Bone alert! kitten on the loose

[BrideXIII]

some of you may remember a thread where the discussion got round to feeding RAW/BARF,
well i have been doing this a month now, and would like to report that all is going well, really well, they love it.
now the two kittens have not been given bones as yet, they just have the mince which contains ground bone...until now, iggle has just robbed what is left of a chicken wing off the elder cats, and it cracking me up, growling, tossing it in the air, and generally enjoying her first bone.

I would highly recommend raw feeding, its been a real eye opener.

i have happy healthy cats and dog, that really enjoy their food, after just a month they are sleek, well padded and the dog and the cat that had skin issues are completely recovered.

that said, i can't open the fridge without being mobbed now, this from a crowd that ignored their biscuits when it was put down.

[Bephlam]

Have you found it to be more expensive?? Feeding your clan must be pricey!

[BrideXIII]

Have you found it to be more expensive?? Feeding your clan must be pricey!

well.... to be honest yes, but, thats cos i was spending less on absolute rubbish, and i chose between health and wealth, some of you would think that £14 a month to feed 6 cats and a dog was really cheap, and tescos says it is, now i spend on the whole just less than a tenner a week, on better healthier happier food, so if you spend a tenner a week on yours, and i assume you have less 'catnivores' than i do, then yes its cheaper in the long run, and whats more, they dont sniff the bowl and turn their nose up, they LOVE it, and thats reward enough.

[Bephlam]

I have three cats, and two dogs (excluding the chickens!)....and I think we spend somewhere in the region of £42 a month on food for them (excluding treats - which are probably £8 a month). Wow, that's the first I've thought about that...and it's expensive!!!

Luckily ours love their dinner....and I've always been anti BARF/RAW diets (probably standard vet nursing brain washing)....but I have recently been seriously considering it! I just couldn't give them chicken - goodness knows the life they have led prior to being slaughtered for dog food!

Where do you get your stuff? I'm going to do some t'internet research now!

[BrideXIII]

my butcher suppliers the mince, eldest son works for them, they only do free range chickens anyway, so i know where it's been, all the necks and offal and bones including beef and lamb offcuts go into it, all of the mob get mince in the mornings when i am not awake enough to do the 'no, thats not your bone' routine

evenings the dog gets either chicken drumsticks, raw cod courtesy of a fisherman i know, or lamb necks/ribs, the cats get chicken wings from tescos, £1.50 for ten, they get half a wing each complete with the bone.

somehwhere during the week, this gets suplimented with raw egg, and pilchards for the dog, and sardines for the cats, all of them have two serving of fresh beef heart diced a week, for the taurine content.
and basically, thats it

[Bephlam]

Sounds healthy! I'll look in to it, and let you know what I decide. My cats LOVE raw chicken, and beef. When I'm taking the chicken off the bone (only way we can afford to eat chicken, buying organic free range thighs/legs and deboning them ourselves for meals!)...they all sit on the top of the fridge begging for the leftovers....Skin, bone, fat, tendon, meat...anything...they gulp it all down, and spend the next hour licking their lips in delight!!!

I'm sure they'd ADORE the diet! It's really just the affordability!

[BrideXIII]

please don't get me wrong here, i have every admiration for vets and vetinary nurse's, but many a vet will not admit that a raw diet is natural and can be beneficial, like doctors they rely on companies that supply pet food ( not doctors obviously...i hope?) for income.
but for every 'i have seen a dog choke on a bone', there is a ' i have treated a dog thats choked on a tennis ball/biscuit/toy', i was really nervous when i fed the first bone, now it comes really easy, you just have to supervise.

get on the t'internet, and do the research, ignore the disciples, and the anti-raws, just read and make up your own mind and do it your own way, if you dont trust bones, visit the local butcher and ask about ground pet mince, and give 'play' bones, soon you will see that they are cooked therefore more dangerous, and raw bones are soft enough not to cause worry.

just be sure to avoid weight bearing bones ( except chicken)
most shin bones are not good, they can fracture even when raw.

[Bephlam]

In fairness (and in defence of the common bone)...I have never operated on a dog to remove a bone. However, I have had to remove tennis balls (one was wedged in a GSDs throat whilst awake, I honestly thought it was going to die...had to give it air, a sedative and yank it out!!...the poor thing was blue), pine cones, corn on the cob, bath plugs, stones, socks, toys, etc etc....but NEVER just a bone!!

Still, I was always taught (during my training) that the raw diet was no good. However, over the years I have met many people who successfully feed this diet, and it works perfectly. Like anything else, I think it's all about being responsible and careful.

I will research...and worry not about the disciples...I've always enjoyed swimming against the tide!

[BrideXIII]

well since i started, i am a fan of the phrase, 'ever seen a cat wearing oven gloves?'

[Earthbabe]

Can't remember the original thread, but our three have been on a hypoallergenic biscuit and raw meat diet for about 15 months now. They are incredibly healthy and happy especially when they see I'm chopping up heart for them, then they become impatient. All our neighbours and any visitors comment on how smooth and sleek their coats are, how bright-eyed and alert they look.

We buy in frozen chicken from AMP (£3.49 for 2kg) and occasionally the white fish but we also buy in tins of 70% fish in jelly which is relatively inexpensive. We made the change because one of ours was really struggling with worm burden and digestive problems on standard cat food, now they don't seem to have any problems apart from the occasional attempt at a hairball on Smokey's part. As a treat they get frozen chicks which we buy in bulk (£4.99 for 50) from a local store or the nature's menu thingys.

We would actually say that on the whole this is a cheaper way to feed as they generally eat less in terms of volume because the food is nutritionally better and obviously higher in protein than something that contains "derivatives" and a lot of filler. Cats are after all obligate carnivores so meat is a necessity.

BrideXIII I like that phrase along with the one - ever see a cat with a tin opener.

[Two_Sheds]

A raw diet sounds kind of obvious ... it's what a cat would eat in the wild after all.
I have one concern ~ would the delicious taste of raw chicken lead the cats into killing your pet chickens? Once they get a taste for it?


Personally, I like vegetarian pets ~ they're far more useful: for cutting the lawn, eating kitchen peelings; providing manure; using up my newspapers for bedding, weeing on it ready for the compost heap.

[Glutton4...]

Hi-y'all

It may have been my dog with the 'squirts' that started the original thread. Every time the antibiotics course finishes he's fine for two or three days, then 'loose' again.

He's on a two-week course now, and back on his proper food with the instruction that if he's loose again change him on to 'Chappie' the cheap tinned stuff. From my point of view that would be a considerable saving, financially, and he would probably not be so hungry, as he's only allowed a tiny amount of the dried stuff he's currently on.

I love the sound of the RAW diet, seems a bit like the 'Atkins' diet, which is purely based on what 'man' would have eaten in the wild - Meat, veg, fruit and a bit of dairy. I felt so much better on it, and lost two stone. The only reason I lapsed, and can't seem to stick to it is it doesn't allow my regular doses of red wine. Or Marmite. Or Peanut Butter.

Anyway, I digress. I will research the RAW diet, as the old boy has always had a delicate stomach, so it may help. It's good to hear such positive reports from people.

[BrideXIII]

A raw diet sounds kind of obvious ... it's what a cat would eat in the wild after all.
I have one concern ~ would the delicious taste of raw chicken lead the cats into killing your pet chickens? Once they get a taste for it?

as I don't keep chickens as yet, well i can't comment really, i fail to see why it should, and I have noticed one thing I forgot to mention, the girls have not brought one dead bird or frog home since we started the diet?
maybe they don't feel the need to now they are getting fresh raw meat at home? or maybe its just a coincedence.

[Polly Fouracre]

Regarding cat's diets, an old vet I knew used to say "A sparrow a day keeps the vet away" So a chicken wing will do the same! How can a cat not have dental problems early in life if it is fed mush?!!

[Alison]

Not something I know anything about so I can't comment on the benefits etc of the diet. However I do know something about the problems of a cat swallowing a bone. When one of our cats accidently ate a chicken bone whilst out on his travels it ended up with him spending almost a week at the vets and he had to undertake a very major operation. Forunately we have him insured as the total bill came to about £600 as I remember. I take the point that this was obviously a cooked bone which somebody above says are harder but it was a very worrying time for me and OH and could easily have resulted in a dead pet.