# Raw feeding cats?



## MissusMac (Jan 6, 2011)

Does anyone know or have a reference for information on starting cats on a raw diet?


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## RawFedDogs (Jun 16, 2008)

I don't know what kind of reference you are looking for. I feed my cats exactly like I feed my dogs except they get smaller pieces. SOMETIMES its more difficult to switch a cat to raw. You can't use tough love on them exactly like you do a dog. I switched both of mine real easy by giving them half size meals of kibble along with a chicken wing in the bowl with the kibble. In just a couple of days they would eat the kibble then start eating the wings. Within a week, they were eating the wing first then kibble if they wanted a little more. I then just stopped the kibble. It wasn't difficult with either cat.

Nutritionwise their needs are the same as dogs. Meat, bones, and organs from a variety of animals. Mostly meat, some bone, and some organ.

There are several groups like this one just for cats. Google *raw cat diet* and you'll find a bunch of places to look.


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## MissusMac (Jan 6, 2011)

Thanks, I Googled but I'm having a difficult time finding a concise starter guide, but I'll keep looking.


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## Roxy (Jan 19, 2011)

hey, I started my guys on chicken hearts, gizzards, chicken necks, wings, chicken liver, pieces of chicken and now they get all that and also some of whatever the dogs are eating. They flat out refuse beef and I don't know too many cats that will eat it but duck, rabbit, fish... all that seems to be a go. 

Their favorite meal by far is the chicken gizzards and necks, I would try starting with that. From what I understand a lot of the confusion with cats comes because they need taurine so if you're feeding mostly ground meat or cooked, they don't get enough taurine. Other then that I'm confident it's pretty similar to dogs. I had a hard time finding information about feeding cats aswell. The main point, apart from the taurine issue, is that you are supposed to mimic a "whole prey" concept with them. I think most of us do that anyway for the dogs so feeding is pretty similar.


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## MollyWoppy (Mar 19, 2010)

How to Transition Your Cat to a Raw Diet

This is a good site, someone posted it on here some time ago. I'm one of those that have been trying for a year to tranisition my cat over. It been very hard going and I haven't been successful. Yet.


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## MissusMac (Jan 6, 2011)

That's just what I was looking for, thanks!


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## Maxy24 (Mar 5, 2011)

I like this site:

Practical Guide

For Willie I started with the closest thing to raw that I knew he liked a LOT which was those already cooked chickens from the grocery store. Took a bunch of small chunks of meat from that, mixed it with 2-3 SMALL pieces of raw meat (made sure the raw smelled like the cooked) and he just ate all of them. Then increase the size of the raw pieces until he actually begins to notice them. See with cats the problem is just getting them to TRY it, they are so careful about what they eat they might never try something they'll love. So once he realized that the pieces of raw are yummy I ditched the cooked pieces and just fed raw pieces. Ta da. Then just increase the size of the meat hunks until they are what you want in the end. Then you can work on adding bone and organ. Until he was eating bone and organ I still fed a meal of canned food every day. So he was half and half for a while.

For a cat who doesn't have anything he LOVES (like Willie loved the cooked chickens) I'd put TINY pieces in with kibble (or whatever their normal food is) so the cat accidentally eats them. Again slowly increase the size of the chicken bits. It never worked for Neko when he was eating kibble, kibble was way too yummy compared to meat. So for him transitioning to canned would have probably been a good in between for him, he's a kibble addict.


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## MollyWoppy (Mar 19, 2010)

I always seem to get the most darling, but bloody difficult little animals. 
It took me months and months to get my cat Windy to eat anything but the most trashiest kibble, I guess she got use to it at the shelter.
I would put 2 pieces of Orijen in her rubbish kibble and all that would be left in the dish would be those 2 little pieces. 
But, over many, many, many, months, now she is happy to eat both Orijen & Fromm, so I am thrilled to get that far. 
I tried with canned food, I really did. Spent a fortune on the stuff from the Fancy Feast to Wyoming Rabbit to Brazilian Duck to Southern Ocean Whale, but eventually got sick of throwing it away every night, there are too many starving cats in this world who would kill for that food.
She refuses cooked everything, refuses feeder mice, but will eat a touch of raw chicken cut into cat mouth sized pieces now and then and lizards. Every night she is served a little bit of whatever meat Mollie is eating. 
But the more I read about kidney disease in cats the more I worry, so every night I will keep trying. One fine day she will eat raw or at least canned, as for cats especially, it is so much better than the dry food.

So, I wish you good luck, I really hope it works out and your kitten is a little more adaptable than mine!


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## D'Lynn (Jun 20, 2011)

When my kitten was weaning I tried canned cat food. Since she didn't have a mother to show her this is food I even tasted it. Heck, I taste soap when I make it. As a kid I tasted canned cat food. Not bad. Well, boy was I surprised. From low price to very high price this stuff is bitter. Very very bitter. Cats can taste bitter. The meat used in pet foods is adulterated to keep it out of the human market. I have been unable to find out whether this is still the case but from the taste just recently it's a possibility.


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## Scarlett_O' (May 19, 2011)

I swapped my Ducki over a few weeks ago, she has always been open to meat...so wasnt very hard, but it can be with some cats. I am part of the group [rawcat] on yahoo...LOTS of knowledgeable people!


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## Jynical (Jun 22, 2011)

Guinness is totally willing to go raw. Callie...mmmm...not so much. I've heard conflicting advice on letting a cat go without eating...I think I need to go read those websites, because I think they'd be so much better off...


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## Scarlett_O' (May 19, 2011)

Jynical said:


> Guinness is totally willing to go raw. Callie...mmmm...not so much. I've heard conflicting advice on letting a cat go without eating...I think I need to go read those websites, because I think they'd be so much better off...


Ya its definitely not healthy, but a great tip Ive found it move them over to a really high quality canned food and add raw meat into it....then slowly wean out the canned food until they are eating just raw!


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## SerenityFL (Sep 28, 2010)

Seven cats.

Two took to it immediately.

Some of them weren't so sure.

One of them wanted to but she's older and I didn't have a grinder the first two or three days.

One said, "Hell no!"

I took up the kibble. Gone, no more kibble. I had a few cans of canned food. Gave it to stubborn britches. She refused. I mixed it with tuna juice. She nibbled. I put it up for the next day. At feeding time, I gave it to her again. She said, "NO!" I put it up. Fine, have it for dinner then. At dinner, she ate a little bit but was still not happy about it. 

Next day I put in tiny, microscopic pieces of raw in her canned food. I continued this and upped the piece sizes. I also did hold out on her. NOT like a dog, you can NOT do to a cat what you can do to a dog. Dogs will not starve themselves, cats will.

But I would hold off on breakfast if she wanted to be stuck up about it. By dinner time, she was a little more willing to eat with some raw pieces, again, small, small, small, TINY pieces.

I also got a grinder for the older cat. Ground her food up, she took to it now that she could eat it. It took her a long time to eat because she was used to scooping her food with her tongue. She had great difficulty with raw chunks, even ground. So, I hand fed her about half her dinner and let her figure out the rest. She picked it up quick.

By the end of the week, everyone was eating full on raw. No kibble, no canned food, nothing but raw. But it required some time, devotion and not just putting their food in front of their faces. It required that I made the stubborn cat not eat breakfast. Tough. She didn't go 24 hours without food, but she did go without breakfast a few times. 

I started with chicken. Skinless, boneless chicken. It was much easier to squish that in to the food making it nearly impossible for her or anyone else who wanted to give me attitude on any given day in that week, to eat around it. They were basically forced to eat raw or go without. (Again, do not read in to that...it was not like how some people have to tough it with dogs..you cannot do that to a cat.) 

Kibble was never around after I decided to start them on it. It was gone and in the trash. All their "treats" were also in the trash. Anything that was unopened, I gave to a local rescue group. 

I had three cans of canned food that I used. Fancy Feast, I think it was. If I remember right, I didn't have to use the third can.

Older cat finally got the hang of eating with her teeth, not scooping up with her tongue after about a month. I was then able to try bones for everyone. That was the first time I heard my cats growling while eating. As in, "I love this bone and if any other cat gets too close to me, I'll kill for this bone! Try me!" They growl but they don't fight over food. Older cat eats her bones almost all the way through now. Sometimes she does eat the whole thing and I'm surprised. I always stay and supervise all cats to ensure that they all get their own food and do not steal others and to make sure that things with the bones go fine. Sometimes the bones get stuck on their teeth and while most of the time they get it off themselves and continue eating, sometimes I step in and help.

While you cannot hold out on a cat like a dog, you can refuse to give in to them. That first week was a nightmare. But I stuck to it, ensured everyone ate SOMETHING in each 24 hour period, even if it was mostly canned for one of them and sometimes a few would get tuna juice on their raw to convince them...and it was a mess and I had to hand feed and the attitudes were a little frustrating with some of them..but every single one, from the easiest to convert to the stubborn to the one with some bad, older teeth, (I believe I discovered a few were missing, thankfully not the canines), (thanks a lot for the bad teeth, kibble), transitioned in a week and have eaten all raw since then.


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## RiverRun (Jun 29, 2011)

I had a similar experience to serenityFL. My two older cats took months to switch over. My kittens have been on it from day one. 
We still have problems with the older cats vomiting up bone, or all of their food if they get too large of a meal, but normally we do not have much trouble with them. The young ones can and will eat everything you give them.


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## Jynical (Jun 22, 2011)

Vomit I'm used to... Guinness has issues. He's also a food stealer... if Callie doesn't finish (and sometimes even if she's sitting there taking her time eating) Guinness will muscle her out of the way and scarf up her meal too; now I feed them in two separate parts of the house. 

I'm just going to have to do it... I can't justify feeding them [insert descriptive word for kibble here]...Especially when I have the knowledge, we have the meat and Roscoe is doing so well...


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## gorge77 (May 13, 2011)

i'm adopting a rescued kitty soon. her age is estimated to be 6 - 7 months old. she's been kibble fed for several months & i would like to transit her to raw. how much should i be feeding her (any % guideline for kittens)? should i be feeding her once or twice a day?


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## Scarlett_O' (May 19, 2011)

gorge77 said:


> i'm adopting a rescued kitty soon. her age is estimated to be 6 - 7 months old. she's been kibble fed for several months & i would like to transit her to raw. how much should i be feeding her (any % guideline for kittens)? should i be feeding her once or twice a day?


We now have all 3 family cats on Raw!:biggrin:

With your little girl being a baby still she should (according to what I was told for my 11 month old) be eating till she is full, and as many times a day as she can/will eat...while your watching her weight/figure and adjusting from there. I was told until a cat is about 2 they should be getting as much as they will eat as long as they dont get fat(so if they prove themselves to be a good self regulator...and that can get continued later in life if they are good at regulating on their own.) And how much would depend on her future weight....but I was told, since I was only guessing to start Ducki out on 10% of her current and then adjust to her needs!:smile: (My Mum's cat gets 3% of his current, 6 year old, perfect weight..and for my 2 girls they now get about 3% times 2 on a plate...and they each eat as they want!:smile


I would REALLY suggest the group on yahoo, its called [rawcat] there are a TON of cat/raw-cat knowledgeable people and its SUPER easy to ask questions and get TONS of answers!:thumb:


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## gorge77 (May 13, 2011)

thank you! i just requested to join the group. hope the mod approves.

i've brought her to the vet for a general health check. she's down with flu & has a weak immune system. plus, she's fat at 2.8kg.

i'm so anxious & excited to switch her to raw! can't wait!


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## SerenityFL (Sep 28, 2010)

I do about 3% of their ideal weight. I used to give about 3oz per 8 lb cat but they act like they are starving to death so I give them 4oz. For the bigger cats, the males, who are about 9-10 lbs, they get 5oz. I have seven cats. They are eating me out of house and home.


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## Angelwing (Feb 20, 2011)

I feed around 5% bodyweight for both my cats. My dogs are at 6%. None are overweight. I started out doing 2% and they were grossly thin. You don't want to start out with too much, it's easier to add more but just keep a close eye on weight.



Jynical said:


> I've heard conflicting advice on letting a cat go without eating...


There should be no conflicting advice. Do not let your cat go without food for more than 24 hours otherwise you risk hepatic lipidosis.


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## gorge77 (May 13, 2011)

and so, my kitty came home with me on Mon. the saddest thing is, she doesn't take to raw food. i tried mixing abit of tuna inside & it doesn't work.

i'll keep on trying, based on the suggestions given by the peeps in the rawcat group. but if anyone else here has any suggestions, please throw them to me! i really don't want to deprive my cat of a raw & natural diet!

one other thing: i noticed she eats only at night. is this common?


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## Scarlett_O' (May 19, 2011)

gorge77 said:


> and so, my kitty came home with me on Mon. the saddest thing is, she doesn't take to raw food. i tried mixing abit of tuna inside & it doesn't work.
> 
> i'll keep on trying, based on the suggestions given by the peeps in the rawcat group. but if anyone else here has any suggestions, please throw them to me! i really don't want to deprive my cat of a raw & natural diet!
> 
> one other thing: i noticed she eats only at night. is this common?


Try finding a canned food that she likes, either canned processed cat food or canned fish, chicken, etc.

Then SOAK(poor the canned food into a Tupperware and add in the hacked up raw meats-at least 2 or 3 proteins, either diced or cut into "fingers"-or french fries)after allowing the meat to soak for at least 30 min offer the meat sprinkled on a plate. :smile: 

That is how we got all 3 of our cats to eat their raw...then we SLLLOWLY backed off from the canned food till now both my girls will each chunks of what ever I offer them...and my Mum's cat will eat everything as long as there is a wee bit of fish added to it!:smile:


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## lmgakg (Jan 1, 2011)

RawFedDogs said:


> I don't know what kind of reference you are looking for. I feed my cats exactly like I feed my dogs except they get smaller pieces. SOMETIMES its more difficult to switch a cat to raw. You can't use tough love on them exactly like you do a dog. I switched both of mine real easy by giving them half size meals of kibble along with a chicken wing in the bowl with the kibble. In just a couple of days they would eat the kibble then start eating the wings. Within a week, they were eating the wing first then kibble if they wanted a little more. I then just stopped the kibble. It wasn't difficult with either cat.
> 
> Nutritionwise their needs are the same as dogs. Meat, bones, and organs from a variety of animals. Mostly meat, some bone, and some organ.
> 
> There are several groups like this one just for cats. Google *raw cat diet* and you'll find a bunch of places to look.


When I started my dogs, I started my cat too - and followed what RAWFEDDOGS said...it worked great....I got a kitten recently and just started giving meat and she does great. If she turns her nose up at the whole bone, which she does sometimes, I'll take it back and crunch it a couple times for her. But I always try to do as least as possible from teh start....but dont' do tough love cuz she is a baby.


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## lmgakg (Jan 1, 2011)

gorge77 said:


> and so, my kitty came home with me on Mon. the saddest thing is, she doesn't take to raw food. i tried mixing abit of tuna inside & it doesn't work.
> 
> i'll keep on trying, based on the suggestions given by the peeps in the rawcat group. but if anyone else here has any suggestions, please throw them to me! i really don't want to deprive my cat of a raw & natural diet!
> 
> one other thing: i noticed she eats only at night. is this common?


My kitten does not like tuna or sardines or any kind of fish......try cutting up pieces of meat and soaking it in tupperware in venison or duck blood overnight....that's the only thing that works for me when Nahla is being a princess. 

Good luck!!!!!


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## gorge77 (May 13, 2011)

i've finally weaned my kitty off canned food & she's eating her rawwwwwwwwww food on its own now! yay!!!

thank you all for the suggestions! you guys rawwwwk!


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