Cat grass for passing bone?

[lilin]

Hey, guys. I'm a relatively new raw feeder, and I have some cat grass that's just about ready to be put down. I have been reading a lot about bone and how cat's stomachs deal with it, and in some cases, how they fail to. The latter is what I want to avoid.

I've also read that one of the theories on why cats eat grass, despite little nutritional benefit, is that it acts as a laxative and/or a vomit inducer that helps them move bone fragments, fur, and other indigestables through their systems.

I was thinking maybe I should offer it a few hours after she's been fed, and perhaps this will help make sure bone is moving through efficiently once all the nutritional value has been extracted from it.

I'm learning there's more to raw feeding than just giving them the right prey in the right balance. There's a whole system of how cats eat raw that allows them to deal with it optimally, and I don't want to miss anything.

Does anyone use grass for this? Has anyone ever heard of this theory of why cats eat it? Does it work?

 

[carolina]

My cats vomit when they eat grass.... All of them. You want to make sure they digest the bone; they are eating it for the calcium in it- it is vital in their diet. If they vomit it up you would defeat this purpose :dk:
I really don't see a point, and I have not read that theory in raw feeding... But maybe it's me.

 

[lilin]

My cats vomit when they eat grass.... All of them. You want to make sure they digest the bone; they are eating it for the calcium in it- it is vital in their diet. If they vomit it up you would defeat this purpose

I really don't see a point, and I have not read that theory in raw feeding... But maybe it's me.

The point to it is that apparently, while bone has value and much of it is absorbed and broken down, some of the bone isn't digestable.

And you can see lots of posts around here of cats passing bone fragments, mostly without incident or concern, so there must be some truth to that, because there are bone fragments in the GI tract and feces.

Also, after several hours, raw food should be pretty much digested. If they were vomitting up actual food after several hours, on a raw diet, that's not normal.

 

[ravencorbie]

I've been trying to find out more about digesting bone because my mom is convinced that I'll kill my cat if I give her a raw chicken wing. You wrote, "I have been reading a lot about bone and how cat's stomachs deal with it, and in some cases, how they fail to." Where did you find this information? So far, all I've found is that bone is only a problem if it's cooked, but there was no other detailed information about this. Also, on Dr. Pierson's site, she grinds her bones as thin as possible because of HER worries about larger bone chunks.I really want to transition to a raw, probably Frankenprey or frozen whole prey, diet (I can't afford a grinder and don't really want to grind food), but I'm still worried about the bone. Ideally, I'd like links to actual studies. I've already read through most of what was at Feline Nutrition and catinfo. I have the other resources (from the Resource thread here) open in other tabs, but it's still hard to find anything on bones, other than that they're good for tooth and gum health and shouldn't be cooked.If anyone could help, that would be great! Thanks in advance.

 

[ldg]

Cats, unless they already have digestive problems, deal with digesting bone - for the most part - just fine.

It's just that a cat that has been eating a commercially processed diet doesn't have the proper pH in their systems yet to properly digest bones at first. How long it takes them, once eating raw, to adjust their internal pH to the lower acidity needed to more effectively digest bones, I don't know. I've just read an article in Whole Dog Journal about how in a dog it takes one to two weeks - but that's assuming a full raw diet, not a partial raw diet in transition.

An x-ray of one of my constipated cats when we first transitioned was done, and there were ground bones (I was feeding ground) from stomach to colon. She wasn't "full" of them, but there were a number of small pieces. This x-ray was taken about 2 months into it, but she wasn't on a 100% raw diet for ... over a month? Six weeks? And she was almost 10 years old when we transitioned to raw. I don't know how age factors into their ability to manage the transition.

 

[ravencorbie]

I'm mostly worried about non-ground bones, particularly when it comes to getting bone shards stuck anywhere in the digestive tract. I don't want my cat to have internal injuries. I know cats in the wild eat whole bones, but I don't know the longevity % of wild cats, and how much of that is related to internal injuries caused by bones. Probably the most common source of death would be bigger predators (even our neighbor's house cats have been killed by predators like coyotes and owls), but I don't want to feed big bone pieces if there's a risk of injury. I believe that probably it's not a concern, and that only cooked bones are a problem, but I'd like more sources for that.

 

[lilin]

Cats in the wild can die from internal injuries from bone, although it's not as common as it is with dogs and wolves (who tend to be less meticulous eaters). That's why it's advisable to watch them as they eat a whole bone and make sure they aren't taking on more than they can chew, so to speak.

My kitty eats 100% commercial raw, so the bones are all ground. The issue I worry about is mainly just them getting caught in hairballs or congregating someplace in her GI tract. I've been reading, though I've found no studies because no one fully knows why cats do this, that some wild cats eat grass for the purpose of helping them move the undigestable leftovers of their prey, such as some components of bone, and fur.

Pia doesn't seem interested in eating the grass (though she does like to run her face through it), and her feces are very pale -- which indicates to me that undisgestable bits of bone are successfully passing through her system. That is a normal color of feces for a raw fed cat.

However, I am still considering adding maybe a bit of probiotic or enzyme to her food, just for a safe way to add that little boost of toughness that she doesn't get from an indoor life and sterile food.

So perhaps I will just keep it around. If she feels she needs it, she'll eat some of it. And a change in her feces can also be a tip off that something isn't right.

But perhaps I am just worrying more than is necessary.

 

[ldg]

Well, the key there is just introducing bones properly, and using appropriate bones. Think mouse. Small bones - and cut up at first.

I was scared of bones for my older cats. The first bone-in meal I offered, however, was the two smaller pieces of chicken wing. But you could start with cornish hen wings or ribs - even smaller. :nod: I had to cut them up into pieces, because most of my cats just sat there staring at them at first. :lol3: One of my cats was a "3 or 4" year old feral when we rescued him, and he knows what to do with bones. He picked up that piece of wing, started chomping, and then swallowed it whole. That's exactly how my ferals eat mice. They grab it, snap the neck with that head shake. Then they kind of toss it around until it is head first. Then they chomp on it a few times, and swallow it whole. That's how the cats eat those small chicken wing bones.

So you don't just put out a bone. It's a bone surrounded by muscle and skin. And ktty crunches it up in its package of meat and skin, and swallows it in the meat and skin.

But if you're really worried about it, start the transition with meat and using eggshell as the source of calcium. When it's been a few weeks to a month and they're eating 100% raw, then introduce bones - you'll know their systems are acidic enough to manage them.

In the meantime, you can also offer them chicken gizzards. Those are really chewy, and help build-up their jaw strength.

Raw bones aren't hard, they're quite soft, actually. Have you ever tried to use scissors to cut the small bone of a chicken wing? Buy some - give them a bend with your fingers, and try cutting them. They're very soft and pliable.