Newbie here...transitioning to raw

[cheshirebite]

As much as I love the idea of doing home-cooked for my cat, right now I feel like it's too much for me to handle especially since my cat is not used to raw. So I bought Radcat (smallest size my local pet store carried) and snatched the last chicken sample size (the flavor I bought since he loves his chicken). I went from giving half of the sample size to 1/4 of a tsp (because duh! he's not used to it). I took a small scoop with my index finger (no bigger than a pea). He managed to eat three bites (with a lot of hesitation, sniffing, rubbing against me, me calling him back, him sniffing again and etc) before he called it quits. 

My questions are:

1) How long can I put the food out before there's too much bacteria/it becomes inedible? I threw out what he couldn't finish since they were in room temp (they became mushy) and was sitting in the bowl for 10min.

2) Any tips/tricks out there for transitioning? He eats mostly wet food (NV LID, Wild Calling, Weruva, Ziwi Peak, etc) and a bit of dry when I'm rushing out the door or sometimes at night or when he's in a "hangry" mood (I use 1/4c to scoop it out, but I'm pretty sure I give him only a tbsp and a tsp). 

3) I'm not sure about how much to give him now (if he decides that he likes it) as I don't normally follow directions from the manufacturers. He's between 10-14lbs, going to be 7yrs old in a few months, and no illness at all. I want him to stay that way which is why I'm changing his diet. 

Starting this month, I plan on spending max $35 per month due to financial issues. I've got two 2.2lb of Nature's Variety which normally lasts one-two and a half months. So I would like to finish that before completely transitioning him, or maybe donate the unopened one to a nearby shelter if the transition is smoother than expected. There's also wet food readily available. 

4) Is it possible to spend only $35 monthly in a commercial raw diet? 

Anyway, please help me out. I really want what's best for him, and I am totally in this for the long-haul. Any other information that you think I should know and I didn't mention, please tell me! I want to arm myself with knowledge lol

 

[orange&white]

Hi cheshirebite,

1.  My cats eat their food using the inhale-and-gone method most of the time so the food almost never is sitting out longer than it takes them to eat it, 5 minutes or less.  On the rare occasion that I put out a little too much food for one meal, then I pick it up within an hour if I served it cold out of the refrigerator and about 30 minutes if I heated the plate to bring it up to room temp.  I feed three meals on work days and four meals on days off.

2.  Transitioning:  I started feeding raw to my 3 cats and 2 dogs in the summer of 2008.  All but one of my cats took right to it.  The third cat was like pulling teeth, he was such a kibble addict.  He took months to transition.  There are several methods, but I would just start out offering you cat an ounce or two of raw diet food on a separate plate along side his normal menu.  If he takes to it immediately, you can transition fairly quickly.  Just keep increasing the raw food and decrease the wet/dry foods.

3.  Most cats will eat 2% to 4% of their body weight per day in raw food.  Figure on 3% if your cat is moderately active, less if he is a couch potato and more if he is an athlete or acrobat.  If your cat is 12 pounds then 3% is 5.76 ounces of raw food per day, or about 2.5 pounds per week.

4. Budget:  You're looking at needing about 11 pounds of food per month.  Your cat many need more or less, but that's a starting point for your budget.  On a $35 budget, you'll need to find a food which sells for $3.19 per pound.

Good luck with the transition.  I think you'll be happy with the results in your cat's overall vitality and happiness!

 

[lalagimp]

Tommy is pretty lazy and he used to be 21 lbs.
He's now almost 8 years old, thirteen lbs, and eats 5 oz of raw per day.
I had to tweak the formula because they gained when I started so I made it lighter calorie this last batch. 
I think maybe you could do it if you just used chicken and had a grinder with the organ meat and supplements, but we use ground rabbit and turkey thighs. I do 14 lbs of rabbit ($96 shipped) and 8 lbs of thighs ($2.49/lb)
I have to feed the two boys the same even though Tommy was the one with urinary issues.

 

[LTS3]

A cooked diet is sometimes more acceptable than any kind of raw food. It might be worth trying

Sometimes it's easiest to slowly transiton to frozen or homemade raw by feeding some freeze dried raw along with the canned food and then slowly start using crumbled up freeze dried raw as a topper on top of small amounts of raw food. Use a freeze dried raw that is a complete diet such as Stella and Chewy's or Nature's Variety Instinct Raw Market or Vital Essentials.

There's a recent thread about monthly costs: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/335237/my-monthly-costs

Some people use the Frosty Bowl to keep raw food out for a few hours or so. Personally I would just figuire out how much the cat will eat within half an hour and only put that much food into the bowl. You can leave canned food out during the day if you think your cat might get hungry. I know some people leave a little dry food or freeze dried raw out for snacking on. You can use a programmable timed feeder for any snacks so your cat isn't eating all the food like once you leave the house and is left hungry for the rest of the day.

Amount of raw food varies. You generally want to feed 20 to 25 calories per pound of ideal body weight daily. Let's take Rad Cat chicken which is 209 calories for a 5.5 oz container. Your cat will need approximately 280 calories to maintain no more than his 14 lbs weight. So one whole 5.5 oz container plus a scoop or two of another container will be enough food. Some cats just don't eat all of what what you calculate out and that's ok as long as the cat is maintaining a good body condition and weight. My 10 lb Aby should eat around 200 calories daily but eats more like 180.

Check with the shelter before you bring the NV raw in. Many shelters do not accept raw food and some don't even accept food at all.

 

[maureen brad]

My young cats transitioned easily. My older cats did too because I got some Purina Feline Fortiflora (cheaper on Amazon than the vet) I sprinkled it on the food like you would sprinkle salt on your dinner.This is also how I am able to get my cats to eat food mixed with liquid medicine or crushed pills. It is marketed as a probiotic, I wouldn't use it for that.

 It has animal digest in it which is what the load unto dry food to get cats to eat it.I never had to use it on a new food more than once or twice. It is not the est probiotic in the world but it works.

 Some people buy Nutritional yeast for the same thing. I tried it but, it never worked.I know some are against using this because as raw feeders we know it isn't great. It did work for me , and I would rather use this when the cats need medicine also.

 

[cheshirebite]

 
Hi cheshirebite,

1.  My cats eat their food using the inhale-and-gone method most of the time so the food almost never is sitting out longer than it takes them to eat it, 5 minutes or less.  On the rare occasion that I put out a little too much food for one meal, then I pick it up within an hour if I served it cold out of the refrigerator and about 30 minutes if I heated the plate to bring it up to room temp.  I feed three meals on work days and four meals on days off.

2.  Transitioning:  I started feeding raw to my 3 cats and 2 dogs in the summer of 2008.  All but one of my cats took right to it.  The third cat was like pulling teeth, he was such a kibble addict.  He took months to transition.  There are several methods, but I would just start out offering you cat an ounce or two of raw diet food on a separate plate along side his normal menu.  If he takes to it immediately, you can transition fairly quickly.  Just keep increasing the raw food and decrease the wet/dry foods.

3.  Most cats will eat 2% to 4% of their body weight per day in raw food.  Figure on 3% if your cat is moderately active, less if he is a couch potato and more if he is an athlete or acrobat.  If your cat is 12 pounds then 3% is 5.76 ounces of raw food per day, or about 2.5 pounds per week.

4. Budget:  You're looking at needing about 11 pounds of food per month.  Your cat many need more or less, but that's a starting point for your budget.  On a $35 budget, you'll need to find a food which sells for $3.19 per pound.

Good luck with the transition.  I think you'll be happy with the results in your cat's overall vitality and happiness!

Thank you for responding! Do you lessen the amount of time you leave it out if it's summer? I tried the separate plate, but he went for his usual and completely ignored the other food. Your calculation is correct, I think, since he is moderately active. 

 
Tommy is pretty lazy and he used to be 21 lbs.
He's now almost 8 years old, thirteen lbs, and eats 5 oz of raw per day.
I had to tweak the formula because they gained when I started so I made it lighter calorie this last batch. 
I think maybe you could do it if you just used chicken and had a grinder with the organ meat and supplements, but we use ground rabbit and turkey thighs. I do 14 lbs of rabbit ($96 shipped) and 8 lbs of thighs ($2.49/lb)
I have to feed the two boys the same even though Tommy was the one with urinary issues.

Oh wow! That's great that his weight went down. Orange&White did say that my cat will most likely need a bit more than 5oz. I'm not very good at calculating, so how much do you spend on rabbit per pound? And do you get your rabbit from Hare-Today? 

 
A cooked diet is sometimes more acceptable than any kind of raw food. It might be worth trying

Sometimes it's easiest to slowly transiton to frozen or homemade raw by feeding some freeze dried raw along with the canned food and then slowly start using crumbled up freeze dried raw as a topper on top of small amounts of raw food. Use a freeze dried raw that is a complete diet such as Stella and Chewy's or Nature's Variety Instinct Raw Market or Vital Essentials.

There's a recent thread about monthly costs: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/335237/my-monthly-costs

Some people use the Frosty Bowl to keep raw food out for a few hours or so. Personally I would just figuire out how much the cat will eat within half an hour and only put that much food into the bowl. You can leave canned food out during the day if you think your cat might get hungry. I know some people leave a little dry food or freeze dried raw out for snacking on. You can use a programmable timed feeder for any snacks so your cat isn't eating all the food like once you leave the house and is left hungry for the rest of the day.

Amount of raw food varies. You generally want to feed 20 to 25 calories per pound of ideal body weight daily. Let's take Rad Cat chicken which is 209 calories for a 5.5 oz container. Your cat will need approximately 280 calories to maintain no more than his 14 lbs weight. So one whole 5.5 oz container plus a scoop or two of another container will be enough food. Some cats just don't eat all of what what you calculate out and that's ok as long as the cat is maintaining a good body condition and weight. My 10 lb Aby should eat around 200 calories daily but eats more like 180.

Check with the shelter before you bring the NV raw in. Many shelters do not accept raw food and some don't even accept food at all.

Thanks for the link! I actually meant to say homemade raw food. That's a good tip about the freeze dried which I'll definitely use. I'm a little low on money so I won't be able to buy a timed feeder for a few months. My cat is the type to eat his food as soon as it's put down but I don't think a 5 hour gap is enough to make him hungry...would it? Thanks for calculating that for me. I did think that he would need calories between 250-300 to maintain his weight. The two NV bags I have isn't raw, it's kibble. But you're right about shelters not accepting raw food as I already checked with the nearest one near my place. 

 
My young cats transitioned easily. My older cats did too because I got some Purina Feline Fortiflora (cheaper on Amazon than the vet) I sprinkled it on the food like you would sprinkle salt on your dinner.This is also how I am able to get my cats to eat food mixed with liquid medicine or crushed pills. It is marketed as a probiotic, I wouldn't use it for that.

 It has animal digest in it which is what the load unto dry food to get cats to eat it.I never had to use it on a new food more than once or twice. It is not the est probiotic in the world but it works.

 Some people buy Nutritional yeast for the same thing. I tried it but, it never worked.I know some are against using this because as raw feeders we know it isn't great. It did work for me , and I would rather use this when the cats need medicine also.

I never heard of using nutritional yeast before, but I did hear about fortiflora when I was reading up on raw diets. Thank you for your suggestion. I'll definitely give that a try if he still is hesitant about transitioning. I hope my cat would transition easily too but he is one stubborn cat. I think that's cause he was mostly fed kibble at his old home. 

 

[orange&white]

 
Thank you for responding! Do you lessen the amount of time you leave it out if it's summer? I tried the separate plate, but he went for his usual and completely ignored the other food. Your calculation is correct, I think, since he is moderately active. 

No, I don't lessen the time by the season.  Usually there is no food left since they usually eat all of it.  My senior cat is on a diet, so he eats 5.5 oz per day.  He usually (on days I work) eats 3 oz first thing in the morning, then 1 oz when I get home from work to tide him over, and 1.5 oz before bed.  No worry about food sitting out and spoiling.  He would be happy to eat more...all the time. The kitten is eating up to 7 oz per day.  Some days a little less.  She gets 1.5-2.5 oz per meal when I get up, a couple hours later right before I leave for work, when I get home, then mid-evening and right before bed.  She's the one who is more-or-less hungry depending on the day or hour and I let her eat pretty much all she wants.  Occasionally she doesn't finish a small amount of food I offer, and sometimes she sucks down a large portion in no time at all.  Any food not eaten in 30 minutes to an hour, I usually give to the dog as a treat and start the cats over with very fresh food.

A lot of times, cats won't recognize new items as food at first.  Raw meat is a lot less "stinky" to cats than processed food flavors.  You could try putting the plate of raw food down first for a few minutes before feeding his regular dinner to see if he'll try it when he's really hungry and waiting for food.

 

[lalagimp]

 
Oh wow! That's great that his weight went down. Orange&White did say that my cat will most likely need a bit more than 5oz. I'm not very good at calculating, so how much do you spend on rabbit per pound? And do you get your rabbit from Hare-Today?