming for them, I'm guessing. However, I do have a suggestion. Just recently, I found this item to work in place of their normal fish oil:


It is also sold on chewy, wag, and some health food supplement stores online.

It's virtually odorless, and very concentrated--I used only 1/8 teaspoon/meal/cat, so only a very small amount is needed. I added it directly onto their food. Both of my cats and they ate it without any issue! I feed a combination of canned and raw, so actually I put 1 oz of wet food with some water in it, mix, and add the oil, mix again, and then add their regular raw on top of it. They lap the entire bowl clean, not a speck of raw or canned food left! I'm sure you can add some directly onto their raw food, lightly mix, and serve, too. Now if only the B vitamins weren't so smelly..

 

[ldg]

I introduced raw with ground. I used a commercial ground that had a rather high bone content, and the cats began to get constipated. So I fed them a few meals of plain chicken, cut into strips. Then they no longer wanted to eat ground. My cats will happily eat canned pate - but most will still not eat ground raw.

I have no problems conceptually feeding prey model raw. If I'd invested in an expensive grinder, I'd be upset! But apart from that, there's nothing wrong with a cat not eating ground, IMO.

I do have some that will not chomp bone-in meals though. That presented a problem - solved by using eggshell powder added in the correct amount per meal (at 1/32nd teaspoon of finely ground eggshell powder per ounce of food).

I was concerned about the food being balanced, so I make a homemade supplement I sprinkle on the meals. It takes such a small amount of powder, they don't seem to notice it. I contains taurine (to turn it into a measurable amount), vitamin E, iodine, manganese, and some B vitamins for insurance on the folate, though probably not necessary.

Mine will eat a few of the ground animal from Hare-Today - especially if it's a little dry and I can form it into bites as if it weren't ground. :lol3:

Most ground recipes are based off the proportions of prey model raw. Most prey model raw feeders do not supplement. That is a matter of philosophy, really. Info on PMR is here: http://catcentric.org/nutrition-and-food/raw-feeding/a-frankenprey-and-whole-prey-feeding-guide/