Wish Me Luck

[EnAyKayIDee]

I haven't even had my Luna for a full week yet, but just with the way things were turning out food wise, I've decided to try Raw on her sooner than later after lots of recommendations on doing just that from Sphynx owner friends. I always planned on switching her to raw, but had originally planned on waiting a little longer until she was more settled into her new home. But with all the different kinds of food she was eating (allowed to graze on kibble, freeze-dried raw bits, wet food, etc) she has REALLY stinky gas and poops! Her poops are "formed"(ish) but quite soft. The recommendations I keep getting were to switch her to raw asap, especially while she's still young.

She wanted nothing to do with the straight raw, but she is hoovering up a 50/50 raw/wet mix like she's been starving her whole life. I've been leaving out Stella & Chewy's when I'm at work and can't manage 3-4 meals/day. She seems to love this food (she was turning her nose up at her kibble when the stella & Chewy's was out anyways), so I'm hoping we can decrease the ratio of wet food relatively quickly.

For anyone who had to mix the two at the beginning, how long did you go between reducing the amount of mix in the raw food?

And for those who have experienced better poops, how long before you noticed a difference? The vet didn't seem concerned about her poop, but if it continues I'd like to bring her back and see if maybe there's anything else going on.

TIA!

 

[Bailey21]

Hello! I'm not sure how helpful ill be, but I'll share our experience! The first day our boy was home I mixed 50/50 same as you of the wet the breeder fed, as well as raw. He gobbled it all up like a champ. That was honestly the only time I had to mix wet into the raw, as the following morning I tried straight raw and that was that!

Now poop on the other hand is still SUPER smelly, but I do find that his poop is much smaller in size compared to my moms 6 month old sphynxies who eat kibble (never will I know how a tiny little girl could poop out the submarines she does ).

His poops are generally a good consistency, but can get random bouts of being too soft, so I really have to watch which proteins I feed in rotation with others (some proteins are stool looseners and others are firmers in regards to poop)

 

[Yoda mom]

@EnAyKayIDee ,
@Xandria , @Condo commando amd other Raw feeders may be able to add their experience with raw feeding transitions

Wishing you luck and lots of positive vibes!

Keep us updated !

 

[EnAyKayIDee]

@Bailey21 thanks so much for sharing your experience! I tried feeding it straight just like you did and... SUCCESS! Wahoo! I thought I was going to have to work harder, haha! So glad both our kitties went from 50/50 to 100%!

Guess we'll just have to wait and see about the poops.

@Yoda mom Thanks so much! I certainly will. She seems to be loving it, she definitely never ate any of her other food with such fervour!

 

[Xandria]

I did what, technically, you're probably not supposed to do. I waited until about four weeks after being in my house and then presented the raw (no transition), and it was eaten without issue.

The main reason to transition is several fold: in case there are picky eaters, and because of the impact on digestive system and therefore poop. Well, mine have not been picky (other than the proteins themselves), and I was willing to put up with weird poop for a while. But it was only about a week or so before their poop was "normal". Thankfully my guys' poop doesn't smell (unless they eat something they shouldn't). What can help is adding a little bit of FortiFlora To each meal, which is great for digestion. I continue adding FortiFlora to their lunchtime meal.

 

[EnAyKayIDee]

@Xandria thanks for the info! I'll have to go looking for the FortiFlora, that sounds like a good idea.

Her poops have actually firmed up quite well already! They're still smelly haha, but not as bad.

I've also noticed she seems to go through waves of one day eating what seems like an impossibly large amount of food, then eating much more modest servings the next day. Seems from other posts here that this isn't uncommon, and when she eats those huge portions she doesn't vomit or anything to show me she's eating too much, so I guess I'll continue with what I'm doing!

 

[Xandria]

For the first couple of years, I found that mine would eat a little bit sporadically in terms of their amounts. If they finish their food and looked like they were still hungry, I would give them a little bit more. I wouldn't worry about it.

By the way, this is where I get the FortiFlora here in Canada: Fortiflora Feline