# raw feeding and flutd?



## mindy (Sep 16, 2010)

i have a 13 year old cat that had recently developed flutd. she had an infection in april and again now. previous to that she had an infection when she was 5 and not again until this past year. she hasn't had crystals.

she is currently on orbax for the infection. i am looking for a long term solution for this. i hate to see her in pain. my vet suggested cosequin but i have done a little research and found out that it actually doesn't help for bladder issues. on a cat forum they suggested that i try cranberry supplements to help heal her bladder. 

she had a full blood work up done in april and the only thing that showed was the infection. i had her at the vet on friday and the vet didn't tell me to get blood work done again.

i was thinking i would get some chicken wings and grind them up and try AGAIN to get the kitties on raw. i was thinking i would do just wings for a while and then if i can get them eating that i would add in liver and hearts. 

i was told on the cat forum not to give raw with bone because that would be too much ash and cause crystals. does that make sense to you? it doesn't really make sense to me but maybe i didn't research enough.

but, there is no guarantee that i can get the cats to eat raw. although frodo (fat cat!) did eat some turkey a few weeks ago when i was packaging up the dogs' food. 

does anyone have any experience with this?

thanks!


----------



## RawFedDogs (Jun 16, 2008)

mindy said:


> i was told on the cat forum not to give raw with bone because that would be too much ash and cause crystals. does that make sense to you? it doesn't really make sense to me but maybe i didn't research enough.


It doesn't make sense to me. What do they think cats in the wild eat? I have had 2 cats on raw meat, bones, and organs for over 6 years and they have never had a health problem. I feed them chicken drumsticks plus other meats I cut off the dog's food when they eat something besides chicken. Wings are good to feed. Drumsticks are cheaper. I have fed wings with no problem.



> but, there is no guarantee that i can get the cats to eat raw. although frodo (fat cat!) did eat some turkey a few weeks ago when i was packaging up the dogs' food.


I suggest you feed them half rations of kibble and put a wing in the bowl with the kibble. They will pretty quickly start eating the wings. THen less and less kibble until there is none. I have never had this method fail.


----------



## cprcheetah (Jul 14, 2010)

I SOO wish my hubby would let me switch the cats to raw (wants to make sure the dogs don't die first lmbo---he's more attached to the cats), I have 3 that have issues with FLUTD and it isn't fun. The best thing we've done to help them was switch them to an all canned food diet, and add water to their canned food so they get TONS of water. That has minimized issues in my kitties. Raw would be ideal from what I have heard. My dad has an outdoor cat who was going to be put to sleep (by previous owners) because he was plugged & couldn't urinate, he hunts a lot so eats a lot of mice & birds and in 3 years he hasn't had a problem with his bladder. Because he eats a lot of 'kitty caught' raw. He also has kibble that he eats but he's done wonderfully.


----------



## mindy (Sep 16, 2010)

thanks guys. i thought it didn't make sense! 

i already feed the cats only grain free canned food. i switched them to all canned a few years ago hoping it would help frodo lose weight. it helped a little but not enough. blue was easy to switch to canned but frodo fought it tooth and nail! he is a kibble addict that will do what he can to get some. i feed my ferrets grain free cat kibble (there isn't a ferret kibble out there that i would feed!) and frodo goes nuts trying to get it. i would love to feed everyone raw but one of my ferrets, ginny, is such a picky pants that she gags on anything that is not her regular food. it is frustrating!  actually i did get her to try an earthworm once... but she didn't look twice at the mealworm i offered. it was just a test to see how she would do... it didn't go well.

anyway, this is about blue and her bladder, not my ferrets! :biggrin: 

i am hoping that since the cats are eating all canned food now i will be able to get them eating raw a little easier. frodo will eat the occasional piece of ground beef and a little turkey. i am hoping that grinding the chicken wings, bones and all, will help. chicken drum sticks are cheaper but i am worried about them getting enough bone if they can't chew the drumstick. blue has pretty bad teeth :frown: she was supposed to get her teeth cleaned in april but couldn't because of the infection. frodo had his teeth cleaned then and a few removed. i think he should be ok to chew on a bone but i don't think that he will.

switching the cats to raw would save me SO much money. right now i am paying $40 for 12 days worth of food for them. if i feed them chicken wings and organs and hearts i will pay about $30 for 22 days of food! i will also give them whatever other meat i have for the dogs but that is generally free from people around town.

feeding cats raw is the same as dogs, right? 2% of their ideal weight and 80-10-10? 

thanks!!


----------



## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

Feeding raw to cats is not the same thing as feeding raw to dogs. The guideline is about the same as far as feeding mostly meat, some bone and some organ. 

All the meat needs to be fresh because cats cannot handle heavily bacteria laden foods. They are evolutionarily designed to eat fresh killed prey...they are not scavengers like dogs. 

Cats eat small, frequent meals through out the day and not large infrequent meals. The more, smaller meals you can feed your cat the better.

Cats need a lot more taurine than dogs do, so you must feed a diet that is rich in heart meats.

I think that raw will definitely help, but since FLUTD (Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease for those who were wondering...) is a complex, not well understood disease...there is a chance that switching to raw may not help. I personally think it will but anxious/nervous cats are more affected by this than others. It may be stress that is causing the disease.

Good luck and keep us posted.


----------



## mindy (Sep 16, 2010)

the vet keeps saying that it is stress. i have done everything i can possibly do, short of giving up all the rest of my pets, to reduce stress. we just moved into a new house at the beginning of september and she really has seemed less stressed since the move. she has a lot more space and she has a new heated bed. she really does seem much happier now. she was never a nervous or anxious cat. 

i am planning to give more heart meat to the cats.

when you say smaller more frequent meals how many are you meaning? i was planning to feed 2 times a day, morning and night. my dogs get fed only once a day.


----------



## SerenityFL (Sep 28, 2010)

mindy said:


> the vet keeps saying that it is stress. i have done everything i can possibly do, short of giving up all the rest of my pets, to reduce stress. we just moved into a new house at the beginning of september and she really has seemed less stressed since the move. she has a lot more space and she has a new heated bed. she really does seem much happier now. she was never a nervous or anxious cat.
> 
> i am planning to give more heart meat to the cats.
> 
> when you say smaller more frequent meals how many are you meaning? i was planning to feed 2 times a day, morning and night. my dogs get fed only once a day.


I was told that cats should be fed no less than two times a day. Some suggest three times a day but unfortunately, a lot of people don't have that kind of time.

At the very least feed in the morning and feed again when you get home. Maybe you can do a late night snacking before you go to bed if you want to do a third meal.

Right now that's not entirely feasible for me since I have two cats that while they will eat raw, one I have to ensure she gets enough--she eats slower than the other cats so I have to give her a special bowl and stand guard. The other one is learning how to pick up food with her teeth, not scoop with her tongue, so I have to actually hold her food bits in my hand to make her do this. 

Eventually, one day, she'll learn to eat correctly so she can do bones and the other cat will be able to eat unguarded, (she was the one I had to fight tooth and nail to get to eat raw), and throwing three meals a day at the cats will be a whole lot easier.

Edit, by the way, for the pickiest cats who didn't want to switch from kibble, I found that skinless/boneless chicken and sardines or herring in spring water from a tin worked wonders getting them to switch. We still have a ways to go getting them to eat the organs and bone....I'm probably going to have to mash them up and hide them in their food...(if that's possible with a cat), but it's only been three weeks, one step at a time. Maybe try one of those just to get them off the addicting kibble....merely a suggestion.


----------



## RachelsaurusRexU (Sep 4, 2010)

I feed my cats AM and PM. Mine were very picky too. I tried all the tricks, including hiding small chunks in their canned to try and transition them. They ate around the raw. Three of my four cats are now on 100% raw. What I did was buy a good grinder. I made a mix of chicken necks, beef heart, a bit of liver and kidney and 1 tin of sardines, and ground it with the finest grinding plate. Then I added their canned food so it was a mix of about 2/3 canned, 1/3 raw. I made enough of this batch for a couple of weeks, dividing and freezing it into about 2 day portions and thawing each container as I needed it. 

When I made the second batch I ground it fine again but only added about 1/3 canned. Once they were eating that without a fuss (a week or so) I started to grind it very coarse and stopped adding canned. I also make different mixes, some with duck, some with turkey, some with pork, but all of them contain beef heart, liver and kidney. 

My next step is to put small chunks of meat in their ground mixes and gradually increase the amount of chunks until they're eating all chunks. Then I'll increase the size of the chunks until they're eating whole pieces. It sounds like a big production, but it worked for my very finicky recovering kibble addicts, so it's worth it to me. And because I make batches big enough for a couple weeks at a time it isn't a lot of work.


----------



## mindy (Sep 16, 2010)

thanks guys 

frodo is a kibble addict but he doesn't eat it anymore, i don't give it unless we go out of town overnight and i have to leave food for them.

i think that ground is going to be the way to go for now. blue's teeth aren't really great so i think that crunching bones won't be too easy for her right now.

i have been told (on that other site) that flutd cats can't eat fish. is that just fish flavoured food or is that all fish in general? i give my boys mackerel so i was thinking i could give the cats some of that too.

thanks again for your help!


----------



## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

I think the FLUTD thing and fish doesn't hold any ground. Total bogus IMO


----------



## mindy (Sep 16, 2010)

thanks  i will have to research more.


----------

