Author Topic: Raw feeding cats  (Read 8700 times)

caerau

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Re: Raw feeding cats
« Reply #25 on: 19 March, 2015, 10:23:25 am »
I'm intrigued by the idea of a BARF diet.


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Otto

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Re: Raw feeding cats
« Reply #26 on: 19 March, 2015, 12:19:34 pm »
Sadly my cats tend to supplement thier diet with self-foraged raw food... usually just feet and feathers left


Eccentrica Gallumbits

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Re: Raw feeding cats
« Reply #27 on: 19 March, 2015, 01:05:21 pm »
I saw some raw oxtails in the supermarché the other day and thought Pete might like it. He loved it.
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Re: Raw feeding cats
« Reply #28 on: 19 March, 2015, 08:00:19 pm »
Hmm, our cats get unlimited dry Science Plan stuff (made for the feline space programme, or some such, it's science, kids) and one of them is putting on the podge now she's seven (her behaviour changed quick markedly when we moved house, she used to wander for hours, now likes to curl up on the bed). They also get a pouch of squishy each day (Iams), they were bought up on dry, but a couple of years back the little cat had all her teeth pulled out (possibly because the vet was fed up with being bitten, but he claimed gingivostomatitis – judging by the smell that came out of her mouth, I'll go with the latter), and we weren't sure she'd been able to eat the dry stuff. Turns out she can, but she's such a teeny, skinny cat anyway (3 kg) we like to make sure she gets enough food that she can eat. So we have a teeny skinny cat and a larger cat then needs to be slimming down. Which is a pain because they're used to having a bowl of dry food at all times. They mostly lick the juices off the wet stuff. I think we're going to have institute proper meal times.

You could institute the high tech solution- this is something I dreamed up for one of my clients with an obese cat and thin cat with kidney failure. Both cats were microchipped, which makes this much easier to set up. If you have a room in your house that can be kept with the door permanently shut and you don't mind fitting a cat flap in the door of, then you can use that. If you don't then you need to knock up a largish box of wood with some kind of ventilation and a hinged lid that you can fit a cat flap to. You get a microchip-scanning cat flap like the Sureflap or Pet Porte and fit it on your room or box so the bit that normally goes on the outside of the house if on the outside of the box or room.

You then program the thin cat's chip in and not the fat cats. The thin cat gets all its lovely food (or ad lib food) inside the box. The fat cat gets it's food in the normal place but carefully weighed out and rationed. Obviously the thin cat could pinch some of the fat cat's food, but this doesn't tend to matter on the grand scheme of things.

ian

Re: Raw feeding cats
« Reply #29 on: 19 March, 2015, 09:18:42 pm »
Interesting, he says, stroking his chin. That might be the solution if fatty puss keeps getting fatter, we do have a small internal room with a door. Mind you, she's pretty good at circumventing cat flaps, she has a knack of getting her claw into the gap and applying enough force to bend the flap so it pops over the catch. Or she'll just dig through the floor. Or deploy a small explosive device. She's proven to be an expensive cat, when we first got her, I left our office doors closed. One Saturday we came home to find she'd spent the day digging. The carpets didn't stand a chance and she was making good progress with the floorboards when we interrupted. Closed doors aren't generally a good thing. Mind you, last I heard, she was building a glider in the attic. Good luck flying with that belly.

Mrs Pingu

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Re: Raw feeding cats
« Reply #30 on: 19 March, 2015, 10:02:27 pm »
Yes... with Mojo and Pippin we were able to leave dry food out all the time and they would just graze. I'm beginning to wonder if we will ever be able to do that with Ninkasi and Pumpkin. Ninkasi will happily nibble all day but if I don't put her food out of reach Pumpkin will just trough it all..
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ian

Re: Raw feeding cats
« Reply #31 on: 20 March, 2015, 09:40:24 am »
She's doesn't usually trough it all, not sure where she's getting the pounds from. The vet didn't seem to think reduced activity was much to do with it, cats do after all like sleeping. She still goes out, just not as much, just sits on the balcony and garage roof and watches the birds. The little cat sleeps all the time but has a barmy fifteen minutes a couple of times a day where she ricochets around the house like pinball. Maybe fatty puss is eating all the mice, had one mouse in the house ever since we moved here, we used to get them every other day when we lived in London proper. Perhaps Surrey mice are more savvy than their city cousins. I guess they have be cautious on account of the bears.

Mrs Pingu

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Re: Raw feeding cats
« Reply #32 on: 27 March, 2015, 09:43:43 am »
Redux. Pumpkin has finally managed to reach the high place where Ninkasi's food has been getting left so that she can nibble on it in peace. Not helped by the fact that Ninkasi seems to be eating even less than usual. Am wondering if that's hormonal - they're off to get the snip next week.

At this rate I can see us having to invest in Feline's upthread box with a cat flap in it....
Do not clench. It only makes it worse.

valkyrie

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Re: Raw feeding cats
« Reply #33 on: 27 March, 2015, 03:35:43 pm »
Many years ago I worked in a wet pet food factory, a job that was just as bad as it sounds. The R&D centre had a few hundred cats for testing the food on. They all had RF tags on their collars that activated a little flap on the feeder. The food bowls were on weigh scales so we could see how much each cat ate, how often they went to each bowl etc. The raw data that goes into "8 out of 10 cats" type claims is quite interesting - the analysis was by individual cat, with little comments like "George withdrawn from trial due to an upset tummy". The cats were treated much, much better than any of the employees.

Re wet versus dry foods, the raw ingredients going into both are pretty much identical as far as I can remember. The bone content of dog food is higher than that of cat food, but feeding dog foods to cats long term isn't a good idea as cats need taurine in their food. That'd be a problem too with feeding nothing but meat. The taurine in cat food mostly comes from chicken intestines.
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Mrs Pingu

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Re: Raw feeding cats
« Reply #34 on: 28 March, 2015, 12:30:31 pm »
Pingu founds that Sureflap do a feeder https://www.sureflap.com/en-gb/pet-feeder/microchip-pet-feeder
A bit on the expensive side at £100 each but seems to get very good reviews on Amazon.
Do not clench. It only makes it worse.

ian

Re: Raw feeding cats
« Reply #35 on: 30 March, 2015, 10:44:23 am »
Pingu founds that Sureflap do a feeder https://www.sureflap.com/en-gb/pet-feeder/microchip-pet-feeder
A bit on the expensive side at £100 each but seems to get very good reviews on Amazon.

Cool. Fattus cattus, your belly's days are numbered. Mind you, she'll probably just destroy it trying to get in.

Re: Raw feeding cats
« Reply #36 on: 30 March, 2015, 11:59:14 am »
Pingu founds that Sureflap do a feeder https://www.sureflap.com/en-gb/pet-feeder/microchip-pet-feeder
A bit on the expensive side at £100 each but seems to get very good reviews on Amazon.

Cool. Fattus cattus, your belly's days are numbered. Mind you, she'll probably just destroy it trying to get in.

An excellent find  ;D I've not seen one of these in the wild yet. In some households there would be the risk of the fat cat waiting for the thin cat to 'unlock' the bowl then pushing them out of the way to hold it open with their big fat head!

ian

Re: Raw feeding cats
« Reply #37 on: 30 March, 2015, 12:25:26 pm »
The little cat – she's called the Hunstersaurus because she's part monster – isn't to be messed with, as Bad Cat knows. Every fights ends up with her on her back making loud pathetic noises (while little cat bites her belly and gets kicked repeatedly in the head). This goes on for some time. Given that little cat has no teeth, I'm not sure she needs to make a racket like she's having her guts torn out. It's not like she lacks padding on her belly either. She's got less of a skirt and more of a ballgown.

Re: Raw feeding cats
« Reply #38 on: 09 June, 2015, 07:30:00 pm »
Is anyone doing it? How are you getting on?

My second job started as a supporting role for Mrs G - working for Honey's Real Dog Food.  She is in the Finance Dept.
Their website is poor but their food is amazing.  Quite a few customers have cats.
They get a very good write up on the Raw Feeding Website.

Both our dogs are fed raw.  The 7 year old Vizsla for 5 years now and the 13 month old Staffordshire Bull Terrier bitch for nearly a year.  She came home at 7 weeks and was fed on raw from then on.

Both are a perfect weight.  Great skin / coat.  Fantastically white teeth.  Very healthy and happy pets.