Sorry me again!. Ive been really interested to read what has been said about raw feeding, and specifically giving cats chicken portions with the bone in for them to chew and clean their teeth?.

I know with dogs we never gave them chicken bones because they splinter but appreciate cats are very different; is there a specific chicken cut you give such as the thigh or drumstick? and do you just serve them up at room temperature and leave them to it? is there anything I need to know do you think before I consider doing it?

Would really appreciate yet more of your invaluable advice many thanks xx

First of all it has to be RAW chicken or whatever. Not ever cooked bones.

I started off with chicken wings and cut them into 3 parts. My female is the cat in my trio that has taken to raw with gusto. Sometimes she eats the bones and sometimes she doesn't.

Her most favourite is rabbit. I buy a rabbit carcess for £3.00 at the farmer market - it is skinned and gutted and butchered into 5 pieces. I cut it up some more but I leave all the bone in. She decides if she eats it or not.

If not then she is quite neat at shearing off the meat and leaving a cleanish bone. Ehen she does eat the bone the noise of crunching is really, really loud

Their main food is wet Bozita.

thanks for the info! thats interesting about the rabbit, will look into that - I can well imagine the crunching sound tho! I remember the constant grating noise of my dogs with huge great marrow bones, was yeuch!!

would you give them something like raw chicken drumstick or thigh then? and with skin on? am thinking of whats in the supermarket, but can head to butchers and see what they can do, in terms of wings - perhaps they can do something for me with rabbit as well xxxx

What age do you think it's ok to start giving them things with bones in?

I am interested in this too but Fluffy is only 4 months so I'm not sure how he'd handle it at the moment - I think he still has his baby teeth!

Start off small - chicken wings are good because more like cartiledge and you can cut up. I have given and do give chicken legs and drumsticks, though those bones are a bit thick.

If a cat is not used to chewing they will need to build up to it - strengthen their jaws.

Rabbit bones are thinner than chicken. You can buy rabbit on-line too.

I also give non-boned raw - anything really - haven't given pork, though.

I look out for reduced meat in the supermarket. Remember that cats are not fussy if it is about to go past its sell-by date as long as does not smell.

I cut up the meat and freeze on trays then bag. I can then extract any number of cut up pieces for de-frosting.

thats fantastic, thanks so much for your help, am making note of all this for when I go cat food shopping, will have a look at the online butchers as well, thanks hun! xx

Mine are adult. I know that some breeders on here give their kittens raw but also wet and dry because eventually the kittens are going to their forever owners who may not want a kitten who only eats raw.

Kittens can have minced up raw and probably chicken wing tips but I think it better for a breeder to answer. One breader I think feeds day old chicks (dead) to kittens. It is mainly getting a cat used to eating raw.

MY feral hunts its own and used to eat it too, but now doesn't (so much though I do find half a shrew from time to time) and my male just does not want to know about raw. The male isn't really into food that much - usually I have to physically plonk him down in front of his dish.

Remember that I am a combo feeder. If you go fully raw then your cats will need the right proportions of bone meat and offal.

I do feed chicken liver but only as a treat.

__________________

thats brilliant! thank you so much for the advice and for the links, will go and look - that was one thing I wondered about, if they would sit nicely and chew them over their bowl in the kitchen or not lol! as we have new carpets I dont think Id be that chuffed to have gristle and chomped bone ground into it, so as we have a decent sized kitchen I may shut the kitchen door while they eat it then! if they take to it that is - Im interested in whatever natural means I can use to keep their teeth clean, and also the issue of taurine with it being depleted in cooking, is it ok to give the kidney and heart raw as well then?

thanks again! xxx