My 🐱 is a mess. Help me understanding him...

[Mrcclms]

Hello everybody

Brief story:

- always very sensitive (IBD?) and tendency of loose stool

- fed raw (darwins turkey) 2 years ago, stopped the diarrhea but he started vomiting (bones?)

- fed canned Buffalo Basics turkey for 2 years with probiotics to keep the stool firmer (ups and downs)

- diarrhea worsened, always had the feeling that
he is intolerant to some of the ingredients in the Buffalo canned (he also scratches)

- 6 days ago I decide to go back to Darwins raw turkey (+ fortiflora)

Here's his behavior:

Day 1-4: extremely happy, he loves it, he licks the plate, he purrs a lot, he loves this raw food + fortiflora.

His stool goes back to NORMAL, in just 1 day (from bad diarrhea the days before with Buffalo canned) I'm super happy, I found the best solution for him !

Day 5: he eats it all but he leaves some little bits of it.

Day 6 (today): he cause he is hungry, I prepare it as usual, Darwin raw turkey + fortiflora. He goes for it and he turns back. I try again, he take a tiny bite and spill it out.

Basically he doesn't like it anymore.

I'm so disappointed cause I found a solution for his diarrhea problem + we could finally avoid those fillers like Carrageenan and such.

---

And now I don't know what to do.

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Mix the raw with his old canned Buffalo ?
Try another Raw Turkey brand ?

 

[Mr. Meow]

Keep feeding the Darwin turkey as usual. Cats won't let themselves starve unless there is a serious medical issue, they are great survivors. He just might not be hungry today. People are the same - some days you eat like a horse, other days you just don't feel like eating much. But if the Darwin turkey is working, keep using it. He'll eat when he's hungry.

 

[Mrcclms]

I have to say that my cat is the most spoiled on earth cause I basically "serve" him
24/7

so I doubt that he will eat it and not let it go to waste just because he is hungry

he will keep meowing and meowing until I get him something he likes more

It's crazy how he loved it (maybe because it was something new ?) and now his memory is kicking in and he is missing the commercial canned food additives that make them so palatable ???

 

[KarenKat]

Are there other flavors of this raw food? Our cats get tired of eating the same flavor too many times in a row so we rotate through a few cans and brands. Maybe you can find another flavor and switch between the two.

We also play a little hardball. If they decide they aren’t having what I give them they can eat it or wait. In the end they get hungry enough.

 

[Mrcclms]

No this is raw turkey and there isn't any real "flavor"

I thought the fortiflora which is liver flavored would be more than enough....

About him waiting, the issue is that being raw food after just few minutes it becomes "bad", it dries out and lose its freshness

 

[KarenKat]

How often do you feed him?

 

[Mrcclms]

7:30am

9:30am

12pm

6pm

11pm


more or less

 

[Mrcclms]

UPDATE: my baby just vomited
Exactly like 2 years ago.

this raw meat does good for his stool

but he can't keep it down

Could be the bone ?
Any frozen raw turkey without bones on the market ?

 

[lisahe]

It's been a long week and I'm easily confused, so forgive the question, Mrcclms ! Is your cat (and what's his name, by the way?) eating only Darwin food with Fortiflora? Is he getting any treats or snacks or anything else?

It would seem a little odd if he were vomiting from the bone simply because it's bone, though I do seem to recall people mentioning that some of Darwin's foods are pretty bony. I could definitely see vomiting from constipation caused by the bone but that food does have fibrous tomato pomace in it, which should help limit constipation. Hence my question about other foods! It's also possible, of course, that he has a sensitivity to turkey.

Stella & Chewy's makes Stella's Selects, which are little frozen patties. They're boneless and rather expensive but they're very good food. I used to buy them for our cats, before the pandemic, but hope to start them back on it soon!

I'm glad KarenKat mentioned variety because our cats would go a little hungry if we didn't feed them varied meals. Some cats will eat the same one food for years. Others (like ours) need variety every day. We used to feed just a small amount of the Stella & Chewy's food because it was expensive... but it made for a good snack. Now, each day, we feed two different commercial raw freeze-dried foods, two servings of a homemade food (usually different proteins in each), one meal of canned food, and a tiny little nighttime snack of Dr. Elsey's dry food. It sounds complicated but it's a lot easier and faster than trying to get them to accept the same food at every meal -- I envy people whose cats don't demand variety!

 

[Mrcclms]

Yes he was having only darwins

and it happened the same 2 years ago

started vomiting after few days

It's darwins

just wondering if it's the bone content or just being raw

next test is a frozen raw turkey brand without bone content

If he will vomit still, it's just that he can't digest raw

If he doesn't vomit, it was the bones


So is Stella selects (crazy expensive) the only frozen raw turkey without bones easily available on the market ?

I did quite some research but I haven't found anything else

 

[KarenKat]

We feed our cats four times per day - and Gohan, who has always been picky, sometimes has trouble finishing his whole meal. I’m wondering if you fed less often it would build up your kitty’s appetite?

 

[lisahe]

So is Stella selects (crazy expensive) the only frozen raw turkey without bones easily available on the market ?

I did quite some research but I haven't found anything else

I don't know, though I believe it was (a year ago) the only one I'd found that was available where I live. One thing that worked in its favor for us: just one medallion/patty seemed to keep our cats happy for hours. I don't remember how much they recommended feeding per day but it did seem to keep satiated.

Have you contacted Darwin's to ask about the bone content? I seem to recall that they had pretty high bone in their food. I'm sure there's something in old threads but it's probably worth asking Darwin's anyway. As long as we keep bone lowish overall for our cats -- for one thing, not all their meals have bone, for another, I keep the percentages as low as possible -- the one who gets constipated seems to do okay.