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Getting Your Cat Started on Raw
By Peggy Ng and
Michelle T. Bernard
Okay, I'm going to post this to the
list since there have been so many people lately pulling their
hair out about feeding raw to cats.
First tip: patience. It takes time.
We think "this is closer to what cats eat in the wild,
why won't they eat it?" and get frustrated. Well, as
many people have said before me, if you fed a kid nothing
but hot dogs and Snickers, then suddenly threw a pile of steamed
broccoli on his plate, do you think he will be receptive?
All that processed food is designed to overload the tastebuds
(why else put onion powder? Salt?). Of course "real"
food is going to taste bland in comparison. (Has anyone done
the switch from Crest toothpaste to Tom's of Maine? And then
tried Crest again? See what I mean?)
Which brings me to my second point.
Cats are domesticated animals; let's treat them as such. We're
so used to training our dogs, yet when it comes to our cats,
we let them train *us* as if we had no choice. No, I'm not
saying that you can control most cats the way you can teach
obedience to a dog, but let's not let ourselves be slaves
to their every whim either. YOU are the alpha cat. Exercise
your power.
Third point: attitude is everything.
(Hey, I can be a personal trainer, too!) Animals can *sense*
when they can get away with things. My mom does daycare for
a living and is always being approached by frustrated parents
whose kids will not eat what they are given. Well, guess what,
those same kids eat their meals quite well at my mom's house.
Why? Because they know that my mom is not going to get all
soft-hearted and flabby and let them go play if they whine
about eating. Lastly, I know I'm being harsh. I apologize
if it sound that way. I know all of you are very frustrated
and really want to do the best for your cats, but those silly
things will not cooperate. But, it's like giving medicine.
My cats have the total run of the house. All the stuff I said
I wouldn't let them do before I got them have gone out the
window. I have cat fur everywhere. They sit on the dining
table, jump on the stove (yes, I'm really careful), steal
bread from my hand, eat my plants at will, and all I can do
is sigh and think how cute they are. But, when it come to
matters of their health, I brook no disobedience. Their food
is the basis for their health. They can do the finicky or
mischievous thing with anything else; I will not let them
play with their health. The price is too high.
Of course, we must be careful with
sick cats and be tolerant of the fixed habits of old cats,
but if your cats is fairly young and healthy, not overweight,
is not FIV+, does not have CRF or IBS, what is there to be
afraid of? First try the gradual transition. Buy a 1/4 of
ground meat and add an 1/8 of a teaspoon mixed well into his
food. If he eats it well, add more next time. When he has
gone a week with a large spoonful of raw meat in his food,
mix up a batch of raw food, veggies and all. Add this instead
of the pure raw meat. Then slowly increase the percentage
of raw until the cat is eating only raw. Voila! If that doesn't
work, fast them. It's not going to kill a healthy cat who
is not overweight if it doesn't get a meal for a day or two
or three.
Yes it's heartrending to have a piteously
meowing cat in front of you. It's even more heartrending when
a cat comes down with a disorder that you feel you might have
prevented if you had been a little more strict back then.
Let me stress this again to newbies who are hearing so much
about the Billinghurst diet. You cannot feed cats ala Billinghurst,
with separate veggie and raw bone meals. Cannot. Billinghurst
is a dog diet, and the proportions are patently unsuitable
for felines. (Though we're hoping he comes up with a cat book
soon.) Plus, very few cats will eat veggies undiluted with
meat. Oh, I have a cat who likes cantaloupe, and they love
stir-fried broccoli, but when you're preparing a cat meal,
it's always safer to assume otherwise.
Which brings us to the subject of raw
bones. Again, try to shut your ears to the Billinghurst crowd.
I love bones. My cats love chicken necks now and I think there's
no better and no easier toothbrush. But, we cannot throw a
cat a chicken wing and expect that to make a complete meal.
It needs veggies, for one, and, since cats need a higher percentage
of protein than dogs, I'm not convinced that a chicken wing
has enough meat. Also, since cats' jaws are not designed to
grind, it takes *forever* for them to eat a wing. Forget it.
Start with a mixed recipe. When they are used to raw, then
try throwing them a chicken neck or a piece of wing. It may
take them a few weeks to get used to *those*, too, but at
least they should take to them faster than when they were
raw food virgins. So that's it in a very large nutshell. Of
course there are those cats who are on the "over my dead
body" side or who really cannot physically handle raw
meat, just as there are cats on the other end of the bell
curve who will wolf down anything resembling food, but I think
most cats, like most things, are somewhere in the middle.
So patience. And good luck. Enjoy your
feline companions to the fullest. We are the guardians of
their health. Let's live up to the responsibility as best
we can.
Peggy Ng
I agree whole-heartedly
with Peggy's post on feeding raw. Once you've decided you
are going to take the "plunge" and get rid of the
commercial food, just do it. You'll never be sorry. If you
have an older animal (by older, I'm talking 12+ or so) or
an ill animal, then maybe you should progress gradually. If
your cat(s) are reasonably healthy, then simply get rid of
the commercial food, get it out of your house because if it's
dry, they'll still smell it. I have a bag of Flint River Ranch
in my linen closet for occasional treats, and believe me,
they know it's there. Put down the homemade food, my adult
cats eat once a day and that's at night.
I define adult as 8+ months (that
doesn't include pregnant or lactating females). Put the food
down, leave it for 30-45 minutes and if they don't eat, then
clean it up and start over again the next evening. 98% of
cats will switch after 48 hours. A day or two of fasting will
do them no harm. When they are hungry enough, they'll eat.
I know this from experience. One of my cats, Pumpkin, put
me through hell trying to switch her to first a natural canned
food, then to raw back in 1993. She'd go as long as five days
without eating, I'd freak, feed her what she wanted, then
be back to square one. After several months of this, I took
her to a homeopathic vet, did a work-up on her, and three
weeks later, Pumpkin's eating raw meat. To this day, she'll
turn inside out for dry food, but she eats her raw meat.
I still have a few finicky eaters
who would love junk food instead of their own (and sometimes
they get it), but usually it's either eat or go hungry. The
general health of my cats is great. Even Wiley who is simply
a chronically ill purebred, has excellent teeth and a great
coat. Peggy, I don't know how you have cat fur all over the
place if you are feeding raw, I have very little and have
ten cats in residence. There's virtually no litter box odor
and even my whole male doesn't smell. Is it easy? No. Do I
have to be harsh sometimes and fight cats away from my food,
yes. Is it worth it? Definitely!! I have to be firm with them,
otherwise, they'll walk all over me. I read that some of you
are feeding ground up bones. Why? Give it to them whole and
let them chew. Make one day out of the week a bone day and
give them nothing else. My cats chew right through a chicken
leg like it's nothing. I feed bone two to three times a week.
I have calcium in their diets via egg shells every day.
I do not advise feeding ground
meat either, use chunks. They'll get plenty of chewing exercise
that way.
Michelle T. Bernard
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