Freeze Dried Raw Questions?

[rayne]

So in an effort to get my newly adopted cats on a better diet ( they were eating FF gravy lovers and RC kibble ) and were soooooo gassy...ugh. I tried S+C freeze dried...well they really like it, but not re-hydrated, they like the little nuggets right out of the bag. I am fighting a losing battle with my kibble junkie, so I got them transitioned to Instinct Raw Boost Kibble, however they go right for the dehydrated chunks of raw, like kids picking out the marshmallows and eating just those. They eventually eat the kibble but they love those little dehydrated chunks! Do you really have to hydrate the S+C? They are still on the FF gravy lovers and I tried adding the S+C to that ( just sprinkled on ) and they wont touch it, but if i give them a dehydrated nugget they gobble it up...sigh...any advice?

 

[mschauer]

No, you don't have to rehydrate freeze dried products. It just helps a lot in ensuring they get enough water.

 

[daftcat75]

Do they drink enough water? If so, you probably don't need to rehydrate. Though I would try to add a few drops of water to it, not enough to rehydrate but just enough to annoy your fussy eaters. Figure out if there's an upper limit to how much moisture they will tolerate on the chunks and see if you can push that limit a little every few days.

 

[soubida]

Same with my cat when we first got her lol. I started by crumbling them and mixing them into her kibble, and rehydrating one nugget a day and eventually increasing the amount of rehydrated food I have her. Eventually one day she refused her kibble all together and only wanted the rehydrated stuff (it actually happened really suddenly lol). So don't give up hope, especially since your cats are still kittens... My cat was 6.5 when I started transitioning her from all kibble to all dehydrated raw (still working on transitioning to the real stuff).

 

[zobothehobo]

My cats much preferred the Steve's freeze dried to Steve's raw or rehydrated so I usually feed them less than their recommended amount and supplement with goat's milk if they're being picky.