Transitioning from Dry to Raw (eventually)

[heatherselway]

I'm new here, hello everyone! I've recently took my two kittens Thor (5 mo, in tact male) and Loki (6-7 mo castrated male) off dry food. They were eating Science Diet (crap, I know) so thankfully I've learned the wiser and have done quite a bit of research on the forums and also the Dr.'s website about home made raw foods. So far they are on canned now until I can save up to buy the materials needed to make my own raw (and do more research)

This is my starting point with cans (Lots of variety, very little fish)

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• heatherselway
• Oct 16, 2013

Wellness, fancy feast classis, nutro max, merrick, natures variety instinct, blue wilderness, avoderm. To name a few

Good start? or should my cats be taken from me? lol

 

[heatherselway]

Also, here is my lil guys

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• heatherselway
• Oct 16, 2013

Don't let the cuteness fool you, he's evil. (Thor)

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• heatherselway
• Oct 16, 2013

cat3.jpg

• heatherselway
• Oct 16, 2013

 

[aprilprey]

Awwwww...Thor looks like my Dexter!

Since they are young - everything is new and wonderful to them.  With regards to equipment...my Dexter prefers chunks of meat anyhow.  The last batch I made was 50/50 chunks/grind - the ground meat is nice to hold it all together and is something for the supplement to stick to. But its not necessary - if our grinder broke tomorrow, I'd just chunk up the meat with a knife, add the supplement, and call it good.  Your kitties might be the same, being young.  Older cats that have been eating pate all their lives have a harder time when confronted with having to chew...I think kittens are too young to have any set habits like that.

So with a small investment - a can of Call of the Wild supplement, or TCFeline, and a sharp knife - you can explore raw in chunked form to see if they like that - and you can forgo the grinder if that's too spendy for you now.

One tip - its much easier to work with meat in a semi-frozen state.  I just cut up 3 lbs of beef yesterday in a FRACTION of the time I thought it would take because semi-frozen meat + a sharp knife makes it fast.  Emphasis on SHARP - not "good enough for every day" sharp, but "the blade is still warm because I just sharpened it" sharp.

 

[heatherselway]

Thank you. Where do I find the call of the wild supplement or TC Feline? I already know they love chicken breast. Any time I make chicken salad I give them few pieces of the chicken very lightly cooked and they gobble it up. Starting raw for kittens seems like it'll be super easy especially for my two lil garbage disposals

 

[peaches08]

Talking about Dr. Pierson's website www.catinfo.org? I use her chicken thighs recipe but I also use it for beef and pork too. I just use eggshell calcium for the calcium source when not using bone. If they eat chunks now, you can start feeding raw as soon as you get supplements or feed raw without supplementing it as 15% of the diet. If you feed 3 times a day, that's 3 meals a week. I'd go ahead and keep them interested even if it's only 1 meal a week!

 

[heatherselway]

Ok thanks. How many cans though should I be feeding a day? Or ounces rather? Thor weighs like 3.7lbs and Loki is like 6.8lbs. Right now they are both getting around 9oz a day.

 

[ldg]

Basically feed them as much as they want for now. I know it'll mean some waste at first to figure it out but eventually it'll settle in at around 5 to 6 ounces of canned food.

...They'll probably be on raw before then though. :lol3: It seems that most raw feed cats eat less food than when eating canned, so that's a plus!

Also, they're both big enough now they *should* be able to manage enough food at meals to eat just three meals a day. :rub:

 

[aprilprey]

Thank you. Where do I find the call of the wild supplement or TC Feline? I already know they love chicken breast. Any time I make chicken salad I give them few pieces of the chicken very lightly cooked and they gobble it up. Starting raw for kittens seems like it'll be super easy especially for my two lil garbage disposals

TCFeline's US company is here: http://rawmeatpetfood.com/products-page/all-products/

Call of the Wild is a Wysong product...carried in some natural pet food stores but also mail order: http://www.wysong.net/products/cotw-dog-cat-supplement.php

TCFeline is only sold mail order via the link above.  There are other brands...check out the raw resources thread: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/264154/raw-feeding-resources scroll down to the supplement/premix section.

AND - DAYUM, what is it with all the new posts from people living in Pennsylvania - home of Hare Today, the best source of ground rabbit???  You have a HUGE advantage, as shipping frozen goods gets very very pricy...oh lucky YOU!  I think you are the third person in a week from PA!  That way, you can get reasonably priced rabbit already ground, saving you the cost of the grinder.

https://www.hare-today.com/

 

[heatherselway]

Awesome. Thanks for all the info. Might try out some rabbit for my brats!

 

[heatherselway]

Which type of the rabbit should I try first?

 

[aprilprey]

I don't buy from them since I live on the other coast...maybe another poster who has used them has some input?  Many here use Hare Today as their rabbit source.  If you are wanting to feed ground bone...get the fine grind.  I think 3x through the grinder is how many times it takes US to get the bone fine, so I think that's your only option for ground bone.  It would depend on what supplements you want to use too, because some are designed to replace bone nutrition, some also replace secreting organ nutrition - usually dried liver.  Some don't do either and are intended to be added to ground bone AND fresh liver.

Wysong Call of the Wild is a power you sprinkle onto meat.

TCFeline requires you add water - it makes a nice gravy.  That might matter.

 

[cat dad]

I use Hare Today for all of my meats. They sell two kinds of Altnutrin which is a supplement. One is for meat with bones and organs, the other is for without. I always get whole ground (minus fur/intestines) to keep things natural. I started with rabbit and now they also eat quail and turkey. I plan on adding pheasant and guinea pigs next. Im avoiding chicken for my own crazy reasons.

I think her prices are reasonable. Rabbit is a bit pricy and shipping can be a lot if you live far from Pennsylvania, but she ships in 50lb boxes so the more you order the cheaper the shipping gets per/lb. I always order about 50lbs at a time, which is just about what my freezer will hold once processed.

 

[ldg]

I buy the 2 lb meat/bone/organ mixes (among other things).

To make them complete and balanced, the "processing" Cat Dad refers to is simply thawing, then adding the Alnutrin supplement for meat/bone/organ mixes (contains no calcium because of the bones) with some water, then portioning into meal-sized packages and re-freezing. Easy peasy!

I buy only finely ground stuff, not course ground.

 

[aprilprey]

For price comparison, if this helps.

We can buy whole rabbit from China at our local meat place - we have a large Asian population in our neighborhood - the meat shops cater to that.  Its $5.00 a lb.

I crunched the numbers to compare buying from Hare Today...IIRC at least HALF the cost is shipping due to the distance (west coast) - can't find my notes; it may have even been more than half.  I was stunned to find it was actually CHEAPER per lb. than the $5.00.  But I am hung up on the fact that so much of the cost goes to FedEx itself - I'd rather just wander down the road and buy beef or pork at the same price.  But people rave about them.  I do buy dehydrated stuff from them - no thawing to worry about and "normal" FedEx costs, not the premium air.

Great customer service based on my one order.

 

[heatherselway]

Thanks. I'm going to buy some rabbit among other stuff from them today.

 

[heatherselway]

$20 I think is what they will charge me for shipping.

 

[aprilprey]

$20 I think is what they will charge me for shipping.

OMG - so jealous!  Did you calculate the per lb cost?

 

[heatherselway]

It showed $20 and I was at like 14 lbs

 

[ldg]

The cost of shipping goes down per lb the more you order. I'm in northwest NJ and it costs me about $25 for 50 pounds.

 

[heatherselway]

Ohhh great. So I should buy a lot more, then