Transitioning a kitten

[jamie wayne]

Hi everyone!

So I am transitioning my three month old kitten to a raw diet.  I picked up Primal nuggets at Whole Foods today and I fed him one tonight (split it into two portions) and he gobbled it up.  I have been free feeding him Wellness kitten dry food.  My question is, how should I feed him during the day?  If I am gone at work, I won't be around to feed him..only in the morning and when I come home from work at night.  Should I leave the whole nugget out and let him graze?  Or should I give him half of one in the morning and leave a little bit of the Wellness out for him?  I read on the package I'm supposed to split the nuggets into portions and feed him about four times a day but I won't be able to do that if I'm at work.

Thank you so much!

Jamie

 

[ldg]

Well, at three months old, he should be allowed to eat as much as he wants. And their stomachs are still too small at that age for the usual recommendation of three meals a day for adults (before work, after work, and as late as possible before bed).

Can you purchase a timed feeder? There are some that work with ice packs you can program to open so your kitty can eat the raw food.

Or you can leave out a frozen raw nugget (broken in two, probably) for him to graze on while you're gone. If he's starving when you get home, for the next month or so, you may have to leave out kibble for him to nibble on during the day. (Unless others have a better idea I'm not familiar with!)

 

[sophie1]

I've got a 4 month old kitten who also needs to graze during the day.  To make things more challenging, I often have to work late, so a 3x/day schedule just isn't realistic for me.

I leave out high pressure pasteurized raw food.  Primal nuggets are fine to leave out, but my kitties refuse to eat the stuff.  Not sure why because it's perfectly good, and my one cat used to love it.  I think they've been spoiled on food that is 100% meat, and actually LOOKS like meat instead of some nondescript gray mush.  They dislike Nature Variety also.  Instead, I buy Primal chicken or turkey grinds from a local pet store.  I mix in supplements, and then freeze in 2 oz blobs.  I just toss these in a dish straight from the freezer before leaving for work in the morning, and also sometimes overnight if my kitten is on a particularly intense eating binge.  The food won't spoil in a day and there are no dangerous pathogens to worry about.  Note that I don't include egg yolks in the supplementation for patties that are left out for long periods of time.

Given how much kittens eat, cost was a big factor for me.  The 2 lb Primal chubs are just over $7 each, including tax.  Supplements add only a few cents a pound if you follow Dr. Lisa Pierson's recipe, so the finished food ends up just under $3.75/lb.   That's about as cheap as it gets for decent quality meat of any sort here in NYC.  For comparison, Primal food costs $6/"lb", Nature Variety chicken/turkey patties are $7-$8/pound, and Nature Variety chicken/turkey chubs are just over $5/lb.  The "lb" is in quotes for primal food, because I discovered each nugget is actually only 0.9 oz - to make it 1 oz you're supposed to add water - so actual cost/lb is higher than $6.