RAW chicken

[daftcat75]

EZ Complete will ship internationally. And I definitely believe this is worth the import cost if it works out for you and your cat.
https://www.foodfurlife.com/shipping-rates--policies.html#/ Making nutritionally balanced and complete raw food doesn't get any easier than this.

There are so many wet foods out there. Even your "worst" wet food will have more meat and more moisture per gram than your best dry food. Moisture is very important to cats' health. A bowl of water cannot make up for a bowl of dry food. Cats are meant to get their moisture from wet food. Start with Fancy Feast, Friskies, and Sheba. These are very popular with most cats. Tiki Cat and especially Tiki Cat After Dark are better quality, still very affordable options that many cats enjoy. Also keep in mind that cats are naturally suspicious of new foods. You'll want to offer only a small amount to begin with (a tablespoon or two.) If she eats it, keep offering it in small amounts over the next few days. If you like how it treats her on the other end (nothing too loose or too stinky), then you can increase her portions over several days.

Most cats won't eat a full 3 oz can in one serving. Wet food, unlike raw food, can be left out for several hours. You may have a nibbler who might come back to her wet food over several hours. Another thing that might help with getting her to eat more wet food is to remove all day access to her dry food. Fill up just what she's going to eat at that meal. If she's always nibbling on dry food, it will spoil her appetite for wet. Keep trying to get her on a twice a day wet meal using a little bit of dry for the overnight (so she doesn't wake you at 4am) and a little bit of dry during the day if you're not home. This should be your base schedule. As and when you can get nutritionally balanced and complete raw meat with supplements, I would add an extra dinner rather than replacing wet food, if you're able to find a brand and flavor she likes. This way when you run out of the chicken or the supplements, she still has something to eat besides dry food.

There's just so many wet foods out there to say that your cat doesn't like any of them. Keep trying. It will be worth it when you find a few she likes. Three of the most common ailments of older cats--teeth issues, gut issues, and kidney disease--are helped greatly by more moisture in their diet. I wish I could say they were preventable. But cats live so long these days that they are bound to get one of these if they live long enough. I should be so lucky to live to 80 or 90 years old (the equivalent of a 16 - 18 year old cat) without a major health issue!

 

[LTS3]

Canadian raw food supplies and stores:

Commercial Raw Ontario Canada
Frozen Diets available for delivery! Ontario residents
New to TCS, wondering about Canadian options for raw meat
Canadian Raw Food Suppliers
New to making raw cat food. HELP!
starting raw for my kiddies

There's a forum here on TCS where you can ask away about specifics of a homemade diet or using a pre-mix to supplement meat with.

 

[goingpostal]

Have you considered trying a cornish game hen and offering her some bone in chunks instead of simply boneless? It would be far more complete as a diet plus offer the benefit of chewing and enrichment. Or try to feed a complete ready to eat raw, they have them in dry or frozen in many forms and flavors. Otherwise I would keep plain chicken breast as a tiny treat, not as a daily meal for fear of throwing her into malnourishment and health issues.

 

[daftcat75]

Have you considered trying a cornish game hen and offering her some bone in chunks instead of simply boneless? It would be far more complete as a diet plus offer the benefit of chewing and enrichment. Or try to feed a complete ready to eat raw, they have them in dry or frozen in many forms and flavors. Otherwise I would keep plain chicken breast as a tiny treat, not as a daily meal for fear of throwing her into malnourishment and health issues.

My hesitation with whole prey model, and it’s definitely founded in inexperience with it, is that if the cat doesn’t eat the whole thing, you still run the same nutritional imbalance risks. My Krista never cared for liver. Or kidney for that matter. Not on their own. A good grind can cover that up. And since she was having painful teeth issues (tooth resorption and multiple rounds of extractions until she was finally toothless), it was only the ground boneless diet (plus a high quality canned food) for her.

I’d start simple as you can. Either a ready made food or a premix powder. Then build on that once you have a nutritionally complete and balanced foundation to build on.

 

[Talien]

Have you tried canned food that comes in shreds or chunks? It may be the pate texture she doesn't like. Something like this or this might do the trick.

 

[Papaganu]

EZ Complete will ship internationally. And I definitely believe this is worth the import cost if it works out for you and your cat.
https://www.foodfurlife.com/shipping-rates--policies.html#/ Making nutritionally balanced and complete raw food doesn't get any easier than this.

There are so many wet foods out there. Even your "worst" wet food will have more meat and more moisture per gram than your best dry food. Moisture is very important to cats' health. A bowl of water cannot make up for a bowl of dry food. Cats are meant to get their moisture from wet food. Start with Fancy Feast, Friskies, and Sheba. These are very popular with most cats. Tiki Cat and especially Tiki Cat After Dark are better quality, still very affordable options that many cats enjoy. Also keep in mind that cats are naturally suspicious of new foods. You'll want to offer only a small amount to begin with (a tablespoon or two.) If she eats it, keep offering it in small amounts over the next few days. If you like how it treats her on the other end (nothing too loose or too stinky), then you can increase her portions over several days.

Most cats won't eat a full 3 oz can in one serving. Wet food, unlike raw food, can be left out for several hours. You may have a nibbler who might come back to her wet food over several hours. Another thing that might help with getting her to eat more wet food is to remove all day access to her dry food. Fill up just what she's going to eat at that meal. If she's always nibbling on dry food, it will spoil her appetite for wet. Keep trying to get her on a twice a day wet meal using a little bit of dry for the overnight (so she doesn't wake you at 4am) and a little bit of dry during the day if you're not home. This should be your base schedule. As and when you can get nutritionally balanced and complete raw meat with supplements, I would add an extra dinner rather than replacing wet food, if you're able to find a brand and flavor she likes. This way when you run out of the chicken or the supplements, she still has something to eat besides dry food.

I dont leave any food overnight...as soon as I wake up I put some dry food when I come back at night I make her chicken that was how I feed her.
Now I am gonna go get her raw food from bailey blu ( they make them with bones organs chicken other supplements check their website)
Its gonna like this:
No food overnight I wake up Put some wet food she likes ( I will find ) few kibbles before I leave when I come back she should be hungry for her Raw meat from BaileyBlu. So like that she have wet..dry and Raw enough time between all the meals so she stays hungry and finish her plate!
How about that?
All types of food wet dry and raw plus she will get her favourit chicken breast time to time as a treat cause she really love that! She can finish a whole breast in less than 5min and she is so so small

 

[daftcat75]

I dont leave any food overnight...as soon as I wake up I put some dry food when I come back at night I make her chicken that was how I feed her.
Now I am gonna go get her raw food from bailey blu ( they make them with bones organs chicken other supplements check their website)
Its gonna like this:
No food overnight I wake up Put some wet food she likes ( I will find ) few kibbles before I leave when I come back she should be hungry for her Raw meat from BaileyBlu. So like that she have wet..dry and Raw enough time between all the meals so she stays hungry and finish her plate!
How about that?
All types of food wet dry and raw plus she will get her favourit chicken breast time to time as a treat cause she really love that! She can finish a whole breast in less than 5min and she is so so small

That sounds great!

Treats, including chicken breast, should be kept to no more than 10% of her diet. A chicken breast is about 250 calories. More if you're leaving the skin on. 250 calories would be a healthy to more-than-healthy daily amount of calories for a small cat: 20-30 calories per lbs is one recommendation I've heard so that would be 25 calories per 10 lbs of cat. So if you were going to give her a whole breast (which seems like too much!), I'd keep that to once every 10 days. Or half a breast once a week. Which is still a lot! When I made Krista's food, I'd reserve no more than an ounce (30 grams or about 50 calories) of meat--often half that--that I would cut up finely for her since she was nearly toothless. I called that her turkey (and later rabbit) sashimi. It was little more than a large coin's size of treat meat. Sometimes a small cup of ice cream is more decadent than devouring a pint in one sitting.

 

[Papaganu]

Ok I am losing hope with this cat I honestly don't know what to do she refuse to eat her new raw meat I bought sheer fuse to eat wet food the only thing she love is dry or chicken I'm honestly done with looking what kind of food she would love to finish she's just going to eat dry food and chicken breast for the rest of her life until she learn to eat like a normal cat she left her raw complete food look at the picture I'm going to leave that raw food there the whole day she's not going to eat anything the whole day I'm going to act in put fresh raw meat tonight if she refused to eat it she will not eat for a couple of days after 3 days of not eating I will just give her a regular routine chicken breast and dry food this one is very picky the pickiest cat could ever have she's pretty she's cute but she's very very picky

 

[Papaganu]

What do u do with picky cats? She didn want the raw food she dont want any kind if wet she never finish only dry and chicken breast...I am done with this cat.. unfortunately I have other important things to do...I might just give her to someone very patient and get a new cat that will eat anything anywhere anytime

 

[LTS3]

Many cats don't recognize raw meat as food. They're so used to eating canned food and dry food. Try adding toppers such as crushed up treats to the raw meat to make it more appealing.

Or just feed con tinue to feed cooked chicken but with a pre-mix supplement added. Then once your cat is on that diet, add tiny amounts of raw meat to the food to get the cat used to it. Then just use the pre-mix with the raw meat for a complete diet.

 

[Papaganu]

Many cats don't recognize raw meat as food. They're so used to eating canned food and dry food. Try adding toppers such as crushed up treats to the raw meat to make it more appealing.

Or just feed con tinue to feed cooked chicken but with a pre-mix supplement added. Then once your cat is on that diet, add tiny amounts of raw meat to the food to get the cat used to it. Then just use the pre-mix with the raw meat for a complete diet.

Thank u so much I am adding her favourit treats crushed maybe ill add chicken piece on top just to see ill let u know

 

[daftcat75]

Tldr: Don’t leave out raw food. Don’t starve your cat. You’ll both lose. Don’t rely on incomplete meat. You’d be better off relying on dry only. But that’s not ideal either. Keep trying to find nutritionally complete foods she will eat. You can do real damage to her if you give up and rely on the incomplete meat.


1. Do not leave raw food out more than an hour. That is inviting too much bacteria. You can leave wet food out all day. But not raw.

2. Do not starve your cat. Cats who don’t eat start to undergo a couple of dangerous processes. One is that the conversion of body fat to energy produces byproducts in the liver that can overwhelm the liver. This is called fatty liver disease. But the second thing that happens and why it’s not a good idea to starve your cat into eating is that not eating makes them nauseated and encourages them to continue to not eat. In short, if you starve her, you’ll both lose this battle. And it can make for a very expensive and potentially life threatening vet visit if she develops fatty liver from not eating.

3. Cats are particular. It’s a survival instinct. That’s why there are thousands of different foods out there. Keep trying on both the wet food and the raw.

4. I can’t tell what protein that meat is. But it looks like a red meat. Not every cat likes red meats like beef, lamb, boar, and venison. She likes chicken. See if you can find a raw food in chicken. Or turkey. Krista loved rabbit too.

5. Buy a premix powder (EZ Complete or TC Feline or Alnutrin or the like.) Make the chicken breast nutritionally complete or stop relying on it. You would do more damage over the long run feeding the meat without supplementation than if you just fed her only dry. My cat had 12 great years on only dry. Then she had a very difficult final three years as that diet did eventually catch up to her with IBD/lymphoma and tooth issues. Both were treated with more moisture in her diet (and expensive vet bills!) If you feed your cat only treat meat (meat without organs and supplements), she’ll develop tooth, bone, and possibly kidney issues sooner than a decade.

6. Diet changes can be hard on cats. Take them slowly. You’re going to waste a lot of cat food until you find what she likes. That’s just the way it’s going to go. Offer only a few bites (a tablespoon) of a new food to start. If she takes more than a couple bites, keep offering that food. Cats often do their own slow introduction: they’ll try a few bites of a new food to see how it treats them before they go all in on that new food. You can leave wet food out all day. Make her a three food flight (no more than a tablespoon of each) and leave that out all day. Whichever she nibbled at, keep offering it. If she didn’t touch a food over the course of a day, starving her into it over another day or two won’t work.

Bonus: Tiki Cat makes some great shredded chicken foods. Affordable too. I don’t think I’ve ever met a cat who turned down Friskies. It may be considered low quality junk food. But it is nutritionally complete. It’s better to eat at McDonalds than starve at Whole Foods.

 

[LTS3]

Don't put raw meat on top of dry food and leave it out all day. Bacteria will grow and may upset your cat's tummy.

Did you order any of the pre-mixes that have been suggested? You can use most of them with the chicken your cat likes. Here's another brand available in Canada: Know Better Pet Food | Healthy Homemade Pet Food Products

Some cats will not eat raw for whatever reason. It's fine to feed a cooked diet as long as you use a pre-mix.

 

[daftcat75]

Oh yeah! Buy the Know Better powder. Make a gravy with it and mix with your chicken, raw or cooked. And you’re done. Krista liked that stuff and she was picky too!

 

[LTS3]

Are you buying supermarket meat? Sometimes supermarket meat is "enhanced" with broths, flavorings, preservatives, etc, none of which you want to give to a cat. The package label usually has this in teeny tiny print. Ask someone in the meat department if you're unsure. Or buy meat from an organic type supermarket (Whole Foods, etc) or a butcher shop or those "farm to table" vendors at seasonal markets that sell their own raised and processed meat directly to people.

 

[Willowy]

You can use most of them with the cooked chicken your cat likes.

The cat prefers raw chicken. The OP has stated they're not willing to cook for the cat.

Raw mixes are pretty different from chunks of raw chicken. I really do think the premixes with the chicken she's used to would be better.

But if you get too frustrated, giving her mostly dry food with a special dinner of plain raw chicken once or twice a week should be fine, and a much better option than rehoming her.

 

[maggie101]

Thank u so much I am adding her favourit treats crushed maybe ill add chicken piece on top just to see ill let u know

Sometimes my cat likes the crunch from treats other times she wants the extra flavor from ez. I think it's mostly the flavor

 

[Talien]

Try transitioning her slowly to a new food. First add a bit of water to her dry to soften it, then if she eats it add a little bit more water after a few days, and keep doing that until it's basically mush. Mix in a bit of canned food to it, then add a bit more every few days until you get to the point where it's only canned food. From that point you can either call it good enough or give her small portions and mix in a little bit of raw food, adding a bit more every few days until she's just eating raw. Even the pickiest Cat can be transitioned to different foods with enough time.

 

[daftcat75]

Try transitioning her slowly to a new food. First add a bit of water to her dry to soften it, then if she eats it add a little bit more water after a few days, and keep doing that until it's basically mush. Mix in a bit of canned food to it, then add a bit more every few days until you get to the point where it's only canned food. From that point you can either call it good enough or give her small portions and mix in a little bit of raw food, adding a bit more every few days until she's just eating raw. Even the pickiest Cat can be transitioned to different foods with enough time.

Not a bad strategy. Except that dry food is high in carbs and adding water to carbs is going to make bacteria soup. So you can certainly try this. But once you've moistened the dry food, treat it with the same caution as raw and pick it up after an hour. You can also try crumbling her dry and sprinkling that over the wet food. I would pick that up after an hour if she didn't finish the dry pieces on top.