Now I would like to transition my two kittens to the Frankenprey model however the feeding logistics are a headache.We have two kittens (male and female, same litter) both 3 months old. They have been with us for a month now. They eat both wet canned food and dry food which is available to them at all times. We feed them together and they share the same plate without any fights or growling. Yesterday I tried introducing them to raw food for the first time. I took a drumstick and deboned it, cut out the meat into small pieces and put in on a plate to serve them.
The Male instantly grabbed on to one of the pieces of meat and started eating but he also started growling and scaring the female away at the same time. The only other time we have seen the Male do this is when he got his hands onto a feather toy and started chewing it and growling. It is like his animal instinct kicked in. Usually the Male is much more social and purry in nature compared to the female. Also the way he was eating the chicken was like he was tackling a live prey, he was on edge like that piece of chicken may bite him or something so whenever the piece will dangle out of his mouth he will jump, use his hands to slap it. I later realized that some pieces I cut out were bigger than others and both Kittens did this behavior with the bigger pieces and not with the smaller pieces so I believe they feel threatened and perceive the big piece as a bigger prey/threat.
After the Male was satisfied with his meal the Female started eating, she also growled a bit but it looked more like she was growling on the piece of chicken rather than the Male. She also showed the same habits of treating the piece of chicken like a prey (that she is afraid of). Handling it carefully (as if it would bite).
I am not planning to put them on a raw meat/organs/bone diet as we don't have that much time but I am planning to give them some raw stuff occasionally (at least one a week, maybe even every two or three days)
- I am wondering if you had noticed the same behavior when you fed your cat raw food for the first time?
- Also is this healthy for them? They never had any issues eating from the same plate but it looks like raw meat was bringing up some issues and tension between them
- Are they always going to be this aggressive/threatened by the raw chicken or will they learn to calmly eat? Because they bounced that piece of meat all around our kitchen floor and carpet and I don't want them to get sick because of ingesting some cleaning product or other stuff on the floor. Also makes our floor dirty and unhygienic because of its mopped by chicken now. When they were going to the carpet I did not dare to move them back to the kitchen because of how aggressive they were being.
- Any other wisdom that you can share, I am not saying I have a problem but just would like to know more as to what is going on in the cat brain..
Disclaimer: (I also posted this on Reddit but I think I will get better advice here because it looks like all they post on the cat subreddit is photos of their cats)
Whenever I am feeding them they snarl at each other. This doesn't happen when I feed them dry or canned food which they eat together from the same plate in peace.
They also take the food out of their plate and rub it all over the floor which is more work for me to clean up later. Yesterday I tried feeding both of them separately in a cardboard box. One of the kitten was not interested in staying in his cardboard box he wanted to go to the other kitten who was eating nicely in her box. The other kitten saw this as a threat took her piece of meat and ran away in the living room.
The cardboard box does help a little now as one kitten will stay inside and eat (mostly) and the other will watch. They take turns this way.
Some advice will help here.
Is this aggressive growling healthy or hurtful for them going forward? They are really sweet and play together but I hope raw food doesn't build up tension between them.
Are they ever going to understand that they have plenty of food and they don't need to aggro each other?
Also when fully transitioning to Frankenprey model, how do you keep tabs on what each one is eating. For example- one kitten might like liver a lot and will finish all of it with nothing left for the other one, so the other one is not getting a balanced diet. Do you just let them work this out between them?
Also do you guys recommend any supplement that can be sprinkled on top? I was considering Platinum Performace Feline Wellness (heard about it in a podcast).
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