New to all of this... (cross-posted)

[babznelmo]

Hi everyone. I've just adopted a cat, and i'm very eager to feed her a raw diet (thinking of going the frankenprey route). anyhow, i know practically nothing about her past except that the person i got her from free-reign-kibble fed her. well, that has stopped. i've had her for 2 days now, and already she is consistently eating the wet food i give her, and leaving the kibble behind. i take this as a good sign. anyhow, just for curiosity sake, yesterday for 2 of her meals (i feed 3 times a day), i added a couple of tiny little pieces of meat to each meal (beef kidney, beef stew meat, half a sardine and a little piece of pork meat) with her wet food. just to see what she'd do. well... after a few hesitations, she wolfed everything down! so now my question is... how do i go about transitioning her, or is it too soon, since i just got her? oh, and she is a 1 yr old dilute tortoiseshell, if that helps at all.

 

[di and bob]

Sounds like you are doing everything OK, but there are a lot of people out there that know more about a raw diet then me. I would say as long as she is eating she'll be fine, believe me if she didn't want it she wouldn't eat it! It might be though you haven't had her long enough for her to be picky!

I hope some others can answer your questions better then me. Keep an eye on what her bowel movements look like and if she is urinating enough, a change in diet can sometimes mess with their systems. I want to welcome you and your new little girl to the site, please keep us posted on how she is doing. Good luck!

 

[babznelmo]

Ok, just an update, with a few more questions... lol

it's been a few days now, and each meal I've been adding just a bit of cut up (raw) meat of various types to her wet food. Less than a quarter of her meal is meat. Anyhow, last night and today, I've noticed that she is quick to eat up all the little bits of meat (she digs them out of the wet, because i mix them) and now she is leaving some of the wet behind, which she wasn't doing a few days ago. Is this normal? Should i be adding a bit more meat and cutting out a bit more of her canned wet food? I'm just not sure of how quick to make the changes. I'm hoping someone can help me!

Thanks in advance!

 

[goingpostal]

You don't have to slowly mix canned with raw, people just do that to convince picky ones to eat raw.  When I switched my cat over she was eating canned only and I would just offer the raw first in the morning, if she ate it that's what she got for the day, if not, she got canned.  Had to go back and forth for awhile figuring out what she would eat because she won't touch red meat like beef at all but I just kind of increased her raw days vs canned days once I had her eating enough variety and organs, then phased out the canned entirely.   Have you offered any bone in meals yet?  I would go pick up a small chicken or game hen or gizzards, something to really work her jaw muscles and get her used to actually chewing. 

 

[vball91]

I agree with GoingPostal. Go at her pace. If she seems to prefer the raw, give her more raw. And also remember that raw is more satisfying so she will need fewer ounces of it than canned.

 

[ritz]

Sounds like she Wil transition just fine to raw. For a few days or weeks you might want to add a probiotic. And if you haven't already take a look at some of the articles on the raw forum and www.concentric.com. you can feed 15% of her diet in raw without worrying about the proper ratio amounts of protein, liver, kidney and bone. Meanwhile do some reading and experimenting. And as mentioned because of the bioavailability of meat, your cat may need less food/calories. Let us know how it's going.