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…