I do not like raw, or no I don't

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!

Nikolai - Dreamboat- #24

Sir Nikolai

Purred: Mon Nov 23, '09 3:08pm PST


	My mom keeps trying to feed me raw because I have diabetes and raw would be better for me. My fur family and I will eat it the first night, and then forget it, no more. My mom even tried mixing it with Tiki cat, but nope, not touching the stuff. Any suggestions?

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Shelley

Shy and- oh-so-sweet

Purred: Mon Nov 23, '09 4:00pm PST


	There was a wonderful post on Dogster once where she wrote "I do not like kidneys of lamb" in the style of "Green Eggs and Ham." Your title reminded me of it. I have two holdouts that I'm now trying to convert. I had been feeding kibble and canned. My first step, done last year, was to remove the kibble entirely and only give them their canned. One cat was willing to convert to a premium canned, but not these two - they won't touch anything but their Pro Plan. So now I am mixing Nature's Variety medallions or Stella and Chewy's dehydrated into their canned food. At first it was 1/2 medallion to a 5.5-oz can. They didn't like it, but didn't hate it enough to stop eating it. After a week or so I upped it to a full medallion per can. Same reaction. I haven't been able to increase it since (it's been about two weeks of that ratio). Even the simple step of removing kibble has improved their coats significantly, which just drives home the importance of diet to me. Occasionally they'll eat part of a medallion or S&C straight, but not usually. My hope is that once they get converted away from the PP, they'll be easier to convert to whole meat. A secondary, but important, motivator to me is cost - feeding just the two cats canned food is a financial killer! I can feed my furry six-pack DIY raw for about the same cost as feeding these two canned! Since the premades are very expensive also, I'm hoping that breaking their PP "imprinting" will open their tastes to a better variety of food.

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Khina

Don't breed or- buy when shelter- pets die

Purred: Tue Nov 24, '09 8:07am PST


	Variety - offer a different meat every meal Texture - try cutting it up into different sized chunks and see what they like Smell - maybe you need to stink it up a bit. You could try quickly searing or blanching the BONELESS meat chunks, coating meat with meat baby food, pureed liver or even crushed kibble. Also if you were previously feeding kibble and still have some left over, GET IT OUT OF THE HOUSE! Cats have good sniffers and if they can smell the kibble krack they may refuse other foods. Don't give up!

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Spooky

Master of the- silent meow

Purred: Tue Nov 24, '09 9:18am PST


	Hmm, I haven't tried much variety with Shelley and Spooky yet. Maybe I should give it a shot. Keep in mind a cat MUST eat at least once a day. Tough love can lead to liver lipidosis and be fatal. But (experts correct me if I'm wrong) as long as they're eating something, it's ok. I'm already saving money from the cats not liking the food. Although they don't seem to be losing weight...

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Nikolai - Dreamboat- #24

Sir Nikolai

Purred: Wed Nov 25, '09 10:21pm PST


	Those are some good ideas. My moms had not thought of baby food, or cutting up the raw nuggets. Thanks everyone!

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Mary

I was born royal

Purred: Thu Nov 26, '09 3:16pm PST


	I would also recommend the blanching method. I did it until it was only cooked a bit on the outside and completely raw inside. You can also pump some salmon oil on the food to entice them over to it. I think if you can get them off of the PP first it would help. Is it possible to switch the canned brand and then try the raw. My thinking is if you can break the addiction to PP that they may be more inclined to switch to partially cooked.