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L'il Bite of the Day - Cold Turkey Switch to Raw?

9/16/2013

2 Comments

 
Picture
"Should I switch my cat to raw food cold turkey?" 

The speed at which you can most successfully switch your in-home tiger depends a great deal on your cat's age, temperament, health, and the diet she has been eating up to now. If your cat has only eaten dry food previously, I recommend easing off the dry food and getting her eating regular meals of a quality canned food slowly first. The next step is to sneak in small amounts of the raw food mix in over time, slowly adjusting the ratio to more raw and less canned - but not going so fast as to have her start rejecting meals.

Honestly, there is simply no one-size-fits-all answer: as a general rule of thumb, I tend to suggest to people that unless they have a very young cat or kitten, it's best to go slowly. Take at least a week to ten days to transition an adult cat, and that's presuming the cat is at least already off of all dry food. 

Remember - raw food is very different from commercial food in many ways (texture, flavor), and it's kind to give your adult cat's digestive system a bit of time to adapt to the new food. 

Kittens? They're a different story altogether. They are magnificent at devouring raw food in staggering quantities, so switching a youngster over is usually fast and relatively painless.


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2 Comments
Sally Bahner link
9/16/2013 12:14:25 am

So true about kittens. Mollie was a scrawny little shelter kitten who exploded with health and vitality almost overnight on raw food. Although I've fed raw for 14 years, her transformation was the most dramatic.

Reply
Connie link
9/16/2013 01:33:13 am

Yup, I more often than not get kittens right on raw cold turkey. Feral and stray moms take to it like ducks to water.. it is the dry fed cats that have a harder time..

remember, a difficult transition has more to do with the cat's instincts and their nature and not their personality nor a desire to annoy you. They learn at a young age which foods are food, and if they were never introduced to raw, they simply do not recognize it as food. - nor do their bodies produce the proper digestive enzymes to deal with it which is yet another reason to go slow during transition giving their bodies time to adapt so you don't have to deal with diarrhea and digestive upset.

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