Need advice on trial and error diets of home-made or canned

Domino's Mom

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Hi, I would appreciate any advice of things I can try.

My cat Domino has always eaten raw — commercial which she eventually walked away from, and Hare-Today meat/bone/organ grinds mixed w Alnutrin) for the past 1.5 years. She started to pass soft smelly stool which turned to liquid for awhile in October. I took her to the vet, who ran more detailed PCR test and Urine Protein Creatinine Ratio test. And their only recommendation and assumption was to stop feeding her raw. I never tried non-raw, so I gave it a shot. I have been feeding her mostly cooked chicken and liver with the necessary supplementation, and S. Boulardi, Slippery Elm, and some probiotics. I think I may have rushed trying other proteins and semi-raw, as her poops have gotten better, and then gone back to smelly soft.

I have been going much slower with any deviations, and we were on the road to recovery with great poops that didn't smell, when yesterday she passed a smelly soft poop, along with normal poop. And today, the same food she gobbled up yesterday, she is walking away from, even though she is telling me she's hungry and her temperament is still the same. No poops good or bad so far today (it's not constipation and she's never had that). I cooked it all the way, in case she's really that extremely sensitive to bacteria now, and she ate some. But not again. I'm not sure what to do except buy a different source of protein for now and cook it all the way, and try various brands of commercial food.

I would love to go back to raw. That worked for both of us. Or healthy commercial. Home-cooked diet has been a huge effort that I don't want to continue with forever. She seems to be a white-meat girl.

Other commercial raw foods:
Savage

Commercial raw she didn't like/stopped liking:
Raw Dynamics
Vital Essentials
Answers
Stella and Chewy freeze-dried
Primal freeze-dried (hates)
Tucker's (not into, could be the pumpkin)
Boss Cat

Proteins:
Chicken
Turkey
Rabbit
Duck
Pork
Quail
Pheasant

Proteins she did not like or had a reaction to:
Cavies
Mouse
Some duck brands
 

Furballsmom

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Or healthy commercial.
I apologize if I'm reading your post wrong, but if you're interested in trying one of the commercial foods I found and used, is Weruva. They've stopped using carrageenan, they have low and uber-low phosphorus varieties and their iodine content is right at the minimum aafco requirements.
 

Tobermory

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Mine really like Northwest Naturals freeze-dried raw. I alternate turkey, chicken, and duck. (Duck is their favorite, probably because it has a higher calorie content. :) ) For canned, I feed them Rawz, a high-quality, low-carb food. I tried Mouser canned, and they ate it the first go round but then refused it after that. But it’s also a good canned food.

Sometimes adding their favorites toppers to a food can entice them to start eating it again. I’ve had to do that with Rawz occasionally.
 

lisahe

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Mine really like Northwest Naturals freeze-dried raw. I alternate turkey, chicken, and duck. (Duck is their favorite, probably because it has a higher calorie content. :) ) For canned, I feed them Rawz, a high-quality, low-carb food. I tried Mouser canned, and they ate it the first go round but then refused it after that. But it’s also a good canned food.

Sometimes adding their favorites toppers to a food can entice them to start eating it again. I’ve had to do that with Rawz occasionally.
To add on the two foods I bolded... Our cats have been surprisingly favorable on Rawz pates lately they're really enjoying it. They emphatically do nig like their latest batch of Mouser, though, which is a big disappointment because it puts a big hole in their dinner rotation of foods.
 
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Domino's Mom

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I apologize if I'm reading your post wrong, but if you're interested in trying one of the commercial foods I found and used, is Weruva. They've stopped using carrageenan, they have low and uber-low phosphorus varieties and their iodine content is right at the minimum aafco requirements.
Thanks for the reply, yes. I'm looking to try different foods right now.
 

sophie1

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Did the vet give you a reason for the cat to be having problem stools?

It's possible that your cat can't handle the 10% bone content of the Hare Today grinds. Commercial raw foods containing bone are even worse, some are up to 20% bone content. Cats should be in the 5-6% bone range. Alternatively, you can use eggshell calcium with boneless meat to see if that helps her recover from whatever the problem was. Too bad Rad Cat went out of business because that would be ideal.

Two options:
- Boneless meats (lightly cooked from grocery store or boneless grinds from Hare Today) mixed with EZ Complete (designed & sold by former members of this forum).

- Buy boneless grinds and ground chicken, rabbit, or beef organs from HT. Cut the organ grinds into quarters and use 1 boneless chub plus 1/4 organ chub. Add Alnutrin with calcium + salmon oil (I use Icelandic unscented).

If your cat does well on this, you might eventually try:

- 2 lb chub meat/bone/organ grind + 1 lb chub boneless grind + 1/4 lb organ grind; add Alnutrin for meat/bone/organs + salmon oil

Make sure you use the correct Alnutrin formulation for your recipe! Also, there's no hurry to put your cat back on grinds with bone. It's just that eggshell calcium can't completely replace natural bone. Plus, there's the cost factor.

One of my cats has similar difficulty with high bone mixes, and I'm embarrassed to say it took me years to figure that out. He also refused to eat the vet-recommended canned food, but he's now doing just fine on his (above-modified) raw diet. I give him that last recipe with occasional meals of plain boneless meat chunks.
 

lisahe

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One of my cats has similar difficulty with high bone mixes, and I'm embarrassed to say it took me years to figure that out.
Same here. The problem can come and go... and it often looks like the cat is "just" picky.
 
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Domino's Mom

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Did the vet give you a reason for the cat to be having problem stools?

One of my cats has similar difficulty with high bone mixes, and I'm embarrassed to say it took me years to figure that out. He also refused to eat the vet-recommended canned food, but he's now doing just fine on his (above-modified) raw diet. I give him that last recipe with occasional meals of plain boneless meat chunks.
Nope, the vet only said there is no indication of parasites or kidney disease and assumed it was due to raw of course. I have yet to find a vet that has actual knowledge of a raw diet...

I've used less bone since. With too much bone, was your cat having constipation or the runs? I'm happy for you that you figured out what it was!

I've mostly been feeding her home-cooked chicken, pork, and chicken liver since October with home-made egg-shell powder, Alnutrin for meat and bone, and Green Lipped Mussel powder (from Hare Today). She seemed to be on the way back to normal, when she had a smelly soft poop, and then started suddenly being a picky eater the next day. It's been about a week of her eating half of what's in her dish, each time. She's getting the calories, but each meal is like this now. I save the leftovers and give it to her again later. And to add to that, now she has smelly liquid poop since yesterday. I started cutting out GLM powder yesterday, so we'll see. Re: salmon oil, I think she's reacted badly to that before. EZ supplement, she walks away from immediately. I hope to eventually get back to raw, if I get to, I will definitely reduce the bone content. Thanks for the advice!

Trying to determine what exactly she is reacting to...raw vs cooked, certain protein, suppliers, etc. When I put my ear to her stomach, I hear gurgling all the time.
 

lisahe

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I started cutting out GLM powder yesterday, so we'll see.
One of our cats has a sensitivity to that... she was vomiting. (She's a gurgler, too!) Our other cat gets constipated if there's too much bone in her diet.
 
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Domino's Mom

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Still a roller coaster of poops getting better, then worse, even without the GLM. So now I'm trying to see if it's something in the Alnutrin supplement. And I found an intolerance testing company called 5strands, so am waiting to receive and send back the test...
 
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