Please Help Me Understand What Just Happened In My Kitchen

[Totsy]

I have four-month-old brothers who have been eating exclusively frozen and freeze-dried raw foods for about a week. They loved nearly all of them with the exception of two frozen samples of lamb and beef. I don't know if was those particular samples or those meats, but one wouldn't touch them and the other vomited them later. Otherwise, they have adapted quickly and easily from the shelter's kibble and canned food to "all ages" raw. I haven't yet dared to make my own cat food for them. I'm open to it, but I'm squeamish and worried I won't get it right for kittens.

So this morning I offered each cat a raw chicken neck. The larger of the two (by over a pound!) sat and stared at the neck for fully three minutes before finally picking off some of the meat. He lost interest in it after about 20 minutes. In the meantime the smaller kitty attacked the neck and made growling sounds deep in his throat that I've never heard before and crunched down every single bit of the neck. Nothing was left! He started to go after his brother's chicken neck before I took him into another room.

I've never had kittens before and never fed raw meat to a cat before. Are both brothers' reactions to the chicken necks normal?

Any advice anyone has for continuing to feed my boys would be very welcome. I don't know when I should stop letting them eat as much as they want or if I should be stressing particular proteins or foods to get more fat into them or just rotating them or adding anything else or --- ??

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi!
Briefly, yes, both reactions are normal, and you should allow them to eat as much as they'll consume up to at least a year old, if they are one of the big breeds, longer.

Hopefully one of the raw feeders such as 1 bruce 1 or orange&white will have a chance to answer you in more depth

 

[Totsy]

Thank you! They're just black moggies who've stolen our hearts.

 

[Furballsmom]

 

[orange&white]

Not sure what to tell you on the lamb and beef, but my first instinct is that they weren't fresh enough. Perhaps they got too warm at some point in distribution. Not sure. It's possibly a food intolerance with the one who vomited, but the other cat not touching the food makes me think something didn't "smell right". The one who vomited may have eaten too much, too quickly (scarf-and-barf). Possibly the food was perfectly fine, and he just didn't recognize lamb and beef scents as "food". There's really no clear answer on that mystery.

Both cats reactions to the chicken neck are normal. Your growly scarfer was loving it so much that he was warning, "This is mine, all mine. Mine! Mine! Mine!". Your other kitty didn't recognize the neck as food. Is it the same kitten who didn't touch the lamb and beef? You may have one scarfer and one picky eater on your hands. You can try smashing the neck bone with the back side of a heavy knife, and cutting it into smaller sections for the picky kitten.

They can eat as much food as they want up to a year (or longer for big breeds, as Furballsmom mentioned). Rotating lots of proteins, as you're doing, is a good thing. Cats can get their taste buds "set" on a particular flavor or texture by 6 months old, and not recognize other foods as "food". That makes it difficult to change foods later if they do develop an intolerance to a particular protein. The variety will also give them a good range of protein/fat combinations across the different foods, and should balance out nicely.

 

[Columbine]

Both reactions sound perfectly normal to me, even though my cats all refuse to recognise raw meat as food (One, however, will ONLY eat freeze dried raw, and it has to be fed dry too....not ideal, but still better for him than kibble).

The only caveat I'd add, when it come to bone-in treats like necks or wingtips, is to watch the quantity of bone that's being added in, especially if the commercial raw has a fair amount of bone. Too much bone can cause constipation, which is obviously undesirable.
Raw Feeding Cats: Calcium And Bones

 

[KarenKat]

Awww, cute little carnivores! I fed Olive a chicken wing, and she absolutely loved it. She is not food aggressive even though she is food motivated - another cat comes by to check out her bowl while she is eating or smell a treat and she just ignores it. But another cat gets near her chicken wing and her inner panther comes out and she growls up a storm!

Our other two cats, who have never eaten any raw meat, are interested in the wings but don't actually bite them.

 

[Totsy]

Thanks so much for your helpful and reassuring comments. That cat had me freaked out!

You are correct, O&W, about the growl-y chicken neck scarfer also being the frozen sample barfer, although the confused big boy Artie has never been picky. The necks were the only things Phil ever scarfed, though, and those frozen samples are the only things he's ever barfed. Now I'm wary of trying the other frozen samples I brought home.

Hmm. I had planned to give them the raw meaty bones a couple of times a week, but now I'm not so sure. I gave them the chicken necks on the advice of the owner (at least I think she was the owner) of a raw pet food emporium. Most of the raw foods I've bought have bones rather than eggshell - and I'm not sure that would even make a difference. I don't know how to balance the calcium/phosphorus/whatever else if giving them bones plus prepared raw food. Actually, I don't know how I'd do it if I were making their food, either.

Carnivores indeed! I had anticipated a gooey wet free-for-all with chicken bits slung all around the kitchen, but they stayed on a mat and there was really no mess at all. The non-neck-lover sat and stared wide-eyed at both the growl-y scarfer growling and crunching and devouring the neck and down at his own untouched chicken neck for three full minutes before even giving it a sniff. That "mine all mine" attitude was a surprise because they've always shared everything. They have three litter boxes but use only one (sometimes at the same time), are fed from two food bowls but both eat from only one bowl and then move to the next, sleep in the same bed, and so on.

 

[Columbine]

Raw meaty bone are fantastic for their teeth. You just need to watch that their total bone consumption isn't too high. I'm sure some of the experienced raw feeders can give you some pointers

@mschauer and orange&white come to mind, but there are many others here too (I'm dreadful for forgetting names ).

 

[Totsy]

Thanks, Columbine. Yes, their teeth concern me. Our older cat, long deceased, had to be anesthetized for teeth cleaning and I would so love to avoid that. They let me brush their teeth now, but who knows? Keeping them healthy and clean with their food would be ideal. No guarantee, of course.

 

[orange&white]

You can offer 10% on top of their diet as treats. So, if they're eating 5oz of food a day (35 oz per week), then they could have 3.5 ounces a week of "treats", which could be a chicken neck. I think necks are usually 3-4 ounces.

If that is too much bone for their system, they will get constipated, in which case you'd obviously want to cut back on the necks. Chicken gizzards are boneless treats which are also good for scrubbing teeth. You might switch every other week between necks and gizzards, or split one neck per week between the two cats, and offer some whole gizzard on another day that week.

 

[1 bruce 1]

Yep, very normal.
For the picky eater, or one that didn't "realize" a neck was food, I'd stop feeding bones for now and use boneless meat, cut up into small-ish squares (1-2 inch by 1-2 inch), and put it on a plate so it's visible and see if he takes to that. If he does, you can gradually work up to larger chunks of meat that is boneless (I like taking a 4 inch by 4 inch piece of meat or so) and using scissors to make cuts, so the end result looks like a jellyfish. It makes it easier for them to work on and "gives them the idea" of what to do!) After he's happily gnawing on chunks, you can re introduce a chicken neck or a wing.

He may have not liked the sensation of the bone, or doesn't have the jaw muscles built up to get through this. He may have stripped the meat off, thought the meal was "done" and left it lay. We've had cats do this with necks before.

 

[lalagimp]

I love hearing about a kitty going killer on their dead animal parts. It's adorable when they go primal over their "kill".
That's the only time they act food aggressive, and it's usually just being very loud and energetic, not violent towards anyone in the area.
My boys eat raw.

The girls don't. They just stare at it for a long time, trying to accept that they are supposed to go nuts over it (sniffing it, taking 1-2 licks) but they don't understand the concept.

 

[Totsy]

Ah, O&W and 1Bruce, that is such helpful information and advice. I might have to put Growl-y Cat in a separate room for "neck day" if they're only getting a half ration, lol.

 

[1 bruce 1]

Ah, O&W and 1Bruce, that is such helpful information and advice. I might have to put Growl-y Cat in a separate room for "neck day" if they're only getting a half ration, lol.

"Neck day", LOL

 

[orange&white]

Ah, O&W and 1Bruce, that is such helpful information and advice. I might have to put Growl-y Cat in a separate room for "neck day" if they're only getting a half ration, lol.

When I first started feeding raw in 2008, the three cats I had then ate off a large "community" dinner plate, and it worked fine. Unfortunately, I did let my senior cat get a few pounds overweight, so now he eats in the kitchen, and each of the two young cats I adopted last year have separate private dining rooms, one in each bathroom.

 

[KarenKat]

The first raw I tried feeding Olive was Chicken liver, bought frozen at the store and warmed up a bit. Olive whined at me, really wanted to eat it but didn’t know how to proceed (or maybe it was not fresh enough). She ended up sticking a paw in the bloody juice and flicking chicken blood cross the kitchen floor.

 

[Totsy]

lalagimp, you captured the scene in a nutshell. The neck lover is one who does a proud strut all over the house when he catches the feather bird or other toy. Yeah, he's the man!

 

[Totsy]

KarenKat, eww! I'm really hoping to avoid that.

 

[Gizmobius]

Gizmo turns into a growl machine whenever I give him a lamb rib or chicken wing while Stevie doesn't even recognize them as food. He's only had two chicken wings so far and the last one he chewed on just long enough to get the wing bones to a decent enough size to swallow whole. I supervised him the entire time but never expected him to suddenly turn into a snake about it! But he's a scarfer. Gizzards, hearts, bones now apparently, he'll chew it just enough to slide it down his gullet, the little glutton.