After many months of research, I decided to start feeding my 6 cats a homemade raw diet. Today is the 7th day of a very gradual transition (we're up to 1/4 raw), and everything is going extremely well for 5 kitties, but Breezy, my 8 year old calico with a tendency to be stubborn, is refusing to eat her meals if I add even a tiny bit of raw food. I've tried sprinkling a bit of FortiFlora on her meals, but she doesn't like that either.
The raw diet I'm feeding is the recipe from Dr. Lisa Pierson on www.catinfo.org. I'm using ground rabbit with bones and organs (purchased from Hare Today) that has 15% bone content, and chicken thighs that I've deboned for the purpose of diluting the overall bone content to about 10%. Instead of adding each supplement separately, I've used the appropriate Alnutrin supplement, and I've added Icelandic Pure anchovy/sardine oil too. Four of my cats love the raw food and would prefer that I speed up the transition. Callie, who suffers from IBD, was reluctant to eat the new diet at first, but she seems to be revising her initial opinion. She's been finishing her meals the last couple of days, and she's not experienced any negative side effects. Breezy is my only cat who absolutely refuses to eat her meals if there is even a speck of raw food mixed in it.
Prior to this transition, my cats' diet consisted of canned Fancy Feast (chicken pate & chunky chicken pate) for breakfast and dinner. I also fed dry food (Purina Beyond) in tiny portions as a treat between meals, and because Breezy and Callie would sometimes refuse their canned food. I'm still giving some dry food as a treat, because even though 5 cats are transitioning as planned, they still want dry food between meals. Breezy is still eating dry food because she will literally starve herself instead of eating canned food that is mixed with raw. I want to stop feeding dry food completely, and i want to stop feeding canned food completely. I thought the transition to raw might be difficult for some of my cats, but even Callie is adjusting. I don't know what to do for Breezy, and I don't know how to explain to the others that they can no longer have dry food between meals. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.
I included 2 photos of Breezy. The first taken in our old apartment in 2009, shortly after I adopted her, when she was one of just two kitties The second photo is recent.
The raw diet I'm feeding is the recipe from Dr. Lisa Pierson on www.catinfo.org. I'm using ground rabbit with bones and organs (purchased from Hare Today) that has 15% bone content, and chicken thighs that I've deboned for the purpose of diluting the overall bone content to about 10%. Instead of adding each supplement separately, I've used the appropriate Alnutrin supplement, and I've added Icelandic Pure anchovy/sardine oil too. Four of my cats love the raw food and would prefer that I speed up the transition. Callie, who suffers from IBD, was reluctant to eat the new diet at first, but she seems to be revising her initial opinion. She's been finishing her meals the last couple of days, and she's not experienced any negative side effects. Breezy is my only cat who absolutely refuses to eat her meals if there is even a speck of raw food mixed in it.
Prior to this transition, my cats' diet consisted of canned Fancy Feast (chicken pate & chunky chicken pate) for breakfast and dinner. I also fed dry food (Purina Beyond) in tiny portions as a treat between meals, and because Breezy and Callie would sometimes refuse their canned food. I'm still giving some dry food as a treat, because even though 5 cats are transitioning as planned, they still want dry food between meals. Breezy is still eating dry food because she will literally starve herself instead of eating canned food that is mixed with raw. I want to stop feeding dry food completely, and i want to stop feeding canned food completely. I thought the transition to raw might be difficult for some of my cats, but even Callie is adjusting. I don't know what to do for Breezy, and I don't know how to explain to the others that they can no longer have dry food between meals. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks.
I included 2 photos of Breezy. The first taken in our old apartment in 2009, shortly after I adopted her, when she was one of just two kitties The second photo is recent.