Can A Raw Diet Be Switched Back To Canned If Necessary?

[Dacatchair]

My 6 month old kitten has become an extremely unpredictable and picky eater. I started out with him gobbling up a can or more of Wild Calling or Whole Earth grain free cat food, but he hated the organic dry chicken and rice kibble I offered him. Then I tried him on Orijen Chicken/ fish/ egg dry kibble and he loves that, to the point getting him to eat canned cat food is hard work and I usually end up having to throw out 1/2 the can. Crushing up Orijen and sprinkling it on top helps, but not always. I have been having a bit better luck with Weruva but not consistently. He will usually happily eat the first 1/4 of a new can, the next 1/4 reluctantly, and the last 1/2 usually ends up in the compost. I have tried warming it, and that makes no difference.

He also has a peculiar passion for nibbling bits of whole wheat and water raw bread dough, dried and now he has discovered dried bits in the kneading bowl. And today he badly wanted to share my oatmeal. When I say passion, I mean he reacts to this the way most cats do to pill pockets!

So I am wondering if he might do better on a raw diet. There is currently a store in our small town that offers frozen raw in the right proportions, but when I said I would be interested trying him on this and wondered if they might have and sample packets, I was told making this switch would have to be a life time commitment and I would not be able to switch him back to canned. Is that true? it doesn't really make sense to me as lots of cats hunt and eat what they catch in varying amounts, and also eat canned and kibble. I can't be sure I will be able to do this for the rest of his life..

If I can't figure out something soon I may have to give up and just let him eat good quality kibble. He has access to a pond, water dish and other moving water sources, and he drinks a lot of water. I want him to have a healthy diet, but I can't afford to keep buying good quality canned cat food if I am going to have to throw out 1/2 of it.

 

[Ardina]

It's certainly not a lifetime commitment. A lot of people feed canned and raw simultaneously during the transition and even long term. It's not recommended to feed dry and raw together because they have very different digestion times that can cause stomach upset. But you can switch from raw back to canned/dry if it doesn't work out.

Part of the reason I switched to raw was because my picky cat would do the same as your kitten. I'd thrown away so much wet food that out of desperation I tried raw. And she loved it! Raw can also be far cheaper than good quality canned, and she licks the plate clean. So it worked out great. What brand are you thinking of trying?

 

[Dacatchair]

Thanks for the response! I am not sure what the brand was. I saw it sitting in a freezer and it was a bundle of packages. But I will find out more now I know it doesn't have to be a permanent commitment. If the store carrying this leaves our small community making sure I feed a balanced raw diet could be difficult, especially as I live out of town and do not get in regularly.

 

[orange&white]

That is so ridiculous for a retail person to tell you that any diet you choose for your cat is "permanent".

I fed my 3 cats and 2 dogs a raw diet from 2008 into 2013, then quit because one of my cats (the "weird about food" cat) decided one day that raw food was off his meal plan. He had suffered hepatic lipidosis earlier in life, so he got to eat whatever he wanted to eat. In 2013, he decided to eat nothing but kibble the last few years of his life. Unfortunately, having kibble out for him meant that the other 2 cats slowly transitioned themselves back to mainly kibble as well.

Anyway, you can change your cat's diet to whatever your cat is willing to eat.

 

[Dacatchair]

Thanks for the information! It is appreciated, and if I do not have to worry about switching things around if circumstances change, I will look into this more as an option! Even though he seems to enjoy the dry kibble, I get the feeling he often has a hankering for something I am not offering. Maybe it is raw.

Before I spend $30 on a large package of frozen raw packets I first need to see whether he likes raw. So I need to do a bit of research to figure out what I could safely try him out on as an experiment.

 

[orange&white]

I make my cats' food from scratch, so I'm no expert on prepared brands, but I think some of the manufacturer's or specialty stores offer free samples or coupons. Someone else may know more details.

 

[Ardina]

Before you buy a large amount of raw cat food, you can try him out on whatever raw meat you buy for yourself at the grocery store (as long as it's not ground meat or "enhanced" with additional sodium). Some cats may object to the chunks but be willing to eat ground meat, so it's not a perfect test. But if you chop up the meat finely, it may work.

 

[lalagimp]

I tried the boys on commercial raw from Nature's Variety and I emailed them that I would like to try it because of my boy's medical issues and that I was switching him from their product line of kibble, and they sent me several $3 off coupons and I think the medallions are something like $26 a bag for chicken. I know the local pet store down in town has Rad Cat I think can be purchased in smaller quantities.
Plain raw meat does put out a feeler to see if they will maybe recognize it as food, but the flavor changes when you add the supplements. As for going back to canned... I dropped a can on the floor and my boys ate it. It was intended for the girls but the boys were fine. No vomiting. I make their own food.

 

[valentine319]

I think small samples and trying some raw is great. Canned and raw are used together.

As others have said it's not a lifetime commitment. Things can change. The key is your cat must eat the food. Even when being told a pet must eat a certain food for a health condition, it's worthless if kitty won't eat it.

If seems to be easier to get them used to different food when younger. Don't forget fortiflora if you are having an issue with kitty eating either.

 

[Dacatchair]

Thanks! I am glad to know trying him on raw is OK! I will try and find something I can get in a small portion to see if raw may be what he is missing and also see if I can get foriflora locally! I live on a medium small island so some specialty stuff is not available locally. But I am thinking ready made smaller packets of raw cat food will probably be sold somewhere here.

 

[Dacatchair]

I bought a $15 bag of raw ready to eat irRAWistable chicken pucks today, defrosted one and my cat LOVED it!!! First time I have seen him eat and seem to really enjoy it in a month. Meowed for more and was excited to see me getting more for him! And he ate every last bit of what I gave him! I am really glad to find a solution! Thanks!

 

[lisahe]

We feed our cats a combination of commercial raw, homecooked, and canned foods, which works really well for them and for us. A lot of cats -- including ours -- easily get bored with their food, though ours seem to be willing to eat very slight variations on the same freeze-dried raw foods twice a day as long as they get a rotating menu of three other small meals a day. I don't think we could get away with feeding them just one element of their diet! (And most definitely not canned food alone!)

 

[maureen brad]

I have found over the years that my cats eat dependably on a raw diet. This of course requires the transition period. Very recently one of my cats has begun to get a little picky. I do think that is because I had a bag of kibble in my pantry. Usually I keep it in my car and it is for a ferel cat I feed. I forgot it was in the house and over two nights I noticed Jack kept nudging the pantry door open and going inside, on the second night I heard the rustling of a bag and crunching noises. He had eaten a hole in the bottom of the bag of kibble, Twerp!Kibble is back in my trunk. Anyway I think he is holding out trying to get me to feed kibble. He is eating but, he used to wolf down the raw , now he walks away for a few minutes and stares at me.Very manipulative but, he ends up eating the raw. That darned kibble is so addictive I find it best not to have in the house. As far as canned, my cats do better with the raw.

 

[lisahe]

maureen brad , that's very funny (sort of!) what you say about Jack eating a hole in the kibble bag: our cats did the same thing when we had a bag of it in our mudroom, to go to the animal shelter! They'd already been switched from dry food, smelled the stuff, and dug in.

Our cats also do much better on raw and homemade food than canned, too, and thank goodness they're less picky about variety with raw and homemade than canned as well!

 

[Dacatchair]

So... My success story with the raw was very short lived. My 6 month old kitten ate the first defrosted puck of balanced chicken mix with great enthusiasm, and has since refused to even lick any of the next 2 defrosted pucks I offered him. And he would not even try the sample of raw ground rabbit mix I offered him. I am beginning to suspect he has some other underlying health problem as he appears to have lost weight over the past month. He is still eating the minimum required Orijen dry food which contains a lot of dehydrated raw, though his preferences have shifted away from the chicken to the red meat. As he drinks lots of water, at this point I just want to get as much of this into him as possible until I can figure out why he seems to not only have stopped growing the past month, but is also loosing weight.

 

[orange&white]

Sounds like he needs to go to the vet. Kittens should never lose weight. Hope you figure out what the issue is and that it's something easy to treat.

 

[Dacatchair]

Thanks! I am planning a trip to the vet. I am also hoping it is not anything serious or that whatever it is can be easily fixed... But I am feeling quite worried about my fur baby at this point.

 

[orange&white]

Just get him to eat any kind of food he will eat until you can have your vet check him out.

Good vibes your way.

 

[Dacatchair]

Thanks Orange&white. The good vibes are appreciated!