The rawfed kitten thread

[mimosa]

Note; pictures of cats with ground meat or unrecognizable prey items are put here in a normal way. pictures under a link show cats eating more recognizable prey items, click at your own risk !!

I am a foster mom who feeds raw and every so often I see questions about when a kitten is old enough to feed it raw food.

My take on it is that when a kitten is old enough to eat on its own it is old enough to eat raw.

My eldest two cats Ernesto and Mimosa ate kibble for the first 1.5 years of their life, I switched them to an all raw diet when we added two kittens to our family.

The kittens dEUS and Flynn came from the same breeder who had just started to add some raw food to her cats' and kittens' diet.

We started off feeding a raw mix from a Dutch brand called Carnibest (often shortened to CB), the boys all loved it. We still feed a bit of this every day because our cat Mimosa has never really gotten how to eat bigger items. Carnibest is balanced, every batch gets checked for harmful bacteria before it leaves the factory and it is one of the food that has been longest on the market here with probably the biggest market share, so there is more long-term experience with it by more people. I've been feeding it for 6.5 years now.



Gradually we started to introduce more whole prey into their diets, and they love it.

The older cats' overall condition really improved after the switch to raw, and the kittens grew up very well. My best friend had bought Flynn's brother so I was able to compare the two. At six months old Flynn was a whole head bigger and a kilo heavier than his brother.

I have shown dEUS and the judges have always remarked about how well-muscled he is.

The cats are eight and almost seven years old now and have always been generally healthy.

When we started fostering we had been feeding raw for four years, our cats were thriving like never before so feeding our fosters just kibble wasn't conceivable for us. When we got these two little guys we called Frank and Black, they must have been about four weeks old, we started by offering them a buffet; kibble, canned and carnibest.

They ignored the kibble and one of them sat in the saucer of canned to get to the good stuff;





We wanted to gradually introduce them to the raw food, but the kittens had other ideas. After a few days they escaped from the kittenroom. On the other side of the hallway is the kitchen and in the kitchen they found half a quail. Black  pounced on it and started chomping away. I could hear him crunching the little rib bones of the quail. We had a lot of trouble to get him to surrender his prey again, my husband held the possesively growling kitten and I tried to pry the quail from him, which wasn't very easy as he was holding on with his teeth and all his claws. We are two adults and he was 500 grams of sheer determination not to let go

Click if you want to see a pic of the little guy eating his catch;

http://i463.photobucket.com/albums/qq357/Fab4kitties/2009/06 june/Frank and Black/SDC11161v.jpg

They learned to eat kibble and canned food as well but raw remained their absolute favorite. When they arrived with us they were puking up worms and had terrible diarrhea, but we took care of that and then they started to grow and grow. When they were eight weeks old they weighed 1100 and 1125 grams. When the shelter sent no one to come look at them at our home we finally had to bring them to the shelter because we were going on vacation. They were 14 weeks old and by then they weighed 2200 and 2150 grams. They got adopted right away because in the shelter they were in a room with other kittens of the same age that - I'm sorry to say - looked a little scrawny in comparison.

The next kitten we got was Tony. Tony was found on a industry park, he clearly wasn't feral so someone probably dumped him.

We offered him some CB, but he wouldn't eat it at first. I thought maybe he didn't recognize it as food so I put it in a dish with some kibble. Then he understood and proceeded to eat the raw and not the kibble.



After that we started offering him prey items, which he took to like a duck to water.

E.g. day old chicks;

http://i463.photobucket.com/albums/qq357/Fab4kitties/2010/10 october/Tony/S8306520.jpg

And he really enjoyed eating mice. Here he could choose; CB, canned or mouse. Guess what he picked.

http://i463.photobucket.com/albums/qq357/Fab4kitties/2010/10 october/Tony/S8306710.jpg

http://i463.photobucket.com/albums/qq357/Fab4kitties/2010/10 october/Tony/S8306720.jpg

Last november we got a call that his owners were splitting up and couldn't keep Tony anymore. Should they bring him to the pound ? Of course not, he was welcome back here. I had explained the benefits of raw food to his new owner and I always bring the kittens to their new home with the food they have been used to here, some good quality kibble, some good canned and a lot of raw food. In the beginning she continued feeding raw but gradually she had let it fall by the wayside.

When Tony got back with us he was upset and confused but then my husband took some quail for our cats out of the fridge and he perked up; what was that smell ? You could see his brain work; he knew it from somewhere and he used to like it. We gave him some and he was clearly very pleased. The people who adopted him this time seemed very open to raw too so I'll hope they'll continue to give him at least some.

Jefrey and Starr enjoying some ground lamb heart;



A great advantage of raw food is that it is suitable for all ages, so it was fine for little john here to eat with my cats (or vice versa)



John playing with a mouse;

http://i463.photobucket.com/albums/qq357/Fab4kitties/2011/08 august/Opvangkittens/SDC16003.jpg

These feral kittens wouldn't even eat kibble at first;



Belle and Sebastian above came in with giardia, so they had pretty horrible diarrhea. Fortunately they kept eating and because this food is so nutritious their weight and growth wasn't affected all that much, at 8 weeks old they weighed 948 and 1076 grams.

These were some of my examples of feeding raw food to kittens, everyone else please feel free to share yours.

 

[mschauer]

 Great thread. Great post.  Your kitties are gorgeous. Thank you for sharing!

 

[parsleysage]

What awesome pictures & great information on how kittens are born knowing what to eat!! 

My only concern feeding raw to fosters (I am actively trying to get to a housing situation in which I can foster) is this: doesn't it create a burden on those who adopt the cat?  What if they can't afford to/don't want to feed raw?  Won't a kitten raised on raw not even know that kibble is food?  What if it creates a situation where they won't eat?  NOT judging you at all - I think you are doing an awesome thing by introducing these kittens to what they were meant to eat!!  Just wondering for myself how I will make the decision as to what to feed fosters.

 

[klag]

Awesome pics!  Great info too

Thanks!!

 

[feralvr]

Thank you very much for sharing your story and the beautiful pictures of true carnies enjoying the perfect meal. OH AND..... LOOK at those coats I cannot believe the sheen, gleam and shine of my cat's coat's - the ones who are eating 100% raw that is :lol3:

 

[mimosa]

My only concern feeding raw to fosters (I am actively trying to get to a housing situation in which I can foster) is this: doesn't it create a burden on those who adopt the cat?  What if they can't afford to/don't want to feed raw?  Won't a kitten raised on raw not even know that kibble is food?  What if it creates a situation where they won't eat?  NOT judging you at all - I think you are doing an awesome thing by introducing these kittens to what they were meant to eat!!  Just wondering for myself how I will make the decision as to what to feed fosters.

A lot of cats are very resistant to trying new foods when they haven't been exposed to them early on in life, as many who have tried to switch their adult cats to raw have found.
We know we need to expose kittens to everything possible while socialising and for that reason we still feed the fosters some kibble and some canned.  But we´ll have to offer it as the only food, when we offer it `buffetstyle´ the kittens will often ignore other foods than raw. As soon as I know the kittens will eat canned and kibble I won't make a point of specially offering it to them anymore and just feed them whatever I feed my own cats. This way they learn to eat everything and after that we only feed them in a way we think gives them the best start possible. We've never had any reports of kittens not eating something in their new home so no problems there.

Since a lot of adopters have no experience with raw food for cats we always bring it up on their first visit and make a point of feeding the kittens during the visit. Then we explain about the benefits of raw food and the logistics, how to store, where to buy etc. We provide kittens that leave with a supply of food that's enough for about 2 weeks, so their new owners can switch them gradually if they want to switch at all. Several of the adopters that live nearby pick up some food from us every now and then because we have big freezers and buy in bulk.

 

[cris-e]

Hi!!! Thanks so much for your information. I just got a kitten (7 weeks now) and we're feeding him raw (both meat and organs, all from the same animal in the same meal), as well as some canned food, but we're not very sure about portion size. He's currently eating 4 times a day, and according to what I've read online, he should only eat about 2 to 3% of his body weight per meal (he weighs 550g right now), but he always seems to be hungry. How much and how often would you recommend I feed him? Do I need to serve bigger portions of the canned food? I get the impression that it's not as filling. Thanks!!!

 

[Willowy]

Kittens should be fed as much as they'll eat. The 2%-3% is for adults (and I believe it's per day, not per meal)--kittens may eat many times that! So whatever he'll eat in a sitting, 4 times a day.

 

[cris-e]

Thanks for your reply!!! I'm not really sure how much he'd eat in a sitting because he seems to just gobble up whatever we give him and he always wants more. We're scared to overfeed him or for him to not know when to stop eating so we try not to give him too much. Since he's weighing 550g right now, we've been trying to feed him portions of 10g and 15g, 4 times a day, so it adds up to around 55 or 60g (over 10% of his body weight!!!), plus milk (cat milk replacer) in the morning and at night. Is that enough? If not, would you say more portions, or bigger portions??

 

[Willowy]

That really ought to be enough, LOL. Maybe he's just a chowhound. How's his body condition? That's the real test. If he's not too fat and not too skinny and is growing well, then that's the right amount.

 

[cris-e]

He's slightly on the skinny side, but nothing I'd really be concerned about, plus he's only been with us for a week. Also, his stools are a little loose. Could that be normal for a kitten whose diet just changed to raw and canned? The family he was with before fed him table scraps and dry kibble, and he was still drinking some mother's milk.