The Introduction to Rad Cat Frozen Raw

[otto]

I don't mind the slight side track at all, it is very interesting and relevant, and now that I am reading it all at once I think I do remember it a little. I am relieved I have not had to cope with that much, with Mazy's FLUTD.

Anyway your comments prompted me to check Mazy's urine pH so I just did. I heard Jennie scratching down in the boxes so I hurried down after her to scoop. After I got done, I turned to see Mazy peeking around the curve of the stairs, and I swear her look said "Why didn't you call me?" I did call her then, and she trotted happily down with her tail curved over her back and ran to me. Did a little spin on the rug to show some tummy before jumping into the litter box, which gave me time to grab the box of strips, get it open and take one out.

A perfect 6.5.

 

[otto]

Decided to check her morning pee too. 6.25.

 

[vball91]

That is great! Woo hoo!

 

[ldg]

That is great! Woo hoo!

So far, Spooky's pH is at a nice 6.5. Of course, we're using the methionine to keep it there. :lol3: But at least I know it means she's not creating NEW crystals.

 

[feralvr]

YAY for Mazy and Spooky!!!! :bigthumb:

Can I add in my Pip's wonderful PH levels!!! :high5: He eats only Rad Cat, NV organic Chicken, and NM Chicken/Turkey. His PH has been a steady 6.25 - 6.5 each and every time I check it. PLUS the color is no longer dark brown/orange meaning much less blood which also means he is not as stressed. All adds up to a healthy bladder!!!

 

[otto]

So far, Spooky's pH is at a nice 6.5. Of course, we're using the methionine to keep it there. :lol3: But at least I know it means she's not creating NEW crystals.

YAY for Mazy and Spooky!!!! :bigthumb:

Can I add in my Pip's wonderful PH levels!!! :high5: He eats only Rad Cat, NV organic Chicken, and NM Chicken/Turkey. His PH has been a steady 6.25 - 6.5 each and every time I check it. PLUS the color is no longer dark brown/orange meaning much less blood which also means he is not as stressed. All adds up to a healthy bladder!!!

Hurray hurray hurray for all three cats!



Here's a question. How long after a bone in meal would be appropriate to test Mazy's urine, to find out if the bone is raising her urine pH too much? For example, I have added a meal of Stella&Chewy's to her rotation, so far just four nuggets per meal, two meals per week. Should I test the very next pee she has? 24 hours later? Or what? I'm trying to remember, but it seems like if I recall it right, when she ate the Nature's Variety chicken (canned) it was about 24 hours later when I tested and her pH had shot up to 7.5.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

Hooray for all the great PH levels

 

[otto]

Mazy's pH was 6.75 this morning, 36 hours after her bone in meal. I'm going to continue to monitor 1) to see if it goes back down after a few days of no bone and 2) to see if it goes back up the next time she has a bone in meal. Also will experiment with timing. Next time I will try to catch her first urine after the bone in meal, then the next, and so on. Mazy and I have trained each-other on her peeing schedule so it's pretty easy to do.

You should see her, after her breakfast pre-meal. She waits for me to look at her, then does a sideways dance over to the top of the stairs. At first I thought she was telling me she wanted to play, but I soon realized she was telling me to hurry up and go down to the litter boxes with her. This started because I had seen a pattern between her morning regurgitation and a full bladder, and I had started taking her downstairs (carrying at first) and putting her in the box to pee after she ate that pre-meal, and before she had her larger raw portions.

Soon I didn't have to carry her, she would just follow me, or come when I called. And now, she is reminding ME. :lol3:

.

 

[ldg]

:lol3: That is too cute!

Interesting. :nod: I'll be watching for updates!

 

[otto]

Yes, Mazy has always understood that watching her pee is important to me. She has always hurried down and peed in front of me when I scoop the boxes, and I have always thanked and praised her, but it's only the past year or so (since me changing her diet) that it's become more purposeful.

I mean, not just that pee-dance in the morning, but there are other times when she lets me know she has to pee, dating from the day I really really needed to get a sample from her and I sat her down and told her, looking straight into her eyes that I needed her to let me know when she had to pee.

She did that day. I came out of the bathroom after showering to find her sitting at the top of the stairs prrt prrting at me urgently. I followed her down and as she jumped up to the litter box platform I showed her the tube and told her I was going to collect her pee in it. She sniffed the tube, then got into the high sided box (the box she and Jennie both use when they want to stand up to pee). She turned her hind end to face me and started to pee, raising her bottom as she went and peed straight into the tube, and I got my sample.

If I go down to scoop and don't see a Mazy pee in any of the boxes I call to her, and no matter what she is doing, she will come down. She jumps up to the boxes and, if she has to pee, she pees. If she doesn't have to pee she goes clownish on me and starts spinning in the litter boxes (ick) which I hate, and she knows I hate, so it's a joke she likes to play on me.

The other day I heard Jennie in the box, so after Jennie came back up I went down to clean it. I finished scooping, and turned around to see Mazy peeking around the corner of the stairs. I said "Hi Mazy" and she said "prrt!" and her expression said as clearly as if she had spoken "Why didn't you call me?" So I said "come on then" and she hurried down the stairs with her tail curved over her back (prrt! prrting as she came), hopped into the box and peed.

Being the worrier I am I started to worry that this habit would become so ingrained she wouldn't ever pee UNLESS I was there to observe it, but I've had my mind put to rest on that score, as I saw her go downstairs last night and pee without her asking me to accompany her, and of course, when I come home from work I do often find a pee of hers in the box.

Their pees are easy to tell apart. Mazy always pees right in the center of the box, unless she is doing a stand up pee in the high sided box. Her pees are medium sized, relative to the other two. Jennie and Queen Eva are both edge or corner pee-ers but Jennie's pees are large and Queen Eva's pees are small.

 

[otto]

4 1/2 hours after a Stella &Chewy meal...urine pH 6.75. I forgot to get a reading this morning, BEFORE the meal, so I'll test again in three days, before the next S&C meal.

 

[ldg]

Thanks.

Yeah... I was wondering about the ground bone-in meals for Spooky.

 

[otto]

Well I'm not going to worry just yet. I'll check her for a few more days, see if it returns to 6.5, and then give her another meal. The meals are small, only 6 nuggets. But remember I have very high mineral content in my water too. It's only a tablespoon or so of water with 6 nuggets.

Meanwhile I'll continue to see if I can find some fresh or frozen duck locally to get, just for Mazy cat.

 

[ldg]

:nod: 6.75 isn't bad - and 4+ hours after the meal should be the peak. And the bone-in meals are being fed sporadically, as they are for Spooky too.

 

[otto]

I have found a (comparatively) local source for the Rad Cat frozen raw!!!!



Yesterday I saw an ad in the local paper for a pet supply store in a nearby town, I had never heard of them, but they have a website so I checked it out. They had a list of food brands they carry but mentioned they are willing to special order other brands so I contacted them about the Rad Cat and they said they could get it for me! This will reduce the cost of the food for me greatly, because of the cost of gas traveling 200 miles (round trip). Now I will only be traveling 50 miles (round trip).. Whoohoo!

It's funny I made this discovery right after doing all the computations to find out exactly how much it is costing me now to feed my cats, with their canned, commercial raw and homemade raw.

$0.74 per cat per day.

This figure includes the gas expense for traveling to Albany and back (three times so far) to get the Rad Cat, essential supplements (calcium, vitamin E, vitamin B, taurine), the expense of freezer bags, the expense of extra paper towel use, the canned food, the commercial raw products, and the meat bought from the grocery store. I saved every receipt since last May.

However, the figure will drop as time goes on because the the supplements will not need to be re-purchased for another six months at the soonest. So that will shave off a few cents as the weeks pass.

This figure does not include the one time initial expenses of the table top freezer and the food scale.

It also does not include certain other supplements that I use, that do not have anything to do with what kind of food I feed them. The krill oil, egg yolk lecithin and the probiotic, they get these regardless of what diet they are on.

When they were on a canned only diet, they cost on average $1.20 per day per cat for food (again, not including the krill, probiotic and hairball remedy)

With a more local source for the Rad Cat I may consider adding another ounce to Mazy's daily diet, increasing her raw intake and decreasing her canned a little more. I wish I could get her to eat the lamb!

 

[ldg]

Gail that's great news!

 

[otto]

Well it looks like I'm adding Queen Eva to the no fresh raw bone list. She and Jennie have been getting a small bit of bone on Sundays. Either a cornish hen wing or the half ounce servings of bones and meat I chopped up when I couldn't get the last shreds of meat off the ribs, and thighs etc. She eats them fine, but the next day has poor appetite and hard dry tiny stool.

It's really a very small amount of bone, all things considered.

It's funny though because Queen Eva doesn't have any trouble with the Stella&Chewy's, she gets one meal (10 nuggets) of that most days, but not on Sundays. But I've seen the pattern now with her lack of appetite on Monday and hard dry tiny stool, the last three Mondays after a boney meal on Sunday.

So Jennie is going to be my only wing bone eater I guess.

 

[ldg]

Is she eating mostly raw otherwise? Or mostly canned?

Because when I feed quail bone-in, I don't use any calcium supplement the meal prior, and the two meals following for several of the kitties, or they get constipated.

 

[otto]

Thanks Laurie. Queen Eva is about 60% raw and 40% canned. On the day she gets the small bone in meal I do not use the egg shell calcium, nor does she get a Stella&Chewy meal (which contains bone)

Her usual Sunday meal consist of:

One ounce of Rad Cat (with probiotic), the half ounce of bone/meat shreds, 2 ounces of canned, and one ounce of beef and one tenth ounce of liver, with no calcium added.

It's not just the constipation, she also has a sketchy appetite the next day.

It wouldn't be the beef would it? I don't think so, because I don't see the same trouble on the beef days when she hasn't had the bone.

 

[ldg]

Interesting. I don't know!