raw diet?

[ldg]

You mean to keep it at 15% or less of the overall diet?

Do you feed in meals? Or is the kibble left out to free feed?

If you feed meals, it's quite easy. If you feed 3 meals a day (the recommended minimum), then you can feed 3 meals a week as raw without worrying about balancing.

It'd help to know if you feed meals of canned or kibble, or if you leave kibble out for them to graze and additionally feed canned meals, or ... ???

If you leave kibble out to graze, you'll have to measure for a little while. Start with a fresh dish. Measure how much you put in it. And measure how much you add to it, or how much you put in whenever you fill it for a week. We can work from there.

 

[mwallace056]

yes i mean keep it 15% or less, i have kittens so i leave kibble out to ensure they getting the nutrients they need, once they get older i will switch to meals  and canned in the morning and night. 

 

[ldg]

Well the minimum number of meals even for an adult cat is three. They don't need to be evenly spaced. I feed before work, around dinner, and before bed.

http://catcentric.org/care-and-health/how-often-should-you-feed-your-cat/

 

[ldg]

If all you feed is kibble, I'd add no more than three meals per week of raw. Balanced, of course is best, if you want to give a go at making it, it's not at all difficult. I'll post recipe links and options later. Or they might have been posted, I didn't check. :anon: Or, of course, you can buy commercial. But unbalanced, 3 meals a week, isn't going to hurt. I would consider feeding a meal of wet food the other four days at the same time.

 

[mwallace056]

i got two 10 or 11 month old males, got them in a different shelter, because mama cat is in heat again, don't worry we taking them in to get fixed on Wednesday. i feed the two older kittens 1/4 cup of kibble each and and two 3oz of canned each. the black male don't seem excited for wet food unless i mix kibble with it   i feed them i get up or right before i leave, when i get home and before bed. the 5 months kittens i free feed and canned in morning and night, same with mama cat too. later on they all with be on the same schedule. so raw 3 times a week with wet? there no recipes on this thread.

 

[mwallace056]

oh i misread that, so unbalanced raw 3 time a week and wet 4 times a week?

 

[Willowy]

Give wet food as often as possible. It's healthier than dry food. If the raw is unbalanced, yeah, only 3 meals a week. Don't mix it with the canned food, just give it separately.

 

[mwallace056]

mama cat and the two older kittens do hunt but they haven't been because i got them locked up because i got a dog who will chase them. also it freezing here. 

 

[mwallace056]

we got chickens, will they learn to hunt the chicken if i feed them raw chicken? i don't think they will but my parents believe if they smell blood of a chicken or eat raw chicken they will learn to attack the chickens they are scared of the chickens. they won't even try if they did learned. we do got few small chickens but the cats leaves them alone too and seems just as afraid of them as the big chickens.

 

[mwallace056]

can i warm the chicken up? 

 

[Willowy]

Nah, eating chicken meat won't make them hunt the chickens. Now maybe if you killed a chicken and gave it to them right away, unplucked and still warm, they'd associate live chickens with chicken meat, but giving them regular chicken meat won't make them think of live chickens as prey. Plus, mama chickens are mean. I don't know any cat who will mess with a grown chicken, or a baby chick whose mama is watching .

Tell your parents that cat food is made of chicken too :tongue2:. You can warm the meat up if they prefer, or even cook it (but don't ever feed cooked bones!). If it's not more than 15% of their diet it doesn't matter too much how it's served.

 

[mwallace056]

 At one point we did have chicks in the house and i showed her one, mama cat smelled it and all she wanted to do get away from it. i know with two, barn swallows, can't remember the other one, she will not hesitate or resist, she will go for it. i remembered reading about domestic cats don't usually go after chickens but feral cats are way more likely 

Mama cat won't eat it unless it warm

 

[molanic]

ldg , so the not feeding raw while still feeding kibble is a myth? Is that even for kitties with health issues like IBD?

I have been trying without much luck to get my kitties off from kibble and onto canned and home-cooked, with the hope to then work towards raw. It has not been going well and I am tempted to just jump ahead and try some raw.

I thought I had found a rotation that worked of canned NVI rabbit, canned fancy feast classic turkey, or home-cooked chicken with Alnutrin for two meals a day....in addition to two meals of measured out NVI limited ingredient Turkey kibble. I thought that was going to work. Of course once I bought the rabbit in bulk and made a bigger batch of home-made they started getting fussy again. Now even with limiting the kibble intake drastically they aren't eating much wet at all. Peanut (IBD kitty) started eating almost no wet food and lost weight, so I'm upping the kibble again.... SO frustrating!

I bought some of the NVI freeze-dried raw rabbit treats just to try... since I figured that would be safe. One cat Red and my dog love it, but the other two cats won't touch it. My dog is loving this because he gets to clean their plates when they don't finish, but it is driving me insane.

 

[Kat0121]

@LDG, so the not feeding raw while still feeding kibble is a myth? Is that even for kitties with health issues like IBD?

I have been trying without much luck to get my kitties off from kibble and onto canned and home-cooked, with the hope to then work towards raw. It has not been going well and I am tempted to just jump ahead and try some raw.

I thought I had found a rotation that worked of canned NVI rabbit, canned fancy feast classic turkey, or home-cooked chicken with Alnutrin for two meals a day....in addition to two meals of measured out NVI limited ingredient Turkey kibble. I thought that was going to work. Of course once I bought the rabbit in bulk and made a bigger batch of home-made they started getting fussy again. Now even with limiting the kibble intake drastically they aren't eating much wet at all. Peanut (IBD kitty) started eating almost no wet food and lost weight, so I'm upping the kibble again.... SO frustrating!

I bought some of the NVI freeze-dried raw rabbit treats just to try... since I figured that would be safe. One cat Red and my dog love it, but the other two cats won't touch it. My dog is loving this because he gets to clean their plates when they don't finish, but it is driving me insane.

Mine aren't taking to the raw well either. I thought it was just the NVI raw bites which they both refused to touch. My dog, like yours, loved it. Dogs are so easy to please.  

Even Henry, my good eater, isn't very happy with the raw. Mixing it with the wet didn't seem to help. Maybe I added too much. He will not take food from my hand. He only eats food out of his dish so giving it to him as a treat doesn't work. I can try that with Lilith and Sophie. They love treats. I haven't tried the chub of Primal lamb yet though. it's still frozen. How do I handle that one? Do I try to chop pieces off of it while it's still frozen? I don't think defrosting the whole thing is a good idea. Who knows how long it would take them to eat it. I bet the dog would love it if they don't. 

 

 

[lisahe]

 
Mine aren't taking to the raw well either. I thought it was just the NVI raw bites which they both refused to touch. My dog, like yours, loved it. Dogs are so easy to please.  

Even Henry, my good eater, isn't very happy with the raw. Mixing it with the wet didn't seem to help. Maybe I added too much. He will not take food from my hand. He only eats food out of his dish so giving it to him as a treat doesn't work. I can try that with Lilith and Sophie. They love treats. I haven't tried the chub of Primal lamb yet though. it's still frozen. How do I handle that one? Do I try to chop pieces off of it while it's still frozen? I don't think defrosting the whole thing is a good idea. Who knows how long it would take them to eat it. I bet the dog would love it if they don't. 

 

FWIW, our cats don't much like NVI's frozen raw foods at all: when I tried it on them, they pretty much refused to eat it. And though they love Primal's freeze-dried foods, they're not very keen on their frozen stuff. I bought a bag of the Pronto and have to sneak it to them in their freeze-dried food. They love RadCat and Stella & Chewy's frozen, though, and liked Oma's Pride's Purr, too, so I think they have a strong preference for frozen foods that are especially meaty, with the only additives being nutrients, not vegetables. Of course they're cats -- and divas, too, like yours, think tiara here -- so that's just a hypothesis.

As for chubs and other foods that need to be defrosted to portion out. I've seen a lot of varied thoughts on how best to handle them but I like to portion them when they're just partially thawed so they can be cut with a knife. When I bought Bravo, I used a serrated knife and cut through the plastic and the meat together, then put the pieces in plastic bags.

Good luck!

 

[LTS3]

You can partially thaw the chub, portion the meat into serving sized containes, and then re-freeze

 

[sophie1]

i am really unsure, i will probably stick to feeding 70% of canned and 30% of dry food

It's too easy to be overwhelmed by the choices - fear not!

Start by visiting your local pet stores and ask what raw food options they have.  You shouldn't have any trouble finding Nature's Variety "bites" for cats, or Primal nuggets.  You may find other brands like Bravo, Vital Essentials, or Rad Cat.  See if you can get samples or small amounts to try - Primal has a nugget sampler for example.  If cost is a concern, I would skip the freeze dried foods.  They are almost double the price of frozen raw.

To figure the cost of the raw foods, you have to first figure out how much of each food your cat should eat.  It's going to be less than canned.  The companies typically provide online calculators which you should use because calories per ounce can vary a lot (Rad Cat = low, Nature Variety = high), but as a rule of thumb you can figure 3% of body weight per day. 

Then...go for it!  It really is worth it and unless the canned food you've been buying is Friskies, I think you will find that commercial raw costs about the same as you've been paying or maybe a bit less.  Not to mention that you'll save money on litter.  No more gooey, smelly poops!

 

[sphyngalscrazy]

Some commercial Freeze-dried raw options : Stella And Chewys, Honest Kitchen, Primal, Sojos
Some commercial Frozen Raw Options : Stella and chewys, Primal, Natures Variety

 

[maureen brad]

I was just reading this article at www.feline-nutrition.org it is written by a vet. She is against feeding raw and kibble.

http://feline-nutrition.org/answers/answers-feed-raw-and-dry-at-the-same-time

 

[LTS3]

Some commercial Freeze-dried raw options : Stella And Chewys, Honest Kitchen, Primal, Sojos
Some commercial Frozen Raw Options : Stella and chewys, Primal, Natures Variety

The Honest Kitchen is dehydrated raw food, not freeze dried. I think Sojos may be dehydrated as well. Dehydrated raw food is basically powder that has to be rehydrated with water before feeding. .Freeze-dried raw come in kibble or nugget shapes.

If one decides to feed commercial frozen raw food, be sure to read the label. Pet stores sell a variety of frozen raw foods and meats these days but not all are complete diets. Some are grinds (meat, bone, and organ) or boneless meats that are meant to be used in a raw pet food recipe with supplements added.

Primal has grinds, mixes, and complete diets. It's easy to get confused on the different products. Here is the product listing for the Primal complete diet raw food: http://www.primalpetfoods.com/product/list/c/7 There is also a complete freeze dried formula: http://www.primalpetfoods.com/product/list/c/14 and a mini-nugget shaped complete frozen raw diet: http://www.primalpetfoods.com/product/list/c/15

Nature's variety Instinct frozen raw: http://www.instinctpetfood.com/instinct-raw-food-cats and freeze dried raw: http://www.instinctpetfood.com/instinct-raw-freeze-dried-dogs-and-cats

Stella and Chewy's frozen morsels: http://www.stellaandchewys.com/cat-frozen-dinner-morsels.php and freeze dried dinners: http://www.stellaandchewys.com/cat-products.php