Frankenprey to commercial

[phantasmox]

People probably don't usually go this direction, but I'd like to switch my kitty, Magaera, from frankenprey (to kibble) to commercial raw. She's only 9 months old and I immediately started her on raw when I adopted her earlier this year. I've since gotten a lot busier and moved to an apartment with practically no counter-space for food prep, leaving me struggling to be able to keep up with her diet

 On top of all that, I ended up fostering a pregnant cat and am now fostering her kittens. They're are all weaned, so there is always dry food out for them to eat freely. You can probably tell how that went. I gave up on forcing her to eat her own food now that I've run out and so everyone is on the kibble (at least it's high quality, grain-free

). Mama found a home and in a month, the kittens will all go to their own forever homes. I want to switch her back to raw when that happens but with my current time and space constraints, I seriously considered leaving her on the kibble. I really don't want to do that though because she was doing so well on raw, and now she's gaining a lot of weight. I feel like going the commercial raw route is a happy medium. It's all very overwhelming though, and I'm not sure where to start.

Are all commercial raw foods ground? Are there actual chunks of meat in the freeze-dried formulas once they're rehydrated? I know a lot of the benefit in feeding raw is in the work it takes to tear through meat and crunch bones, so I want to stay away from that, if possible. Do any of them contain whole bones? I'm willing to supplement with chicken wings if there aren't any that do, but I don't want to overload her with bone and I know that the ground commercial formulas already have bone in them. What does "single source protein" mean? Is that better than multiple-sourced? When I fed frankenprey, I rotated beef, pork, and chicken (and whole mice from time to time).

 

[ldg]

If your kitty isn't sensitive to proteins, the single-source protein foods don't matter. All of them are ground, none have chunks of anything. So if you want her chewing bone, you'd have to give her chicken wings, some cornish hen or something. The whole mice are always good for her, you could give her those for a meal several times a week, or as treats. A good way to give her something gritty to chew on without additional bone is gizzards.

Nature's Variety targets a higher bone percentage than most of the others, so you may want to use Primal or Bravo balanced blends. Vital Essentials is often available locally, but doesn't have the fruits/veggies the others do. Stella & Chewy's is a great dehydrated (meant for rehydration) food to have on hand for a quick meal.

 

[phantasmox]

If your kitty isn't sensitive to proteins, the single-source protein foods don't matter. All of them are ground, none have chunks of anything. So if you want her chewing bone, you'd have to give her chicken wings, some cornish hen or something. The whole mice are always good for her, you could give her those for a meal several times a week, or as treats. A good way to give her something gritty to chew on without additional bone is gizzards.

Nature's Variety targets a higher bone percentage than most of the others, so you may want to use Primal or Bravo balanced blends. Vital Essentials is often available locally, but doesn't have the fruits/veggies the others do. Stella & Chewy's is a great dehydrated (meant for rehydration) food to have on hand for a quick meal.

Oooh, I didn't know about the gizzards. I'll probably do that then! The mice were easier when she was younger and more excitable haha. The last couple times I gave one to her, she threw it all around the house rather than eating them, so I don't know if I'll try them again.

 

[ritz]

I think commercial raw is a fine way to do Raw. At www.catcentric.org, under "Special Features", left hand side, is a comparison of many commercial raw products. And as LDG indicated, unless your cat has known allergies, you can mix protein foods in the same meal/day. Some cats aren't allergic to a particular protein per se, but (like Ritz) can't handle red meat or bone on an empty stomach (going for 10-12 hours without eating). Just something to keep in the back of your mind.