Raw Frozen mice/ Natures varity lamb.

[panther pride]

I was at Chuck and dons yesterday while picking out food with my dad and his girlfriend, she had a dog who died from the recall and wanted to upgrade her food and I used this as an oppertunity to buy some more Raw Natures varity Lamb formular in the cubes for Bindi. I was exploring the freezer tryong to pick out foods and opened a plastic bag and saw mice, pinkies and hoppers and full sized ones. Has anymore on here ever fed raw dead mice to their cats? Also some imput on the raw Lamb natures varity would be helpful? I've tried chicken and turkey both of our cats love that. Bindi sort of liked the lamb and Tom... well he threw it up. It was very watery and messy looking, anyone have simlar experinces

 

[beandip]

I haven't done raw frozen dead mice, can't help you on that.

The NV Lamb, yes - it's very moist and bloody. One of my cats threw it up the first time...but she picks at it now and does fine, not a favorite though. I have a few that like it as well as the chicken/turkey.

The beef is not so moist. It looks more appetizing to me, but the cats don't really care how it looks. They do get to "chew" on the beef a bit, because of the different consisitency. I would recommend trying the beef.

Mine wouldn't touch the lamb at first, but they do better with it now.

 

[panther pride]

Thanks I will take back the Lamb and go for beef and if that doesnt work I will go back to Chicken turkey.

 

[jenniferd]

No mice. I am sure mine wouldn't eat it even if I tried. They can't seem to chew large pieces of food, let alone whole mice.

 

[mimosa]

I feed mice to dEUS every day. Have done it for about 6 months now. He is extremely picky and there isn't a lot of stuff he'll eat (he eats no kibble, no canned, some raw, and believe me we tried, when we give him something he doesn't like he just doesn't eat), so when I tried mice and found out he adores them I was very happy with that. No food more biologically appropriate fot cats then mice, right ? I try to feed him different sizes like he would eat if he had to catch them himself, but he seems to like the small ones (10 grams) the best. He does very well on his diet, I show him and he always gets very good comments about his condition.

Some people think mice might be unhealthy, I was a bit concerned about that because I usually feed human grade meat and mice sure aren't that ! Now I buy SPF (specific pathogen free) mice from a supplier who also supplies zoos and falconers, those clients are very careful with their valuable animals so I have confidence in these.

My other three cats think mice are gross for some reason, they won't eat them and leave them for dEUS. (that's OK, they eat everything else and mice are not exactly cheap)

 

[beandip]

Originally Posted by Mimosa

I feed mice to dEUS every day. Have done it for about 6 months now. He is extremely picky and there isn't a lot of stuff he'll eat (he eats no kibble, no canned, some raw, and believe me we tried, when we give him something he doesn't like he just doesn't eat), so when I tried mice and found out he adores them I was very happy with that. No food more biologically appropriate fot cats then mice, right ? I try to feed him different sizes like he would eat if he had to catch them himself, but he seems to like the small ones (10 grams) the best. He does very well on his diet, I show him and he always gets very good comments about his condition.

Some people think mice might be unhealthy, I was a bit concerned about that because I usually feed human grade meat and mice sure aren't that ! Now I buy SPF (specific pathogen free) mice from a supplier who also supplies zoos and falconers, those clients are very careful with their valuable animals so I have confidence in these.

My other three cats think mice are gross for some reason, they won't eat them and leave them for dEUS. (that's OK, they eat everything else and mice are not exactly cheap)

That's very interesting...thanks for sharing.

dEUS' taste in food sounds a little like Beandip...except Beandip will eat kibble (but I don't want him to). I think Bean would eat a mouse, I just haven't got the guts to try yet...nor do I have a source for the nice mice you're getting.

 

[vanillasugar]

www.rodentpro.com

I've never actually FED my cats mice, but the thought has crossed my mind a few times. It's the most biologically appropriate food you can possibly find! Maybe a chick or two thrown in during the week to balance things out

 

[deelovely79]

Eww, on the one hand I can't stand rodents so as much as I'd like to see them met their demise I'd be too revolved to actually handle them. On the other hand I see how may cats chase after their fake mice (they only like the tiny furry ones that look like real mice) and chewed them up I'm thinking all I'd have to do is just throw a real mouse accross the room and let them go at it!! However my cats did let a big water bug escape the other day(their hunting skills need work, I did more to catch it than they did) so I don't know how well they'd do with biologically appropriate food.

 

[mimosa]

Vanillasugar, that's a good link !

I don't live on your side of the pond so I don't have experience with US suppliers, but on the Yahoo rawcat list (they are good for advice btw!) rodenpro, http://www.miceonice.com and http://www.hare-today.com (I don't think they have mice though) are often used and recommended. I see that their mice are much more expensive than the ones I buy though (I buy them wholesale).

As a alternative you could feed small fowl, I feed the rest of the cats a lot of whole pigeon and quail.They are a lot cheaper and still whole prey, the cats eat them whole so minimal worrying about percentages.

 

[sharky]

Well I asked the vet and she said go ahead and try it ... she didnt think mine would actually acknowledge it as food

 

[beandip]

Originally Posted by sharky

Well I asked the vet and she said go ahead and try it ... she didnt think mine would actually acknowledge it as food

I wonder what the preferred size would be? From memory I think the adults were an ounce...that sounds like a nice meal.

I think they would take those little tiny fuzzy ones and hide them under my furniture.

I can only imagine the comments I would get the first time DH found a plate of mice thawing in the fridge.

...but I may just try it sometime.

 

[panther pride]

When I fed it to Bindi he at first wanted to play with it. So I using a knife cut it open exposing the organs and showed him it was meat not a play ideam, I put dog nip, wild salmon oil on it, (made for dogs, only thing the store had) but he only licked at it, I ended up cutting it into chunks and force feeding it, I didnt want to waste such good healthy food. Is there any way I could make Mice more appealing and is there any fish oil/jucice I could use besides Tuna juice im a can, He migt get addicted I'm afraid.

Would young chicks ordered from that online site you guys mentioned be better?

 

[mimosa]

I've been unsuccesful getting the other cats in my crew to eat mice (or rats, even dEUS won't touch those), but all my cats love chicks ! I've heard the same thing from other people, chicks are usually fine.

Bear in mind though that chicks (and pinkie/fuzzy mice) aren't nutritionally complete, because they are babies. They don't have fully calcified bones yet, and your cat does need a source of calcium. One or two chicks a day ar fine when your cat also eats bone-in meats or commercial foods.

 

[lesliee]

Mimosa...where do you buy your mice??

 

[cat dad]

If they don't recognize you might have to start with tiny bits of chicken and keep increasing the size. They were usually never taught to rip and tear like they would in the wild, so they are confounded by something whole.

Once the got comfortable for nice sized chunks you could try cutting the mouse in two and see how ti goes. 

They have to get those jaw muscles a workout before they can tackle a whole mouse.