For Those Who Feed Raw...

[Kronos]

Make sure your kitties are getting enough taurine. You may want to have a blood test or whatever kind of test is necessary run to make sure the raw food or whole prey food is giving your cat enough taurine!

http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/ccah/local-assets/pdfs/Role_of_diet_feline health_Glasgow.pdf

I feed my dog raw and have not regularly fed my cats raw yet because I am still trying to figure out how I want to approach it with my cats.

 

[Kronos]

Just read more about the study... the problem was caused by only being fed rabbits. Cats need more than just rabbit protein. That is probably why the taurine problem showed up in this study..

 

[admin]

when I feed rabbit, I always use a supplement such as kitty bloom, mazuri's or simply raw...

 

[MK Anderson]

My cats only like chicken! well, somtimes they will eat turkey. I always use hearts in my raw. Also, taurine is water soluble so, I always add it to the defrosted I take out for the day.

 

[admin]

Yes, I do the same, MK...especially if you are freezing, you may lose Taurine in the process.

 

[Natalie D.]

I'm the new owner of a Savannah - 12wk. old male F2B. We're really excited and finding him fascinating but... he's a picky eater. I'd like to feed him a partial raw diet supplemented by quality kibble for grazing. I've mixed raw similar to the breeders mix although it's not 'exactly' the same. I've also tried some of the pre-mixed meals with a variety of meat types so that there is some rotation in his diet. Typically, he's refusing to eat these. I've tried a few tricks such as mixing in powdered milk with the raw mixture and although he was marginally more intersted, this still hasn't done the trick.

Does anyone have any suggestions or 'tricks' that might help us to encourage him to eat the raw mixtures? I've also seen a kibble that appears to be made largely out freeze dried meats + supplements. Would you consider this a good alternative if he refuses to eat raw?

Thanks!

 

[barbja]

I saw this on Dr Pierson's site for making raw cat food:

Other tips: Coat the meat pieces in parmesan cheese or FortiFlora. FortiFlora is a probiotic that I use to entice cats to eat. I do not use it as the label states since I am not using it for its probiotic properties. Instead, I am using it as I would if I wanted to season my own food with salt and pepper. As little as 1/10th or 1/20th of a package sprinkled on top of food can go a long way to entice a cat to eat something new. This is because FortiFlora is formulated using animal digest which is the same substance that pet food manufacturers coat dry food with to make it very palatable for cats and dogs.

Here is the link for FortiFlora: http://www.healthypets.com/fortiflora30.html

 

[admin]

Hi Natalie,

Welcome! here are my thoughts on this...if the kitten will not eat raw, perhaps find a high quality canned food. It doesn't do much good if the kitten will not eat raw...so perhaps try to find a high quality canned food that he will like...

Many times we want them to eat raw and they do not want to...Taj eats raw every now and then but I am not going to force him...

as for mixing powdered milk - I don't think that is a good idea...you can put something like fortiflora in the raw if you want to keep trying or you can sprinkle Whole Life Pets chicken treat dust on the raw...

 

[admin]

I saw this on Dr Pierson's site for making raw cat food:

Other tips: Coat the meat pieces in parmesan cheese or FortiFlora. FortiFlora is a probiotic that I use to entice cats to eat. I do not use it as the label states since I am not using it for its probiotic properties. Instead, I am using it as I would if I wanted to season my own food with salt and pepper. As little as 1/10th or 1/20th of a package sprinkled on top of food can go a long way to entice a cat to eat something new. This is because FortiFlora is formulated using animal digest which is the same substance that pet food manufacturers coat dry food with to make it very palatable for cats and dogs.

Here is the link for FortiFlora: http://www.healthypets.com/fortiflora30.html

Good advice...you can also use Probiotics, which is cheaper but similar to Fortiflora.

 

[Natalie D.]

Thanks! I'll try the FortiFlora or other seasonings mentioned. We have a good feed store nearby so I've also been talking with them to consider the quality canned food approach. He's eating the kibble just fine so he's not lacking in quantity. I know there is debate about whether raw is necessary but it seemed a good addition to the kibble along with other suplements.