Wet and Raw rotation - any issues?

[zoneout]

Right now I have my cats on Holistic Select canned.   I would like them to have some raw in their diet because their are nutrients that canned cannot provide.

So maybe one week a month I wanted to feed Rad Cat since that is what I could afford.     My concerns are twofold.   Are their tolerance issues when feeding both canned and raw in rotation?   And secondly, am I setting up myself for a problem if the cats decide they like the raw so much that they will start to refuse the canned.

Thoughts?

 

[emandjee]

Well I feed a combination of raw and canned to my cats at every meal. I want them to eat both, but my one cat especially prefers canned over raw for the most part, so that's why I feed both. I rotate proteins (canned and raw) and try to match (ex: raw ground duck necks with some NV raw bites in duck, with canned NVI duck in some warmed water mixed in. (Yeah, it takes some time for me to make their meals, lol). And last week it was canned NVI rabbit with ground rabbit from Small Batch. I rotate proteins about every week or 10 days, whenever I've used up a chub (2 lbs) worth of raw food. 

I don't think you need to worry about intolerance issues unless you feed your cats one type of protein constantly for a long time. Mix up your canned so it's not turkey or chicken, for example, since you're going with Rad Cat product. 

My other cat that loves raw has no problem with eating the canned food I serve, but she generally likes all types of food, lol. I haven't had issues with serving canned that goes to waste unless it's something new or a flavor/brand they don't care for. I give my cats higher quality canned foods, like NVI, Wild Calling, First Mate, Tiki Cat, and they seem to like all of those. 

 

[lisamarie12]

Zoneout:

I've been feeding both my cats a combo of commercial raw and grain-free (NVI) canned for two years now and I've never had a problem. One cat is IBD and FHV and no issues. It can be problematic if kibble and raw are fed, cats are able to digest raw at a speedier rate than kibble, kibble takes much longer and you wouldn't want raw meat trying to digest while kibble slows it down. Canned goes through less heat processing than kibble, it may take slightly longer to digest than raw but it's not an issue, I believe. Again, I've never had any problems, in fact I just finished feeding my little guy Primal's raw rabbit alongside a little NVI canned rabbit.

Also, another option, instead of doing one week out of the month, you could feed e.g., Rad Cat in the morn, and your grain free HS at night, or however / many times you feed (our cats eat about 4 times a day).  My male cat likes Rad Cat, I feed it occasionally.

Good luck, I'm sure it'll work out with your kitty.

 

[lisahe]

I'd also suggest feeding raw and canned each day -- that seems to work really well for our cats. I can imagine that it might be problematic to make the switch for just a week a month, for reasons you cite, @zoneout: their stomachs might not tolerate the change and they might develop strong preferences. Beyond that, I think it would probably be better to get those good raw food nutrients to them every day instead of just a week a month.

Our cats get fed five times a day: freeze-dried raw early morning, canned snack late morning, early afternoon Rad Cat, evening freeze-dried raw, and canned before bed. One cat is a nibbler who likes canned a little more and the other, who prefers raw, vomits if her stomach gets empty. This seems to keep everyone going!

Good luck!

 

[lisamarie12]

LisaHE:

Oh, I'm glad to see someone else's cats eat five times daily, actually that's closer to what our cats eat - five vs four (but I didn't want anyone to think I was spoiling them, lol)!  Like you, twice in the morn, once in the early morn (FD raw), later morn (FD and raw); if I'm gone during the day, those two meals hold them until later and then three times at night, the last meal right before bed and usually canned. I read that cats in the wild would eat on average 10-15 times a day b/c they don't eat super-size-me meals, lol!!

 

[zoneout]

Excellent feedback.  Thanks everyone!!

 

[pinkdagger]

I feed canned regularly and offer commercial - Nature's Variety - and homemade raw every so often - it's not always daily, but more when I remember to take stuff out to defrost so it starts with a bite of raw in their wet food, and then the amount gets gradually larger until the desired amount which for me is 0.3oz per meal. The cats haven't had any issues with it (I've been doing so with commercial probably since April, and homemade since July).

 

[lisahe]

 
Oh, I'm glad to see someone else's cats eat five times daily, actually that's closer to what our cats eat - five vs four (but I didn't want anyone to think I was spoiling them, lol)!  Like you, twice in the morn, once in the early morn (FD raw), later morn (FD and raw); if I'm gone during the day, those two meals hold them until later and then three times at night, the last meal right before bed and usually canned. I read that cats in the wild would eat on average 10-15 times a day b/c they don't eat super-size-me meals, lol!!

Yes, these cats can do okay in the short term with fewer meals a day, too, but it really works best for them to eat like this. We both work at home so it's easy to feed them like this but I've read other Cat Site members write that they feed their cats four times a day, two before they go to work, two when they come home.

I hope you're able to find a good way to work raw food into your cats' menus, @zoneout!