Hello,
It's been a while since we owned a cat, but early October, we are bringing out new bengal kitten home. After some research, we are happy to either feed mostly all wet, high meat content, or even better a raw diet. I've spoken to different people and get different answers, so any help with be greatly appreciated. Does anyone have experience with a raw diet? Any recommendations on which distributor to use (I'm not keen on making it myself)? Thank you in advance.
Kitten and Raw Food
- MarySkater
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Re: Kitten and Raw Food
I've only had one experience with raw food; I adopted two adult cats who had always lived together, and I tried giving them the occasional raw chicken wing to help keep their teeth clean. One of them loved the wings. She didn't crunch the bones, but would gnaw all the meat off. The other refused to recognise it as food, and would give a wing one sniff and stalk off. Even watching his friend chew one didn't interest him.
The one who would eat the wings died of cancer a few months later - I'm sure that wasn't connected to her raw meat intake, but it means I have no long-term observations.
The one who would eat the wings died of cancer a few months later - I'm sure that wasn't connected to her raw meat intake, but it means I have no long-term observations.
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Re: Kitten and Raw Food
We fed a homemade raw diet for many years because Flo needed a grain-free diet for her IBS and there weren't any/many grain-free foods available at the time. We ground the chicken meat and the bones and added supplements. It was a lot of work and so messy! Our two girls thrived on the raw diet until they got very old and needed more fibre in their diet, so we switched to Natures Menu Country Hunter Cat Food - Chicken which they loved, did really well on and never got tired of, which was a first for a commercial food.
I've never purchased raw food so can't offer any advice on that.
I've never purchased raw food so can't offer any advice on that.
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Re: Kitten and Raw Food
First thing to remember is that not all cats are suited to a raw food diet, and it's not generally recommended for very young kittens.
If I were to make a recommendation, it would be to try them first on a high-meat diet (but if they haven't been on a high-meat diet before now make sure you introduce it SLOWLY. Introducing it quickly can result in upset tummies). Something like Canagan, Cheshire Cat or More would be ideal. Once they've been on that for a while and are around a year, that's when I'd suggest putting them on raw food. You could start slowly, with duck necks or similar, as a lunch item. After they're used to that, you could try swapping one meal a day with a complete raw food. Nature's Menu is good.
Whatever you do, just don't mix raw and biscuits in the same meal. It's really not good for their digestion to have raw food and cooked biscuits at the same time.
If I were to make a recommendation, it would be to try them first on a high-meat diet (but if they haven't been on a high-meat diet before now make sure you introduce it SLOWLY. Introducing it quickly can result in upset tummies). Something like Canagan, Cheshire Cat or More would be ideal. Once they've been on that for a while and are around a year, that's when I'd suggest putting them on raw food. You could start slowly, with duck necks or similar, as a lunch item. After they're used to that, you could try swapping one meal a day with a complete raw food. Nature's Menu is good.
Whatever you do, just don't mix raw and biscuits in the same meal. It's really not good for their digestion to have raw food and cooked biscuits at the same time.