When To Introduce New Proteins to Raw Diet and How Often Should Rotations Last? (For new raw eaters)

[everariana]

Apologies if there are previous threads on this--I spent a while looking and couldn't find anything.

I'm planning on transitioning my two 7 month old kittens to a mostly raw diet. For right now they'll be eating a raw meal every morning and evening, with a canned meal during lunch time while I'm at work (using timed feeder w/ ice pack). I'm going to start with chicken, but I eventually want to have a rotation with chicken, turkey, duck, rabbit, and maybe beef (of course this can all change depending on what they actually like, allergies etc).

In the ideal situation of them successfully transitioning and liking raw chicken, when should I start introducing the next new protein? Is there a rough amount of time that they should spend solely eating one protein before introducing a new one? How long should each transition period be? And lastly, how long do you all typically feed each protein before moving on to the next one in the rotation (after all proteins have been introduced and the full rotation group is established)?

 

[Talien]

There's no real need to constantly rotate unless they either start getting picky about eating what you're feeding them, or show signs of digestive issues. Switching proteins is the best way to see if a digestive issue is being caused by the protein source or by something else, if you are constantly switching protein you could be inadvertently causing problems for your Cats if one or both are sensitive to certain meats. The best thing to do is find one they like and keep feeding that to them.

It's also possible to turn a Cat into a picky eater by frequently switching food. You can find horror stories about Cats that eat one food one day but won't touch it the next.

 

[Azazel]

It depends on which model of raw feeding you are following.

Are you doing nutritionally complete commercial raw (e.g., Primal nuggets), homemade recipe with supplements, or prey model (whole animal)?

 

[Jemima Lucca]

I feed my 2 kittens ages 3 mths and 6 mths raw, dry, and canned. Raw primal and vital essentials. The reason I feed raw is, before I got the younger kitten, Jemima (the older kitten) suddenly refused to eat her instinct kitten. We tried several different canned foods, dry, dehydrated etc, then raw. She chose raw, but only liked pork. After we got Lucca, she began to expand her likes. Our vet wanted her to try other proteins because of allergies. All this to say; try a few that are aafco standard and just switch it here and there so allergies don’t develop. Jemima apparently became intolerant to chicken. She still has a somewhat delicate stomach but does very well with our rotation which includes petcurian kitten dry. I’m not a veterinarian, just a cat lover that has a kitten with a sensitive stomach...

 

[everariana]

There's no real need to constantly rotate unless they either start getting picky about eating what you're feeding them, or show signs of digestive issues. Switching proteins is the best way to see if a digestive issue is being caused by the protein source or by something else, if you are constantly switching protein you could be inadvertently causing problems for your Cats if one or both are sensitive to certain meats. The best thing to do is find one they like and keep feeding that to them.

It's also possible to turn a Cat into a picky eater by frequently switching food. You can find horror stories about Cats that eat one food one day but won't touch it the next.

To my understanding, I thought it was recommended that cats eat at least 3-4 proteins in a raw diet? I've seen countless people say that's the best way for them to have a naturally balanced diet, even if you're not changing them that often

 

[everariana]

It depends on which model of raw feeding you are following.

Are you doing nutritionally complete commercial raw (e.g., Primal nuggets), homemade recipe with supplements, or prey model (whole animal)?

For right now I'm planning on doing some type of ground meat/organs/bones (probably testing with Hare Today first) with Alnutrin as a supplement.

 

[Azazel]

For right now I'm planning on doing some type of ground meat/organs/bones (probably testing with Hare Today first) with Alnutrin as a supplement.

You don’t necessarily have to rotate proteins if you’re adding a complete supplement. Although, many believe its good to have variety for the mixture of nutrients. Switching proteins is most important for prey model raw when you’re just feeding the whole animal. The model is based on the idea that cats just eat whole parts of different animals in the wild and by virtue of eating different whole animals all of their nutritional requirements will be met. Rotating proteins for this is essential.