Has anyone ever offered their cat live prey?

This is a dedicated place for all of your questions and answers about Raw Diets. There are also some really cool groups like "Raw Fed" on the topic you can join. This forum is for people who already know they like the raw diet or sincerely want to learn more. Please remember that you are receiving advice from peers and not professionals. If you have specific health-related questions about your cat's diet, please contact your vet!

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Member Since
06/09/2009

Purred: Sat Mar 31, '12 2:37am PST


	Ok, so don't automatically send me a bunch of hate mail, but, I have a DFA (dry food addict) that I am really trying to turn around to more species appropriate foods. I'd really rather not debate ethics, personal morality or human cruelty to animals- my interest is solely the best interest of my sweet boy, and by no fault of his own he is indeed an obligate carnivore. Several tricks and tips attempting to convert to wet food have utterly failed me. In my desperation to get him off the path of badness that will surely lead to a shortened life, urinary stones/crystals/FLUTD, periodontitis and early kidney failure I have considered that I could possibly address two problems with a single solution- Live Prey. He needs more exercise, and better nutrition. Could I not stimulate his instincts to hunt? Perhaps we could start with crickets and work our way up to feeder mice? And if we do, is a diet solely of mice balanced enough? Theoretically, I would be inclined to think, yes... But in practical application? Has anyone else on Catster ever contemplated this method of feeding? Now, I am prepared to meet certain negative reactions, but please think of my cat's health before you pass judgement. If he were a boa constrictor I don't think anyone would question a live diet......

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Allen

Just one of- Auntie Crazy's- crew.

Purred: Sat Mar 31, '12 7:39pm PST


	Actually, to respond to your last sentence first, responsible reptile owners don't feed their pets live prey unless the animal otherwise refuses to eat. (I have been involved in breeding and rescuing snakes, so I'm familiar with snake management practices.) Feeding live prey is indeed cruel to the prey, but more importantly (from our perspective), it puts our furry friends at risk for nasty bites from uncooperative rodents. I support offering live crickets, however. They can't hurt the cats and are much more attractive when they're hopping around instead of legs-up. ;-} CatInfo.org and Feline-Nutrition.org both have helpful transitioning articles; http://catinfo.org/#Transitioning_Dry_Food_Addicts_to_Canned_Food_ and http://feline-nutrition.org/nutrition/how-to-transition-your-cat-to- a-raw-diet respectively. I know that's not what you wanted to hear, but I hope you can find something that works for you and your boy! Best regards. Auntie Crazy

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Patch

Patch - wallpaper- stripper

Purred: Sun Apr 1, '12 11:20am PST


	Feeding live prey is against the law here in UK, even to snakes without a vets letter to say they will not take f/t. Whichever way you look at it, it's barbaric for prey and whatever is meant to eat it.

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Scooter

Even the sun- loves me.

Purred: Thu Apr 5, '12 5:53am PST


	I don't have to feed my cats live prey. They hunt and eat it and sometimes offer it to me. Yes, I save snakes, lizards, and chipmunks if I can distract the cats long enough.

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Patch

Patch - wallpaper- stripper

Purred: Thu Apr 5, '12 10:08am PST


	Good for your mom Scooter, mine would do the same but we only have mices.

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Shade

My name is not- Kittyfloss!

Purred: Fri Apr 6, '12 1:14pm PST


	Aside from the ethics question, what makes you think that your cat will understand that live animals are supposed to be eaten? A cat that's lived on kibble it's whole life, and won't eat canned, is unlikely to "get" that it's supposed to kill and eat a mouse.

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Chewy

1186603

Purred: Sun Apr 8, '12 12:58pm PST


	I would not feed live mice but I discovered Chewy likes to play with dead mice so I let him. Playing with them led to eating them.

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QGM- Harlequin- (Striped- Seven)

I am a show- champion!

Purred: Mon Apr 9, '12 1:16pm PST


	Not on purpose. One of my cats caught a mice recently and left it in the middle of the floor, we thought it was dead but it wasn't. I guess it was just stunned or something. Most of my cats are from a feral litter I rescued when they were 3 weeks old so they might not actually know how to kill prey. I have a friend who feeds her ball python live prey, but he won't eat anything else. He also won't even eat white mice, only brown. When they could not find brown feeder mice and tried offering white mice he refused to eat. Edited by author Mon Apr 9, '12 1:17pm PST

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cats rules we- are 12

Purred: Wed Apr 11, '12 9:42pm PST


	our mommy never feeds us live pray we get wet food in morning and dry foods through out the day and we are all 12 very healthy. Including my almost 23 year old sister (human years)