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Permalink Reply by Jo Jerome on May 22, 2009 at 3:44am

Should also add as a side note, a most fascinating side effect of feeding raw: It brings out their pecking order instinct big time.

I've always fed my two twisted sisters out of a single, two-sided bowl. They've never had a problem sharing the bowl before. But the first couple of days I fed them raw I noticed one would eat while the other kind of hangs back and watches all anxious and I'd end up hand-feeding her. By the third day I figured it out: The one who dives right in is in all other respects the dominant/alpha/queen. I'm giving them something to eat that more resembles kill/prey and that hierarchy kicks in. The beta (princess?) kitty is hanging back, waiting for her turn at the prey.

Now, when they're getting meat bones instead of canned, I feed them in separate bowls a few feet apart. Problem solved!

Permalink Reply by Little Name Atheist on May 22, 2009 at 11:28pm

Interesting that raw makes Alpha Twisted more alpha-y.

I have fed raw to eKeetzen, but she got bored with it after a while. It could be that I was buying already prepared raw cat food, and they just didn't move it fast enough. Might have had freezer burn. The place that sells it is a wee bit out of the way, so I haven't tried it with Cassie yet.

Madam (AKA eKeetzen) catches a small percentage of her own food, and eats catnip and whatever she wants vegetation-wise in the yard. Oh, and choice bugs. Cassie mostly eats the occasional fly, and grass in the yard. We've slowly been getting Cassie used to the outside, because she used to have a tendency to freak-out and run into the road. So, she hasn't had the opportunity to have any rodent tartar.

The rest of the time, good canned and dry. We were giving them the occasional good dry food, but their teeth started to tartar up. The vet suggested Science Diet for cleaning teeth, but I dragged my feet for a while. Finally got it, and amazingly enough, their breath doesn't stink as much. I hope that's because its actually scraping their teeth when they eat. We gave them Innova Evo dry before, the only drawback is that it is a fairly soft kibble. I think this might be why they were staring to have tartar buildup.

Have you read any good websites on raw feeding? I read as much as I could before my eyes started to blur. Seemed as many people were for it as against it. How do you feed meat bones?

We had to feed them with separate bowls from the beginning, because eKeetzen was used to being the only cat and Cassie was a wee thing with a lot to prove. I suspect they both want to be alpha, so there is the occasional not-just-playing fight. For the most part, they get along well enough.

Permalink Reply by Jo Jerome on May 24, 2009 at 2:26am

Websites - haven't bookmarked anything specific, just a lot of googling and surfing. But I started a similar thread on about.com's cats site and got some good responses regarding companies that do good canned/freeze-dried raw. It's just that the idea of freeze-dried raw sounds like an oxymoron to me.

It's sounding like the 'against' crowd is mostly concerned with getting other supplements and veggies that a pure-meat raw diet wouldn't provide. I'm not overly worried about that though. Being indoor/outdoor, I find they eat certain plants outside and despite our fears, cats generally know what they need. Especially if they've been allowed to forage from a very young age.

As for what I'm feeding, without a freezer it's whatever I find in the meat section that A) sounds cat-compatible and B) comes in small enough quantities that it won't go bad in my tiny pseudo-fridge. So far:

- Chicken or turkey gizzards/hearts/kidneys/etc.

- Chicken wings

- Pork or beef baby ribs.

- Would like to try some fish once I can truly justify the expense!

Thus far, no bad breath issues at all and they seem quite happy and stimulated by it all. I especially like that these aren't things they can wolf down in 2 minutes like canned. I just fed them beef ribs tonight and it takes them each about 20 minutes or more to clean off her respective baby rib. I've got to believe there's lots of teeth-cleaning involved in scraping those bones!

As for the hierarchy thing - as I'm typing this Alpha kitty is hissing at Princess kitty for getting a little too close. Their pecking order seems to have been formed when they both went into heat just before I was able to get them spayed. Weird; although both were in heat, Alpha was REALLY in heat while Beta was barely in heat. Until then I never knew that cats have a pecking order just like dog packs, if not quite as intense.

"Rodent tartar." I love it!!!

Permalink Reply by Little Name Atheist on July 9, 2009 at 10:44pm

I don't think this is what you had in mind when you said "raw".

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Permalink Reply by Jo Jerome on July 10, 2009 at 11:33am

;-)

Actually, raw feeding does include some veggies, but I have to disguise them in meat or gravy or something.

Loving these LOLcat photos!

Permalink Reply by Little Name Atheist on July 10, 2009 at 4:21pm

Yes, I know raw feeding does include some veggies. My girls get to browse outdoors some, and I have fresh catnip indoors for them when I remember.

The secret to finding cat macros to fit the circumstance: I just Google "lolcat" and whatever keyword seems appropriate. I know you asked me this a while ago... I think I forgot to tell you.

Permalink Reply by Jo Jerome on July 10, 2009 at 11:48pm

Yes, found some. Spent way, way too much of the day browsing silly cat pictures.

;-)

Permalink Reply by Little Name Atheist on July 11, 2009 at 8:16am

Yes, found some.

Proof, or it didn't happen.

Permalink Reply by Douglas on February 21, 2010 at 5:10pm

I gave Lucky raw chicken liver last Fri, Mon & Tues he was sick. I'm curious to know if maybe he had salminella because of it.

Permalink Reply by Douglas on February 21, 2010 at 6:12pm

Thank you. He doesn't have any problem with liverwurst, so I guess I'll just let him that.

Permalink Reply by Little Name Atheist on February 24, 2010 at 10:23pm

As much as cats love so much of our food, most human food has too much salt for cats. Some liverwurst has onions in it. Onions are toxic to cats.

Permalink Reply by Jo Jerome on March 8, 2010 at 6:38pm

"yeah! one of our cats some years ago got violently ill after giving him liver, and it wasn't even raw;"

Actually, not being raw could also have been part of the problem. Cooked food can be really bad for cats.

Though I started this thread, I've had to go back to mostly canned.

Raw diets are great, but the problem is that our food is processed with so many chemicals. And where I live, it's really, really hard to find organic anything. If I had a proper butcher around here where I could get the meat within a day of the kill, that would be awesome. But by the time that chicken gets to Wal-Fart, it's been pumped full of preservatives and spent weeks in freezers, which don't necessarily keep out the cooties. They're the kind of cooties that go away when cooked, but see above re; cooked food and cats.

I will however still treat them when I can find decent raw food, but I mix it in with the canned/dry so as not to overwhelm their little digestive systems. A raw egg in dry food is great for them. Shells too if they'll eat them!

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