Kitty wants spoon feed BARF diet!
 

Hello,

I recently started feeding my kitty a barf diet. I was transitioning her with a cooked chicken/raw egg yoke baby food. When preparing the cooked chicken I noticed my kitty was really interested in the raw meat. So I let her try some. She LOVED it. Therefore, I decided to speed up the transitioning process a bit.

Giving her half the cooked chicken/raw egg yoke baby food and half just raw meat with instinct plus. The kitty is still "interested" in the food. She'll lick it for a while. But then she wants mama (that's me) to finger feed her. Why is that? Does she not like the texture? What should I do. I can't finger feed her the rest of our lives??

Let me know.
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Edit/Delete Message

Today Kitty Licked Bowl Clean -- No finger feeding!
 

All I did was section the food out into little pieces rather than one big clump. I also left the room.

When I re-entered my girl had licked her bowl clean! Good girl!

Only thing is, she keeps meowing a bit. I think she misses her carbs. Is that normal? Should I give in? Perhaps that's not it at all. Maybe she is still hungry? I feed her 1/2 cup of the meat mixture a day. 1/4 cup in the morning. 1/4 cup in the evening. Is that enough? She is a little overweight.

I swear I think I need to join a barf diet support group! LOL!

Cats don't need carbs, they get their energy from meat fat and protein, so she is probably asking for more, she loved it so much, lol. If she is hungry she will eat on her own.

Is 1/2 cup a day enough?
 

My kitty is a little overweight. I've read to feed her the size of a mouse two times a day.

Snowball is gorgeous. I see he is on a leash. I'm looking for a good harness and leash myself. Any recommendations? Last one I had broke and the kitty got free.

Have you ever heard of a walking cat jacket.

[QUOTE=Christina Thoma;776829]
Giving her half the cooked chicken/raw egg yoke baby food and half just raw meat with instinct plus. [/QUOTE]

That's awesome that you're feeding your cat fresh food. Are you eventually planning to move towards all raw? I'm a little concerned that the 50% cooked chicken portion isn't balanced.


[QUOTE=Christina Thoma;777220]My kitty is a little overweight. I've read to feed her the size of a mouse two times a day. [/quote]

Anyway possibility of feeding her more frequently? Cats typically eat several small meals a day, so if you can add a meal or two in there it might help her feel less hungry. Also, food amounts should be based on calories, not volume. Roughly 20-30 calories per lb per day. There are nutritional databases on the net that can help you figure out how many calories she's getting (like this one: [url]http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/[/url]). What you don't want to do is suddenly and drastically reduce a chubby cat's caloric intake, which can result in a very serious liver condition called hepatic lipidosis. Weight loss should be gradual. How much does she weigh and what would her ideal weight be? It could be that she needs a little more food than the 1/2 cup a day.

[QUOTE=Christina Thoma;777220]
Have you ever heard of a walking cat jacket.[/QUOTE]

I've heard great things about this one, although have never used it myself: [url]http://metpet.com/shopsite_sc/store/html/walkingjacket.html[/url]

[QUOTE=Christina Thoma;777220]My kitty is a little overweight. I've read to feed her the size of a mouse two times a day.

Snowball is gorgeous. I see he is on a leash. I'm looking for a good harness and leash myself. Any recommendations? Last one I had broke and the kitty got free.

Have you ever heard of a walking cat jacket.[/QUOTE]

Thank you. Snowball was my soulmate and I miss him to this day :sad:. Snowball was harness trained from the day we got him from the humane society when he was 6 weeks old, we could actually walk him like a dog.

I have never heard of a walking jacket, that would be a great idea.

I don't measure out how much each cat eats, except for Sweet Pea who is a little pudgy. She gets about 1/3 cup three times a day. She is a fairly active kitty. Puddles and Jasper will eat tiny amounts throughout the day and night and they eat from the same bowl so I haven't measured how much each eats.

1/2 and 1/2 mixture for a few more days... then she goes all raw.
 

[QUOTE=sugarcatmom;777238]That's awesome that you're feeding your cat fresh food. Are you eventually planning to move towards all raw? I'm a little concerned that the 50% cooked chicken portion isn't balanced.


Absolutely. I was told the the cooked chicken/raw egg yoke baby food was a good transition from dry food to raw. I was planning on just giving her that for a week or so then transiting to all raw (with instinct plus). But my little stinker seemed really interested in the raw chicken as I was making the baby food.

When I let her try the raw she loved it so I just sped up the transition process. She'll get the 1/2 and 1/2 mixture for a few more days... then she goes all raw. It's already made in the the freezer.

[QUOTE=Christina Thoma;777567][QUOTE=sugarcatmom;777238]That's awesome that you're feeding your cat fresh food. Are you eventually planning to move towards all raw? I'm a little concerned that the 50% cooked chicken portion isn't balanced.


Absolutely. I was told the the cooked chicken/raw egg yoke baby food was a good transition from dry food to raw. I was planning on just giving her that for a week or so then transiting to all raw (with instinct plus). But my little stinker seemed really interested in the raw chicken as I was making the baby food.

When I let her try the raw she loved it so I just sped up the transition process. She'll get the 1/2 and 1/2 mixture for a few more days... then she goes all raw. It's already made in the the freezer.