Varying In Raw Diet

[samyoz]

Hey everyone,
I have heard that the diet of the cat shouldn't be the same always and should vary from time to time, also heard that changing the food isn't safe and the cat should eat what she used to eat.
confusing, If anyone can clarify this point?



also I'm feeding my kitten -11 weeks- Raw chicken thighs diet and he was on this diet for like 3-2 weeks (not sure) but recently he doesn't like it anymore and I have to put little canned food with the raw food so he eats it.
I'm considering to switch to Raw Rabbit diet since I knew they love it the most
Is it safe? Is there anything I should know before that?




+my recipe for the diet Making Cat Food

 

[maureen brad]

Every living thing needs variety in their diet. For instance , broccoli is very healthy but, if that is all you ever ate, you would be sick of it and, you would not be healthy because we ( and our pets) need many different nutrients which no one food can provide.By all means add some new meats to his diet, they say we should rotate 3 different meats. I rotate chicken, turkey, rabbit, pork, duck, Llama, venison, cornish game hen and quail.You were feeding him chicken with taurine, fish oil etc. ?

 

[samyoz]

Every living thing needs variety in their diet. For instance , broccoli is very healthy but, if that is all you ever ate, you would be sick of it and, you would not be healthy because we ( and our pets) need many different nutrients which no one food can provide.By all means add some new meats to his diet, they say we should rotate 3 different meats. I rotate chicken, turkey, rabbit, pork, duck, Llama, venison, cornish game hen and quail.You were feeding him chicken with taurine, fish oil etc. ?

I'm feeding him chicken but without taurine 'cause I didn't find it but I ordered it online so the next time I add some, but I added chicken heart so it compensates the taurine lack

rotating the meals wouldn't upset his stomache ?

 

[Ardina]

If you choose to feed homemade, you must follow the recipe exactly. Otherwise, you risk health problems with feeding an unbalanced diet. Taurine is absolutely not optional. Adding chicken heart helps but it's hard to quantify how much taurine is lost with freezing, so you must supplement.

Rotating proteins is a great idea. You should introduce new proteins slowly if your cat has a sensitive stomach. But once they've had it for a few meals, you can include it in your rotation without worrying about stomach upset. My cat doesn't have a sensitive stomach so I've just set down new proteins without a slow transition.

 

[samyoz]

excuse me, I just wanna make sure that I got it correctly. By proteins, u mean chicken/turkey/rabbit ... etc?

 

[Ardina]

excuse me, I just wanna make sure that I got it correctly. By proteins, u mean chicken/turkey/rabbit ... etc?

Sorry, should have been clearer. Yes, that's what I meant.

 

[nese]

Are you only giving chicken thighs? Or are you also adding some supplements? Besides variety, obtaining the correct ratio of vitamin and minerals are extremely important in raw feeding. For example if you only feed meat, the diet will lack of any calcium which will be very detrimental for a growing kitten's health. For this reason you should supplement with calcium or introduce bones to diet.

Regarding variety in feeding, I believe it is up to what the cat is got used to. I have always fed my cats variety since the first day they come home, and never had any issues with stomach upset. However if the cat is fed only one single brand kibble for its entire life, any little change in diet will probably cause stomach upset.
We feed our cats wet food (sometimes commercial, sometimes homemade) in the morning and in the evening. And they also have some kibbles to nibble on when we are at work.
I am planning to switch them raw food gradually, so I give them small piece of raw chicken, hearts, liver for now as a treat to get them used to the taste.

 

[samyoz]

\

Are you only giving chicken thighs? Or are you also adding some supplements? Besides variety, obtaining the correct ratio of vitamin and minerals are extremely important in raw feeding. For example if you only feed meat, the diet will lack of any calcium which will be very detrimental for a growing kitten's health. For this reason you should supplement with calcium or introduce bones to diet.

Regarding variety in feeding, I believe it is up to what the cat is got used to. I have always fed my cats variety since the first day they come home, and never had any issues with stomach upset. However if the cat is fed only one single brand kibble for its entire life, any little change in diet will probably cause stomach upset.
We feed our cats wet food (sometimes commercial, sometimes homemade) in the morning and in the evening. And they also have some kibbles to nibble on when we are at work.
I am planning to switch them raw food gradually, so I give them small piece of raw chicken, hearts, liver for now as a treat to get them used to the taste.

This was my first time making the raw food, yes only thighs with the supplements that been required in the recipe.
there are bones in the diet already added.

And ya I believe that my kitten isn't used to eat a certain food (beside the Raw food which he refuses it sometimes till I add canned food with it so he eats it) he was eating dry food but since I adopted him he stopped eating any thing dry including Treats and biscuits.

 

[Ardina]

\

This was my first time making the raw food, yes only thighs with the supplements that been required in the recipe.
there are bones in the diet already added.

And ya I believe that my kitten isn't used to eat a certain food (beside the Raw food which he refuses it sometimes till I add canned food with it so he eats it) he was eating dry food but since I adopted him he stopped eating any thing dry including Treats and biscuits.

Are you grinding in bones from the chicken thighs or are they boneless? If boneless, are you adding bone meal or some other form of calcium?

 

[samyoz]

the bones are grinned.
If I don't add bones would the calcium be enough to replace the bones ?

 

[Ardina]

It's important to get the calcium to phosphorus ratio correct, so I would continue grinding the bones in as per Dr. Pierson's recipe. I think, theoretically, you could do with a calcium supplement, but there are other nutrients in raw bone besides calcium that you would miss out on. I'm not experienced with using a calcium supplement in place of bone, so I'll stop there and defer to more experienced raw feeders on that.

 

[orange&white]

The recipe at catinfo.org you are using is super. It's nutritionally complete. When I first started feeding raw to my cats in 2008, Dr. Pierson was only feeding the raw chicken mix to all her cats, with no rotation in protein. So that's what I did for at least the first year without issues. (The recipe was very similar 9 years ago to what it is now, but she has added rabbit and started partially-cooking meats. Supplements and ratios of meat have stayed fairly constant).

These days, I'm using an 80/10/10 mix plus the same supplements from catinfo.org, rotating the base protein between beef, chicken and pork. They get turkey in the winter months when it's less expensive. I do add chicken hearts and gizzards to every mix, so all my mixes include some chicken including 100% of the bone content.

There should be enough Taurine in chicken thighs and hearts in your first mix, but it's good you ordered some as a safeguard against potential deficiencies in the future.

The possible issues of not rotating proteins:
1) The cat gets fixated on one flavor and eventually won't recognize anything else as food.
2) Eating the same food every can potentially lead to a food allergy to that particular food, then you have to switch.
3) Different proteins have different ratios of amino acids, fats, vitamins, minerals. (The supplements added to your recipe makes it complete though, even if you just stuck with chicken.)
4) Cat gets bored and fussy.

 

[orange&white]

the bones are grinned.
If I don't add bones would the calcium be enough to replace the bones ?

Pretty much 100% of the calcium is from the bones, so no. Some recipes call for eggshell powder or bone meal for the calcium content, but most veterinarian-nutritionists don't recommend that substitution other than a short-term temporary replacement.

 

[samyoz]

Pretty much 100% of the calcium is from the bones, so no. Some recipes call for eggshell powder or bone meal for the calcium content, but most veterinarian-nutritionists don't recommend that substitution other than a short-term temporary replacement.

I will make rabbit next time, it doesn't have as bones as the chicken, would it be enough?

 

[orange&white]

Ideally you want 10% of the weight of the raw food to be bone. I think most recipes use 10% because most cats have a tolerance for any level between 5-10%. Are you sourcing rabbit meat locally in pieces or whole, or buying a pre-ground from a company like Hare Today?

 

[samyoz]

Ideally you want 10% of the weight of the raw food to be bone. I think most recipes use 10% because most cats have a tolerance for any level between 5-10%. Are you sourcing rabbit meat locally in pieces or whole, or buying a pre-ground from a company like Hare Today?

locally, It's whole, not sure that organs are removed or not though.

 

[maureen brad]

I'm feeding him chicken but without taurine 'cause I didn't find it but I ordered it online so the next time I add some, but I added chicken heart so it compensates the taurine lack

rotating the meals wouldn't upset his stomache ?

No, rotating meats won't bother his stomach. Make sure he is fully transitioned though. Taurine is not enough to add to food.Please go to www.catinfo.org or www.feline-nutrition.org. Both have recipes. The supplements you add to raw food cannot be skipped if more than 15% of his weekly diet is raw.

 

[orange&white]

Ideally you want 10% of the weight of the raw food to be bone. I think most recipes use 10% because most cats have a tolerance for any level between 5-10%.

I had a typo. That was supposed to read, "...a tolerance for any level between 5-15%" for the bone. Some cats do better a little higher or lower than the 10%.

Clarify please on the supplements you are using. When you mentioned using the recipe at catinfo.org but didn't have Taurine in time for the first batch, did you mean that you did use Vit B-Complex, E, Lite Salt and fish oil? I've been assuming that you followed the recipe to a "T" except having to wait on a Taurine order.

 

[samyoz]

I had a typo. That was supposed to read, "...a tolerance for any level between 5-15%" for the bone. Some cats do better a little higher or lower than the 10%.

Clarify please on the supplements you are using. When you mentioned using the recipe at catinfo.org but didn't have Taurine in time for the first batch, did you mean that you did use Vit B-Complex, E, Lite Salt and fish oil? I've been assuming that you followed the recipe to a "T" except having to wait on a Taurine order.

I have added Vitamin B but not complex because it wasn't available but it includes 3 B vitamins
E+Oil fish yes they are in the recipe