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Old November 27th, 2012, 11:03 AM
Kittystylez Kittystylez is offline
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I think we have come off the Hiatus!! Now what??

A while back I posted that my male Bengal kitten had runny poops, a fractured hind leg and not gaining weight... I was turned onto raw by a member here after several fruitless visits to the vets and meds.

I have 2 Bengal kittens Neko male is now 4 months old and Snooki female will be 4 months old on the 6th Dec. Raw diet has helped tremendously! So much so that Neko took a flying jump on the scale, and he has almost doubled in weight! His leg started heeling very quickly he was walking on in after 2 weeks

Snooki - My female cat is my new concern, after taking her off the canned and dry she too stopped having the runny poos she was haiving. But, now she is not gaining weight. Her breath just STINKS, I mean Neko's breath isn't unicorns and rainbows either mind you, and they are both currently teething, so I am hoping that this clears up and I also brush their teeth at least once a week. She has always been very small, but at this point Neko looks like a full grown cat and she looks like a baby kitten next to him. Her back is no longer meaty, but more so boney. Today I asked my husband to take her down stairs and give her canned and dry just to see if she will eat. Which she did... so my question is... do I aim at getting her back on raw if she starts gaining weight and getting back to normal or if she starts getting runny poops again? Or do I just accept the fact that I cannot have two healthy cats eating the same food?

Thanks for any and all help in advance!
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Old November 27th, 2012, 11:38 AM
Barkingdog Barkingdog is offline
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If Snooki keep on getting runny poop she should be brought to the vet , I guess I would be concerned about her drinking plenty of water . Runny poop can mean a kitten has worms , has Snooki been checked for worms yet?
Runny poop can cause dehydration in kittens if they have runny poop too long.
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Old November 27th, 2012, 12:23 PM
Kittystylez Kittystylez is offline
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I may have confused things a bit on my original post. Snooki does not have runny poops right now... a month ago when they both did, we took them to the vets several times... and they were both on meds for it already and yes, they were both checked for worms they had 2 different types of tests done and they were cleared. The meds did not work.

Once I moved them over to the raw diet they both stopped having runny poops almost instantly. Snooki has been on raw food for about a month now, but over the last few days has been eating minimal amounts of food and she is not gaining weight. I put her on canned and dry today just to get her eating, but, my fear is that in doing so, she will go back to the runny poops. And I am also concerned that she is not growing properly, her back seems boney.
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Old November 27th, 2012, 02:38 PM
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sugarcatmom sugarcatmom is offline
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The stinky breath is most likely due to teething and should eventually go away. It might also be affecting Snooki's appetite. One of my kittens had nasty breath and a greatly diminished appetite when he was teething. Try offering some liquidy foods like plain meat baby food or water down the raw so that it's more "lap-able".

As for not gaining weight, what and how much do you feed the kittens each day? Do you offer a variety of protein sources to keep them interested (some cats get bored of eating the same thing all the time)?
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Old November 27th, 2012, 03:50 PM
Kittystylez Kittystylez is offline
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I feed them primarily raw chicken which I now grind myself at home. I started to realize the brand of raw I was buying did not have any vitamins, fish oils taurine added do I started ro mix it at home fairly early in the game.

Since all I was buying was just the ground meat... chicken or rabbit - I decided to buy a grinder and do that myself too.

So they have been eating rabbit and chicken - I do try and mix it up for them, however the last week or so they have been without rabbit as I was not able to find any until yesterday.

Because I work from home they are able to eat 3 times a day to keep it as fresh as possible:

8am - feed about 2 - 3 spoonfulls
1pm - feed one spoonfull
6pm - 2 -3 spoonfulls again

I find that if I try and skip the 1pm feeding they get grouchy, start getting into the garbage pail, or jump on the counter where I prepare their food and they are not allowed, and want that extra bit of food before their afternoon nap.

Rare occasions - If they act this same way before bed I may (rarely) give them another spoonfull
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Old November 27th, 2012, 04:59 PM
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sugarcatmom sugarcatmom is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Kittystylez View Post
I feed them primarily raw chicken which I now grind myself at home.
Is that with bones or with a calcium supplement added?


Quote:
Originally Posted by Kittystylez View Post
8am - feed about 2 - 3 spoonfulls
1pm - feed one spoonfull
6pm - 2 -3 spoonfulls again

I find that if I try and skip the 1pm feeding they get grouchy, start getting into the garbage pail, or jump on the counter where I prepare their food and they are not allowed, and want that extra bit of food before their afternoon nap.

Rare occasions - If they act this same way before bed I may (rarely) give them another spoonfull
At 4 months, you could probably give them as much as they'll eat (within reason). I wonder if maybe Snooki needs something sprinkled on top of the raw to keep her interested, like some 100% freeze-dried meat treats (eg: PureBites, Whole Life, Halo Liv-a-Littles, Life's Abundance, etc).

Hopefully it's just a teething issue right now and her appetite will pick up soon.
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Old November 28th, 2012, 08:21 AM
Kittystylez Kittystylez is offline
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I grind all the meat with bones for the chicken I take out the breast plate with the cartilage (mainly because they pick all the cartilage out of their food and I find it has no nutritional value anyways) and some of the small ribs just to make it easier to fit through the grinder feeder. I also add some chicken hearts and liver if I can find them if not I replace heart with taurine.

For the rabbit I take out a few bones also as when you are doing whole rabbit carcas the bone to meat ratio is much greater because rabbit is not very meaty to begin with.

Then I add egg, Vitamin B complex, vitamin D, tiny bit of salt with iodine, taurine (amount depending on if I have chicken hearts), fish oil (salmon, makerel, sardine anchovie - no cod), physilium husk (for fiber) and water

They currently eat as much as they can really, if they finish their meals quickly I will give them a bit more.
Last night she actually did eat some of her dinner with her brother, and I gave them some "grilled" chicken dinner for cats - forget the name of the stuff but it's sold in stores in a fridge they are moist bits of "grilled" chicken and she just loved the stuff, so I got her to eat some of that also.

I think it maybe the teething too... *crossing fingers* I am pretty quick to take them to the vet if I feel something is wrong, and in doing so I have spent over $1000 in vet bills over the last couple months while they have been home only to find out a simple change in diet was really all they needed, I mean don't get me wrong, some of that stuff was necessary (X-ray of Neko's fractured leg, the poop tests for worms, their shots) and they both will have to go get fixed soon. So I am trying to keep vet costs down, but not at the cost of jepordizing their health... somethings I feel you just need some advice and wait it out (like this one)

Thanks so much for listening and responding! These forums have been a tremedous help...

And as I type this, Neko has decided that I should wash his fav toy for him cause somehow he managed to drop it in his litter box and it is peed on!!! Of course he brings it to me and drops it on me! HAHA I love my kitties - what a personality he is!
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