Picky Cat And Raw Food Question

[mikameek]

I have unfortunately been struggling to keep Mika happy in terms of food. She gets bored quickly and will lose interest in food unless there is an unpredictable rotation going on. I noticed she loved to eat the meat we cooked for dinner and it was part of my decision to switch her to raw food since she seemed so happy to eat it.

Well, so far, she's been LOVING her raw food. She runs to her food bowl now when it's time to eat which I have never seen her do before! Needless to say, I'm thrilled with this.

However, I've only fed her proteins I know she'll eat; beef and chicken. My question is: Has anyone had a picky cat that transitioned to a raw diet and ate all the proteins they didn't like before? I want to try her out on RadCat Lamb and Venison next but she hasn't ever liked wet lamb food before and the only venison she's been offered was in a LID diet food (which she was so unimpressed with she flipped the bowl over). She's never liked turkey, so again, don't know if I should try that either since she's never once liked it. She hasn't ever had pork so that is on the list.

The specialty pet store I live near by is super great about returns and won't have any problems taking it back if she wont eat it, I just don't know if I should test it. Do picky cats typically get less picky on raw food?

 

[orange&white]

I'm not sure if they get less picky on raw. Probably varies from cat to cat. One of my cats I raised on raw last year was "ho hum" about 100% chicken mixes. I used to rotate chicken, pork and beef, though every mix had chicken bones, liver, gizzards and hearts. There was no 100% pork or beef mix.

Since Farrell seems to think "all-chicken" is boring, I started rotating beef and pork with more boneless chicken (thighs or breasts) added to the blend. All three cats seem to love their food now, even Finicky Farrell.

Does the store offer the Rad Cat sample sizes you could try? Or maybe, just offer her a bit of pork or lamb trim if you're planning on making those for dinner some evening.

 

[Tobermory]

I’d try Mika on all of the Rad Cat flavors even if she rejected some proteins in canned form. Raw is just so different. She might like turkey when there are no weird fillers. Or not. She’s a cat after all.

I have the opposite problem. I don’t remember Iris being that picky when I fed canned food, other than she liked pâtés rather than shreds. Now, though, she’ll eat only homemade chicken. No other homemade proteins, no commercial frozen or freeze-dried except for Stella & Chewy’s Duck Duck Goose freeze-dried. It’s very frustrating. Lily and Mocha, on the other hand, never met a meal they didn’t like no matter what form it takes.

So as orange&white says, it’s going to vary from cat to cat. I hope Mika likes all or most of the raw choices. It will be so much easier for you!

 

[Azazel]

Many canned and dry foods aren't mostly animal protein, or they have other flavorings, so it's hard to tell whether a cat doesn't like a food because of the protein source. Who knows if the food even tastes like the protein source. I would try them in raw. Rad Cat has great little 1 oz samples that you can use to test foods, I'm sure your local store can get some for you.

 

[sabrinah]

The things my cat likes in canned vs raw don't line up. She's ok with canned chicken and pork, loves beef and turkey, neutral (leaning slightly towards not pleased) towards duck. With raw she really likes chicken, loves chicken and beef mix, and will only eat pork if I put freeze dried duck on top.

There's no predicting what they'll eat!

 

[1 bruce 1]

None of our cats really like lamb very well. They'll eat it, but it's not that enthusiastic response we want!
They prefer smaller game birds to most other things. Beef is tolerated by most and liked by a few, and rabbit is a hit with every single cat. They go nuts for it.
We make up a complete mix for the morning and night times are usually whole pieces or chunks. One of the top hits here is the humble chicken heart, no cat turns these down. Turkey hearts are well loved but we do cut them in half, which is time consuming and annoying when you have cats wailing like nuts and are using your leg as a scratching post to express their starvation mode.