[IndysMamma]

I try to part feed Indy raw and with him being off his food at the moment I want to try him with raw again to tempt him.

His favourite is rabbit and I gen get whole rabbit mince from my butcher (he puts pretty much the whole rabbit in except fur and bowels with added lambs heart) but people have said you should freeze rabbit?

Indy refuses point blank to eat thawed meat, it has to be either cooked or never frozen. His mum never has a problem with the prey she kills...

 

[hobbs2004]

:lol: Cats can be such fuss-pots.

Have you tried mixing in defrosted food with cooked food? Does he pick the cooked bits out and leave the rest? If not, then perhaps you can slowly increase the amount of defrosted food and reduce the cooked bits.

I am pretty certain that rabbit needs to be frozen.

Is he off his food because he is pining?

 

[IndysMamma]

yeah he's off the food due to pining... he's eaten a grand total of 2 pouches and a handful of dry since Sunday when the fire happened...

and yep, he will starve rather than eat thawed meat yet if I feed fresh he will (normally) devour it at a rate of knots... I never bothered freezing in the past as the butcher I get it from has them fresh (ie they were hopping in a field within 24 hours of me buying them) and obviously cats/foxes/dogs that catch and kill their own have no issues with the bugs... if they did Mabel would be long gone by now...

 

[hobbs2004]

Poor paws! How are you doing? Are you doing ok?

Ok, my strategy won't work in that case . Maybe BillyBoysMammy or the Twins will be come along and advise on the rabbit.

 

[IndysMamma]

I'm coping... having the animals to fuss over is keeping me sane. I'm thanking God every moment pretty much that I didn't lose Indy and Max too... or my mum for that matter! now if I could only get Indy to eat properly I would be much happier.

I always just fed him it fresh but since seeing what people have said on here I daren't and since Sunday I am beyond paranoid about anything bad happening to my remaining babes.

 

[The Twins]

When my two went onto raw (defrosted) i had to nuke it in the microwave for about 6 seconds on medium.... or warm their bowls up with v hot water for 5 mins etc. It was the only way they'd eat it... NOW they eat it however i give it to them!

I would try heating the bowl up first (is it ceramic?) for about 5 mins first by leaving it in hot hot water... Then put the defrosted food in the dried bowl to warm up a bit.

Rabbit should be defrosted due to it being a 'wild' animal but as you say they dont do this with things they catch themselves! I would try the methods above but if that fails, i would, on this occassion, give it to indy without freezing first - to get him to eat is more important, especially as he is grieving.

Just make sure his worming is up to date too...

 

[The Twins]

OR if you want to try another method of getting him to eat defrosted food, i'd put some fish 'liqour' ontop of the mince - bit of salmon oil, tuna spring water etc or cook some coley and put the juice from that with it - this is a fail safe for my two!

 

[billyboysmammy]

i was just gonna suggest adding the fishy bit to the food.

Your right that rabbit should be frozen before feeding. In fact... most butchers keep their meats frozen before they go on the counter... you could check if its been frozen before processing. If it has and he is happy to eat it then, its not about it being frozen/thawed its probably the amount of time it is between freezing to thawing. Try leaving the meat out of the freezer a bit longer before offering it to him (not long enough for it to be a danger - just more like room temp).

 

[IndysMamma]

the butcher I use never freezes his game meat prior to sale, he has his stall (he's on a market) separated into previously frozen and never frozen sections as he advises his customers to never refreeze meat that has been frozen then thawed... at least not without cooking.

I know his son, Gareth, and he hunts the rabbits himself, I used to go with him when I had the time and my own gun. Gareth goes hunting around 4am using a spotlight, brings the days catch to the back room at the butchers at 7am and the rabbits are skinned and cleaned and put on sale.

John (Butcher) has 80% of his meat sourced locally and it is on sale within hours of slaughter... basically as soon as it is drained etc

[edit] I just tried Indy with some lamb that we have defrosted for our dinner and it has defrosted for 24 hours and I soaked it in warm water until it was 9 degrees c (roomtemp today) and he's still refusing

 

[havoc]

He has been through a fairly tough time. Have you tried a tin of pilchards? It seems to tempt most cats into eating. If you're prepared to try the homeopathic route there are remedies for cats which are suffering from the shock of this sort of thing. You could give Ainsworths or Helios a ring and ask their advice. It can't hurt and might help him.