Multi cat household transitioning to raw diet

[catladee14]

First, I am so glad I stumbled onto this site!  Next month we are going to transition to raw.   We have a multi cat household ranging from 3 yrs to 14 yrs.  We have been noticing several medical issues and want to see if the diet is the issue.  One of the 3 yr old and 10 yr olds are obese and having breathing issues (they are under veterinary care).  The 14 yr old is losing weight, has loose stools, poor coat, and having trouble chewing the hard kibble.  

How do we get the 14 yr old to chomp on the bones?  All of these cats have been indoor only all their lives.  One of the 3 yr olds was rejected by mom at 2 wks of age and was hand raised (not sure she knows she's a cat!).  

Also, my room mate is not real keen on using meat such as mice, cavies, bunnies, etc.  How do we overcome using these cute cuddly creatures to feed our other cute cuddly creatures?

Is there a place on here where there are "recipes" ?  

Thank you!

 

[ldg]

There are, indeed!

You can use eggshell powder as a bone replacement until your kitty is chomping bones. Or you can use a supplement "premix."

Here are resources that may help you.

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/264154/raw-feeding-resources

The thread has not been updated with links to recently published articles on raw, but it does include links to recipes for ground and supplements that balance either just meat or meat and liver. It also has links to websites that discuss prey model raw feeding. There is also an article just published on TCS on PMR: http://www.thecatsite.com/a/prey-model-raw-just-the-basics

This link is to the articles section - Cat Nutrition & Feeding is in Cat Health, and you'll see the articles on raw-related under "Homemade." http://www.thecatsite.com/atype/46/Cat_Health

You might be most interested in the article on Types of Raw Diets and Feeding Options http://www.thecatsite.com/a/raw-feeding-cats-types-of-raw-diets-feeding-options

Not all of these are options if you live someplace that does not have commercial raw or supplement pre-mixes available. The U.S. and Canada have both, though frozen raw is not available locally everywhere. Europe has the TCfeline premix available. There are some frozen raw commercial foods available in Australia and NZ.


Are the cats already eating timed meals? That is the first, most important step in the transition. We do have transition guides:

http://www.thecatsite.com/a/transitioning-free-fed-kibble-kitties-to-timed-meals
http://www.thecatsite.com/a/transit...-to-a-new-type-of-food-canned-raw-or-homemade

I transitioned 8 cats, ranging in age from five years to 10 years. I started with commercial ground, then moved to modified prey model raw, using eggshell powder instead of bone, then to bone-in meals for the cats that will eat them. Not all of mine will chomp bone.

Think of the transition as getting a child to eat salad that has only ever eaten dry cereal or canned stew. The taste, texture, etc. is completely different. You may need to start with just a few pieces of lettuce - and those may need to be chopped and added to the stew. (I know, yuck, lol). Or they can be in the same dish - but they may need to be heavily coated with something yummy. The child's body will go through a lot of changes as she eats more salad and less processed food. It may take a lot of salad dressing, bacon, cheese and croutons to get her to eat it, but over time, those can be reduced, and she'll feel better eating salad, and come to love it. But her introduction to it may need to be done very slowly, she may vomit or get diarrhea eating it along the way (in which case she needs to be fed less of it until her body adjusts to eating it). So start small and slow, and increase at her pace.

Hope this helps - we're here for more questions.

 

[ritz]

Welcome to the cat site! There are a number of articles in this forum, at the top of the page. One subgroup specifically talks about recipes. You can also feed commercial raw or prey model raw. These ways of feeding raw are addressed in some of the same articles. (Sorry I can't link, typing on my kindle).
Regarding bone, first, if you feed commercial raw, like Rad Cat, bone is already included, no need to add more. And you should start out with small bones if feeding prey model raw, like the smallest part of the chicken wing.
Feel free to ask specific questions once you do some reading. We all have run into some unique problems, situations.

 

[hopps]

I would offer raw and see who takes it. If they take to it then they do. The ones that don't I would transition to canned then raw. 

On the overcoming using the cute creatures as food. To be quite honest with you, your roommate needs to get over it. It is practically the only way. I'm not saying it to be mean but trying to justify using them as food in any other way is kind of demeaning in my opinion. A lot of people I know just pretend they don't know what is in the food and feed it. But we have to realize the foods we feed were once a living and breathing creature. Instead of turning a blind eye to them becoming food we have to respect that and move on.

Hope this helps

 

[citrineblue]

We have a multicat household, 5 cats, all fed on RAW. We went raw when we had the first three, they were wet food ie canned fed already. Initially we went down the commercial frozen mince route first. In retrospect had they not liked it I would have presumed all raw was off the menu not realising cats are so fickle that coarseness of mince, the mix , the meat would have been great factors affecting their desire for it.

After a period of six months we went onto making our own with a grinder and using two premixes, TCFeline- great and loved but expensive and Felini Complete. We would coarsely grind liver, kidney, heart, and meat and then add larger and larger chunks of meat into the mix. Alongside we now feed Quail cut into four for them to chow down on or Day old chicks or mice. Each have their own favourite part- Bertie loves mice, Docs etc, Luna and Monty eat those and the chunky minces. Reuben and Harvey stick to the chunky minces. None have really liked chicken wings etc but none of them really like chicken!! Good quality pork on the other hand!! They adore......lamb not so keen, venison is popular, rabbit is loved ( we freeze for one month first), horse from a supplier they love as well. So just keep trying what is available..... Mice are a little less messy than Docs if your flat mate has an issue, my sons girl friend is vegetarian and we used to hide all the food from her now she's fine with it all.

 

[catladee14]

They are already on timed feeding, once in the morning, once in the evening.  That will not be a problem.  I had some chicken liver in the freezer and I just took some out to see what they would do.  2 took to it like they'd been wanting it all their lives, 2 turned their noses up at it.  The one that surprised me the most, was the one I hand raised, she did all the instinctual "kill' type behaviors and no one had taught her that! 

I am all on board for this and am excited!  Thank you all for your help.