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Originally Posted by toons
Thanks for the help. In the end I got some skinless, boneless haddock fillet and chopped it up (actually with a pair of scissors - worked well!) then gave it to her raw just to see. She LOVED it. Wolfed it down like I've not seen her do with packet food. And no more diarrhoea. Yay!
Do cats get all the nutrients they need by eating raw?
In fact, I'm sure I can find that answer on the forums!
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Glad she liked the fish!
You will indeed find lots of information on here about feeding raw. Just to summarise quickly; a raw diet should consist mostly of raw meat (heart counts as meat). Approximately 85%. Chicken/turkey thighs/legs are a good place to start, but any meat goes. Then, you need some raw organ meat (liver, kidneys etc), this should be approx. 10%. Lastly, some raw bones, approx. 5%. And that's it! It really is very simple and as long as she will eat raw, she'll get all the nutrients she needs from this diet.
You can't feed fish as the main diet unfortunately, but once a week will be fine.
You'll probably need to cut the meat in smallish pieces for her to eat at first, and you'll probably need to crack the bones for her to help her chew them. Most cats that are fed 'normal' cat food have weak jaws and it takes a little while for them to build up strength enough to crunch through bones. Just don't give up if she won't take to the bones straight away, keep offering them every day and one day she'll get it. Until she starts eating bone, you can add some powdered eggshells to her meat/organs. Just a pinch at each meal - keep an eye on poos and if they're too loose, add more eggshell. If they're white and powdery, use less.
To help getting the ratios right between meat, organs and bone I make batches of food, mix it all up and then freeze portion sizes. I find it much easier to make sure I've got the right amounts that way rather than trying to estimate the amounts every day. It's also easy to just defrost over night ready for the next day.
The raw food smells a lot less than commercial cat food, so you may find that sprinkling some powdered Thrive freeze dried treats (assuming she likes them, my cat loves the chicken version but hates the prawns) on top of the meat helps get her interested.
Oh, and don't go and buy a whole load of meat... try them out on her first, you may well find she has one HUGE favourite or that she HATES a particular type of meat (like my cat loves rabbit and won't touch lamb).
I could go on and on about this.. but I'll stop here for now, before I bore you to tears - if you have any more questions just ask, happy to help