How much raw food?

[boredinbc]

Hi All

We have a beautiful 9lbs 9 month old girl named Parker, and recently switched her over to raw. The results are nothing short of amazing. Solid, not too smelly poops, less oily skin, cleaner ears. Honestly its night and day.

We are feeding her pre made Natures instinct raw and are planning on making the leap to completely homemade raw, but we are struggling with serving sizes for our little girl.

The bag recommends 3/4 - 1cup a day, 2-3% of her body weight would put her at about 4oz give or take, which falls in line with the 3/4-1cup per day.

however...our vet suggest that we be feeding her more because sphynxs have a greater caloric requirement than haired cats, and said we should feed her until she is full a few times a day and average it out over a week to come up with a ballpark for her daily allotment.

The thing is, our little girl is a vacuum cleaner. We stopped feeding her the other day at 3 cups. 3x the amount of food for her weight, and I know she would have eaten more. We used to leave dry kibble out for her when she was on canned food and she got used to having a constant supply of food, she ate moderately and would walk away when she was full. Now I am worried that we are feeding her too much.

Any input would be most welcome Also, for her frame out kitty does look lean, but not underweight for her age.

Thanks again!


Daniel

 

[Franksmom]

Hi I also use Nature's Variety frozen raw. I buy the bags of small patties. They eat them and I leave out kibble by the same company. Frank who is 11 months and weighs 10 lbs eats 2 patties 3 times a day and Luci who is 3 months and weighs a little over 2 lbs eats 1 1/2 patties 3 times a day. I can't believe the difference in them since feeding raw

 

[SealySphynx]

I feed prey model raw, which may or may not be what you are thinking about doing if you switch to homemade raw. Basically, I feed 85% muscle meat (this includes heart and gizzards), 5% edible bone, 5% liver, and 5% other organs like kidney or spleen. So that means most of their meals are just boneless muscle meats in as much variety as I can get and 2 meals per week have bone and liver or another organ meat. Nothing gets ground and I don't weigh out my cats' food.

Hadyn is still a kitten and kittens are allowed to eat as much as they want at a sitting. She's active and not fat at all, so I'm feeding her twice a day and letting her eat what she wants. If she starts to get fat, I'll cut her back a little but for now she's doing well. On average, Hadyn is eating between 5 and 6 ounces per day. With Sealy (he's a 1 year old pig) I feed him what looks to be the right amount and if he starts getting pudgy I'll feed a little less or if he looks a bit skinny I'll feed a little more. Sealy is eating between 3-4 ounces per day. I'm always adjusting it and keeping an eye on how they look.

 

[Erindanielleg]

I dont have much input to give but I would like to know what others say. I am switching my babies to raw over the next 2 weeks. so far, I havent heard of anyone feeding a whole lot more because of the breed. My male cat is a vacuum as well so I will definitely NOT be basing measurments off what he can eat haha.

 

[Flowergirl]

My cat is 14 pounds and I eyeball about 7 oz per day.

 

[MollysMom]

Molly is eating 8 oz. per day, which gets divided into 3 servings (every 8 hours or so). She is about 5 lb now from what I can tell (6 months old). I am letting her eat quite a bit, as I know that she is still growing. She is solid muscle, I call her my little tank. When she gets to be a year old, I will probably re-evaluate it to see if she needs less.

 

[boredinbc]

Thanks all for the replies a lot of good information.

Just to clarify something for me, is there any danger in feeding her until she is full, even if it seems to me like she is over eating? Like I said she will eat anywhere between 2-3 cups of the raw food - which seems like TONS to me. Her bowel movements are good, she is less "regular" with regards to timing, but they are solid and less pungent.

The obvious danger is weight, which I would monitor, but she is not overweight now.

Thanks again all!

 

[SealySphynx]

If she eats too much, she'll just throw up. Nothing to worry about in that regard. If that happens, just feed a smaller meal later on. My Hadyn goes through phases occasionally where she'll eat too much in a sitting and throw up. When that happens, I just feed smaller meals more frequently for a few days.

 

[boredinbc]

If she eats too much, she'll just throw up. Nothing to worry about in that regard. If that happens, just feed a smaller meal later on. My Hadyn goes through phases occasionally where she'll eat too much in a sitting and throw up. When that happens, I just feed smaller meals more frequently for a few days.

Thanks for that answer. This very thing happened the other day. Were getting closer to zeroing in on the perfect portion.

Thanks again all for the information!

 

[assibassi]

i do Raw for my Cats and you should about feed them 3 to 4 % of their weight.
Kitties under the age of 1 you let eat a bit more like what ever they can eat in a 15 min sitting and 3 to 4 times a day .

 

[Janelle S]

Cleo is all of 5lbs at 3 years old. I feed ground turkey and chicken with Better in the Raw. I can't believe how much this cat eats and she can't have dry (puddle poo) so I feed her 1/2 cup raw morning and dinner. She also gets about a 1/8 cup before bedtime.

I mix up the raw meat with the powder and water and then I've purchased 1/2 cup food storage containers (inexpensive from Target), which I fill and freeze. They weigh about 5 oz each.

I guess if I'm feeding 12 oz or so a day, I'm feeding her 15% of her body weight and she's definitely not fat. I do think she seems to need far more food than my two persians.

 

[Caloci]

My RAW food company says approx 4% of their weight. The shop that sells it says just over on pkg which is 5-6 oz. I am weighing out 2 oz for 3 feedings.

His poo is hard tho, his little bum bled so bad last night and he was crying both times he pooped. It is not whitish at all so I dont think he is getting too much bone.

I gave him some canned pumpkin. How much pumpkin per day to heep his poos soft enough that they dont hurt?

 

[Flowergirl]

Oh, Caloci that's terrible!

Poor boy. Have you experimented with other raw foods? This does not sound right.

My boy won't eat pumpkin so I don't know anything about that, but maybe phylum husk? Or add more liver to his food?

 

[Sphynx Happy]

If I were you I'd just give her 3% of her body weight for a week and see how she does.

 

[Kmaden]

If your raw food contains bone, it’s because he’s getting too much calcium. The supplement also contains bone so too much calcium can cause bad constipation. Here’s a supplement specifically for bone-in meat Product | Hare Today

Hare Today has a ridiculous amount of awesome info and guidelines!

 

[Sheldon13]

@Kmaden

Hey there. This thread is really old so the OP might not respond.


Love and Sphynx ~ It’s all you need