Returning to Raw Soon

[raintyger]

I've tried to put Poppy on raw before, but ran into a couple setbacks. She's currently on wet and just went for her dental, so she's on antibiotics and I don't want to change things right now. I want to finish the antibiotic course, then resume raw feeding a week or two afterwards.

I thought I'd prepare a little, though. The problem with Poppy is that she would accept raw but only at first. I'd transition her in 25% increments. But when she reached the 75%-100% points, she would suddenly decide raw was unfashionable. She's done with before with canned food, but I never really pursued it because it wasn't an issue to just find another brand. (She usually decides she doesn't like food anymore right after you figure she's OK with it and have bought a whole case!)

I got her to the 100% point with a premix. She went to 75% before rejecting with Nature's Variety. There aren't too many other commercial choices around here, Primal if I drive further, and Bravo, but the Bravo is the kind for dogs. She usually eats a pate-style wet food, so I don't think the texture of ground raw is a problem, although I'll try throwing a scrap her way in the coming week.

So I'd like to know if others who transitioned had the same type of problem--cat initially accepts, but then rejects after a few weeks of increasing--and what they did about it.

I've already got some freeze dried liver, Fortfiflora, and freeze dried chicken to use as a topper.

 

[peaches08]

I don't have much to offer except the possibility of another topper: parmesan cheese. Cheap and easy!

 

[maraozza]

Something similar happened with my cat also. I started to incorporate commercial ground raw to his diet last summer and he liked it. After I slowly began to add small pieces of meat, chicken necks and wings (cut in pieces), chicken hearts, liver and etc. He was eating everything with big gusto. He was still having his wet food, because my initial intention was to feed him both raw and wet. I was very happy that my kitty was enjoying his new diet, and I was planning to increase his raw meat intake by feeding him 2 raw meals and 1 canned.

But my kitty had other plans… All of a sudden, he decided he doesn’t like raw as much anymore. He became picky about what kind of protein he will eat. He was still eating a rabbit, quail and any bone-in meaty pieces (like chicken necks or winglets).
So, I started to use different toppers: FD treats- liver, chicken and turkey, Parmesan cheese, Fortiflora, canned sardines, even crushed kibbles…
Some of them work some don’t. Also I ordered the Stella and Chewy’s freeze dried raw dinners and he loves them, so I can use it like a topper or in rehydrated form like a substitute of raw meat meal.

These days he will eat 1 or 2 meals of raw, pretty much every kind of protein he used to eat, but only if I’ll dust it with his favorite a topper – crumpled freeze-dried turkey or chicken.

 

[vball91]

I am transitioning my cat to raw as well, and she's the same as your cat. She will try almost anything once or twice then decides she doesn't like it. I think she just likes variety so I rotate different stuff as much as possible.

For raw stuff, it really helps to mix it or top it with something I know she loves, right now that's raw egg yolk and raw shrimp. The other thing that's helped is to add a bit of warm water and make it soupy. I don't know why this makes a difference to her but it works.

Since I only started feeding raw 2 weeks ago, she's not keen on bigger chunks yet. She will just spit those out. If I finely dice the meat, she's more likely to eat more of it. I figure I will very gradually increase the chunk size. Anyway, those have been my experiences so far.

 

[ldg]

When I was transitioning, I tried to introduce new proteins one at a time. I tried to give 25% new protein, 50% new protein, 75% new protein, 100% new protein, then use that as the base to introduce another new protein. But that was a process over several days - and they got sick of eating the same protein after 2 days, 3 days at most, so that plan didn't work out at ALL for us. :lol3:

Instead, I used their canned foods as a base, and introduced the new protein to 100% over 3 days (rotating the canned foods I was using as the base), and then introduced a new raw protein - and after 2 days, I'd feed them a meal that was 100% of the raw protein previously introduced. Basically - just kept switching things up even though still introducing new proteins somewhat slowly.

I find that if I rotate the proteins at each meal, and don't give them the same protein for 2 days or so (other than chicken gizzards, which they love - go figure :lol3: ), they're much happier to eat their meals. :lol3: I find it a lot easier to plan meals and keep a schedule (though during the transition I had to be more flexible).

For toppers during the transition, I had FD chicken, FD turkey, FD lamb, FD chicken liver, FD beef liver - and I had two different brands of chicken/beef liver, they're VERY different, both Etta Says and Stewart's ProTreat (Gimborn). Umm... FD shrimp, FD salmon, and Fortiflora. :nod: