- Joined
- Apr 25, 2015
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So I've been feeding a combination of raw whole with bone, raw ground and occasional canned food to my two indoor-only cats for over 6 months. It took a while to transition completely out of dry but it's been going good for them.
I always freeze raw food for at least 4-5 days before I feed the cats. I've always been convinced that I was doing my best to sufficiently protect both my cats and myself from all the major scary parasites/bacteria/virus etc.
I didn't think too much about it even through my pregnancy - I'm currently 32 weeks. But last week, we had a rat come into our small apartment. My entire apartment is netted and there's no way in just this tiny window in the kitchen that is occasionally left open - very rarely - but we got unlucky. So anyway, the rat comes in and was probably there for 2-3 days since I work from home I noticed some chewed stuff. My domestic kitties do nothing about the rat - lol. I think there might have been a chase at night with some things peculiarly out of place in the kitchen. However, the cats were very curious around where it was hiding which helped us catch it in a rat trap and release it far, far away from home.
I did completely empty out all the cabinets and scrubbed everything but I really don't know if my cats touched the rat?
Anyway, this incident aroused my fear of toxoplasmosis. I've been chronically googling info about toxo all day - I'm going a bit crazy - I need answers !
- Is it truly safe to feed pre-frozen raw food to cats when you are pregnant? (some websites say that cooking is the only way to kill the parasite )
- Is it possible that touching a rat and then licking paws etc., could cause the cats to get toxoplasmosis?
- I don't clean the litterbox but let's face it, there might be some trace fecal matter stuck around a cat's butt. I play with my cats and sometimes they sleep on my bed. Is that safe?
Honestly, if someone can even help me with Q1, it would help ease my fears GREATLY. Thank you ever so much!!!
I always freeze raw food for at least 4-5 days before I feed the cats. I've always been convinced that I was doing my best to sufficiently protect both my cats and myself from all the major scary parasites/bacteria/virus etc.
I didn't think too much about it even through my pregnancy - I'm currently 32 weeks. But last week, we had a rat come into our small apartment. My entire apartment is netted and there's no way in just this tiny window in the kitchen that is occasionally left open - very rarely - but we got unlucky. So anyway, the rat comes in and was probably there for 2-3 days since I work from home I noticed some chewed stuff. My domestic kitties do nothing about the rat - lol. I think there might have been a chase at night with some things peculiarly out of place in the kitchen. However, the cats were very curious around where it was hiding which helped us catch it in a rat trap and release it far, far away from home.
I did completely empty out all the cabinets and scrubbed everything but I really don't know if my cats touched the rat?
Anyway, this incident aroused my fear of toxoplasmosis. I've been chronically googling info about toxo all day - I'm going a bit crazy - I need answers !
- Is it truly safe to feed pre-frozen raw food to cats when you are pregnant? (some websites say that cooking is the only way to kill the parasite )
- Is it possible that touching a rat and then licking paws etc., could cause the cats to get toxoplasmosis?
- I don't clean the litterbox but let's face it, there might be some trace fecal matter stuck around a cat's butt. I play with my cats and sometimes they sleep on my bed. Is that safe?
Honestly, if someone can even help me with Q1, it would help ease my fears GREATLY. Thank you ever so much!!!