Anyone have experience with whole prey for dogs/cats?

[Shellybean02]

I think I'll go with serving her kibble with chicken bits. Like I said, chicken alone would be unbalanced. I agree that a bit of plant matter couldn't hurt in a cat's diet, but also their prey's food is usually digested. Nature's Variety kibbles are made from mostly meat, and I wet it just a bit. She drinks water frequently though, so that's good. Thanks for the advice everyone

 

[dainerra]

I've never fed raw to cats but have to dogs. What you describe is the #1 reason that mixing raw and kibble doesn't work. You are offering her favorite food at 1 meal and the next giving the equivalent of a bologna sandwich.

You can either use a premade raw diet. Or if you do it yourself, you need at least a variety of 4 different proteins. Bones are a bit harder with something as small as a cat so you are either going to have to buy a grinder or fin a butcher willing to grind bone meal for you.

 

[Shellybean02]

I'm mixing chicken in her food because this particular variety has 17% plant based foods in it. I'm using their online guide to help figure out how much she needs of everything based on her weight and age. She ate everything well yesterday, so I'll keep feeding this way until I get a different food with a higher meat percentage. She's growing quickly ^-^
For bones, don't people feed wing tips of poultry and such? I'd think that that would be a good source of meaty bones for cats, being small and easy to chew.

 

[Shellybean02]

My kitten hasn't been finishing her meals(I measure the amount of food at each feeding, 3 meals a day, for her weight) entirely. I also noticed that for the second time since I got her, she made this strange noise like a yowl for no apparent reason... As for a vet checkup, that'll be later this week. We got a late appointment, but she'll get her first checkup and shots and everything else. Does it seem like she might be ill, or is it normal for her not to finish her food and make strange noises?

 

[cassie]

I don't know. Is her stool loose? Does she have a runny nose or runny eyes? Does she have a fever? Is she otherwise active and alert?

 

[Shellybean02]

She doesn't seem to be sick, I'm just concerned that she randomly makes that strange noise. She even did it while she was napping, which makes me believe she can't control it... maybe it's a respiratory problem? Or a cat hiccup? Just throwing out some ideas. She gets a lot of meat mixed in with her meals but refuses to eat the leftover kibble. I feel bad for introducing it to her since now she doesn't like kibble. I'd feed her whole prey, my only concern is the protein levels in the food since kittens need 30% or more. I'd appreciate it if anyone told me about a whole animal(quail, mice/rats, rabbit...) that has a high protein percentage; unless that doesn't matter with a whole prey diet for kittens(?)

 

[cassie]

The 30% protein is based on dry weight. Wet food is not going to approach that level unless and until you dehydrate it. For instance, if you take some 30% protein dry food, weigh it, compute the grams of protein in the sample, moisten it, weigh it again, and then compute the percentage of the grams of protein in it, you will no longer come up with 30% because of the weight of the liquid.

You didn't ask, but I will tell you how people I know feed their cats. All of them have beautiful healthy cats.

My mother got a kitten from me many years ago. She fed her cat, Pansy, a very high quality dry food. Her cat grew to be much larger and prettier than mine, probably because I just fed mine a run of the mill cat food. Pansy had a beautiful glossy coat. She died at 16 years of age. After I saw how good Pansy looked, I changed cat food.

My sister feeds her spoiled darlings a can of a good quality cat food twice a day and leaves out dry cat food for them to snack on. Her cats look great, too.

My neighbor feeds her cats primarily canned or cooked meat, usually beef or chicken. Occasionally she gives them liver or kidney for variety. She may mix in part of an egg once or twice a week. She mixes a few mashed cooked vegetables into the meat on occasion. She does add a pinch of bone mill and a vitamin supplement. Her cats look very healthy and have thick glossy coats.

The point of all this is to demonstrate that there are a number of ways to feed your cat so that it is healthy and well nourished. You just need to pick one that works for you.

 

[Shellybean02]

I have frozen chicken breast/fat, ground beef and swan fish. I feed it with Kit's Nature's Variety kibble. I was wondering about this canned food, since it is very high in protein somehow. Is that bad? I read that they will pee out extra protein. Also it doesn't have any bone, so I'd have to feed with poultry or something of the like. Cat Products Archives - Nature's Logic
If that doesn't work out, I found great websites that sell whole, whole ground and freeze dried raw: Oma's Pride and Hare Today. I made sure they were each balanced, it's just a matter of what my princess will eat

Supplemental feeding is a bit much for me, but I will give some treats like you mentioned above(for variety and balance)

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

There should not be protein in normal animal's urine. Usually protein is converted into urea by the liver and can be excreted through the urine that way or it is excreted through the feces.

 

[dainerra]

either go with nothing but kibble and/or canned food - she'll eat when she realizes that there will be no more meat but she is going to try to hold out for a while - or go with a full raw diet. If her food is mostly consisting of the chicken, she is going to become ill. it takes a MINIMUM of 4 different protein sources to make a balanced diet without supplements.
You can get premade raw diets if you are worried about balancing her meals.