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Sorry for the long post. It might be a complex situation so I feel like I should include as many important details as possible. Scroll down for the tl;dr version.
I've been feeding my 9 month old kittens raw food for almost 5 weeks now. But for the past week, my poor Hugo has vomited the raw food several times.
He was great the first couple weeks that I was feeding them a meat/bone/organs chicken grind from Hare Today (supplemented with Alnutrin and fish oil).Then I introduced raw turkey (same type of grind from Hare Today) about 2 weeks in and he LOVED it and preferred it way more than the chicken. But about a week into feeding him the raw turkey, he started throwing up about 30 min - 1 hour after his meals consistently. His excitement to eat the turkey decreased as well. At first I thought it was some of the raw chicken gizzards that I feed them after their raw meals, because he eats them SO fast and I've never seen him go as crazy over food like that before (he literally growls if his sister gets too close to him while eating his chicken gizzards). But he was still throwing up after I removed the gizzards. So I removed the raw turkey from his diet and just had him eat his regular canned Instinct Kitten chicken food that they already eat for their middle meals (2 out of 4 meals).
Luckily, the vomiting stopped after removing the raw food. A day or two into Hugo eating only canned food, he threw up about 5 inches of his cat dancer toy that I mistakenly left out for the first itme. I assumed maybe it was the toy that was causing all the previous vomiting. So a couple days later, I started transitioning the raw turkey back into his diet, using the morning and night meal for this. I started with 25% raw turkey, 75% Instinct canned for 2 days and everything was more than fine--he was eating up the turkey with his original excitement. I then moved to 50% raw and 50% canned transitioning meals but a couple meals into that ratio his excitement decreased again. He was only nibbling at the raw turkey. Then last night he threw up again, the first time in almost a week Only difference this time is that it was 6 hours after eating instead of shortly afterwards. Pretty much all of the food was there.
Aftedr oing some research, I realize some of my faults. He's still a new raw eater, and I transitioned him way too fast, let alone introducing TWO raw meats (and whole gizzards), in a short period of time. Luckily he doesn't vomit when eating his regular canned food, his poop is normal (maybe slightly stinkier now that he's eating more canned food again), and his behavior is normal. His appetite is up and down, sometimes he'll eat the majority of his food without walking away, and other times he'll graze and not really be excited. But he's not completely refusing food and he eventually eats it all.
I've decided that I'm just gonna feed him his canned food for right now to get his stomach okay. What I need help with is 1. how long I should wait until I introduce the raw food back into his diet and 2. extra things I should give him to soothe his digestive system. Should it be pumpkin? Bone broth? Probiotics? Only one of those or all of the above? Anything else you all suggest? I've given him pumpkin before to help with poop but I'm not too familiar with other remedies. If you read through all this, I appreciate the effort in just that and thank you in advance!
tl;dr summary of the above: My Hugo was eating raw meat (chicken, then turkey meat/bone/organ grind from Hare Today) for a few weeks just fine then started throwing up consistently after every turkey meal. I might have transitioned the overall raw eating and the two meals too fast (canned to raw chicken transition happened over a week, then turkey was introduced 10-14 days later) but i'm not sure what the problem exactly is. for right now I'm feeding him his regular canned food for all meals and need help deciding if I should introduce any remedies like pumpkin, probiotics, bone broth, etc. while he's eating strictly canned food and how long I should wait until I start to introduce the raw food again into his diet.
I've been feeding my 9 month old kittens raw food for almost 5 weeks now. But for the past week, my poor Hugo has vomited the raw food several times.
He was great the first couple weeks that I was feeding them a meat/bone/organs chicken grind from Hare Today (supplemented with Alnutrin and fish oil).Then I introduced raw turkey (same type of grind from Hare Today) about 2 weeks in and he LOVED it and preferred it way more than the chicken. But about a week into feeding him the raw turkey, he started throwing up about 30 min - 1 hour after his meals consistently. His excitement to eat the turkey decreased as well. At first I thought it was some of the raw chicken gizzards that I feed them after their raw meals, because he eats them SO fast and I've never seen him go as crazy over food like that before (he literally growls if his sister gets too close to him while eating his chicken gizzards). But he was still throwing up after I removed the gizzards. So I removed the raw turkey from his diet and just had him eat his regular canned Instinct Kitten chicken food that they already eat for their middle meals (2 out of 4 meals).
Luckily, the vomiting stopped after removing the raw food. A day or two into Hugo eating only canned food, he threw up about 5 inches of his cat dancer toy that I mistakenly left out for the first itme. I assumed maybe it was the toy that was causing all the previous vomiting. So a couple days later, I started transitioning the raw turkey back into his diet, using the morning and night meal for this. I started with 25% raw turkey, 75% Instinct canned for 2 days and everything was more than fine--he was eating up the turkey with his original excitement. I then moved to 50% raw and 50% canned transitioning meals but a couple meals into that ratio his excitement decreased again. He was only nibbling at the raw turkey. Then last night he threw up again, the first time in almost a week Only difference this time is that it was 6 hours after eating instead of shortly afterwards. Pretty much all of the food was there.
Aftedr oing some research, I realize some of my faults. He's still a new raw eater, and I transitioned him way too fast, let alone introducing TWO raw meats (and whole gizzards), in a short period of time. Luckily he doesn't vomit when eating his regular canned food, his poop is normal (maybe slightly stinkier now that he's eating more canned food again), and his behavior is normal. His appetite is up and down, sometimes he'll eat the majority of his food without walking away, and other times he'll graze and not really be excited. But he's not completely refusing food and he eventually eats it all.
I've decided that I'm just gonna feed him his canned food for right now to get his stomach okay. What I need help with is 1. how long I should wait until I introduce the raw food back into his diet and 2. extra things I should give him to soothe his digestive system. Should it be pumpkin? Bone broth? Probiotics? Only one of those or all of the above? Anything else you all suggest? I've given him pumpkin before to help with poop but I'm not too familiar with other remedies. If you read through all this, I appreciate the effort in just that and thank you in advance!
tl;dr summary of the above: My Hugo was eating raw meat (chicken, then turkey meat/bone/organ grind from Hare Today) for a few weeks just fine then started throwing up consistently after every turkey meal. I might have transitioned the overall raw eating and the two meals too fast (canned to raw chicken transition happened over a week, then turkey was introduced 10-14 days later) but i'm not sure what the problem exactly is. for right now I'm feeding him his regular canned food for all meals and need help deciding if I should introduce any remedies like pumpkin, probiotics, bone broth, etc. while he's eating strictly canned food and how long I should wait until I start to introduce the raw food again into his diet.