Tried raw and result was vomit

[cruzing101]

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• cruzing101
• Mar 11, 2014

Hi all,

I really want to start giving my cat a raw diet. He is 7 months old and been eating almost entirely dry food his whole life. First can someone let me know if I am in danger only feeding my cat dry kibble since he was a baby? I don't like wet cat food and would prefer not going that route. The raw diet was enticing and I went to my local petco and got a small bag of Instinct Raw Bites.

I thawed it out and gave it to him but he did not seem to want to try it. Smelled it and stared at me like "what the heck is this cold strange stuff?!" It stayed in his bowl all day and turned brown so I threw it out. I then tried microwaving it so it was a little warm, but not hot, and he took a bite but didn't chow down or anything. The third time I mixed it with the kibble and he started eating. I couldn't tell if he was just really hungry or avoiding the raw bites but I headed to work and when I came back the bowl was empty. A few days later I found some cold vomit in the guest room so I don't know if it was from the raw bites, in fact I didn't even think about any correlation. It was the first time he had ever puked but it was bound to happen sometime. I kept with the style of throwing in a few nuggets of raw in his kibble dish and About a week later I actually saw him vomit. I checked his bowl and saw some raw bites still in the bottom of the dish pretty brown from being out all day. Threw it away and that was when I started to think if this was causing the vomiting. I havnt fed him anything but kibble since then and no more puking.

Thoughts?
Help!


Thanks!!

 

[ritz]

You are to be commended for wanting to feed your cat a healthier diet.
I'm not surprised your cat vomited, it's kind of normal (but scary) for a cat to vomit at one point when transitioning from eating kibble to raw food. These are very different foods with different ways of metabolizing it.
If you haven't already read the many excellent articles about feeding raw, may I direct you to this sticky, which contains many helpful information and tips about raw feeding.
And this is an article about transitioning your cat from kibble to raw feeding.
Finally, because you've expressed interest in feeding raw and have given your Bengal a taste of it, I suggest you give him a probiotic, that will help balance the good and balance bacteria in any cat's gut regardless of what they are being fed. Any human one is fine.
May I ask why you don't want to feed canned (wet food). In my opinion, wet food is superior to kibble. And, feeding canned might be a good intermediary step to feeding raw, depending on your cat.