Raw Feeding Kitten

[Kate34x]

I just got my first kitten, Bastet, almost two weeks ago. She is a Devon Rex and is 15 weeks old. She weighs just barelyyyyy 2 pounds, so she's a tiny little thing. Despite being so small, her appetite is HUGE! You would think I was starving her, with the way she meows and basically attacks anything she thinks is edible (I cant even eat my own food around her because she WILL try and climb up my arm to get to the food in my hand). I am feeding her Primal freeze dried nuggets, chicken and salmon, and she loves it of course. She would eat it dry if I let her, but I make sure to rehydrate it so she's getting more water intake. Recommended water addition is 1 tablespoon for every nugget, I usually add a little bit more, like 1.5-2 tablespoons so its just on the edge of being soupy. I feed her three times day usually, unless I know im going to be gone all day and in that case she gets two meals. I'm a student and also have a job so there are some times where I simply cant make it home for lunch to give her that third middle meal. Some days I end up feeding her at normal dinner hours and then again late at night before I go to sleep, since im not usually in bed until late.

I've been giving her half a nugget in the morning, half a nugget in the afternoon, and then a full nugget for "dinner". I was wondering if that seemed like enough? The Primal food calculator says I should be feeding just one nugget a day, so I'm already doubling the amount they say. Since I got her, she's definitely developed more of a stomach and filled out a bit. I know kittens are supposed to be able to eat as much as they want, but I think if I truly let her, she would eat until her stomach exploded lol. My vet just told me to switch to a kitten specific canned or dry food, and then let her free feed on as much dry food as possible (while giving me a sample bag of science diet, of course). I have a dog who is just as much of a chow hound so free feeding where he could get at it is a huge no for me. I also am worried about cost, since the bag of primal is 30 dollars on amazon and if I have to buy a bag more than once a month its going to get expensive!

 

[dhammagirl]

Kitten formula canned food might be a good idea, but stay away from dry food.
For more information, you might check out catinfo.org and feline-nutrition.org

Seriously, no dry cat food except as a rare emergency necessity.
7 years ago we adopted an orphan kitten, and he was always ravenous. We fed dry food then, before I learned about the negatives of it. We let him eat as much as he wanted, because he was a growing kitten, and he'd still eat the other cats' food. Before we knew it, we had an overweight, 20+lbs, cat in danger of developing the related health problems, like diabetes.
I put him on a raw diet, and found that giving him big chunks of meat, usually rabbit, with bone, slowed him down and he felt more satiated. He's now down to 15½lbs. But he's still a ravenous chowhound!
We can't leave the dog's food out or he'd it all, too!

He's the first cat we've had with this issue and had to monitor and get on a weight loss program. It sucks!

Don't let it happen to you and yours! Give your kitten canned kitten food, raw food when you can, and weigh her regularly. You might want to weigh her food and keep a log book of how much you're feeding of each food each day and her weight every couple weeks.

AsAan example, my big kittyboy Zeke, at 15½lbs gets around 3.4oz of raw rabbit daily.
(Other meats, too) But each cat is different. You can't just go by a manufacturer recommended amount. It's only by keeping track of everything that you know your cat is getting enough food even if she cries and demands more.

I know this sounds like a lot of work, and well, I guess it is, but it's better than having your sweet kittygirl get overweight and then dealing with it. Once you get the hang of it, it's not bad.

Best wishes!!

 

[Columbine]

One of my guys had a seemingly endless appetite as a young kitten. Feeding to appetite at this age really is best, especially as it sounds like she never stops moving!

If you want to stick with the raw, is there anywhere that Bastet can get to, but your dog can't reach? I have dogs too (and my lab is food obsessed...especially if it's cat food ), and I feed the cats on higher levels of their cat trees (and other suitable high places) to stop it getting stolen

Once you've found your dog proof space, use the dry Primal nuggets in place of kibble. Basically, Bastet's meals will be rehydrated as you're doing now, but she'll have access to some dry Primal for snacking on as needed. I know several raw feeders use this trick for free feeding snaps, or if their cat can't go overnight with no food access for medical reasons (e.g. with some chronic stomach issues). It's perfectly safe to leave dry freeze dried raw out in this way, just so long as there's also free access to fresh water.

One of my guys refuses all canned and defrosted or rehydrated raw food, but he will eat DRY freeze dried raw. I go with it, on the basis that, even dry, the raw has a much better (imo) nutritional profile than the vast majority ( if not all) kibbles.

Hope this helps some

 

[Kate34x]

Yeah the sample of science diet is basically going right in the trash. I would never feed dry food, even though I've gotten a significant amount of pressure to do so from the vet and my roommate, whose family was very old school and cheap about their animals (don't even get me started about some of her ideas about how you should let your dog have a litter of puppies before spaying to somehow prevent cancer). I know they think I'm a bit crazy for feeding raw on a college student's budget, but I am no stranger to expensive food. My dog is on a prescription food that costs me 70 dollars for not even a very large bag, but I've been researching some healthier options.

While leaving the non-rehydrated freeze dried out as a snack seems like a good idea, I do know that it would basically just act as another meal for her. There's no snacking, its all or nothing. She even managed to eat a probiotic tablet that is probably flavorless and was supposed to be crushed into her food. I would be better off just feeding her more meals lol.

Her mother weighed only 5 pounds, and this is a very small breed that is definitely prone to being food hounds and can get that silly fat belly (if you've ever seen a sphinx cat or similar overweight, its pretty funny but sad at the same time). I dont want her to get too big!

 

[orange&white]

I raised a kitten on raw last year, after bringing her home at 4 months. She did eat like a horse for a few short months. Every cat is different, but my kitten's appetite settled down and started to slowly decrease when she was around 7 months (about 80% of her adult weight).

My point is that you've probably got a few expensive months of kitten feeding ahead, but then she should slow down to an "affordable" quantity of food afterward.

I feed homemade because it costs less than canned food, and a lot less than commercial raw. As a college student, you may not have the time or inclination to make your own mixes. Perhaps some of the folks here who use commercial brands are familiar with any brand suggestions which may cost less than the Primal. I also like dhammagirl's idea of stretching your food budget between raw and canned.

 

[lalagimp]

if you haven't tried with the dog's prescription food, you can get a copy of the script and give it to Chewy.com and get the schedule worked on on autoship. What was costing me $83 at the vet ended up running me $67 on Chewy, and they do 1-2 day shipping free with orders $49+.

right now the only prepped raw I buy is Stella and Chewy, and occasionally frozen raw with Small Batch. Tommy and Stewart get homemade raw all day every day, but Tom gets a small feeding of S&C to manage his weight because his metabolism is insane. I took him off prozac and he is a destructive force in the house known as The Blue Thunder when he gets playing. When I'm slacking on making their raw, or I'm having a supply issue, I get the frozen sliders from SB from a boutique local to me.

After my supplements and set up costs, I spend about $90 a month feeding both thirteen pound boys.

 

[Kate34x]

A little update: she had a vet appointment yesterday for a booster and another dewormer and she hadn't gained any weight. I had literally JUST fed her before we left so its concerning that she hasn't been gaining. It had only been two-fish weeks between appointments but I would have liked to see even a little uptick in weight. She's sitting right at 2 pounds right now. Her vet isn't concerned as long as she does eventually gain weight, and as much as she is SMALL she isn't dangerously skinny. The two primal nuggets a day is obviously not enough. My options are either to increase to three a day (at almost a dollar per nugget, this is a costly solution), buy some healthy canned food to supplement the raw (maybe one can a day as a lunch), or buy some dry food to let her free feed on throughout the day. Opinions? I'm leaning towards the wet food supplementation option, but could use some brand suggestions for cheaper but not unhealthy.

 

[orange&white]

I think most of the premium canned foods run more than $1/day. A lot of people are happy with the ingredients in Fancy Feast Classic versions which fits better into most peoples' budgets.

A few of our members mix dry food and raw with no problems. I've read that kibble lowers stomach acid and raw acidifies the stomach, so it seems to me that the combination creates something of a "battle" for proper digestion. Feeding the two several hours apart might prevent that. If I were to choose a kibble, I'd go with something like the Dr. Elsey's high protein. Not sure on the cost per day on that option. lalagimp has tried it...she can contribute more on that, I'm sure.

 

[Kate34x]

Right now I'm at 2 dollars a day on raw food. Increasing the raw food would bring me up to 3 dollars a day, which I guess isn't that much different than adding canned food in. She just eats like a horse so it seems impossible to me that she would ever STOP eating if she had access to food 24/7 lol.

 

[LTS3]

My Aby ate four 1 oz NV raw medallions a day as a kitten until he was about 8 months old. I offered canned food with a timed feeder during the day for snacks but he never ate it

Try canned food for daytime snacking. A timed feeder works great and canned food is already cooked so it won't go bad if left out. Some feeders have an ice pack to keep food fresher longer and you can even freeze canned food and pop the frozen pick into the feeder to slowly defrost. I used the Petsafe 5 compartment feeder.

Fancy Feast kitten is decent and affordable. Store generic brands are typically similar to Fancy Feast and cost a little less. Whatever brand you feed must either be for kittens or "for all life stages", not adult or senior.

Growing kittens eat a lot of food so expect to buy a lot of food for at least the next couple of months.

 

[leechi]

I’m glad you’re going to start feeding her more. Two primal nuggets doesn’t sound like very much. I’ve fed the frozen ones and those were pretty small. You might want to go to a pet store and get some different cans to see what she likes, then order a bunch of it online to save money. Some of the online stores offer 20%-40% off when you first set up an auto ship schedule, such as chewy and petco. You can change the timing and even cancel it later if you want.

 

[Kate34x]

I dont know the size difference in the frozen and freeze dried, but at first I was going off the feeding calculator they have on their site. At 2 pounds, according to their information, they recommended feeding ONE a day, which seems like nothing. So I doubled it, thinking that would be enough, but I guess not. After my classes today im going to petsmart to pick up some canned food, and see if they have those timed feeders. I am in class during the day so its hard to feed more than 2 meals unless they are spaced out very weirdly. I also work 3 days a week at night, sometimes working until 5 am (food industry sucks) so getting her an afternoon meal AND a dinner meal is nearly impossible on those days.

I am really trying to avoid dry food. Not only is it not great for her, but I also have a fear that she will start getting dependent on it and not want to eat wet or raw anymore. I mean she's the opposite of picky, but I've read so many stories of people whose cats are super stubborn and start to only want dry that it makes me nervous to try and incorporate it.

 

[Kate34x]

Update! After some pressure from my roommate to just buy dry food (she volunteered at a shelter and said the cats were all healthy on whatever random dry food they were fed so why not?) I ended up buying Fancy Feast classics wet food lol. The one thing I was a little confused on was the protein: only 11%? That seems rather low for a wet food, but maybe I'm wrong. Anyways she took to the fancy feast like she takes to any and all food: she loved it. She took considerable longer to eat it, since it does have less water than the primal, which I make into an almost soupy consistency. She was so full from her "first dinner" that she didn't even lick the dish clean for her "second dinner", which is something she has always done. After her last meal today she settled down and slept for more than I've ever seen from her! Definitely better for her to eat more. The one drawback is that her poops are absolutely disgusting. They are the same size, but they smell like something died in the litter box. I will definitely not miss the fancy feast when I can finally cut back on food. Its going to be a rough few months for my nose and my wallet.

 

[Tobermory]

Update! After some pressure from my roommate to just buy dry food (she volunteered at a shelter and said the cats were all healthy on whatever random dry food they were fed so why not?) I ended up buying Fancy Feast classics wet food lol. The one thing I was a little confused on was the protein: only 11%? That seems rather low for a wet food, but maybe I'm wrong. Anyways she took to the fancy feast like she takes to any and all food: she loved it. She took considerable longer to eat it, since it does have less water than the primal, which I make into an almost soupy consistency. She was so full from her "first dinner" that she didn't even lick the dish clean for her "second dinner", which is something she has always done. After her last meal today she settled down and slept for more than I've ever seen from her! Definitely better for her to eat more. The one drawback is that her poops are absolutely disgusting. They are the same size, but they smell like something died in the litter box. I will definitely not miss the fancy feast when I can finally cut back on food. Its going to be a rough few months for my nose and my wallet.

The Fancy Feast Classics are more than 11%. That’s probably the Guaranteed Analysis on the label, right? You can’t go by that. Here’s a great chart that shows the protein, fat, carbs, and calories for a long list of canned food, researched and compiled by a vet who’s a feline nutritionist. There’s a very helpful explanation at the beginning.
https://catinfo.org/docs/CatFoodProteinFatCarbPhosphorusChart.pdf

I volunteer at an animal sanctuary that runs on a shoestring. They’ve been feeding Friskies because it’s so cheap, and while I understand their budget constraints, I’ve been encouraging them to switch to something else. I researched brands to find the least expensive with the fewest questionable ingredients. In case you find it helpful, I’ve attached it below. The prices were as of Aug. 15. If you have access to a Costco, I would add to the list Kirkland Nature’s Domain Grain-Free Organic Chicken & Turkey and Chicken & Chicken Liver canned food which is surprisingly good and ends up being about 70 cents a can. You have to buy 48 cans, though. Any of these could stretch your raw cat food budget farther.

 

[LTS3]

Cats can survive on dry food but won't necessarily thrive. Sure a cat may seem healthy on the outside but inside the body is probably having all sorts of issue with dry food (a pancreas that can't handle all the carbs, concentrated urine that is prone to crystals, etc). A person can eat nothing but McDonald's for life and may seem healthy but really has high blood pressure issues, weight issues, diabetes, and any number of other things known to be caused by a poor diet. Shelters feed dry food for a number of reasons: easy to store (no refrigeration needed), available in huge bags, it's what gets donated to them from the public and pet food companies, etc.

I would ignore the roommate and her suggestion to buy dry food. It's YOUR cat.

The feeding guide on pet food bags and brand web site are often inaccurate so I wouldn't rely on those. Growing kittens eat a lot of food so you just feed them as much as they want as often as they want.

I know the Petsmart web site lists feeders: Search Results | PetSmart What is available in store may differ.

 

[molly92]

11% sounds right, but don't worry! It's because it's like 80% water! So take out the water and half of it is protein.

Supplementing wih canned food is a great choice. Probably what I would do. Fancy Feast classics are just fine. If you want to feed something else, and she's ok with refrigerated food, you can get larger sized cans and they'll be much more cost effective. In addition to the above suggestions, Whole Earth Farms is also a good budget food.