Raw.... maybe. LOL

[speakhandsforme]

Update!

1. I think I figured out why Kramer wasn't hungry. I discovered that a pack of Ritz crackers had fallen onto the floor of the pantry and that he'd been nibbling on them all day. :lol3: No wonder he wasn't in the mood for raw. He'd been eating kibble wafers!

2. Found some chicken liver AND hearts and gizzards at Walmart today. :bigthumb: Ritz, I tried again with the chicken liver, but no dice. Boots did nibble a little at it but that was it. I cut their portions for the week into teensy little pieces... my plan is to make a frankenprey "slop" one day out of their regular pieces and hide it in there. Still working on a kidney/pancreas source. I might order pancreas from HT.

3. I cut and bagged portions of almost everything: chicken wing, turkey wing, beef chunks, pork chops, chicken hearts and gizzards, chicken bones, and liver. All I need to do now is the other chicken parts (and kidney/pancreas), but I'm out of plastic bags tonight. Either way I have enough for a few days for them... IF they eat it :lol3:

Boots continues to eat everything (except the liver) with gusto. :bigthumb:

Kramer will get some meaty bits and Parmesan (or maybe tuna juice) tonight before I go to bed. Ritz, thanks for the tip -- if he throws up again I'll leave off the cheese.

Thanks everyone again for all your help.

 

[carolina]

2. Found some chicken liver AND hearts and gizzards at Walmart today. :bigthumb: Ritz, I tried again with the chicken liver, but no dice. Boots did nibble a little at it but that was it. I cut their portions for the week into teensy little pieces... my plan is to make a frankenprey "slop" one day out of their regular pieces and hide it in there. Still working on a kidney/pancreas source. I might order pancreas from HT.

Watch out for the chicken liver at Walmart - LOTS of sodium - it is enhanced..... The gizzards are ok.... Look on the back for the sodium contents... should be around 65-80..... And on the front it should be no salt added, no sodium added. Not enhanced, or minimally processed.
The liver however, at least the one at my walmart, had 2,400mg of Sodium :shocker:
Do NOT feed that - that is enhanced liver, or has sodium added..... It has no disclaimer on the package, at least that I could find, that it was NOT enhanced, or sodium was not added.....
Make sure to check it.... Hopefully it's not the case with yours :cross:

 

[speakhandsforme]

2. Found some chicken liver AND hearts and gizzards at Walmart today. :bigthumb: Ritz, I tried again with the chicken liver, but no dice. Boots did nibble a little at it but that was it. I cut their portions for the week into teensy little pieces... my plan is to make a frankenprey "slop" one day out of their regular pieces and hide it in there. Still working on a kidney/pancreas source. I might order pancreas from HT.

Watch out for the chicken liver at Walmart - LOTS of sodium - it is enhanced..... The gizzards are ok.... Look on the back for the sodium contents... should be around 65-80..... And on the front it should be no salt added, no sodium added. Not enhanced, or minimally processed.
The liver however, at least the one at my walmart, had 2,400mg of Sodium :shocker:
Do NOT feed that - that is enhanced liver, or has sodium added..... It has no disclaimer on the package, at least that I could find, that it was NOT enhanced, or sodium was not added.....
Make sure to check it.... Hopefully it's not the case with yours :cross:

Good to know! I didn't even think to check for that kind of thing. I already threw the original container out but I can go back to the store today and check to see what's up with it. Thanks! :bigthumb:

I am now calling this Day 1 since it's their first day of any real portion control or menu planning. Yes, bad meowmy!! :anon: :lol3:

Anyway! This morning was chicken wing meat.

Boots is getting 7.8 oz a day (), so 2.6 oz at each meal. He weighs 10.4 lbs and I'm feeding him at 4.5% since he's a kitten and therefore still growing, though not as rapidly anymore. I suspect his portion will actually need to come up, but that remains to be seen. I certainly don't want him losing weight; he's already very looooong and skinny.

He wasn't too terribly interested in his wing meat just now, but he had had a ton of meat last night when I was cutting everything up, so it wouldn't surprise me if he just wasn't hungry! :nod: And as I'm typing this he's going back to get more. :bigthumb:

Kramer is getting 4.8 oz a day, so 1.6 oz at each meal. I'm feeding him at 2.25%, since he needs to maintain his weight, not gain any. :nod: Hopefully this will be the right portion for him, but it can be easily adjusted, which is one of the many awesome things about raw.

As y'all know, he had a hunger strike yesterday, interrupted only by secret kibble wafers. By the time I went to bed, I was starting to worry about his food; it had been 24 hours since he'd eaten anything except those Ritz crackers, so I broke down and gave him half a can of Friskies.

BUT, even with that, Kramer had a more successful morning today than usual. Now that he's been deprived of his secret kibble wafers :lol3: , he's actually hungry for raw when it comes around to mealtime. So this morning we went to the bathroom and had a little chicken, hand-fed with tuna juice as a topper. He ate just a few pieces which is better than his track record from yesterday! So hopefully when I offer again in a few hours he'll eat more.

Once again, THANK YOU everyone for your help, and I hope your day goes well!!

 

[ldg]

"Secret kibble wafers." Oh they are clever little monkeys, aren't they?

I don't know what's up with chicken livers. Mine LOVE - all of them - dehydrated chicken liver. Yet when it comes to fresh chicken liver, I have a hard time getting most of them to eat it, let alone finish it! :dk: I mean - they prefer beef kidney! (Which, as I believe you know, Carolina calls jelly-pee!)

I haven't fed chicken hearts yet, but they LOVE duck, turkey, and rabbit hearts. :nod:

And if need be, you can source beef pancreas from Hare Today. :nod:

I'm so sorry about the vomit yesterday - but at least you know what it was. for today!

 

[speakhandsforme]

Day 1 -- late dinner.

Boots isn't too interested in his beef. I think his portions might be too big. But at least I know he's not starving.

Kramer continues to be hit-or-miss.... so I've resorted to trickery. I cut up about half his beef portion into tiny meaty bits and mixed it with half a can of Friskies pate. He ate some of it, and only spit out one piece of beef onto the floor. I hope he'll go back later for more.

He liked those pieces of raw pork and turkey so much the other night.... I just don't know what happened. :dk:

 

[ldg]

My kitties are not big fans of beef, and Shel can't tolerate it at all. city. :lol3:

 

[speakhandsforme]

Day 2

Boots is continuing to eat well.

Kramer is doing better, slowly. I'm continuing his mix of canned and raw meaty bits. Don't know the proportions but I use about half a portion of his raw mixed with 2.5 oz of canned... I hope that's okay. :lol3: He's liking it so far. My plan is to slowly up the amount of meat while reducing the amount of canned.

He WILL eat raw by itself... just not much of it. Not enough so that he's getting sufficient calories. I only feed the canned + bits once a day.

 

[speakhandsforme]

Day 3

Boots has no problems. Laurie, thanks for the tip about the beef -- I'll keep an eye on it. But so far neither of them have had stomach problems with the beef.

Kramer ate some chicken wing today all by himself. :bigthumb: He's getting there slowly.

 

[ldg]

Plenty of kitties love beef!

Wait - are they eating bone-in chicken wings? Or meat?

Either way, Kramer's moving beyond baby steps for sure!

 

[speakhandsforme]

Boots is eating the bones of chicken wings for sure. As far as I know, Kramer's only enjoying the meat right this second, although I could have missed it today when I set out two small bones and didn't supervise. I don't know if Boots or Kramer both ate them.

 

[ldg]

Oh that's GREAT!

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

So, what all are you feeding them now?  Have you moved completely to Frankenprey?  Are they eating livers, hearts, etc., or are you supplementing with canned food still?  I know you bought all that stuff at Walmart, but are they eating it yet? 

I still can't believe how easy this was for you (and I'm still just a tad jealous!!)

 

[speakhandsforme]

So, what all are you feeding them now?  Have you moved completely to Frankenprey?  Are they eating livers, hearts, etc., or are you supplementing with canned food still?  I know you bought all that stuff at Walmart, but are they eating it yet? 

I still can't believe how easy this was for you (and I'm still just a tad jealous!!)

Hi! Sorry for lack of real updates, but my boyfriend was here for a week on his school vacation, so I had lots of things to do :lol3:

I am indeed feeding Boots frankenprey. :nod: Today is his day for liver, which he doesn't like, but I can get him to eat it if I mix it in some canned or minced other kind of raw meat. He is also eating bones just fine. He likes all chicken parts, turkey wings, beef, and pork so far, as well as chicken hearts and gizzards.

Kramer is still being a bit of a challenge. He is getting about 25% canned with 75% raw minced mixed in. He'll eat it no matter what the raw mince is, which is nice! I'm going to introduce chicken rib bones in there for him later today to see if he picks around them or not. Some days he'll also eat a few frankenprey chunks off of Boots' plate, particularly if it's chicken, but not always.

Still working on a local kidney/pancreas source, but if I can't get it by tomorrow I'm ordering some from HT on Monday.

How are yours doing?

 

[speakhandsforme]

Oh, something else I should mention...

Kramer and Boots have never had real fighting issues, but for the past few weeks (before I started raw) they had been quite standoffish with each other. When Boots was younger, they were best friends, and slept together most of the time.

Then Boots became about six or seven months old, and dominance issues began, as he has quite the alpha personality. They would wrestle viciously at least once or twice a day, complete with growling, hissing and paw slapping. Thankfully, no one got hurt, but I was sad for them, as they seemed to be pulling apart. They rarely groomed each other and slept separately. I chalked it up to growing pains and didn't try to help.

Now that I've started raw, though, I see a change in their interactions. They are much more tolerant of each other and get along better. Boots has more energy to play, but so does Kramer (even though he's not 100% raw yet), so Boots doesn't annoy Kramer. They also don't "fight" anymore, and they sleep together nearly all the time and groom each other.

This could be coincidental with Boots growing out of a dominance phase, but I do think the raw helped. We all know that when we eat crappy food, we feel bad, and that makes us grumpy to other people. But when we eat good food, we feel better, and are nicer in general when we feel good. I think that was in play here.

So for those of you that have cat fighting issues, maybe give raw a try!!

 

[ldg]

....Now that I've started raw, though, I see a change in their interactions. They are much more tolerant of each other and get along better. Boots has more energy to play, but so does Kramer (even though he's not 100% raw yet), so Boots doesn't annoy Kramer. They also don't "fight" anymore, and they sleep together nearly all the time and groom each other.
This could be coincidental with Boots growing out of a dominance phase, but I do think the raw helped. We all know that when we eat crappy food, we feel bad, and that makes us grumpy to other people. But when we eat good food, we feel better, and are nicer in general when we feel good. I think that was in play here.

So for those of you that have cat fighting issues, maybe give raw a try!!

Mine were only on 50/50 raw/canned for a couple of days when I saw NOTICEABLE differences in their interaction. And I can't chalk mine up to any growing/dominance phase. :lol3: The only change was raw food. :nod:

I totally agree. If kitties are grumpy/fighting, raw is SO worth a try!

 

[speakhandsforme]

Interesting development...

I just got back from the grocery store. While putting up the refrigerated items, Boots came over to sit in front of the open fridge door like he always does when I open it, and he usually begs for a little food. Thinking he was ready for a meal, I set out a portion of pork cubes.

He didn't touch it, but Kramer came over to smell. I praised him and watched what he'd do next. He smelled for a while, then licked, then gingerly grabbed a cube in his front teeth and set it on the ground.

Then he looked up. And saw that Boots was sitting a few feet away, just watching him innocently.

So Kramer instantly grabbed the piece and ZOOMED into the bathroom to eat it on the rug. :lol3: Then he ZOOMED past Boots, went back to the dish, and ZOOMED into the bathroom with another piece. :dash: He did this for the entire portion, and all the while Boots was just watching with a "?????" expression. Or so I imagine.

At least I know he really likes pork!!!

 

[ldg]

Oh you were SO right about Kramer! He feels uncomfortable eating his raw food in front of Boots! :lol3:

 

[speakhandsforme]

Yeah, but I think he's getting better about it. We had a breakthrough!!

Last night, Kramer ate his WHOLE portion of meat with no toppers or adjustments, and minimal coaxing.
This morning, Kramer ate his WHOLE portion of meat, again, with nothing special.
And just now, he ate his WHOLE portion again all by himself!!!

.........but all three of those meals were in the bathroom.

I had been feeding him on the kitchen floor, but at a separate time from Boots. But I used to feed them canned for several months in the bathroom, so I guess he considers that the food room. He eats fabulously in there when I give him raw!!

"But mama.... IT'S IN THE WRONG PLACE!!!" :lol3:

 

[feralvr]

Now that I've started raw, though, I see a change in their interactions. They are much more tolerant of each other and get along better. Boots has more energy to play, but so does Kramer (even though he's not 100% raw yet), so Boots doesn't annoy Kramer. They also don't "fight" anymore, and they sleep together nearly all the time and groom each other.
This could be coincidental with Boots growing out of a dominance phase, but I do think the raw helped. We all know that when we eat crappy food, we feel bad, and that makes us grumpy to other people. But when we eat good food, we feel better, and are nicer in general when we feel good. I think that was in play here.
So for those of you that have cat fighting issues, maybe give raw a try!!

Hi Katie!!! Wonderful news .. I will also add that before raw feeding I was having a serious problem with Wendall teasing Perla nightly. Perla was getting extremely stressed - she is my Herpes kitty too. Not good, stress. Wendall has been at 100% raw for almost two months now. He took to it right away . Within a couple of week's, I noticed that the nightly terrorizing was ceasing :shocker:. Wendall seemed to feel better and was just more relaxed. NOW I saw Perla and Wendall sitting side by side the other day looking out the window bird watching !!!!!!!!!!!! I didi get a picture and am going to post it in my thread as proof :lol3: Perla would have NEVER allowed or wanted to be that close to Wendall before. I am also seeing Perla becoming more assertive and standing up for herself against all of the boys in the house. My rincess: has become more confident being on raw. AND I couldn't be happier about the transformation in Perla's and Wendall's relationship :bigthumb:

AND MORE GREAT NEWS!!!! Boot's and Kramer are doing SO well with the raw food. YAY!!!!!!! Good job. Funny how they have their little preferences and ideals about where to eat... once we figure that out - we have won half the battle

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

I couldn't be happier for all of you!  (still jealous

, but happy none the less)  And the places to eat.  Too funny.  I just wish mine would decide which bowls they want to eat from.  Just when I think they have it figured out (the ones I planned for them - you know...Callie, this one is yours, Darko, this one is yours, etc.), they switch it up