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OwnedByOdysseus

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I'm going to pick up some frozen whole pretty for Odysseus tomorrow (rabbit, rat and baby lamb). I've never fed whole pretty before but he is already on raw food. I'm just wondering if anyone has any tips or words of wisdom to offer. I'm excited as it's as close to his natural diet I can give him, but I'm nervous as I will have to still portion the prey for him and wondering how he'll react to his food having fur.. Right now he gets fed four times daily for a total of 8oz. Should I just portion everything to 8oz and let him eat his fill them put it back in the fridge and take it out next feeding time? Or still portion everything to 2oz?

Any words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated!
 

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I'm going to pick up some frozen whole pretty for Odysseus tomorrow (rabbit, rat and baby lamb). I've never fed whole pretty before but he is already on raw food. I'm just wondering if anyone has any tips or words of wisdom to offer. I'm excited as it's as close to his natural diet I can give him, but I'm nervous as I will have to still portion the prey for him and wondering how he'll react to his food having fur.. Right now he gets fed four times daily for a total of 8oz. Should I just portion everything to 8oz and let him eat his fill them put it back in the fridge and take it out next feeding time? Or still portion everything to 2oz?

Any words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated!
Sorry, we do not feed raw, @zoinks is knowledgable on this subject, I did find this as well - http://sphynxlair.com/community/threads/round-2-questions.17543/#post-216668
 

zoinks

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I have never did whole prey. I tried it once but could not get them to eat it well, and they often play with whole prey, dragging it around the house and making a huge mess :)

Oh man the trail of blood on my beige carpet.

Only thing I would like to try again are pinkies (baby mice) as those are smaller and easy to portion out.

I would still split daily amount over 3 or 4 portions. If your cats are anything like mine if I put down 8oz they would try their best to eat the whole damn thing :) and then cry for more later. Since the pray you are getting is larger you will probably have to portion it regardless so i would portion into 2 or 3 oz

Let us know how it goes :)
 

OwnedByOdysseus

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Oh, your poor beige carpets! Thanks for the tips! I'll for sure let you know how it goes, have the rat defrosting now so I'll cut it up tomorrow.
 

OwnedByOdysseus

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Gave him his first bit of the rat today, he did well. Played with it for slightly more then 7min before starting to eat it. He didn't eat the feet or tail although it looked like he was trying and now for the last hour he has been ridiculously hyper. More energetic then usual running around the house like crazy, leaping off of furniture, playing with toys he usually ignores. So seems like so far so good. He'll get some more tomorrow
 

OwnedByOdysseus

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Yes, I'm a little worried as the next part he'll get is the middle with all the organs.. If he plays with it like the last part.. Oh my! We put down a mat but he doesn't keep it contained.. At least we don't have carpet! We also talked about maybe moving feeding into the bath tub or a box or something for whole prey.
 

Xandria

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When my husband and I were discussing raw versus whole prey we giggled about setting up a kill room a la dexter style. We have since settled on raw. But I'm majorly impressed with those who do whole prey. Awesome.
 

OwnedByOdysseus

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Haha I love Dexter! And definitely set up a bit of a kill room for myself to portion his prey.

Zoinks, when you fed the whole prey did it seem like it filled your cats more then usual? I went to feed Odysseus this morning at his usual time and he wasn't really very interested, sniffed it a bit then went to play elsewhere. He didn't mind at all when I picked it up and put it back in the fridge for later and is now back under the covers with me sleeping. At first I was thinking maybe he didn't like it as much as I thought he did last night but he's not acting hungry or asking for anything else to eat so maybe he is just legitimately full? And yesterday I fed him exactly the same as usual, 4 feeding, 2oz each. The only exception being the last meal was the portioned rat..
 

OwnedByOdysseus

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Ugh.. now I'm getting nervous that maybe I made him sick.. It is so unlike him to not eat when food is offered to him! Since he switched to raw (3 days after bringing him home) I have never had to put meat back in the fridge for later. He seriously loves to eat!
 

zoinks

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Don't be nervous, I don't think he will be sick. We could not maintain the whole prey for these reasons... the mess and they would not eat it well (they would leave a lot of organs or pick at it.. turn their noses up sometimes.. it just wasn't regular enough)

I would try another piece of rat or putting something on it to tempt him into eating it at next meal time. Maybe place it with a bit of his usual raw or add some salmon oil / crushed up treat / that sort of thing.

I think all portions of a whole animal are different... if this is one with a particularly large amount of organs it might explain why he is being picky. That is the main issue we had with our guys. For some reason they were not as enthusiastic about eating them.

I wouldn't worry about him skipping one meal though. Maybe at dinner time he will be hungrier and eat the whole thing :) Fingers crossed he eats it next time round!
 

OwnedByOdysseus

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Thanks for helping calm my nerves Zoinks!

I offered it to him again two more times and have finally had some luck. I realized he was trying really hard to eat it but has great difficulty getting the meat off the skin which discourages him. I filleted it for him and now he's eating it just like any other raw. I am so thankful he's finally eating! As after last night I thought he would have no problem with just the rat today and didn't take any of his normal raw food out.

Unfortunately I don't think whole prey will end up working out for us either. I don't know if it's because he's so young still and doesn't have his adult teeth yet or what. I guess I will have to filet the rest of the prey I got for him as I don't want it to go to waste! But I can't imagine I'll be making that a part of regular food prep
 

Xandria

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Whole prey is such a great idea if you have the time. As I said, I think it's great to try. But your experiences sort of reinforce my own suspicions... perhaps a bit too much work.

I think nakeds can get a very balanced diet with raw food (whichever way it's prepared). Although I can understand the "fun" and desire in providing whole prey ;)

You can also do a combo -- raw plus whole prey for treat!

Keep us up to date! This is very helpful.
 

zoinks

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Yes second the whole prey for treats. I bet it is great for their teeth and seems pretty fun for them ;)
 

Xandria

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I'm planning raw plus chicken necks a couple times per week for teeth health. My local butcher is keen on having a sphynx as a customer!
 
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