I have two litter sibling kitties, Link (boy) and Navi (girl), that are about 10 months old. We adopted them through a rescue at 6 months old, shortly after my beloved kitty Ezlo died at just 3 years old. (He was indoor/outdoor and was hit by a car --- Link and Navi are indoor only.) We always had cats growing up but Ezlo was my first as an adult and I just did what we did when I was a child (which was a long time ago) and fed him whatever, not really thinking about the quality. He ate dry (Iams or Trader Joes) and wet (Fancy Feast and Sheba), mainly fish varieties because that's what he liked. Now I know that was not very good for him.
I think because of how devastating it was to lose Ezlo so early I started doing more research about what was best for kitties after I adopted Link and Navi. They came to me eating Science Diet dry and I took them off that. (Fortunately they drink a lot of water and pee frequently.) They are on a higher quality dry but they also eat wet and I limit the fish. They seem to like the chicken varieties the best but I've been trying new wet varieties so I can get different proteins into them. I'd like to totally eliminate dry but I think I'll need to use it part of the time for the few times when it is more practical. I want to get some freeze dried raw for them to try to use as dry on occasion. So far they like the lower quality dry food better than the high quality but I'm going to keep mixing and hope they take to it better. Ideally I'd take them off all dry. Fortunately they seem to like wet just fine and I've settled on a few brands I like that are low carb and mostly meat and minimal additives.
Which brings me to the point of my post. I'd like to start integrating some raw food into their diet. There are many natural pet stores in my area so I have easy access to commercial raw. I don't have extra freezer space so I can't stockpile a lot and at the moment I don't envision making home-made raw. But I see a lot of benefit of getting some raw into their diet. Since they'll still be getting wet I'm not so concerned about the raw being complete. I'm thinking a few meals a week to start.
How would you go about doing this? Is it realistic for a cat to go back and forth between canned wet and raw. Any other advice? I've read a lot of the resource articles and lurked around here for awhile. I recently watched the documentary Pet Fooled (I think that's what it's called) on Netflix and it inspired me even more to get their diets as species specific as practical. Thanks!
I think because of how devastating it was to lose Ezlo so early I started doing more research about what was best for kitties after I adopted Link and Navi. They came to me eating Science Diet dry and I took them off that. (Fortunately they drink a lot of water and pee frequently.) They are on a higher quality dry but they also eat wet and I limit the fish. They seem to like the chicken varieties the best but I've been trying new wet varieties so I can get different proteins into them. I'd like to totally eliminate dry but I think I'll need to use it part of the time for the few times when it is more practical. I want to get some freeze dried raw for them to try to use as dry on occasion. So far they like the lower quality dry food better than the high quality but I'm going to keep mixing and hope they take to it better. Ideally I'd take them off all dry. Fortunately they seem to like wet just fine and I've settled on a few brands I like that are low carb and mostly meat and minimal additives.
Which brings me to the point of my post. I'd like to start integrating some raw food into their diet. There are many natural pet stores in my area so I have easy access to commercial raw. I don't have extra freezer space so I can't stockpile a lot and at the moment I don't envision making home-made raw. But I see a lot of benefit of getting some raw into their diet. Since they'll still be getting wet I'm not so concerned about the raw being complete. I'm thinking a few meals a week to start.
How would you go about doing this? Is it realistic for a cat to go back and forth between canned wet and raw. Any other advice? I've read a lot of the resource articles and lurked around here for awhile. I recently watched the documentary Pet Fooled (I think that's what it's called) on Netflix and it inspired me even more to get their diets as species specific as practical. Thanks!