# Feeding Theus Raw



## xxshaelxx (Mar 8, 2010)

I'm not sure whether I'm going to do this full-time, or rotate between kibble, because he's my good kitty who will eat raw, but I gave him some chicken tonight. I mashed up the bones pretty well with a hammer, and he's enjoying it right now.

Anyways, I wanted to ask what you raw kitty feeders out there feed your kitties on a daily basis. I know that beef heart is really great for the taurine, but what else goes great for kitties? Other than little chicken wings (found a PHENOMENAL deal!) and other small birds (too tired, can't remember what they're called now that everyone else feeds).

*jaw drops* I think I have a possible other raw feeding candidate! Tricksie just weaseled in on Theus's chicken! We'll see how this one goes. *big grin*


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## RawFedDogs (Jun 16, 2008)

How old is the kitty? I feed my cats exactly the same thing I feed the dogs. Instead of backs or quarters, they get drumsticks or wings. Usually drumsticks because they are cheaper. They don't always eat all the bone but it's not a big deal. When I feed the dogs beef heart, I cut some off for each cat. Same with boston butt pork roast. Same with fish. Just cut some off for the cats before feeding to the dogs. Anything else I feed the dogs, I cut some off for the cats. I don't smash bones but drumsticks or wings is about the only thing they get with bones in them and they handle those just fine.


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## RachelsaurusRexU (Sep 4, 2010)

Cornish hen for bone, boneless turkey, chicken, pork, duck, venison, caribou (someone gave me a bunch!), ground beef, ground meatball mix (beef/veal/pork)...basically whatever I can cut off the dogs' meals or I can get inexpensively/for free. I look for sales on the Cornish hen and chicken breast (recently hit up a buy one get one and buy one get two sale!) and stock up on that stuff. The pork, duck, turkey and venison come from everything I already feed the pups. Unfortunately my cats won't touch beef heart. They also get liver, kidney and canned mackerel, sardines or salmon about once week or so.


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## xxshaelxx (Mar 8, 2010)

RawFedDogs said:


> How old is the kitty?
> 
> I don't smash bones but drumsticks or wings is about the only thing they get with bones in them and they handle those just fine.


Theus is only about half a year old.

And I only smash up the bones because I'm just starting him out on it, so I want him to start chewing the bones. I'm gonna smash it less and less to get him used to chewing those.

Tricksie hardly touched the chicken wing I gave her, so I'm gonna work a bit more with her, see what I can do. She's iffy, though, because I don't know if she'll touch anything else, other than the chicken wing.

I've got some beef heart thawing for the dogs for tonight, so I'll cut some off and see if Theus won't eat that. He eats most anything, though, except that he wouldn't touch the venison... Sadness.


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## RawFedDogs (Jun 16, 2008)

xxshaelxx said:


> Tricksie hardly touched the chicken wing I gave her, so I'm gonna work a bit more with her, see what I can do. She's iffy, though, because I don't know if she'll touch anything else, other than the chicken wing.


One of mine gave me a little problem switching so I just put half as much kibble plus a wing in her bowl. In a few days she started nibbling on the wing and in about a week no more kibble was needed.



> I've got some beef heart thawing for the dogs for tonight, so I'll cut some off and see if Theus won't eat that. He eats most anything, though, except that he wouldn't touch the venison... Sadness.


Cut the heart into little tiny pieces. I still cut my cat's heart in small pieces. That didn't sound right but you know what I mean. :biggrin:


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## xxshaelxx (Mar 8, 2010)

RawFedDogs said:


> Cut the heart into little tiny pieces. I still cut my cat's heart in small pieces. That didn't sound right but you know what I mean. :biggrin:


I had to think about that one! hahahahahahahahahaha.

I'll definitely try that with the kibble, though. Thanks!


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## SerenityFL (Sep 28, 2010)

Chicken, Cornish hen, turkey, (and the bag of goodies from inside the turkey), pork, beef, gizzards, chicken hearts, kidney, liver, beef heart, canned (in water) herring and sardines and when I get some deer, they are going to have that, as well. Every once in awhile I give them salmon or tilapia.

For bone meals it's mainly chicken and Cornish hen although I do give them pork ribs sometimes because they begged for it. They don't eat the bone but they do get some good exercise. When they are done, I give the bones to the dogs to chew on.

Soon I'll be giving them bass, fresh from the water out here, bone and all.


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## xxshaelxx (Mar 8, 2010)

Beef heart is a success! I decided to check and see if it was thawed, and it was, so I just pulled another one out of the freezer for the dogs for this evening and brought one of the originals in and cut it up. I put a little bit in Theus's bowl along with a wing. He's now happily munching between them both. Started with the wing at first, then moved on to the beef heart, and is now back on the chicken wing. XD


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## xxshaelxx (Mar 8, 2010)

*dies laughing*

Okay, so Meatball is a food-a-holic, but picky, and he's the only cat that's not interested in a raw diet, so I'm gonna keep him on kibble.

Well, ever feeding time, he ALWAYS tries to steal Theus's food! So he quickly scarfs his own and heads on over to poor Theus's bowl and just bluntly sticks his head on in. 

Well, he tried to do that just now. Sticks his head in, and comes back up with this LOOK on his face! Boy have I never seen this cat as angry as he just was when he found it wasn't kibble. hahahaha.


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## xxshaelxx (Mar 8, 2010)

So, I realized something today, while I was at work...

When I was feeding the cats this afternoon, I picked out a piece of beef heart and put it into Meatball's bowl, just to see if he would eat it, or if he'd pick around it. Well, I forgot about it. However, I distinctly remember the bowl being EMPTY as I was getting ready for work, which was RIGHT after all the cats finished eating, and neither Theus nor Tricksie had really been in the bathroom (where Meatball eats), so I'm pretty sure Meatball ate the piece of beef heart! I'm wondering if I can get him to start eating chicken/beef heart the same way!!!


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## xxshaelxx (Mar 8, 2010)

Well...I never would have thought...

Okay, so Meatball won't touch raw, and I'm gonna save that project for another day. He would hardly even touch his kibble with a small piece of raw in there, though I'm not sure about the beef heart. I'll continue to try that again another time, perhaps just give him some beef heart here and there for better health if he'll eat it?

Theus is iffy on his bones. He won't chew through them! He'll eat the meat around the bones, even if they're smashed up, and spit the bones out, for the most part. So I'm still gonna work with him on that. He won't hardly touch pork or turkey (gizzards), though he did chew at them a bit last night when I gave them to him. 

EDIT - Okay, I take that back. Theus is happily crunching through SOME of his bones right now, but they're all mashed up. And that's only SOME of it. And now he's munching on the pork. We'll see what happens.

Tricksie...WOW!!! I must say, this has been the BIGGEST surprise! She does better with her bones, though I haven't tried whole bones with her, just smashed up, she ate her turkey and pork last night, and I must say...I think she LOVES the pork! haha. She's eaten pretty much everything I've put in front of her so far! I'm loving it! And she's the kitty I most wanted to get a good diet to, because she has IBD and I suspect her of having UTIs. YAY!!!

EDIT - Forgot to say that she takes some time to actually eat it all. Just now, she totally ate all of her pork and left the rest of the bowl (chicken wing and little bit of beef heart) completely untouched. Well, she took a piece of beef heart out and dropped it next to the bowl, but yeah. Eventually she eats the stuff. haha.

Question, though...

Since I'm so lazy, and would hate to smash up the bones every single time I feed them, and I know I'll probably give up on the bones sooner or later, is a calcium supplement okay to grind up and add to Theus's food?


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## bumblegoat (May 12, 2010)

I'm still trying to get my cat used to eating raw, and it sure is a battle. She is nine years old, and pretty set in her ways. 

Anyway, I'm also having a hard time getting her to eat bones. The bones that she has handled the best so far were chicken backs cut into small pieces. Those bones are a lot easier for them to chew than wings.

If you just can't get your cats to eat bones properly, then yes you can use a calcium supplement. I have used bone meal for my cat, and it works quite well. I sprinkle it over chunks of meat or organs instead of giving ground meat and then mixing the bone meal in. This way she still gets to chew on pieces of meat.


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## SerenityFL (Sep 28, 2010)

xxshalexx, I found that to get my cats to start eating bones, chomping through them, I had to start with Cornish game hens. It was much easier for them to do that "accidentally". Once they started to realize that, "Hey! This hard stuff is tasty! Nom!", I then gave them chicken wings and drumsticks to chomp through.

What I do with the chicken wings is cut them in to three parts. They typically don't bother with that very thin part, but they go to town on the other two parts.

With the drumsticks, I cut off a lot of the meat, throw that down to them and then throw the bones. They still don't make it all the way through drumstick bones but their teeth are getting a darn good cleaning while they try.

I have also been able to give them pork rib bones now...no, they don't eat through those either but again, they eat the meat off of them and get some teeth cleaning in the process.

But, again, try giving them the Cornish game hen...the bones are much smaller and easier for cats to eat.


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## xxshaelxx (Mar 8, 2010)

I.
HAVE.
SUCCESS!!!!!!!

So, Tricksie ate a full raw meal this evening. Yesterday she hardly touched her chicken, and I have good reason to believe the dogs ate the rest (because they managed to barge their way into the house when I was showering and she was eating). But today, she ate everything (albeit, she ate around the beat up bones), so I rewarded her with a piece of pork.

Theus ate everything, including his bones! WOOT! So I rewarded him with a piece of pork and a couple more tidbits of beef heart. XD


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## SerenityFL (Sep 28, 2010)

xxshaelxx said:


> I.
> HAVE.
> SUCCESS!!!!!!!
> 
> ...



Congratulations. It's a great feeling, isn't it?

You may be lucky and they will eat raw from here on out, without problems or you may encounter a few setbacks in the beginning. If you do, don't worry, just keep persevering as you have been.

Good job!


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