# Feeding cats



## Sprocket (Oct 4, 2011)

Sooooo I jumped the gun and committed to adopting a 5 year male cat. His owner can't keep him at her place so we are taking him. He is a long hair, black and white. Really cute. His name is bad so I will be changing it probably. 

Anyway. Of course I would like to try to feed him raw. 

I need to know what is different about feeding a cat raw?


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## LilasMom (Mar 10, 2012)

They can be picky about bone-in meats, and it is very important that they get meats with high amounts of taurine.

If he takes to the raw well, he may take the meat and run under the couch with it like my old cats did lol.


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## Sprocket (Oct 4, 2011)

Besides heart meat, what is high in taurine?


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## LilasMom (Mar 10, 2012)

I am not sure, but I think the more the muscle was worked the more taurine it has. So thigh meat will probably have more taurine than breast meat.


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## Sprocket (Oct 4, 2011)

I'm going to dig into this forum and copy and paste what I find into this thread.


Abi -
Lets see. Easy questions first.
Cats can have salmon from up here.
I start all my cats off on a smorgasbord of meats/cuts, at least 5. Red meats(including hearts) are big for kitties, they generally only need about 7% of bones and then I fill the other 3% with secondary organs and/or red meats. Our 3 eat about 8oz per day, Ducki and Pidgin are 10lbs each and Boots is 20lbs....so they amounts they need REALLY do vary, just like with dogs!LOL
When we started our kitties off we just pulled the nasty stuff and started feeding raw. Everyone was fine with that, no one went past the 24-48 hours that you dont want to let a cat go without food! (For me as long as they ate a couple ounces I then reset the clock!)
And some need it hacked up really small and some will dive right into decent sized chunks, others need it actually minced before they will work up to hunks.

Hope that helps, let me know if you have any more questions!

Lauren said this I think-

Yea you can start anywhere with cats. They are quite different than dogs. I don't believe they need fish in their diets. Bone is not nearly as important (though it is necessary). You can't do tough love with cats, they need to eat daily and babies multiple times a day. Plus many cats are extremely finicky eaters, so that's an added challenge.


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## GoingPostal (Sep 5, 2011)

I just feed smaller items to my cat, that's about the only change, any dark meat contains a decent amount of taurine, it's not really that much of a concern imo if you are feeding a variety of proteins and pieces like you should. You don't have to switch slow or anything but some cats are really hard to get eating raw. My cat is trained to eat her meat on the handtowel although she will sometimes drag it slightly off, I switched her off canned to raw over a year ago and she took to it great thank god.


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## Sprocket (Oct 4, 2011)

I have mostly venison. Is that a suitable meat for them? Duck season is coming up and I'll have duck then.


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## GoingPostal (Sep 5, 2011)

If they will eat it, mine won't touch red meat. Poultry, mice and rabbit make up her diet. You'd need smaller animals for bone in, any birds or rodents will work. Can take awhile to get cats to realize they can chew larger bones as well, mine will still leave a little bit of chicken legs usually but eat the rest of the bird.


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## Sprocket (Oct 4, 2011)

Darn it. I just fed a whole huge bag of dove. That would have been good bones. Oh well. I am saving most of my ground venison and beef for the cat. I have heart as well as a few other meats. I can't wait to tackle this.

What are good foods to feed them besides raw? I'd like to get a canned food just incase he doesn't want to eat the raw. I'll check the store to see what I can get locally. It's a pretty good store. The worst dog kibble I've seen there is TOTW.


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## Sprocket (Oct 4, 2011)

Anyone ever breed mice for their cats? I'm entertaining the idea of maybe doing that and freezing them.


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## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

Cats can tolerate a higher amount of red meats as well as richer protein sources right off the bat. But I would still transition gradually over time like we do with dogs, just you might find the transition either happening faster or WAY slower with cats. Reason said is that you cannot force a cat to take to raw, they are stubborn enough to starve themselves before giving in. Which is bad. 

What do you know about this cat? Indoor exclusive? Outdoor? Outdoor hunter?


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## lauren43 (Feb 6, 2011)

Is an absolute dreadful headache lol. Cats are too picky!!! Heheh it was a pain I did it for a while but my boy found a fantastic home but they do feed kibble . That being said if I ever get another cat he/she will be fed raw.

Good luck, hope your new family member takes to it like a fish in water..

Lauren


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## NZ Raw (Sep 14, 2011)

Biggest difference between cats and dogs is cats don't eat iffy meat (meat past its use by date). My cat will turn her nose up at lamb hearts from one supermarket and love it from another (guess where the meat I eat comes from). She has become a lot less picky over the year but chicken necks are still her favorite.


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## Sprocket (Oct 4, 2011)

DaneMama said:


> Cats can tolerate a higher amount of red meats as well as richer protein sources right off the bat. But I would still transition gradually over time like we do with dogs, just you might find the transition either happening faster or WAY slower with cats. Reason said is that you cannot force a cat to take to raw, they are stubborn enough to starve themselves before giving in. Which is bad.
> 
> What do you know about this cat? Indoor exclusive? Outdoor? Outdoor hunter?


He was raised with a dog like Gunner (perfect) and is indoor/outdoor. I want a cat that can go out, and older already trained, neutered and dog friendly cat. He sounds perfect for what I want.

I won't starve him if he doesn't want raw. I'll be picking up a variety of other foods for him. 

Thanks for all the information!


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## Sprocket (Oct 4, 2011)

Here's a photo of the fluffy ball. His name is Bernard! Hahaha


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## GoingPostal (Sep 5, 2011)

For canned grain free is best but get a variety, find out what the cat likes, best food doesn't do any good if they won't eat it. I usually keep 3-4 cans around just in case, sometimes some of pheasant/quail to get her more variety too. I breed the mice she eats but also feeding them to my snake and ferrets. What I did to switch her was basically just transitioned out the canned and added raw, I was switching my ferrets at the time so just tried her on everything they eat and as we worked out when she would/could eat I added more raw. She did have issues with too much organ meat at first so maybe go slow on that. And I know a lot of cats are not good at eating organs at all, mine chows right down. She also doesn't seem to care if it's a little old or has sat out for awhile, she gets the leftovers from my ferrets sometimes. But I guess most will not do that.


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## Sprocket (Oct 4, 2011)

OMG I love him already! We just picked him up. He was so sweet at his house. Rubbed on us immediately. He was so funny when his mom put him in our huge crate. He hissed but didn't struggle. He cried a little on the way home. I put the dogs away and let him settle in. He is just SWEET SWEET SWEET. He rubs all over you even though he is a little over whelmed. No hiding, just hanging out on the bed. I will be taking him to a friends house later today and she will bring him back on saturday to take him to the new house. She has 2 cats and he will be able to go all over her place instead of staying in our room her. I would have preferred to not get him until later but his owner couldn't keep him. He is FAT so a diet will be in order


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## Sprocket (Oct 4, 2011)

And his teeth look really good. He is about 5 years old and eating crap food but his teeth are very white, hardly any tartar and I can't see any cause for concern. What a great cat to let me see his teeth. He just rolled over when I peeked in


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## Sprocket (Oct 4, 2011)

Couple more photos of the boy


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## MollyWoppy (Mar 19, 2010)

God, he sounds like such a sweetheart! I sure hope you can switch him over to raw, or at the very least I hope he eats canned. Good luck, thats all I can say!
I bought Windy 3 baby pink mice the other day, each about 1" long. She ate one, just one of the blimin things, and they cost me $2 each, $6.00 a pack. So, be prepared, even though Bernard may consent to eating some raw at the beginning, he could suddenly change his mind at the drop of a hat.
And, I think it is cats that are overweight that are more prone to that fatty liver problem where they can starve themselves to death if they don't get food they like.


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## Sprocket (Oct 4, 2011)

MollyWoppy said:


> God, he sounds like such a sweetheart! I sure hope you can switch him over to raw, or at the very least I hope he eats canned. Good luck, thats all I can say!
> I bought Windy 3 baby pink mice the other day, each about 1" long. She ate one, just one of the blimin things, and they cost me $2 each, $6.00 a pack. So, be prepared, even though Bernard may consent to eating some raw at the beginning, he could suddenly change his mind at the drop of a hat.
> And, I think it is cats that are overweight that are more prone to that fatty liver problem where they can starve themselves to death if they don't get food they like.



I won't be switching him for a while until he settles in. I'll offer him raw as well as his canned. I talked to Drew about breeding mice for him if he likes them when I buy some. We will see  

I am hoping that since he is a fatty, it will help when I offer him raw. Not sure why but it can't hurt? Lol


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