New kitten only eats raw food

[lottieandmia]

The breeder gave her to me with some of this raw food which she's been eating. I know this is the best diet for cats but my two other cats are used to eating natures menu, Animonda Carny and dry Applaws.

Has anyone been in the position of trying to transition a cat from raw food? I wouldn't even know where to start with it.

Anyone?

Mine came to me having been half raw fed and half wet/dry food fed... I do intend to part raw fed her but I'm wondered about the other cats...she took to their original food easily with no problems...

Worried not wondered...

We have a rescue cat and we converted her the other way round to a raw diet.

we started by giving her some fried up meat (medium rare not well done )and then slowly sneaked more raw meat in.

Could you try the other way round, i.e fry it up a bit and maybe mix a little bit of your other food into the bowl as well so she gets used to the new stuff?

Well we have some progress - she really likes Lily's kitchen. I try to feed high meat content. I was going to get some Nature's Menu country hunter but our Pets At Home have stopped selling it.

Why transition? Raw is perfect for them, and no more expensive than any good quality food. I buy from nature's menu, keep in the freezer, defrost in the fridge and serve it to them. No need to even touch it if you don't want to.

Potential Be careful there. Please take advice from a vet who is up on cat nutrition. Raw is rapidly digested by the cat's system before the bacteria can pose them any problems. Mixing with dry slows down the digestion and gives the bacteria time to multiply in the gut.

Don't mix raw with cooked, why not try all the cats on raw? The complete raw food is really easy and so much better for them.

Yes I agree raw would be ideal. The problem is that one of my cats in particular has a strong preference for dry food. The only wet one she will eat is that James Well beloved stuff. I did put some of the raw food down to see if they would eat it but they didn't seem keen.

I wish mine would eat raw. I tried him on it but he looked at me as though I was trying to poison him and walked away! He's back on his James Wellbeloved dry with a Natures Menu pouch when he feels like it.

Perhaps I could order the raw stuff for the kitten now and then hopefully she won't have gone off it.

Thanks Ilove...unfortunately my vet is very anti raw feeding so having a serious discussion with him about it doesn't go well- have tried! One of my fosters has to have all wet food and the other one prefers dry... It's a bit of a minefield isn't it...

Btw how long does the natures menu ones take to defrost in the fridge?

I must say that the kittens poo doesn't smell at all.

Oh that's a shame. Mine is fine with it, neither for nor against. At the time I changed though, my rescue girl had beaten panleucopenia but was left with chronic runny stools. I tried every food and probiotic he offered, so when I went and researched raw I figured we had nothing to lose. She was pooing solid within days. You can see the pics of her transformation on this thread:

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/the_litter_tray/2530051-Bibi-then-and-now

My strong girl, my queen

I've been looking on the natures website and they advise x number of blocks per cat per day- example 2kg cat has 43 blocks-

But nowhere on the site does it say how many blocks are in a bag????!

Iloveeverykindofcat - how lovely - thanks for sharing. The transformation of your cat is amazing. Actually I must say that when the kitten poos there is barely even a smell. I assume their bodies use up most of the food when it's raw?

My cats are not rescue cats but our boy was in a bit of a state when we got him. He is a pedigree but the breeder just saw it as a business and when I took him home I found he was covered in fleas and flea poo and had not had all his vaccinations, despite the breeder saying he had. Now he's absolutely beautiful but I don't think the breeder was as ethical as the one we got this kitten from. For her it's a hobby and she is very interested in how she is getting on.

Oh that's so sad :(. I hate these profit breeders, particularly for what the mother cats are put through. Yes they use up almost all the meat, so their poo is small, hard and white from the bone content. Remember when you used to see white dog poo? That was when people fed dogs bones.

Yeah she's come a long way. I like to whip those pics out for people who insist I'm killing my cats by feeding raw