Not sure if I'm going to continue

[ccretarolo]

Feeding raw has just gotten to be too much for me.

My 2 raw fed cats are always either trying to get into the kibble fed cat's food or stealing it from the ferret cage. This means that the raw food I put out for them is very rarely eaten and just tends to be thrown away.

Ozzy is also starting to turn his nose up to his raw food. With the exception of mice, it's very rare for him to even touch his food unless I hand feed him.

As much as I would hate to do it, I think that my adventure with raw is over. I'm just sick and tired of throwing away perfectly good meat every day. It's also gotten to be time consuming since none of my raw fed babies will eat anything larger than a 1" piece of meat. I've tried to give them larger pieces but they won't even try them.

This makes me especially sad because I know it will hurt Calypso more than any of my other pets. She has lost about 3 pounds in the 6 months that she's been eating raw. The big problem with her is that she's now able to get to the kibble again so she's starting to put weight back on. I might be able to keep her on mostly canned but I'm not completely sure.

I really do wish I could continue to feed a natural diet but I just don't see how I'll be able to do it. I'm searching for work again and I know that I won't be able to monitor my babies the way I do now. The extra time and energy I put into getting them to eat (just to see them chowing down on kibble) is starting to get me depressed and disheartened. I just don't think I'll be able to keep on doing it if I'm working and/or going to school.

[bigsis7]

I totally understand! A raw diet can become very unconvienent and expensive. Just let me know what you decide to do!

[suds]

I can understand the frustration . heck we all can understand it it can be very dissapointing but then the little things make it good again. I dont know where you are on your diet change but maybe its time for tuff love if they reconise the meat as food and know its food take away the kible peroid . As long as they have the kibble option to them the kibble will win. its like putting down porkchops and greens as 1 option then you have macdonalds as the 2cnd option for dinner to children 90% of them will eat the macdonalds . Another option you can use is feeze dried in place of kibble its not to much more the buying high ggrade kibble (if there realy is succh a thing)

Just sit back and remind yourself of the benifets and why you started this journey ,Take a little break a few deep breaths before you decide and remember we are all here to help you !

[sherrylynne]

I don't know if this will work for you, but my one kibble fed cat is on a feeding schedule, just like the wet and raw fed ones. He has 30 minutes to eat his meal, then the rest is put up until the next meal time. It took a while to get him to this point, what with squawking and wanting to nibble and all, but he now sits and eats behind a closed door. The dish gets put into a closed closet after that.
With the fuzzums, just start giving them 1 1/2" pieces for about a month, then 2", etc.
I'll be honest- I've never gotten mine past the point of eating 3" pieces. But that, I can live with. A sharp knife and a cleaver goes a long way

[Heather]

I'm sorry to hear that you're starting to be so disheartened When there is kibble down it is so hard for them to give it up. Is there a particular reason why your guys are still getting kibbles? The problem is that kibbles is rather like offering you chocolate chunk cookies or brussel sprouts. You know the brussel sprouts are better for you but you're going to go for those chewy cookies every time. That's what kibble is to the ferrets. If you're guys are eating raw...then take the kibbles away. If you feel you must feed kibbles only feed it for a couple of hours during the night (that's what I did when I got a rush on the rescue furkids) During the day, all they got was raw, they got their kibbles at night when they went to bed in their cages. Once I started seeing them eating raw on their own...no more kibbles. I locked it up in the basement. Once I was sure they were all switched...the kibbles was given to the nearest shelter. I don't keep the stuff in the house. I don't do it because I'm a purest or so against kibbles....I do it because my furbabies will eat it before they will eat anything else. Now, a lot of the guys who have been with me for years won't touch kibbles now, but the ones that have only been here a year or so they will dig in without a thought.
I hope you don't give up, you've worked so hard to get here but I do understand where you're coming from. Let's see if we (all of us) can help you get over this hump. I understand, and if you have to well that's what you have to do but I honestly think that if we put our heads together we can get rid of those pesky kibbles so that Calypso can continue her weight loss and we can keep everyone healthy and happy and maybe even save you some money by not throwing out so much food
Think about it, we're behind you .
ciao

[ccretarolo]

My situation is a bit complicated. My kibble fed cat Adonis will not under any circumstances eat any raw. I thought I was on the right track with him but once he was being offered less then 50% canned food, he just stopped eating. He's even pickier than either one of my ferrets. Just the smell of a little bit of raw meat immediately makes him turn away from his food. I've tried isolating him while he eats but he'll just howl if he knows one of the other cats is on the other side of the door. He's also very good at hunger strikes so starving him into doing things my way just won't work.

As for the ferrets, Mogli is still not eating enough raw for me to feel comfortable with pulling all of the kibble. He'll eat maybe two ounces of raw mush in two daily feedings. He also will not eat it on his own yet so that's a problem.

I think I have a plan though. I'm going to keep feeding Adonis his kibble with some extra canned once a day. Hermes and Calypso will keep on eating raw as long as I have it in my fridge and freezer. After that, I'm going to put Hermes on a similar diet to Adonis. He could actually stand to gain a pound or two so I'm going to give him as much dry food as he'll eat for one meal with some canned for his second meal. Calypso will be on canned only since she doesn't tolerate carbs very well. She also still needs to lose some weight so dry food is out of the question for her.

The ferrets' diet is kind of up in the air. I need to figure out how much freeze dried will cost each month compared to kibble. I'm also considering getting Mogli to start eating whole prey so I can give both of my boys 2-3 whole prey meals each week for their teeth. Whichever way I decide to do things, I know that there will be less waste then there is now.

To be honest, the main reason I'm going to change things is because of how much was being wasted. There were days that the cats would not eat at all so that was a half pound of raw meat being wasted for each day. Now that Ozzy doesn't eat everything I put down for him, there's up to another 4 ounces of waste per day. While my boyfriend makes a decent amount of money, throwing away that much meat several times a week really adds up.

[sherrylynne]

With my ferrets right now, they eat maybe 2-3 oz a day each. Is it possible you're just giving too much? I found a kitchen scale was my best friend!

[ccretarolo]

It's possible I'm giving the ferrets too much. I'm so used to Ozzy eating up to 6 ounces a day that it's kind of difficult to adjust... It's hard to believe that he's almost done growing.

[sherrylynne]

Do you have any idea how much meat I tossed until I actually started to weigh it ? It was unbelievable!

[Heather]

I switched my kibble addicted siamese when he was 12 yrs. I really understand where you're coming from. Now you mention he will eat moist cat food right? Can you get him to eat nothing but moist? I know this sounds like a weird question but there is method to my madness... It took me over 6 months to switch my siamese but I was successful. The first trick was getting him to eat the moist...then I took away the kibbles. We did it in 2 week stints. Once he ate moist...he ate it for 2 weeks...nothing added. At the end of 2 weeks, I added 1/4 tsp of raw food to about 1/4 cup of moist cat food. I did that for 2 weeks....then I added 1/2 tsp, then 3/4 tsp....it's really slow. If he stopped eating then I went back 1 step. It's just a thought. Cats are funny that way...they're far harder than ferrets, because they can turn off eating and they're really hard to get started again.
I think as far as the ferrets are concerned...I'm in agreement with sherrylynne...maybe you're feeding too much, hence the waste.
Good luck...I hope you stick it through .
ciao

[ccretarolo]

The problem with Adonis and wet food is that he only considers it a treat. I had to starve him for close to 2 days before he would eat more than maybe 1/2 ounce at a time. Since he's a big boy, he needs at least 5-8 ounces of canned food a day depending on what brand I give him.

I would have been more persistent with Adonis' switch but it really seemed to be doing him more harm than good. He was constantly stressed out because he wasn't eating and he wasn't eating because he was stressed. When I finally realized that he had lost close to 2 pounds in close to 3 months, I decided that I needed to get him back to eating what he actually likes. Since then, I've been too scared to try the switch with him again since I know that the problems will start as soon as I make any sort of progress. He wants nothing to do with raw and he's the picture of health so I've felt validated with my decision.

When it comes to the ferrets, I know for sure that Mogli won't eat raw unless I'm holding him. I also think that Ozzy's full daily consumption may have dropped down to around 3 ounces a day. I'm going to try giving him only an ounce before putting him to bed tonight and then I'll leave a single mouse to hold him over until morning. I know that he has a little growing left to do but it looks like he's going down to his adolescent needs. At least the food bill will be a bit cheaper . Feeding a kit is a little rich for my tastes.

I also think that I'm going to rub the mouse I leave for Ozzy with ferretone. I want to get Mogli interested in whole prey so he can have something to clean his teeth. Those teeth of his are just a little gross in my opinion and I really want to do something about it. Especially since N-bones are expensive and aren't doing a very good job.

[Heather]

I found the most difficult thing about the kibble to moist switch was finding the right food. Now note I said finding the right food . What I considered the right food and what Samurai considered the right food was 2 different things. When I first tried I wanted him to eat healthy and bought a can of very expensive high end nutritionally sound moist cat food. I threw it out along with the next flavour of that brand In the end I found myself getting the tiny trial size tins and buying one of this and one of that and this....I think I bought about 7 or 8 types. I bought everything from evo to fancy feast (bleck)...what did he like...whiskas (double bleck). That one he would eat. So, that's what we used. As soon as he was eating that as meal then the kibble was gone.
Don't look at it as a switch....look at it as a treat, that's what he does. I started with creating a defined time for eating kibbles, no more snacking. Cats eat multiple meals in a day so we played hobbits....breakfast...second breakfast....elevenses....lunch....second lunch....you get the picture I then replaced the one of the meals with moist treats....then every other meal. Like I said we made quite a process of it. Cats really can't be switched by starvation, they have to think it's their idea otherwise they get stressed and won't eat at all. Cats are funny like that. I hope this helps a little.
ciao