Adding Raw For Constipation-prone Ibd Cat?

[sidneykitty]

Hello! I've been working to improve the diet of my 14-yo cat Amber since the start of this year when she was tentatively diagnosed with IBD (or food intolerance). She has always been prone to constipation in the 3 years she's lived with us.

We're trying to encourage her to eat more wet food, less dry food, to help. Its slow gong. She generally seems to like some freeze dried rabbit sprinkled on top of the canned food. So I began to consider the possibility of feeding her raw, or adding some to her diet. My theory is she was basically a fully outdoor cat before we adopted her and did a lot of hunting, eating her prey. She was outdoor/indoor while we transitioned her to living with us and she brought home and ate birds and mice. She brought rabbits home a couple times, but it didn't look like she ate them at all. My theory is maybe that's what she likes - the real thing instead of all this processed stuff.

I did a bit of reading about raw and we picked up some Stella & Chewy's frozen rabbit morsels just to see even she'll even eat it. Is it do-able to add some raw food on top of the canned food to entice her to eat it if she likes it? Even if its not her full diet (unless we get there someday). What do you think?

The only real concern left I have about raw is the bone content causing her constipation.

Another thing I've been wondering about (and I really have no idea about this) - is it possible to add the pre-mixes of vitamins and supplements intended for homecooked or raw food to a non-complete supplemental type of can or pouch food (like Almo Nature or Applaws type) and feed that as a primary part of the diet? I can't see how its any different from homecooking and adding the supplement, but maybe I'm missing something important.

 

[CHIKITTIES]

Hi sidneykitty

So sorry to hear about Amber's recent health issues. I do not use commercial raw, nor have kitty with considerations/IBD, so may not be much help but ...

You might already read but here are two great article about food transition. I don't see any problem topping raw on canned food.
How to Transition Your Cat to a Raw Meat Diet
https://feline-nutrition.org/nutrition/how-to-transition-your-cat-to-a-raw-diet

Transitioning Feline Dry Food Addicts to Canned Food
https://catinfo.org/docs/TipsForTransitioning1-14-11.pdf

On above articles goal is fully transitioning to raw diet vs. your situation maybe different. One recommendation I've been seeing online is - if your kitty is kibble addict, get rid of all kibble from house, otherwise they can smell and expect it to be served! But I also know many people feed both canned and kibble without issue (i.e. kitty refusing canned).

Yes also watch out for bone contents. I did use S&C freeze dried food in transition phase, and they were ... bony. (I only used Chicken and Duck, not Rabbit).

Not sure about adding premix to canned ... just assume you have to have scale to measure tiny amount of supplement to mix into 3oz can?
Hope you will find food Amber really enjoy eating!

 

[kittyluv387]

You can make your own home made raw and add supplements to it to make it complete. But I'm not sure about adding vitamins to an incomplete canned food. Kinda makes things complicated and hard to figure out which nutrients that can is lacking and how much you gotta add of what. I really recommend doing your own. Also, if your cat is prone to constipation you can't overdo it on bone. You can use eggshell powder as a bone replacement and you'll be able to control the calcium levels better that way. Have you ever tried miralax? One of my boys just has a tendency to be constipated so I give him a 1/8 tsp of miralax twice a day with his meals, with extra water added of course.

 

[sidneykitty]

CHIKITTIES - thanks!! That's helpful. Ha so far tonight she was not into the raw rabbit. We'll try again another time and see but maybe its just not for her.

Good point about the premixes...that would make a lot of sense! I think there must be some reason people don't do it, so maybe that's why. Thanks for the well wishes.

kittyluv387 - Yep that makes a lot of sense now that I think about it. Wouldn't want to overdo anything and end up with some kind of vitamin toxicity or the opposite. Yes, she has been on Miralax for some time now. We recently doubled to 1/2 tsp a day. She's getting glucosamine now, too, for her spine arthritis we incidentally found. Since starting that, I found I actually did have to reduce the Miralax back to 1/4 tsp a day.

 

[Tobermory]

Greetings to another Oregonian!

People have commented, and it’s been my own experience, that some cats like the freeze-dried better than the frozen commercial raw, particularly when starting out. When I first started to feed raw, I tried Rad Cat (now closed, sadly), Primal, Stella & Chewy’s, Small Batch, and Northwest Naturals frozen raw. Lily, 14, and Mocha, 4, ate all of it; Iris, 14, wouldn’t touch any of it. But she does like some of the freeze-dried raw, particularly Stella & Chewy’s Duck Duck Goose. The other two like it dry as a treat, but Iris likes it rehydrated and I’ll give it to her when she regurgitates her regular food (she has a sensitive tummy). S&C does seem to be pretty boney, though, and all three of mine have had constipation issues. You might try NW Naturals. I think the bone content is lower.

You might also try one of the NW Naturals dried liver treats as a topper. Mine adore the pork liver, and I have used it crushed as a topper.

I make my own food, now, and I use eggshell calcium when I make a batch using my own supplements.

Wagonhoffer Meats in Sutherlin, OR, has a frozen ground boneless rabbit that I found at a small independent butcher here locally. I don’t live in Sutherlin and have no idea even where it is, but it’s nice to know that it’s in-state! I buy that and use the EZ Complete pre-mix as one of the girls’ meals.

 

[sidneykitty]

Oh hello!! Nice! I've moved recently from Victoria BC so getting to know the area still.

I think that might be the case for Amber. I tried frozen rabbit and she wasn't interested but she seems to like the freeze dried treats. So I might return the frozen and get some freeze dried and see if she likes that.

I looked at the NW Naturals treats online (don't have them in any stores near me) but I'm wondering how hard are they to crush and put on top? I've got Vital Essentials freeze dried rabbit treats that are so hard and difficult to crumble up. I've got Instinct freeze dried rabbit treats that crumble easily.

Thanks for the recommendation on Sutherline - I'll keep it in mind if we progress to this stage further.