Hi guys,
tl;dr I used to have a kitty, Wintressia, who was diagnosed with Stage 3 kidney failure when she was 14 and given 3 months to live. I switched her to a fully raw diet (ground meat/bone/organ from Hare Today, supplemented with Alnutrin) and she lived another 6 wonderful, healthy, happy years. She just passed away in February at the age of 19 (in May she would have turned 20). She had a stroke, which is what led to her death - I believe that not only did the raw diet give her those 6 more years of life, she would have lived another 5+ years at least if she hadn't had the stroke :{ Sorry for the off-topic background story, but just wanted to show why I would scream the benefits of a raw diet from the rooftops XD
I adopted a stray, Kohl, in December of 2016, and there was no question that she would be on a raw diet from the second I took her in. The vet guessed she was ~7 months old when I found her, so she's around 2 years old now (by best guess). She's very healthy, incredibly glossy and soft, and loves her raw diet. Basically the best stray-kitty outcome I could ask for! (Except for a crazy adventure regarding being spayed/having remnant ovary syndrome/the vet opened her up THREE times for "spaying", but that's a tale for another day.)
The only problem is (and my main concern) is she is a LOT pickier re: protein types than my old lady Wintressia was. I used to get a wide variety of proteins for Win, and she would happily eat anything from chicken to rabbit to goat to pork to llama. There wasn't a meat that Win wouldn't eat. I think I even got emu and kangaroo for her once. I would rotate protein types weekly, and never had an issue with vomiting or regurgitation.
Kohl, unfortunately, is picky. I feed her Darwin's right now (for ease of prep; it's already fully supplemented) and all she'll eat is their chicken and turkey. (They offered duck for a while and she ate that, but they've discontinued their duck and replaced it with lamb.) She absolutely will not touch the lamb, even if I mix it in with the chicken or turkey in an effort to introduce it slowly. If there's a single molecule of lamb mixed in, she just won't eat, period.
I've bought some other proteins from My Pet Carnivore in pure desperation, and I can't get her to eat them either - EXCEPT beef. She'll eat beef. Unfortunately, she seems to have a sensitivity/allergy(?) to beef, and will promptly projectile regurgitate it explosively within a few minutes of eating it (NOT vomiting which takes place after some digestion - this is immediate regurgitation). I give her the beef, prepped exactly the same as I prep her poultry proteins, and within minutes it's all over the walls and carpet, in fully undigested form. I learned my lesson after a couple of attempts >_<
My worry is that she's going to develop some kind of sensitivity/overload to chicken/turkey if that's all I feed her for the rest of her life, and then not be able to eat it (or develop other problems.) I've heard stories that animals "develop" problems with a single protein if they are fed it exclusively (not sure whether to call it an allergy, sensitivity, or neither.)
Is this something I should really worry about? Can I head this off with a wider variety of fowl types (for example, if I buy duck/goose/pheasant from Hare Today and cycle that in)? Should I try to "force" her to consume other, more novel/exotic protein types by mixing it in with the chicken/turkey?
Thank you guys for any insight/opinions/thoughts. My vet is a good guy, but he thinks I am a demon for feeding my cats raw, so I can't well ask him :{
tl;dr I used to have a kitty, Wintressia, who was diagnosed with Stage 3 kidney failure when she was 14 and given 3 months to live. I switched her to a fully raw diet (ground meat/bone/organ from Hare Today, supplemented with Alnutrin) and she lived another 6 wonderful, healthy, happy years. She just passed away in February at the age of 19 (in May she would have turned 20). She had a stroke, which is what led to her death - I believe that not only did the raw diet give her those 6 more years of life, she would have lived another 5+ years at least if she hadn't had the stroke :{ Sorry for the off-topic background story, but just wanted to show why I would scream the benefits of a raw diet from the rooftops XD
I adopted a stray, Kohl, in December of 2016, and there was no question that she would be on a raw diet from the second I took her in. The vet guessed she was ~7 months old when I found her, so she's around 2 years old now (by best guess). She's very healthy, incredibly glossy and soft, and loves her raw diet. Basically the best stray-kitty outcome I could ask for! (Except for a crazy adventure regarding being spayed/having remnant ovary syndrome/the vet opened her up THREE times for "spaying", but that's a tale for another day.)
The only problem is (and my main concern) is she is a LOT pickier re: protein types than my old lady Wintressia was. I used to get a wide variety of proteins for Win, and she would happily eat anything from chicken to rabbit to goat to pork to llama. There wasn't a meat that Win wouldn't eat. I think I even got emu and kangaroo for her once. I would rotate protein types weekly, and never had an issue with vomiting or regurgitation.
Kohl, unfortunately, is picky. I feed her Darwin's right now (for ease of prep; it's already fully supplemented) and all she'll eat is their chicken and turkey. (They offered duck for a while and she ate that, but they've discontinued their duck and replaced it with lamb.) She absolutely will not touch the lamb, even if I mix it in with the chicken or turkey in an effort to introduce it slowly. If there's a single molecule of lamb mixed in, she just won't eat, period.
I've bought some other proteins from My Pet Carnivore in pure desperation, and I can't get her to eat them either - EXCEPT beef. She'll eat beef. Unfortunately, she seems to have a sensitivity/allergy(?) to beef, and will promptly projectile regurgitate it explosively within a few minutes of eating it (NOT vomiting which takes place after some digestion - this is immediate regurgitation). I give her the beef, prepped exactly the same as I prep her poultry proteins, and within minutes it's all over the walls and carpet, in fully undigested form. I learned my lesson after a couple of attempts >_<
My worry is that she's going to develop some kind of sensitivity/overload to chicken/turkey if that's all I feed her for the rest of her life, and then not be able to eat it (or develop other problems.) I've heard stories that animals "develop" problems with a single protein if they are fed it exclusively (not sure whether to call it an allergy, sensitivity, or neither.)
Is this something I should really worry about? Can I head this off with a wider variety of fowl types (for example, if I buy duck/goose/pheasant from Hare Today and cycle that in)? Should I try to "force" her to consume other, more novel/exotic protein types by mixing it in with the chicken/turkey?
Thank you guys for any insight/opinions/thoughts. My vet is a good guy, but he thinks I am a demon for feeding my cats raw, so I can't well ask him :{