Kitten on Raw--not going as smoothly as I thought it would.

[lauren43]

Let's see we started raw Tuesday and I only had ground beef prepared...he has been eating it just not very much of it. He had ground beef for breakfast and dinner every day until yesterday. For dinner yesterday I gave him chopped pork, pork heart, beef liver and the ground beef. He only ate the ground beef and I am not sure if its because he go used to that or because the others were in chunks and not ground.

I plan to try chicken (with crushed bone) and some fish as soon as I can get my hands on them. Is there something I should be doing to make home eat? I was thinking about pouring tuna juice on the meat to encourage eating...what do you guys think?

[Lisa_j]

I think I am just fortunate my fosters transitioned from bottle to raw. I know your guy is older but I puree the meat really smooth, just because these guys are so young yet. Give the tuna juice a whirl, won't hurt!

[SerenityFL]

Let's see we started raw Tuesday and I only had ground beef prepared...he has been eating it just not very much of it. He had ground beef for breakfast and dinner every day until yesterday. For dinner yesterday I gave him chopped pork, pork heart, beef liver and the ground beef. He only ate the ground beef and I am not sure if its because he go used to that or because the others were in chunks and not ground.

I plan to try chicken (with crushed bone) and some fish as soon as I can get my hands on them. Is there something I should be doing to make home eat? I was thinking about pouring tuna juice on the meat to encourage eating...what do you guys think?

How old is your cat? Have you checked your cat's teeth? I ask because I have an older cat and when we switched, it was hard for her to pick up the chunks of meat in part because of her teeth. (Some of her little tiny, cute little teethies in the front are missing.)

Also, because she had been kibble fed for so. long. she did not know how to eat; she did not know how to pick up the meat instead of scooping it up with her tongue like she did with kibble.

I would highly recommend that you get a grinder and grind the meat for awhile. Slowly add in chunks but start off with teensy, tiny chunks, I mean, small, small, small chunks. Slowly up those sizes as time goes on. They will eventually learn how to pick up the pieces and their jaws will get stronger and they will be able to better eat bigger chunks of meat.

I had to start off with bite sized pieces for all of them except this older one where I had to grind her food. When I did start putting in some chunks, I held them for her, so she had no choice but to take the piece with her teeth and not with her tongue. Yes, feeding time took a long time but now? Now I can toss down a chicken leg and they go at it like pros. I can now cut off 4oz of beef, (when I can get some), and throw the whole chunk down at them and not have to cut it up in to bite sized pieces. On occasion I will still do this for three of them because again, the older one can eat faster that way, one of them just wants me to do it sometimes and one gets picked on by the other cats so I feed her by hand when it's meat only night.

Also, you might want to hold off on giving so much variety at once. I would go to chicken, first. If you want to include bone in, the best thing to do when starting, I have found, is a Cornish game hen. The bones are much softer and easier for them to get through while they are learning to eat raw and bones. Yes, they are more expensive but you won't have to do this forever. Just a couple of months.

But just like with dogs, I would slowly introduce proteins, not all at once. Give them time do adjust, physically and mentally. Safest is to start with chicken. (Easiest to be digested.) I would then go to turkey, which can also be found already ground but, it's better if you do the grinding yourself. I found a great grinder at BrandSmart USA, (if you have those), for about $40. I don't put bones through it but it grinds like a champ. I wouldn't spend a whole lot of money on a grinder because you probably won't need it after a month.

[lauren43]

Also, you might want to hold off on giving so much variety at once. I would go to chicken, first. If you want to include bone in, the best thing to do when starting, I have found, is a Cornish game hen. The bones are much softer and easier for them to get through while they are learning to eat raw and bones. Yes, they are more expensive but you won't have to do this forever. Just a couple of months.

But just like with dogs, I would slowly introduce proteins, not all at once. Give them time do adjust, physically and mentally. Safest is to start with chicken. (Easiest to be digested.) I would then go to turkey, which can also be found already ground but, it's better if you do the grinding yourself. I found a great grinder at BrandSmart USA, (if you have those), for about $40. I don't put bones through it but it grinds like a champ. I wouldn't spend a whole lot of money on a grinder because you probably won't need it after a month.

From what I read (I was looking on here and many of the threads had links to articles) it said to vary there diet quickly as cats can get very picky. I also read that starting with bone for cats was not as important as it is for dogs. Because he has already become picky and is only 5ish months old I worry about sticking to one protien source for too long. Did I read it all wrong? Now I am more confused and concerned than before...

[lauren43]

I think I am just fortunate my fosters transitioned from bottle to raw. I know your guy is older but I puree the meat really smooth, just because these guys are so young yet. Give the tuna juice a whirl, won't hurt!

Yea I'm kicking myself for not just starting the raw when I picked him up.

[Slayer Girl]

Maybe it is as simple as that its not ground up. Could be a texture/size thing. I didn't even know people fed cats raw so I dont have much helpful input aside from maybe grind it all ans see if he eats it.

[Scarlett_O']

Ive posted before what we did to get our 3(my 2 and my Mum's VERY picky 6 year old boy)over to raw....let me find it!

Here is the lastest post about it, you can see my explanation in post #17 and #22, along with other people's ways!!
Raw feeding cats?

[Imgliniel]

ats can absolutly latch onto one protein and then refuse anything else. Typically the way most cat groups recomend switching is to put small peices of raw into a canned food they like. You can vary the protein right from the beginning because it is going to be like, 1/8th of their meal maybe less. For a cat not going for it the less or tinier the peices the better. Then start slowly upping the amount of meat in the canned (ground or tiny bite sized chunks) until they are eating mostly raw. For cats you are right that typicall we don't start with bone in, it comes after they are eating 90% meat and a little bit of canned, then let them try bone in.

This is my favorite site for Kitty advice

Feline Nutrition

[Maxy24]

When I was transitioning Willie to raw the most important thing for him was to cut whatever new meat I was adding into REALLY small pieces, ones that required no chewing, just so that he'd eat them and find out they weren't awful. Usually I'd have to make him accidentally eat the new meat by sticking it to a small piece of the meat he already liked. If they smell the new meat they usually won't touch it. Sometimes just soaking the little pieces of new meat in juices of meat they like can get them to eat it. But yes, if he isn't really fond of any meat yet, find whatever he does like and use that to trick him into eating the meat. Use cooked meat, cheese, cat treats, tuna juice, whatever. Make it so they don't know they are eating the meat at first, once they actually get it in their mouth and discover it's okay (assuming they do actually like the taste), things go more smoothly. Then you'd work on making the new meat more apparent. You might start by just putting a piece of meat right next to the food they like so that they smell the new meat while they eat their favorite thing, this teaches them not to be repulsed by the smell. Then you might squish the new meat onto the treat (I did this with kibble) so they eat the treat and take up the meat with it. This gets them to taste it and feel the texture. After they taste a few they might be willing to pick up some small pieces of the meat left on the plate(again, really small, like the size of your pinky nail). But there should be more of the food they like than of the new meat, you still want them to mostly smell the food they like. I'd usually only put down 2-3 pieces of the new meat at a time with a bunch of what they already liked. After I somehow got the new meat into them I'd put down 2-3 more until the food they like is gone (unless they are willingly eating the new meat at that point, then you can put it all down).

You really have to try a bunch of things out. Also make sure the food is not cold when you give it to them. I would not introduce multiple meats (or organs) at the same time. Too many new smells. If they don't like one thing they won't touch any of it. I also wouldn't try bone until you've got the cat doing large chunks (mouse sized) of meat. Bones can be discouraging for a cat if their jaws aren't used to chewing. When I switched Willie I started with skinless chicken breast meat, starting with pinky nail size pieces and moving up until large chunks. Then introduced pork, then beef in the same manner, only moving faster since he could already chew. Then started leaving skin on (I left it off to start simply because it's hard to chew). Then introduced bone, then liver, then kidney (he hated both organs and that eventually drove me to stop feeding raw). One new thing at a time.

[lauren43]

Just thought I would update. Tonight went much much better. I chopped the pork up as much as I could, I mixed it in with the ground beef (because I know he likes it) and then I put some tuna juice in there. He loved it! He started chowing down with no hesitation.