Best beef cut?

[charlismom]

What would be the best cut of beef for raw fed kitty?  I want to get her some beef to try, and just want to know what the best cut would be.  We tried a little beef a couple months ago, she really wanted nothing to do with it, at that time I had just grabbed some beef cubes at the market, but I want to try again with her and was wondering what the best recommended cut would be?  Thanks for your help.

 

[ritz]

Pure guess here, but maybe veal (young cow). I would avoid beef heart.
And did she object to the taste or texture? Here is a list of beef cuts that might help you. Maybe ground versus chunks?
A *general* rule of thumb is that white meat is milder than dark meat.
You might also try to mix a little beef with a lot of protein you know your kitty likes. Or, put the tiny piece of beef next to the other protein. Each cat is different and may prefer one transition tip to the other.
Ritz has no preference--she'll eat anything.

 

[charlismom]

Thanks so much Ritz. 

I will try a little veal, as you said.  I don't think it's the texture, as she would eat chunks of chicken, chicken necks chopped.

Right now she's on a kick of whole ground rabbit.  I think it's all about taste right now.  She found she likes the rabbit better than

the chicken, so now she won't touch the chicken.  Today I put a little bit of ground chicken along with a little chunk of chicken next to her rabbit.  She licked it a little, ate the chunk, then ate all the rabbit and left the rest of the chicken. 

Let me back up a bit, and tell you how this changed.  She was on raw, eating  pretty much anything and everything I would put in front of her.  (except beef, she didn't want that)

Then on Oct. 16 she ate very little, next morning wanted nothing, I got nervous took her to vet she had a fever.  Couldn't find exactly what was causing it,

doc put her on clavamox...the clavamox did NOT agree with her at all, she got super sick from it, vomiting, poops, all bad.  So I stopped that immediately, and was feeding her baby food (just the pure meat...beef, chicken, turkey) for a couple days until she felt better.  From that I gave her some canned food, Wild Calling chicken, turkey or duck.  I didn't want to give her raw until I was comfortable her natural gut bacteria was back to normal.  She was eating that, but not with the great gusto she shows to her raw food.  After that, and feeling that her gut bacteria was back to normal, I started giving a little raw...which was rabbit.

So that's the short version of how I ended up here, with her only wanting her rabbit now.

What bothers me is I never did find out what caused that original fever, and in the back of my head I always wonder if it could be food

related, but I don't know. 

So now I'm just slowly trying to get her to eat more than rabbit.  She's been a rabbit only girl for a couple weeks now, it is whole rabbit with bone and organs, and I did add Alnutrin so she has nutritionally what she needs.  I just think even with the Alnutrin  and the whole rabbit she really needs to have more variety, right?

Thank you.

 

[ritz]

She probably connects getting sick with the beef, so I wouldn't give her any beef for now at least.
And yes, ideally, a cat should be eating three to five proteins; but some cats can only eat one due to allergies, and they are okay.
What organs are you feeding her? Maybe see if she will eat beef liver or beef kidney. On the other hand, you might try freeze dried beef liver.Haretoday has a number of freeze dried organs you might try for variety sake.

Impossible to say/tell why she didn't want to eat that one day; maybe she simply wasn't hungry?
Are you giving her a probiotic; if now, I would advise you to do so. I am currently giving Ritz this, but any good quality probiotic for humans is fine like this one. (I got tired of opening a gel capsule so that's why I switched to a powder.)