How to transition to raw

[bmac60]

Hello all,

My sphynx Draco gets red bumps/patches and scabs. They seem to be allergy related. They will get pretty mild, then disappear, then come back again. My vet has given him a cortisone shot before and they tamed down. Anyways, I went to a holistic pet shop near me and the owner really wanted me to get the cats onto raw. As of now, I haven't given them the raw yet. I purchased some primal nuggets, stella, etc. The only thing is I have done research and it said to the cats should not have raw and regular food at once. They eat dry food, Taste of the Wild, and wet Weruva and Lotus canned food. So I am just stuck- where/how do I begin this transition?
By the way- I don't know if it matters but I am looking to feed them a commercial raw diet. At least for now.

Also-
I have a food dispenser that dispenses dry food once a day for a mid day snack. I was going to get them off of the Taste of the Wild and onto Ziwi Peak air dried food. On the website it says it can be fed with raw. Anyone have experience with this?

I am a first time cat and sphynx owner so i could use the help! Thanks everyone!!

 

[Natka58]

I can’t answer the raw diet question. But my cat has the same issue. We found that guman food makes him flare up a lot. Attached is the food he’s on and does not have a allergic reaction to. Maybe it will work for you as well. I have tried so many food options for him until this worked

 

[Natka58]

Can you post a pic of his patches? Out of curiosity.

 

[bmac60]

Can you post a pic of his patches? Out of curiosity.

This is them. Draco is the black one with the skin problems. He is not really flared up right now, but here is a little example. His skin isn’t clear around his ears and earlier this week the area was red and had a scab. Here is a small example on his back too of little bumps he’ll get, but like I said he is not flared up right now

 

[Yoda mom]

@bmac60 the thread has lots of great tips and suggestions too... be sure to check out the posts

Tagging @Condo commando ,@Xandria and all raw feeders to chime in

Many use Better in the Raw (Bitr) commercial package

Beef Recipe for Homemade Cat Food

Discover a healthy and nutritious diet for your cat with our Know Better for Cats Beef flavour premix | Holistic Vet Approved | FREE Shipping | Shop now

www.knowbetterpetfood.com

@Xandria posted an informative post about Bitr and a video in a separate thread

Odessa and oden

Gotcha day changed to tommorow at 7pm at the airport...I'm super excited but and the same time not you see I got the flu and this horrible sinus thing going.. am I going to give it the baby's?????

sphynxlair.com

Keep us updated
Hugs n head smooches to Draco

 

[Yoda mom]

@bmac60 here are some individual posts that may be helpful while members chime in to your great question

Sphynx Cats & Raw Diet

Discuss raw diet, recipes, & proper feeding.

sphynxlair.com

Raw Cat Food Information

It's done! Until a revision is necessary :p I'll always place a date in the footer to hopefully avoid confusion. Any way... here it is: Raw Cat Food Information (the PDF *updated 6/4/17) and the accompanying Excel Spreadsheet. Thank you, everyone, who helped make this document...

sphynxlair.com

 

[Natka58]

This is them. Draco is the black one with the skin problems. He is not really flared up right now, but here is a little example. His skin isn’t clear around his ears and earlier this week the area was red and had a scab. Here is a small example on his back too of little bumps he’ll get, but like I said he is not flared up right now

We had similar. But they were raised as well. When he gets in to our food, kids leave on table, he flares up again.

 

[Condo commando]

Hi @bmac60 - welcome to the Lair. Your story is a familiar one and there is hope

The problem you are describing probably is food related. Unfortunately, one thing about commercial diets is they have so many additives in them that it's really hard to figure out what is causing the problem. Sometimes people think if they gave their cat some chicken food for example, and their cat had an allergic reaction, that their cat is allergic to chicken. But it could be something else that's buried in the ingredient list.

This is where "limited ingredient diets" come into play. Limited ingredient diets have less stuff in them so the animals are less likely to have a reaction. They also recommend that you pick a novel protein such as duck, rabbit or something exotic. We have a member feeding kangaroo meat but she's in Canada - hello @Bailey21 - but here in the states there is no kangaroo meat.

They do sell limited ingredient commercial diets, which you could try. You never know but they might help. That being said, raw food is an even better choice. For one thing raw diets are made to have limited ingredients. They usually have just one meat. They don't have preservatives. Also, when it comes to novel proteins, it's easy to find rabbit, duck, venison, pheasant, and all kinds of things. When you pick from canned or kibble food, the stuff that's easy to find always seems to be made of chicken, fish, turkey or some combination thereof, so if your cat's problem is caused by one of those things you are stuck.

Now this is important - if you are going to put your cat on a special diet because you suspect allergies, you MUST take away all the other foods. Imagine feeding a limited ingredient diet in the morning and at night when you're home but then leaving kibble out during the day.....it won't work.

I'll write a separate post on transitioning to raw.

 

[Condo commando]

@bmac60 - quick note on mixing raw and kibble....don't do it. They digest at different rates and will mess with your cat's digestive system.

 

[Condo commando]

@bmac60 - transitioning a cat to raw might be easy if your cat takes to the raw right away. However, sometimes it takes patience. Usually the younger the cat, the easier it is. My 5 year old adoptee who had never eaten raw refused to eat raw at first, but I was expecting it and I had a plan.

First thing I did with mine was get him used to eating canned food only. No more kibble. That was actually easy because he was used to getting some canned food and he already liked it.

Next, I started mixing in a little bit of raw rabbit with his canned food. I had tried giving him the raw rabbit by itself and he refused to eat, so I knew I had to go in small. Every 3-4 days I would increase the amount of raw and decrease the amount of canned. It took a few weeks but he got to where finally he was eating 100% raw rabbit.

After he was eating rabbit, I started adding raw chicken in with the rabbit. That took another few weeks but then he was fine with chicken too. Then I started adding raw turkey to his meals again little by little. So now he eats raw rabbit, chicken and turkey. Oh and fish, because I add some fish into everything so they get their Omega 3's.

Anyway, the deal is to go slow if they don't take to it at first. Use hunger as your ally. My cat would not want to eat a meal sometimes; I'd jut put the food in the fridge and offer it later. I never let him go all day without eating. It was either add more canned food in, or go a few extra hours and see if he was hungry enough to try.

My recommendation to anyone starting on raw food is to go with something that is pre-made. You have 2 options:
1. Commercial raw foods like Primal nuggets or Stella & Chewy freeze dried - when I started this is what I fed.
2. Buy ground meat including bones and organs and add a supplement and water. This is my favorite even though it takes a little more effort. Depending on what part of the US you're in there are various suppliers you can use.

It sounds like you already have the food for option 1, but if you are interested in option 2 let me know and I can share more details.

Hope this helps.

 

[Condo commando]

We had similar. But they were raised as well. When he gets in to our food, kids leave on table, he flares up again.

I hope maybe some of what I said above would be helpful to you and Draco also. If any questions just ask.

 

[bmac60]

Wow @Condo commando thanks!! I decided just to go for it. I purchased the raw food some time ago and it's just been sitting in the freezer. We went all in on Saturday. Today is day three and they have been going strong. I've given them raw primal duck and stella and chewy chicken so far. Raw and freeze dried. I hope to see a difference after some time

Thanks everyone so much for all of the advice

 

[bmac60]

Hey guys,
Not good news. Started the raw only diet on Saturday. Last night on Monday night he started twitching his head and ears a lot. Almost like he had a bug in his ear. Then he kept licking himself on his back and twitching his skin, I could tell he was itchy. He continued that this morning as well. When I woke up this morning he had more red bumps on his back, and his belly looked red. I am going to take him to the vet tonight after work.

 

[Bailey21]

@bmac60 Sorry to hear your boy is having a reaction. What protein did you start with on the raw? I believe rabbit is very good for pets with allergies, if that's what it ends up being. Keep us posted how the vet visit goes.

 

[bmac60]

Thanks. I have fed them the primal duck, stella chicken, and i tried a little bit of tiki cat chicken. All raw.

 

[Condo commando]

Do see the vet in case your kitty has something else.

If he doesn't have anything else, give him just the Primal duck for a couple of weeks.

Don't try a second food yet because how would you ever know what is causing the problem? Even with 100% healthy cats we are supposed to introduce one new protein at a time. If there's a problem then we know what caused it.

We've all been there. It can be a little bumpy starting out. Once you get the hang of it, it's easy.

 

[bmac60]

Do see the vet in case your kitty has something else.

If he doesn't have anything else, give him just the Primal duck for a couple of weeks.

Don't try a second food yet because how would you ever know what is causing the problem? Even with 100% healthy cats we are supposed to introduce one new protein at a time. If there's a problem then we know what caused it.

We've all been there. It can be a little bumpy starting out. Once you get the hang of it, it's easy.

Well that probably has something to do with it. Too many different proteins. So for future reference, I should stick to one protein, but how do you go about introducing new ones? Gradually mixing it in after a time?

 

[Condo commando]

Yep, after you know they're OK with the first protein, you can add a second one. The thing is each time you add one, add ONLY one. Go for a couple of weeks. Some cats are allergic to chicken so you can't assume anything.

Feeding various proteins is a problem, assuming your cat doesn't have allergies to any of them. For example, right now I'm feeding rabbit in the am and then in the evening it's 50/50 chicken and turkey. All's well. In fact you are supposed to feed variety.

 

[bmac60]

Okay, so last question. Can I for example, feed primal duck raw, and add primal duck rehydrated freeze dried on top? Or should I stick to the raw only?

 

[Condo commando]

Since they are both duck you should be OK, especially if it's just a little bit sprinkled on top. Sometimes that little extra smell is what gets them to want to eat.

I used to feed my cats Primal and other commercial raw foods, but after I started making raw at home, they decided they didn't like the commercial raw anymore. Now if I run out of homemade, I have to get them canned food. I don't know why exactly but they can sure be picky.

By the way, when you buy raw in stores, make sure the nuggets are separate in the package. If they are clumped together it means the food thawed out at some point. That happened to me once. I asked at the store how they had food delivered to them and they said a guy brought it in a truck (along with everything else that wasn't frozen). Who knows if they packed it in plenty of ice, how many stops the truck had to make, etc. I live in Florida so you can imagine the temperatures. Anyway raw food spoils if it's left unfrozen so just a heads up!

 

[Condo commando]

Hey are you in South Florida? A great place to buy food is Raw Feeding Miami. You can even pick up if you are local.

 

[bmac60]

Hey are you in South Florida? A great place to buy food is Raw Feeding Miami. You can even pick up if you are local.

Okay, thank you again for all of the help. Yes I am in South Florida, south palm beach county. I will have to look into that

 

[Luna112]

Okay, thank you again for all of the help. Yes I am in South Florida, south palm beach county. I will have to look into that

I’m in south Florida and RFM is the most expensive raw distributor I’ve found. I’m using Fiesta Pet Deli in Broward County. I live in Fort Lauderdale!
There is also WK Raw in delray.

 

[Condo commando]

I’m in south Florida and RFM is the most expensive raw distributor I’ve found. I’m using Fiesta Pet Deli in Broward County. I live in Fort Lauderdale!
There is also WK Raw in delray.

Ok well, thanks for that intel; I didn't even know about those. However, I see higher prices.

Chicken grinds at RFM $3.90 per lb (2.5 lb package)
Chicken biocomplete purity at Fiesta Pet $4.99 per lb

Turkey grinds at RFM $4.80 per lb (2.5 lb package)
Turkey biocomplete purity at Fiesta Pet $4.99 per lb

All chicken or turkey is not alike so sometimes it's hard to say which one is actually a better deal. For example is it antibiotic free? Then also, most chicken and turkey sold today is "enhanced" with that saltwater solution which adds as much as 15% in water weight. You don't get as much chicken as you might think, plus it has all that extra sodium. It's always best to read the fine print. When they sell pet foods, unless it says that it's not enhanced, you can bet it was.

On another note, it's getting to the point we have enough people to have our own South Florida Chapter of the Sphynx Lair LOLOL

 

[Luna112]

Ok well, thanks for that intel; I didn't even know about those. However, I see higher prices.

Chicken grinds at RFM $3.90 per lb (2.5 lb package)
Chicken biocomplete purity at Fiesta Pet $4.99 per lb

Turkey grinds at RFM $4.80 per lb (2.5 lb package)
Turkey biocomplete purity at Fiesta Pet $4.99 per lb

All chicken or turkey is not alike so sometimes it's hard to say which one is actually a better deal. For example is it antibiotic free? Then also, most chicken and turkey sold today is "enhanced" with that saltwater solution which adds as much as 15% in water weight. You don't get as much chicken as you might think, plus it has all that extra sodium. It's always best to read the fine print. When they sell pet foods, unless it says that it's not enhanced, you can bet it was.

On another note, it's getting to the point we have enough people to have our own South Florida Chapter of the Sphynx Lair LOLOL

I also use these guys: Best Raw Dog Food Home Delivery - Prey Model Raw Paw Lickin' Good

And yes I’m starting to see that! I’m about to get my first sphynx. So I need all the local advice!