Raw feeding – a hippie with a minivan

Weekly specials…

Sometimes, the weekly specials at the grocery store just work for you…

I make my weekly menu according to the specials from the grocery stores in my area and I am also trying to stay within budget. I was not being careful for a while and the amount we were spending on groceries was going up a bit more than I would have hoped… So I have been being careful of using what we have in the freezer and pantry and stocking up on things that are on special…

Now that I also have Nala to feed I am really keeping my eye out on cheaper cuts of meat…

I felt I hit the Jackpot this week… Turkey was .99 a pound and so were chickens at another store. I bought two turkeys, one that has been put away in the fridge to defrost for the weekend (which will make a great turkey meal, pot pie, stock and soup along with leftovers) and one for freezer for a later date. I also bought 4 chickens and a 4 bone in chicken breasts. Along with other food to complete the menu plan, including 8lbs of apples and a box of clementines, I managed to keep the cost at about 100$ which I find to be quite remarkable…

The 4 chickens were not the nicest looking or the best quality but Nala won’t mind… I took the time yesterday morning to cut them up and separate them into baggies for about 3-4 weeks worth of Nala’s meals… I am hoping to do the same whenever I see that special so that we have a good stock of food for her in the freezer at all times.

(Ready for the Freezer)

At the same time I was cutting up the whole chickens and was in the groove, I also cut up the chicken breasts that I used in last nights supper which was Fried chicken Sandwiches (recipe to come)…

The bones of course did not go to waste and got thrown into a pot with a few onions, carrots and celery stalks and will become the broth for tonight’s soup and there should be broth left over to freeze for other meals…

(Chicken stock before and after about 20 hours of simmering)

So for about 100$ I will be getting weeks worth of food for the whole family…

Planning meals and stocking up on specials can really be quite rewarding…

Learning to raw feed…

In the last few days/weeks I have been learning more and more about raw feeding a cat… and of course I still have a lot to learn…

I am pretty sure that she was being fed prey by her mom before she came to us because I was told that she wasn’t taking to the kibble much that they were trying to get her to eat and she took to raw food perfectly.

The first day I prepared little baggies with a few oz of food a day in them with the amount that an adult cat would eat… pretty much just chicken, chicken hearts, livers and a few pieces with bone to make a complete diet. However, Kittens, like babies, go through growth spurts and she can sometimes eat nearly two of the daily portions in a day and then eat less the next. All the portions are frozen and then I just need to take one out, let it thaw (or thaw it in warm water) and then serve. I takes about 15 min to prepare all the portions and it really isn’t too much more work than feeding kibble…

So I have just been feeding her four times a day and giving her a bit more than I think she needs and letting her be the judge of her appetite…

I have also read many times on the Rawcat Yahoo group that when they are young it is the best time to get them used to eating many types of food… So after having chicken the first week, I then went and bough a cow heart and portioned that all up for quite a few meals and then this weekend I bought some pork for her also…

She has eaten everything without hesitation (though she doesn’t like the fat on the cow heart too much) and the more little portion that I have ready the more variety she is getting…

I had also asked on the group if it would be a good idea to try to feed a mouse to her if Sparky (our older cat) caught it and left it in front of the door which he does on occasion. The answer was to try… she might or might not take it…

So when he left a little mouse next to the door during the night we decided to give it a try this morning… When she eats I often tough her to get her used to our presence and so she is OK if someone touches her or her food when she is eating. But when we presented her with the mouse in the kitchen then decided to move her outside on the balcony to continue, she growled and didn’t want us to touch it… it was hers!

She ended up playing with it for about 10 min…

(click on a pic to make it larger)

touching…

Pouncing…

Carrying…

Holding…

And then finally she broke the neck, or the skull or something that when *crunch* and then she starting to eat it…

And then within a minute of starting to eat the little mouse… it was gone..

and she was still hungry…

a new little one in the house…

My Father in Law’s girlfriend (Chantal) had mentioned to us a few weeks ago that they had found some kittens on their property. The mama cat had given birth in the old outhouse that they were about to tear down… luckily it hadn’t been used in a few years and the wood chips made a nice bed… I said that I might be willing to take one since we had been talking about getting another cat or maybe even a dog…

Yesterday morning we got a call from them saying that they were coming in the area to bring a kitten to another family member and asked if they should bring us one also.. we quickly though about it and called back and accepted. The one we would have liked was already going to another family member so they brought us another little one… the kittens are 7 weeks old and were just being weaned, the mom was walking away from them while they nursed and they were out exploring more… I would have like is she was completely weaned but since they are feral and were exploring more and getting harder to catch by the day FIL thought it would be better to get them while he still could.

She arrived yesterday at about noon and she was so scared but also very calm and cuddly.. the boys held her and she licked and nuzzled Khéna and didn’t try to leave at all while being held and passed around…

I decided a while back that we would be raw feeding our next animal… Chantal had told us that they had been trying to feed the kittens kibble and milk but that they were not taking to it very much… but I thought about it and reasoned that because they were feral they were most likely being fed prey that the mama cat was catching so there shouldn’t be much transition to raw… I was right… I didn’t buy kibble at all but instead got some chicken out of the freezer, thawed it and then fed it to her…

We started with small chunks but then I gave her larger peices along with bone and organs and she knew exactly what to do with it and loved it!

Yesterday I portioned food out for the week and froze it in baggies weighing about 3oz each… estimating that she will be about 9 pounds as an adult and needs 2-3% of her body weight in food…

(click to see one larger)

As for litter training… it is also going great… I showed her the litter box a few times and finally she went in it and has been using it with no problem…

I haven’t had a new kitten in 20 years… my last kitten died when I was pregnant with Khéna at 17 years old… Our other cat, Sparky came to us as an older adult cat…so this is such a pleasure for me… We named her Nala… a name that we all agreed on including the boys… she loves to cuddle and sleep on me and I am enjoying it also..

I have a feeling that she is going to have a special place in this family….