- Joined
- Aug 11, 2019
- Messages
- 38
- Purraise
- 35
Hi everyone! Long post incoming, apologies in advance.
So, before I even got a cat I knew I'd be feeding them raw or homecooked food. I ended up with 2 kittens, and I thought great, they're young so they should be easy to transition to raw food!
They are the pickiest kittens I have ever seen. I exposed them both to a bunch of variety since the beginning, because I thought that might help them learn to accept different foods. Nope. I just now have a running list of raw/homecooked food they refuse.
Behold.
-They eat consistently (60%+ of the time): Stella and chewy's FD, vital essentials FD mini nibs, boiled cooked chicken with no supplements
-They refuse consistently: Tucker's frozen raw (any), Smallbatch frozen raw (chicken or duck), Primal FD (any), Primal frozen raw (rabbit), unsupplemented raw chunked chicken, cooked chicken with EZ complete sample, Vital Essentials frozen raw (any), Kiwi kitchens frozen raw (chicken or lamb)
Also on the refuse list is any canned pate food, or anything "soupy" that isn't a gravy (aka TikiCat). These aren't rapid food changes, as a note - they get something new slowly introduced every 5-7 days, usually after I make the walk of shame back to PetFoodExpress. I've tried heating it up or leaving it cold, no change. Tried "crunchier" food and smoother food, nothing. No toppers have worked. I have kibble (Open Farms lamb) out at all times now - not because I want to, but because they will only eat something they don't want if they are nearly starving, and I'd rather them eat anything than starve.
Now I want to try making a homemade food for them, but I am pretty stuck. I do not want to do the whole grinder route, and I don't want to do frankenprey (I doubt they'd go for that anyway...). I can work with 80/10/10 grinds from Primal or Smallbatch, cook meat from a grocery store, or grab raw meat from a butcher to supplement. Thing is, any of these things would require an investment of $60-80, and I don't want to take the plunge only for them to refuse it yet again.
tl;dr: For anyone who has had kitties who refused commercial raw/homemade, how did you get them onto 100% homecooked/raw diet?
So, before I even got a cat I knew I'd be feeding them raw or homecooked food. I ended up with 2 kittens, and I thought great, they're young so they should be easy to transition to raw food!
They are the pickiest kittens I have ever seen. I exposed them both to a bunch of variety since the beginning, because I thought that might help them learn to accept different foods. Nope. I just now have a running list of raw/homecooked food they refuse.
Behold.
-They eat consistently (60%+ of the time): Stella and chewy's FD, vital essentials FD mini nibs, boiled cooked chicken with no supplements
-They refuse consistently: Tucker's frozen raw (any), Smallbatch frozen raw (chicken or duck), Primal FD (any), Primal frozen raw (rabbit), unsupplemented raw chunked chicken, cooked chicken with EZ complete sample, Vital Essentials frozen raw (any), Kiwi kitchens frozen raw (chicken or lamb)
Also on the refuse list is any canned pate food, or anything "soupy" that isn't a gravy (aka TikiCat). These aren't rapid food changes, as a note - they get something new slowly introduced every 5-7 days, usually after I make the walk of shame back to PetFoodExpress. I've tried heating it up or leaving it cold, no change. Tried "crunchier" food and smoother food, nothing. No toppers have worked. I have kibble (Open Farms lamb) out at all times now - not because I want to, but because they will only eat something they don't want if they are nearly starving, and I'd rather them eat anything than starve.
Now I want to try making a homemade food for them, but I am pretty stuck. I do not want to do the whole grinder route, and I don't want to do frankenprey (I doubt they'd go for that anyway...). I can work with 80/10/10 grinds from Primal or Smallbatch, cook meat from a grocery store, or grab raw meat from a butcher to supplement. Thing is, any of these things would require an investment of $60-80, and I don't want to take the plunge only for them to refuse it yet again.
tl;dr: For anyone who has had kitties who refused commercial raw/homemade, how did you get them onto 100% homecooked/raw diet?