Could Use Some Advice With Raw Feeding

[valentine319]

Probiotic well I liked tummyworks from Amazon. But a Simple and cheap one would be fage Greek plain complete or 5%. I used to put 2 coffee filters in a strainer. Dump the yogurt in the filter and put over a bowl. Stick in the fridge for 1-2 days. It just pulls off extra whey,just pour it down the drain. Wash the container and put the yogurt back in and in the fridge.

You don't have to double strain. Even just plain is great for them. I bought baby plastic spoons (they were on clearance and seemed simpler but not required) and would feed her yogurt 3x a day. If you don't strain then just pour off any liquid you find and don't mix back in.

Expiration date. Unless there's mold its fine it just gets more Greek.

The only issue with yogurt is they expect yogurt anytime you eat it.

 

[valentine319]

After you feeding any treats? What supplements are you using? Are you using fiber?

When my girl was on whole carcass she started getting sick after 3 weeks but that's due to the fur in it. That's why I'm interested if you're using any fiber.

Maybe if you list exactly what you are mixing if there's anything concerning we can chime in. Definitely puzzling.

 

[maureen brad]

Hey! New here and could use some sage wisdom and advice. Apologies for the wall of text, but the devil is in the details, right?

I have a 9mo old shelter kitty, Zaza, who I'm having issues with while getting her onto raw. It's not a matter of wanting to eat it, she adores the stuff; the problem is keeping it down recently.

Within a week of her coming home from the shelter, I transitioned her to canned food no problem. Approximately a month ago, I decided to give Dr. Pierson's recipe a try. I started Z out on just a few small chunks of chicken thigh in with her canned, then by itself, and eventually went full hog and bought all the supplements and made her a full batch of food. She did gloriously for the 3 weeks that batch lasted her. Always cleaned her plate, always excited about her food, etc. When she ran out, I sprung for the fancy Whole Foods Step 2 chicken for the next batch. That's when the issues began...

Within 2 hours of her first meal of the new batch, she vomited pretty violently. I thought maybe she had just eaten too fast or something, so I gave her a couple of hours and then gave her some more food. Everything was fine for the rest of the day until her last meal, when she vomited half an hour after eating. The next day, breakfast went okay, but she vomited lunch and then dinner was fine. I got freaked out and ran her to the vet. He gave her the all clear, admonished me for feeding raw, and said to just switch her back to canned if I'm not going to feed kibble. There was no rhyme or reason I can figure to her episodes: I froze portions in ice cube trays and everything was coming from the same batch, same tray, same bag, prepared and served the same way (heated in warm water, in her favorite low sided dish on her place mat) and at roughly the same times, 7am, 5pm, 11pm. Since there was nothing physically wrong with her, I figured maybe something was wrong with the mix and since I had added another capsule of fish oil to that batch, I placed all the blame on myself. She started avoiding the plate all together, so I just switched her back to canned until yesterday.

I made a new batch, different store brand (which now I'm thinking has entirely too much sodium?? I totally missed the added solution bit on the pack) and I even talked with the meat department who told me that the delivery had literally just come in within the past hour or so, but everything else is exactly like the first batch. I gave her roughly a teaspoon in with 1oz of canned (her normal amount is about 1.5oz/meal). She threw up within 2 hours of the first meal again. Tried a 1/4tsp raw all on its own, and she threw up within half an hour. Ran her back to the vet, he says she's fine, "maybe she's just not made for this raw stuff," and switch her back to canned. I swear I'd take her to another vet, but I live in an area where it'd cost me almost $200 just to get in the door for the majority of them and I can't afford that.

So, other than the possible sodium issue with this batch --which wasn't an issue for the fancy pants Whole Foods chicken thighs -- can anyone shed a little light on what might be going on? She's eaten chicken flavored everything since day one, and I always stuck to poultry flavors with her canned foods, so I'm not understanding how it could be an allergic reaction or anything. While she does bolt her food, she does this with everything I give her, so I'm not sure why she doesn't throw up with everything else. She's a spunky little thing and keeps on trying for me, but I feel just awful since she doesn't know why her body is betraying her and acts horrified that she's capable of such a thing.

My cats sometimes bolt down their food and it comes back up. They also seem horrified that it came out of their mouth too.I would just feed her a little bit at a time, it is a pain in the butt, but, if you do that you may figure out what is making her vomit. Is the food at all cold? Or is it red meat? Those things can sometimes result in vomiting. I know if I haven't warmed their food enough, they will still bolt it but, vomit.

 

[1 bruce 1]

My cats sometimes bolt down their food and it comes back up. They also seem horrified that it came out of their mouth too.I would just feed her a little bit at a time, it is a pain in the butt, but, if you do that you may figure out what is making her vomit. Is the food at all cold? Or is it red meat? Those things can sometimes result in vomiting. I know if I haven't warmed their food enough, they will still bolt it but, vomit.

We have a bolter and will hoark it all back up, but we've taken to giving her an extra meal mid day (and lessening the volume of the two other meals) and she's been better =)

 

[valentine319]

My girl can’t handle waiting 10 hours. I added a meal. I will give the exemption. If for some reason she’s super excited I made new food and vacuums up the food in under a minute. She does the same. You get that sad face,”but it was in my belly why is it on the floor?” Because you inhaled it. It happens less often. If it does I do refeed her in 30 minutes to an hour.

 

[coffeeharlot]

Sorry for the lateness! Things got a little crazy around here.

valentine319 : I feed her at 6am, 3pm, and 10pm so she's never going longer than 8 hours between meals. I've also tried giving her a treat at bedtime (around midnight) and another in the morning, but still she vomits at the 3 week mark. No vomit before that 3 week mark and nothing changes during that time.
I do watch her eat, mostly because I initially thought she was eating too fast.

2-3. Most of the regurgitation stories I've read seem to indicate it happens fairly quickly, though, and with Z it could be 1-2 hours after she'd eaten. I have been splitting her meals into smaller portions (I give her 1oz canned, wait half an hour, give her another 1oz), but I can't tell you if that's the problem with the raw because it's canned food right now, hah. I already spread the food out on the plate so she has to work for it since she would inhale her canned food unless I smeared it around.

4. I'm not adding fiber, but I'm starting to wonder if I need to.

5. All of my supplements were directly from Dr. Pierson's website or catnutrition.org: Nature's Made Fish oil 1200mg/360mg Omega-3 (2 capsules only), Nature's Way B-50 Complex (1 capsule), Source Naturals loose Taurine powder (roughly 2025mg), Now vegetarian Dry E-400 (1 capsule), Morton Lite Salt (1 tsp). I tried using the recipe at feline-nutrition.org since their's is a little different from Pierson's, but with the same results of Z vomiting at 3 weeks.

6. I was concerned it was the fish oil initially making her sick, which is why I kept to 2 capsules (2400mg) and not the 5,000-10,000 that Pierson suggests in her recipe. Thanks for the links to the unscented fish oil! I think I might get that for the next batch, if for no other reason than the smell of fish makes me gag. As for the Nature's Made, it just smells of fish, not at all rancid. I have no idea quality-wise, though.

 

[coffeeharlot]

valentine319 : Oh! I didn't even think about trying Greek yogurt on her! I use it for the dogs, but generally avoid anything dairy for the cat. I'll go pick up a cup tonight.

Unless there's mold its fine it just gets more Greek.

I just bust out laughing. I thought I was the only one who believed in this!!

Z gets a single Temptations soft middle treat at night (it's her "dessert") and dehydrated chicken pieces in the morning or when she has to go in the carrier, that's it.

maureen brad : The food is warm, not at all cold. Only chicken and their various parts, no red meat.

And as for the bolting of food, she does this with everything. Canned, dry, raw, her treats, that piece of lettuce that fell on the floor (it was smothered in mayo), but she only ever vomits with the raw food, and it's not until the 3 week mark that she starts.

 

[Catlover579]

Have you tried feeding Rad Cat? My cat really likes the venison and i give him some of the turkey little bit but his favorite is venison. I feed that along with orijen dry and my cat loves it. I highly suggest rad cat though! It's already nutritionally balanced so no need for adding supplements and has no veggies.

 

[coffeeharlot]

I haven't had a chance to go to the little shop that carries Rad Cat yet for some samples, but it's definitely on my list of things to try!

 

[valentine319]

valentine319 : Oh! I didn't even think about trying Greek yogurt on her! I use it for the dogs, but generally avoid anything dairy for the cat. I'll go pick up a cup tonight.

I just bust out laughing. I thought I was the only one who believed in this!!

Z gets a single Temptations soft middle treat at night (it's her "dessert") and dehydrated chicken pieces in the morning or when she has to go in the carrier, that's it.

maureen brad : The food is warm, not at all cold. Only chicken and their various parts, no red meat.

And as for the bolting of food, she does this with everything. Canned, dry, raw, her treats, that piece of lettuce that fell on the floor (it was smothered in mayo), but she only ever vomits with the raw food, and it's not until the 3 week mark that she starts.

Mine had issues with dehydrated rabbit. This could have been user error on my part. I was just feeding her little pieces no water added. It was pretty fast that she'd vomit later. With mine this happened really fast.

I'm still leaning toward her needing an extra meal. Leaving her eating no later than every 7 hours. This could be just to be her needing this for say a year to get stablized.

Carb content and lactose in yogurt. This is determined at the beginning of making yogurt. The bacteria eats the sugar. They do not make the label adjusting the final yogurt sugar content, it was made at the beginning sugar content (unless updated but haven't seen labels change). I believe it's about 4 grams of lactose per 6 oz. It's really low and you are not feeding 4 ounces to a cat a day.

Someone can correct me if this is wrong. I was told straining yogurt again (i do it with 2 coffee filters in a strainer put into a bowl to catch the draining whey) lowers the sugar in the whey.

I did research it and what I found said toss of you see mold otherwise it's good. Now I'm going to add a disclaimer. Fage has active cultures. Some yogurts were found with little to no cultures. They had to reformulate to add some cultures. I think they were the flavored small ones that weren't greek.

I believe we're all safer with a Greek plain if looking fo probiotics. The more tart taste if you've left Greek in the fridge is just the good bacteria replicating more. While I use fage there are other good plain greek yogurts out there. They are good for cats, dogs and humans.

 

[valentine319]

Have you tried feeding Rad Cat? My cat really likes the venison and i give him some of the turkey little bit but his favorite is venison. I feed that along with orijen dry and my cat loves it. I highly suggest rad cat though! It's already nutritionally balanced so no need for adding supplements and has no veggies.

I thought dry food and raw were not Recommended. I just wanted to mention if you did not know.

 

[Catlover579]

I thought dry food and raw were not Recommended. I just wanted to mention if you did not know.

Hmm really? I never heard of that. Do you happen to know the reason? He's been doing fine on it so I don't know. He mostly eats dry because that's what he prefers. He is not a fan of wet foods. So I am happy he will at least eat rad cat. He doesn't eat much of it. Just a bit in the morning and maybe sometimes in the afternoon/evening. He loves his dry food. He drinks plenty of water though during the day and sometimes I mix in a little water with the dry to make sure he's getting enough moisture.

 

[coffeeharlot]

Her treats are like jerky pieces, not the dehydrated foods like Stella and Chewy's or anything. She's never seemed to have an issue with them.

I know other people use yogurt with their cats with no issues. I just had one guy who was seriously bad with even the thought of lactose, so I moved away from it. Z had a little taste last night and didn't seem particularly thrilled, but I'm going to try mixing a teensy bit in with her canned to see how she does with it.

I'll see if I can manage another meal or two and go from there.

 

[orange&white]

Hmm really? I never heard of that. Do you happen to know the reason?

Cats produce high stomach acid production to digest raw meat. The carbs in kibble produce a more alkaline stomach acid to digest plant matter. So you sort of have a "battle" with the acidity level of digestive juices. That's the theory.

Some people space a few hours between offering a raw meal and kibble, and that seems to work out all right. Cats' digestive tracts are very short, so food is processed pretty quickly.

 

[valentine319]

Her treats are like jerky pieces, not the dehydrated foods like Stella and Chewy's or anything. She's never seemed to have an issue with them.

I know other people use yogurt with their cats with no issues. I just had one guy who was seriously bad with even the thought of lactose, so I moved away from it. Z had a little taste last night and didn't seem particularly thrilled, but I'm going to try mixing a teensy bit in with her canned to see how she does with it.

I'll see if I can manage another meal or two and go from there.

If she doesn't care for the yogurt then I wouldn't worry about it too much. The extra meal doesn't have to be perfectly spaced. It's just enough to kinda keep from long periods with no food. I found mine started having issues after 8 hours. My thought is we just need to get their digestive tract used to the change.

This is just a thought but if their digestion changes over 3 weeks to be more appropriate to handle raw. Maybe more acidic. They may need food every 8 hours while their body adjusts. It's just a theory. If you were feeding whole carcass I could see the fur building up but that's not it.