In the middle of transitioning

[nolia]

Week 3 - 4.

I have two cats.
7 year old Female
1 year old Male

7 year old female:
She's taken to the raw food well. Will eat chicken, pork, liver but does not really like beef or salmon. She's eating sizeable chunks (with some wet food for taste).

How should I increase the size of the chunks? Should I make it long to help her tear? Or just make the sizes bigger?

1 year old male:
Surprisingly, he's having a very DIFFICULT time transitioning and would rather starve that eat raw. I have to feed him wet food to sustain him. He refuses to eat EVERYTHING except miniscule bits of pork or salmon hidden in his wet food. He's been like this for a while.

How should I continue? Even with disguising, he doesn't want it. He absolutely turns away from everything.

General questions:
- with feeding a variety of meats, what happens of my cats just don't want certain meats? Is it safe to cut them out? I would really want my cats to eat some salmon for the omegas but both of them seem disgusted with it.
- where can I find salmon oil?
- how can I introduce eggs? do I crack the egg and mix it in with the food? or let them lap at it like water? I heard people giving their cats the cracked shell also, how do you do that? how small are the pieces?

 

[sharky]

salmon oil is found at nearly all pet stores ... I found a good one that was NOT RANCID already which most are at Costco ... health food stores and some grocery also carry it.

I used to just crack the egg on top and blend in ... now I only serve raw eggs when I get them from the chicken ( friends have chickens

) ...

I crushed up egg shells as a last resort ... just crush with a rolling pin

yes if kitty dislikes something avoid it ... hopefully you find at least 2 or 3 meats that kitty likes...

THERE ARE Many cat s who WILL NOT do raw... keep trying .. you may need to al dente cook the meats for a bit to entice ... some mix wet food with it ( did not work here but does for some)

Have you discussed this with a nutrition minded vet? If not you should

 

[mschauer]

Raw is no different from any other food that we decide we want our little furries to eat. Just because we want them to eat it doesn't mean they will want to eat it. If you can stand to be persistent about it most cats can be transitioned. But you may need to be *very* persistent. Coco was very slow to switch. For at least a year she would only nibble at raw. Then I found the right meat source (lamb) that she immediately *loved*. After that she would eat all sorts of raw meats.

Feeding as much variety as you can is preferable but I've never read anywhere that it is considered absolutely necessary.

You should be able to find salmon oil or other fish body oil in the nutrition section of your grocery or at a nutrition specialty store.

 

[nolia]

Thanks for the tips guys.

My 1 year old is now eating "long" but thin pieces. He's a slow transitioner.

My 7 year old is eating big chunks. Maybe half a mouse sized. Should I increase the size TO mouse size? Or should I introduce bone?

I bought chicken thigh with the bone in it. How should I transition her from soft meats to bone-in meats? I tried today, and she just walked away, even with wet food on as bait. I then removed the bone to see if she would try the meat with the skin on it, nope.