Whole Prey/Prey Model questions

Willow's Mom

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I am very fortunate to have a good relationship with a local rodentry. I have been able to feed Willow whole prey pretty much since she came home, starting with pinkie mice as an occasional treat when she was 8 weeks old on up to a small-medium rat for her Thanksgiving dinner. She is thriving, the rodentry had unexpected expenses, and I am getting amazing deals.

Some of the larger rodents have been ground for us to make it easier on my budget to use them as supplements, but I would actually like to increase the rodents to >50% of her diet if I can afford to do so: they are ethically and locally raised, humanely euthanized, species-appropriate, and it is a rare opportunity to support a local business and fellow animal lover while investing in my own six month old kitten's health. She will never require this much food again in her life and it will never again matter this much that it is high quality.

My questions:

I'll be getting Alnutrin or EZcomplete in the next little bit to economize on the other foods she eats (currently Stella & Chewy's prepared frozen raw and 2-3 small cans of Blue Buffalo a week for lunches on the go). Would I also add this to the grind (whole rats, including hide and bone) or treat the grind the same way I do a feeder mouse or rat that she finishes in one or two meals?

If I do not supplement the rodents, do I need to be more concerned about rotating proteins?

TIA
 
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goingpostal

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Hmmm I feed whole prey as is, not ground so I don't supplement them. I feed a minimum of 3-4 different prey items on the regular, usually chicken, rabbit, rodent, quail and feed adult sized prey, you don't want too many baby or retired breeder sized meals. those are more of a treat.
 

Azazel

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Agree with goingpostal goingpostal that if you’re doing whole prey then you should rotate several different proteins and make sure to feed the whole animal. My concern with grinding the whole animal and then feeding it is that your cat might end up inadvertently eating too much bone or other parts that they usually wouldn’t eat if they had caught the prey in the wild. If the bone is ground up into fine pieces then they can’t decide when to stop eating it.

Basically I would choose between a whole prey or supplemented model and not do both.
 

furmonster mom

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If the rodent grind is indeed whole rodents including the hides and organs, I would probably not supplement that. But I would definitely rotate other proteins in the diet and supplement those as needed.
 
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