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- Jul 9, 2013
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I just recently acquired two furry monsters: Ronin (11 weeks, now 14) and Bella (2 years+) about three weeks ago. I'll describe their diet and if anyone has any comments or critiques let me know.
They were previously fed a mix of raw meat, kibble and canned food. I started them on pure raw from the beginning and Ronin has never looked back. Bella still seems to miss the free-feed kibble and has been coming along, if sulkily.
I am feeding a mix of Frankenprey, Whole prey and (semi) commercial ground.
Commercial Ground: I make my ground food using pre-mixed supplements from Feline's Pride (Raw Made Easy Kit) and Alnutrin.
Feline's Pride: I've found that I need 1lb of ground meat for every 2 pounds of chunks to keep the food reasonably viscous. I've tried with less but it gets extremely watery and messy so you do need some ground meat to soak it up and hold it together. I prefer feeding chunks for dental reasons but Bella's not a huge fan so she tries to eat around them. I've been having a bit more success with strips rather than hunks on her. Ronin is already an expert and can handle any shape or size. The kit comes with salmon oil tablets and liquid vitamin A&E (I think) capsules to add to their formula. They advised me via email to leave out the vitamin tablets if I wanted to add liver to their recipe but they get enough liver from other sources I think.
Alnutrin: I got the Alnutrin without calcium as I found a source of whole ground rabbit (Bones2Go.com) in my city. This is a bit easier to work with than the FP since it's just a powder but it's not a lot of work either way. If you already have ground meat then it's five minutes. They use powdered egg yolk whereas FP requires fresh yolks but I'm sure they'll survive it.
Packing is the major time sink for both commercial ground mixes - I try to pack their meals in small zip lock baggies but it's very time consuming. I did just discover this weekend that an OJ bottle cut up makes a good funnel/bag holder.
Mice: Ronin's been getting at least one mouse a day. Bella's had a few attempts at chewing on them but always spits them out. I've put Fortiflora and parmesan on them but she just licks it off. I'm not sure if she objects to the taste or the chewing.
Frankenprey: I've been buying Cornish Hens ($5 each) and hacking them up. I've read they are 39% bone so I add enough chunked meat, hearts, gizzards, liver and gizzards to approximate a 80:10:10 animal. Ronin loves bones but I haven't been able to get Bella interested.
So my question: What do other Frankenprey feeders do with the larger bones? I've been breaking the larger bones in a mortar and pestle but Ronin got a large bone stuck in his mouth last night that he had tried to swallow whole - I had to remove it with tweezers. He had been pretty good about chewing until now but this piece was either not smashed up enough (too big) or smashed up too much (i.e. it tempted him to eat it). What do you think?
They were previously fed a mix of raw meat, kibble and canned food. I started them on pure raw from the beginning and Ronin has never looked back. Bella still seems to miss the free-feed kibble and has been coming along, if sulkily.
I am feeding a mix of Frankenprey, Whole prey and (semi) commercial ground.
Commercial Ground: I make my ground food using pre-mixed supplements from Feline's Pride (Raw Made Easy Kit) and Alnutrin.
Feline's Pride: I've found that I need 1lb of ground meat for every 2 pounds of chunks to keep the food reasonably viscous. I've tried with less but it gets extremely watery and messy so you do need some ground meat to soak it up and hold it together. I prefer feeding chunks for dental reasons but Bella's not a huge fan so she tries to eat around them. I've been having a bit more success with strips rather than hunks on her. Ronin is already an expert and can handle any shape or size. The kit comes with salmon oil tablets and liquid vitamin A&E (I think) capsules to add to their formula. They advised me via email to leave out the vitamin tablets if I wanted to add liver to their recipe but they get enough liver from other sources I think.
Alnutrin: I got the Alnutrin without calcium as I found a source of whole ground rabbit (Bones2Go.com) in my city. This is a bit easier to work with than the FP since it's just a powder but it's not a lot of work either way. If you already have ground meat then it's five minutes. They use powdered egg yolk whereas FP requires fresh yolks but I'm sure they'll survive it.
Packing is the major time sink for both commercial ground mixes - I try to pack their meals in small zip lock baggies but it's very time consuming. I did just discover this weekend that an OJ bottle cut up makes a good funnel/bag holder.
Mice: Ronin's been getting at least one mouse a day. Bella's had a few attempts at chewing on them but always spits them out. I've put Fortiflora and parmesan on them but she just licks it off. I'm not sure if she objects to the taste or the chewing.
Frankenprey: I've been buying Cornish Hens ($5 each) and hacking them up. I've read they are 39% bone so I add enough chunked meat, hearts, gizzards, liver and gizzards to approximate a 80:10:10 animal. Ronin loves bones but I haven't been able to get Bella interested.
So my question: What do other Frankenprey feeders do with the larger bones? I've been breaking the larger bones in a mortar and pestle but Ronin got a large bone stuck in his mouth last night that he had tried to swallow whole - I had to remove it with tweezers. He had been pretty good about chewing until now but this piece was either not smashed up enough (too big) or smashed up too much (i.e. it tempted him to eat it). What do you think?