New to raw feeding and question on outdoor cats and stools

[meranaldar]

Hello all.

I started my 13 year old outdoor cat on a frakenprey raw diet just over 3 weeks ago.

Previously she had been getting dry food twice a day, and wet packet food once a day, but also got a chicken neck or wing now and again in place of the wet food. Plus she would catch a rat sometimes and eat it, though I haven't seen her do that for a few years now. So I was pretty optimistic about her making the switch and tried going straight to a raw diet.

But she was rather hesitant about it. At first I could get her to eat with a bit of coaxing, but after a couple of days that got harder and harder and then she refused to eat it at all. In hindsight I think I was fussing a bit too much. So I went back to just packet food for a couple of days (I was happy just to see her eating), then started slowly introducing raw meat and reducing the packet food over a week and half. Now she's going ok on just raw food most of the time, sometimes a very little bit of packet food to get her started.

I just took her in for a senior check up, and no real problems. Blood work and urine sample were all good. She's a little overweight (5.9kg / 13 pounds), but at the moment I'm concentrating on just getting her comfortable with the new diet. She also has a little tartar buildup on her teeth, but the vet wasn't worried, just said to make sure she gets some chunky meat to eat.

One thing I'm really unsure of is bone content. Everything I read mentions watching her stools to judge, but she's an outdoor cat and I never see that. She doesn't tolerate being locked in with a litter box, having always had access to outside. She has always been a very timid cat and hates not having an escape route.

I know the general rule of 80/10/5/5, and getting the meat and organ ratios is easy, but I'm not quite sure how to judge how much actual bone is in the meaty bones, or how to know if it's too much or too little for her. She also doesn't seem to like too much of a meaty bone at once, so I'm thinking I might need to feed a portion every day to reach the ~10%.

I've bought a whole chicken and duck, and cut them up into meal sized portions, but the bone content varies. Plus I have some chicken wings and necks. I would like to get some rabbit and quail or such, but I haven't found anywhere to buy those yet.

This week (from Sunday) so far she's on 71% meat (including heart), 12% meaty bones (though not sure how much actual bone), 9% organs, 8% packet food.

 

[ldg]

I wish I had an answer for you. But I really don't know. Basically.... you just have to trust that if you're giving her too much bone, she won't eat what she doesn't need. :dk: I know that when my cats get constipated, they don't want to eat. So if she's reliably eating the raw you provide, if she loses her appetite, maybe that would be a sign there's a bit too much bone?

Also, the meat and bone will not remove existing tartar build-up. With a dental, chunks of meat and crunching bone will go a loooooong way to keeping their teeth clean - but genetics does play a role in it as well.

 

[ldg]

Of course, the other option, though not ideal, is using eggshell powder as the source of calcium. Then you know the Ca (calciumhosphorus) ratio she's getting. If finely ground, it takes 1/2 a teaspoon of eggshell powder to properly balance one pound of meat. That works out to 1/32 teaspoon of eggshell powder per ounce of food. I don't know if you can get mini measuring spoons there - but that's 1/4 of 1/8 of a teaspoon, and can just be sprinkled on the meat at each meal.

I use a mix of eggshell powder, ground food with bone (whole ground animal), and bone-in meals. When I give a bone-in meal, I have to skip giving any calcium supplement for several meals after that, or they get constipated (I feed 1.5 ounces meals three times a day - but I have indoor-only, not overly active cats, most of them 11 years old).

 

[meranaldar]

Thanks for the replies. I'm also feeding 3 meals of 1.5 ounces. She's not overly active anymore either.

The diet is still quite new to her, and I have a variety of meats, still working out her likes and dislikes, so I'm not sure I can really judge by not eating just yet. Perhaps I need to try and catch her going outside then scratch around a bit.

I had read another thread talking about a powdered bone and eggshell powder and the proportions etc, but I would prefer to stick with feeding bone unless it becomes a problem.

I'm thinking her genetics must be pretty good regarding her teeth and tartar, since she's 13 and has always been good before now, even on that horrible food I've been feeding her

I asked the vet about it twice (had to take her back a second time to the urine sample), but she didn't seem to consider cleaning necessary. This is the first time I've been to this vet (haven't been particularly happy with my old vet, especially not after I mentioned changing Athena over to a raw diet, and he seemed to think the whole raw feeding thing was absurd). Though he also just recommended Hill's T/D food, and not dental cleaning.

So, not sure. Hard to know whether what you're told is right or not.

 

[ldg]

Yes, especially when we're supposed to be able to trust our vets.

I really don't see anything wrong with what you're doing. I suspect she'll let you know - somehow - if there's an issue. Bear in mind that the 80/10/5/5 was apparently originally developed with dogs' prey in mind. A mouse is about 5% bone; rabbits, if I remember correctly, are about 10%. But this would make the "average" prey of cats less than 10% bone; and most seem to need 6% - 8%. So if the "meaty" bones are 10% and include meat, you're probably good.