Half raw, half canned?

kty78 · 2012-06-01

What are some examples of a raw meal, I'm thinking frankenprey style, when the cat is getting canned as well? Last night I let them try a treat sized piece of raw chicken leg and they were all over it. Didn't think twice, just devoured it.

yingying

· #2 · Jun 1, 2012

I think any source of meat should be fine. Chicken, quail, rabbit, lamb, beef... Oddly enough that pork seems to be left out from the list? I don't know why...

However, if you are doing that much on raw (anything over 30% of your cat's entire food), you need to be careful with propotions. If I remember correctly, you need 80% muscle meat, 10% bone, 5% liver, and 5% other organ (heart and gizzard count as muscle meat, not organ). Also you need to switch between different meat sources. You don't have to have all these in every meal but over a week this is the propotion.

For this reason alone, I cannot do more than 1/3 raw. I can't imagine myself processing the organ and my cats HATE liver.

Save

Like

V

Vivid Dawn

· #3 · Jun 1, 2012

I wish my cats would do that!

When I very first started to do raw, I gave them each a couple of chicken gizzards. They're relatively small, and good for getting cats used to gnawing. Noooope! Nobody barely sniffed at them, and Nebbie even batted hers around like a toy.

So then I tried the ground meat way. Well, Xanthe and Paizly devoured it (it even has green tripe in it!). Nebbie will only look at it. Zinny has nibbled at it a few times, and the other day finally ATE some...but not the whole serving.

Since Monday night I've been sick, so they went back to canned (for convenience so I could go back to bed quicker). But this next week, I'm gonna really buckle down and try to transition them. I may have to hide the raw under a thin layer of canned for Zinny... mixing canned IN the raw didn't work, as I tried that a couple weeks ago.

Unless you're asking WHAT I feed, and not how.
Currently it's a mixture of ground turkey, ground beef and sheep offal (kidney, liver, spleen, green tripe, lung) and ground eggshell for calcium. Once they get used to ground, I will switch one of their meals to chicken wings and see how that goes.
In the end, I think I'll do one meal ground and two meals "whole" prey. But this probably won't be for several months, with Zinny's stubbornness :/

See less See more

Save

Like

H

hoofmaiden

· #4 · Jun 1, 2012

If you can deal with it (and I'm a vegan and a mouse lover and *I* deal with it!), feeding mice is the best way to do raw w/ cats IMO. Mice are the perfect food--and everything the cat needs is in each package. No frankenprey, no worrying about %, etc. I just hand out 1 mouse per cat in a.m. and 2 in p.m. and that's that.

I get them here: American Rodent Supply

They arrive frozen--I semi-thaw a bag, tong out X number into daily baggies (3 per cat per day) and re-freeze. Every evening I toss a bag into a tray in the turned-off oven to thaw--then in the a.m. I tong into the bowls, feed, and put the p.m. mice in the fridge.

Could NOT be easier, and really, WAY less gross than canned food (which IMHO is the nastiest stuff on the planet!).

Save

Like

kty78

Discussion Starter · #5 · Jun 1, 2012

Hmmm, i could do 1/3 raw, they eat 3 times a day anyway but I was thinking of switching to twice a day because they're getting fat. But replacing the nightly kibble with raw might help that.

Save

Like

shan841

· #6 · Jun 1, 2012

replacing the kibble with raw is a good idea. Its not good to mix raw and kibble FYI

Save

Like

yingying

· #7 · Jun 1, 2012

hoofmaiden said:
If you can deal with it (and I'm a vegan and a mouse lover and *I* deal with it!), feeding mice is the best way to do raw w/ cats IMO. Mice are the perfect food--and everything the cat needs is in each package. No frankenprey, no worrying about %, etc. I just hand out 1 mouse per cat in a.m. and 2 in p.m. and that's that.

I get them here: American Rodent Supply

They arrive frozen--I semi-thaw a bag, tong out X number into daily baggies (3 per cat per day) and re-freeze. Every evening I toss a bag into a tray in the turned-off oven to thaw--then in the a.m. I tong into the bowls, feed, and put the p.m. mice in the fridge.

Could NOT be easier, and really, WAY less gross than canned food (which IMHO is the nastiest stuff on the planet!).

How do you persuade your cat to eat mouse? I tried it once (got the mice for snake feeding from local petstore), and it's a complete failure. I tried all the way I could, like cutting the mice open, dipping it into tuna juice... My cats will lick off the juice and leave the mice untouched. :fust

Save

Like

yingying

· #8 · Jun 1, 2012

kty78 said:
Hmmm, i could do 1/3 raw, they eat 3 times a day anyway but I was thinking of switching to twice a day because they're getting fat. But replacing the nightly kibble with raw might help that.

I think 3 feedings a day is the ideal setup. Two meals is ok but 3 is better. If they are getting fat, you can simply cut off some amount. And the nightly kibble can certainly be replaced by some raw chicken (that's what I do right now).

Save

Like

MowMow

· #9 · Jun 1, 2012

Agreed, quickest way to control weight is to get rid of that kibble.

Save

Like

H

hoofmaiden

· #10 · Jun 1, 2012

yingying said:
How do you persuade your cat to eat mouse? I tried it once (got the mice for snake feeding from local petstore), and it's a complete failure. I tried all the way I could, like cutting the mice open, dipping it into tuna juice... My cats will lick off the juice and leave the mice untouched. :fust

Initially it takes a little work--just b/c there is almost no smell. I cut them in half and offered them. If they didn't eat them, I removed them and offered them again 12 hours later. If they refused to eat then they got a LITTLE non-mouse food (still raw) b/c it's dangerous to fast cats, but not a lot. Next day back to the same routine.

It took my older cat 2 days. My younger cat took 1 day. They both played w/ the mice for a while intially, but now they get right down to business. Jonah, who was rescued from the road at 4 weeks, was weaned directly to mice and has eaten very little else his whole life. He refused to eat anything else when I was weaning him from goats milk formula (other raw food, canned, etc.) until I finally tried a pinky mouse and he ate it right down! There are several threads on his weaning to raw on this forum somewhere if you search, and I can send you links to videos if you like.

Once they learn to eat mice they LOVE them.

Save

Like

littlesushi

· #11 · Jun 1, 2012

i am currently feeding a mix of frankenprey raw and canned...i'm a bit loose about the amounts depending on the raw food that i have available. they will get anywhere between a raw meal every other day to 2 raw meals a day. just a couple of days ago it was 3 meals of raw in one day

i try to maintain the proper ratios and with every 10 meals of raw, approx 8 of those meals are muscle meat, 1 meal of bone-in meat, and 1 meal of liver/other organs. i was initially feeding mostly canned, so i was a bit less stringent about getting the ratios right, but now that i am incorporating more raw i am trying to be more careful about them getting the proper amounts.

i still don't have the guts to try mice

good for you guys!

Save

Like

kty78

Discussion Starter · #12 · Jun 1, 2012

shan841 said:
replacing the kibble with raw is a good idea. Its not good to mix raw and kibble FYI

This I know. I guess what I was wondering is portions, like if each cat gets 1/2 a 6 oz can of wet food divided between 2 feedings, would a chicken leg each be an okay dinner, or an equivalent sized amount of meat? I know to vary protein sources, I'm just using that as an example because I can visualize the portion size.

Save

Like

kty78

Discussion Starter · #13 · Jun 2, 2012

When I first got them they were eating half a 6 oz can of Friskies shreds in gravy each in the mornings and 1/4 cup of 9 Lives dry in the afternoon and at night. I switched them to Natural Balance canned and the first few feedings they would each eat half a can in one sitting but after a while they woul quit at half that. I think it's more filling than the Friskies so now I just give them 1/4 can each in the morning and afternoon and 1/4 cup of kibble at night. I would just be replacing the kibble with a raw meal.

I weighed them a couple of weeks ago and they were 7.25 and 8.75 lbs. I'm sure it's higher now, that's just a ballpark. They're 7 mos old.

Save

Like

dweamgoil

· #14 · Jun 2, 2012

I think it's easier when feeding half canned, half raw to think in terms of ounces. When I fed my cats this way, I usually served them anywhere between 6-8 oz of food a day. Try this range and see how it goes. You may need to adjust if you see them gaining too much weight or if you see they are always hungry.

Save

Like

kty78

Discussion Starter · #15 · Jun 4, 2012

Well we've had 2 raw meals, the first was chicken cut into bite size chunks. Ollie gobbled his up in record time, Miley appeared to be eagerly chowing down but she really just took forever to chew up about 3 bites, then she lost interest. Ollie tried to finish hers off but I took it away because I was afraid he would get sick.

Next night I gave them ground turkey and they both gobbled it up. Miley still ate slower but she always does. Both plates were licked clean and this never happens with the canned. So I would say they are taking to it pretty well.

Save

Like

Top Contributors this Month