Hi all, every so often, I re-visit the largely Frankenprey diet I'm feeding Ava and Kato, to make sure it is ok and I'm doing it 'right' while continually improving my knowledge.
So, I've not had my mind on calcium for a while, dealing with other issues like getting them to eat organs and doing food trials. And the one thing they ate pretty well was their bone-in meals. I actually feed boney meals every day, averaging one rabbit per cat each 2 weeks (1/14th of a rabbit each day per cat). Because I couldn't find the actual percentage break-down of bone in rabbit, I went with a 30% assumption for the whole animal (carcass for human meals, so not including organs or innards, heads, feet etc). And I also went with the assumption that if the cats stripped the bones without eating them at some meals (which they do), and crunched on through them at others (they do this too), this was a 'natural' form of self regulating - I'm thinking not all gets eaten in the wild at every meal.
Poos are ok and pretty consistent. (Now thankfully, after all that effort with Ava's illness!)
Their typical diet is 70g(Kato)-100g(Ava) meat (variety), a portion of dried liver to just under 10% (I calculated and weighed, now it's by eye), 1/14th of a rabbit. In addition, about 1/2 can of food (can is single serve size), plus a handful of ziwipeak 'dry raw' for Ava (Kato hates the stuff, but eats no problems without the 'sweetener' - Ava likes an 'apperitif' before getting into her meal).
However, I'm thinking about adding some Calcium powder (if they'll eat it) to meals as a 'safety net'. So my question is, is too much calcium dangerous? Is it just the constipation issue I need to monitor?
So, I've not had my mind on calcium for a while, dealing with other issues like getting them to eat organs and doing food trials. And the one thing they ate pretty well was their bone-in meals. I actually feed boney meals every day, averaging one rabbit per cat each 2 weeks (1/14th of a rabbit each day per cat). Because I couldn't find the actual percentage break-down of bone in rabbit, I went with a 30% assumption for the whole animal (carcass for human meals, so not including organs or innards, heads, feet etc). And I also went with the assumption that if the cats stripped the bones without eating them at some meals (which they do), and crunched on through them at others (they do this too), this was a 'natural' form of self regulating - I'm thinking not all gets eaten in the wild at every meal.
Poos are ok and pretty consistent. (Now thankfully, after all that effort with Ava's illness!)
Their typical diet is 70g(Kato)-100g(Ava) meat (variety), a portion of dried liver to just under 10% (I calculated and weighed, now it's by eye), 1/14th of a rabbit. In addition, about 1/2 can of food (can is single serve size), plus a handful of ziwipeak 'dry raw' for Ava (Kato hates the stuff, but eats no problems without the 'sweetener' - Ava likes an 'apperitif' before getting into her meal).
However, I'm thinking about adding some Calcium powder (if they'll eat it) to meals as a 'safety net'. So my question is, is too much calcium dangerous? Is it just the constipation issue I need to monitor?
ratio when using this source of calcium.
