Saturday; Feb 14, 2009 Today is two weeks and two days I've been feeding at least one raw meal a day to my cats. About a week in, they became reluctant to eat their canned meals and a few days ago, began leaving more canned than they were eating.
Because they've done so well accepting everything I've offered (with the single exception of the whole mice*) and the improvement I've seen in their coats and their energy levels - despite the fact I was watching them closely for possible negative reactions to their change in diet and was NOT, with only a single raw meal a day, expecting any positive changes - I decided to give them what they want and feed them entirely raw.
So I sat down and (finally) performed the calculations necessary to plan their diet (3% of food by weight with 80%/10%/5%/5% meat/bones/liver/other organ respectively). And guess what I found out?
The buggers are supposed to be eating around 9 ounces shared between the five of them per meal, NOT the pound and a quarter they've been gobbling down every night! I repeated my calculations several times to make sure I was doing it right, and there is no doubt about it.
I guess that explains the 6.5 ozs Allen's gained, the 6 ozs Rachel's put on and the 3.5 ozs Meghan's added in the last two weeks. In Rachel's case, I'm happy about the weight increase - she has always been too thin for my comfort and has steadfastly refused to gain no matter what I fed her. The kittens have picked up quite a bit, too, but I don't mind since they're so young and Heather was another too-thin kitty.
I spent several days trying to find sources and figure out the best way to handle the ingredients with little progress, and then I got a call from local raw-feeder who had heard I was looking for help. She gave me some very awesome, very specific tips and, together with my research, I've been able to put together a plan I am comfortable with. (The best tip she gave me - I can order any amount of anything Whole Foods sells and they will grind it up for free!)
I wanted to continue to feed as much chunked meat as possible, but needed a way to get the bones and other stuff into their diet, so I divided their monthly numbers by three and calculated the percentages so that meat alone could be fed twice a day and a ground combo of meat, bone, heart, liver, organ and supplements could be fed for breakfast every morning. Feeding them this way, their ratios are balanced at the end of every day.
Today, I made the following Whole Foods order: 10 lbs chicken wings, 13 lbs chicken hearts, and 5.5 lbs chicken liver. This will be mixed with 6.5 lbs of ground chicken breast and some salmon oil, vitamins B complex and E, Taurine and maybe a multigland supplement. This mixture will last for two months and, with 9 ozs of raw chicken, beef, whatever I can get my hands on, for their lunch and dinner meals, will cost me an estimated $240.
Compare that to the $200 I was spending every single month for canned food!
(*Unfortunately, after the second whole-mouse meal, my guys all decided they like the first half of the mouse, but not the second. They won't eat the darn things from the waist down, not even my most voracious eater, Spencer. Oh, and the kittens INSIST on playing with them first.
I didn't even know a cat could toss a mouse that high.
Of course, they waited until right after I scored a couple hundred mice off craigslist.*sigh* )