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Slow Transition to Raw for Picky Cats

Picky cats need time and encouragement, transition them to raw in baby steps.

Cats by nature are cautious animals and may not take to raw as quickly as others. If the cat does not take to 100% raw meals immediately, it is necessary to do a slow transition into a raw diet. This process takes timeย and patience to wean off pickyย cats from their previous commercial dry or wet diet.

catrawfeedingtransition
kibble
wetcannedfood
rawchicken

Step One

Create a Feeding Schedule

Before moving to step two, if the cat is accustom to “free feeding,” it is necessary to get them adjusted to eating on a set schedule throughout the day. Free feeding is not advisable in raw feeding and taking this additional step in the beginning of the transition will get the cat on a feeding schedule.

Select feeding times when feeding the cat and offer the meal for limited amounts of time (30 minutes).ย This allows the cat to have times of rest in between meals and the sensation of hunger will encourage the willingness to try something new. Additionally, feeding on a schedule will allow the cat’s body to regulate and begin producing the appropriate gastric acid that is essential to raw digestion.

Step Two

Transition from Dry Food to Canned Wet Food

Step two of slow transition is getting the cat to accept and eat wet meals. Substituting portions of the dry food diet with canned, wet food will slowly transition the cat into eating 100% wet meats. It is ideal to select a chunked style canned wet food rather than a canned paste.

Percent

For the first days, substitute a small amount of dry food with canned wet food mixed in. Begin using 25% canned wet cat food mixed into dry food for the first few days.

Percent

Following the initial substitutionย of 25% wet food, begin increasing the substitution amount. Substitute 50% dry food with wet food.

Percent

When the cat is acceptingย 50/50 dry and wet meals, increase the substitutionย of wet food. Begin substituting 75% of the cat’s dry food with wet food.

Percent

Once the cat has acclimated to 25/75 dry and wet food, beginย feeding 100% wet food. When the cat is eating 100% wet food, move to step three.

Some cats will not take long to transition, while others may be a bit difficult. Remember to only move at the pace of the cat and do not allow them to go without eating for more than 24-hours. If the cat is not accepting the changes in food, make adjustments until they accept the meal.

Step 3

Introducing Small Raw Chunks

Chunk boneless muscleย meat into small, bite sized pieces to begin adding into a cat’s canned wet food meals. Add chunks of the meat into pieces that can be easily hiddenย in the chunked canned wet food. This will help disguises the chunked raw pieces inย the wet food.

Begin with 3 - 4 small, bite size raw chunks

Mix in the raw chunks into the canned wet food. Be sure to coat the raw food thoroughly with the canned wet food to help encourage your cat to eat the raw.

Increase to 6 - 8 small, bite size raw chunks

One your cat is accepting meals with raw chunks mixed in, its time to increase the amount of chunks included in the meal.

Continue adding more chunks daily

Continue increasing the amount of small chunks in the canned food mix. As you begin to include more raw be sure to decrease the amount of canned food.

Step 4

Increasing Chunked Raw

Once the cat is eating 50% canned wet food and 50% small raw chunks, it is time to start gradually increasing the size of the chunked raw pieces. Begin chunking muscle meat in slightly larger portions. At this step, it is necessary to continue phasing out the wet canned food.

50/50 raw and canned wet food

Since you are going to be including slightly larger raw chunks, you need to continue with 50/50 to ensure you’re cat will not refuse the changes.

Increase raw chunk sizes and amounts

As time progresses and your cat accepts larger chunks, begin increasing the chunk sizes and decreasing the amount of canned wet food.

Get ready for the full switch

Once your cat is eating primarily chunked muscle meat with small amounts of canned wet food, it is time to make the next step into fully balanced 100% raw meals.

When adding raw chunks into canned wet food, provide a variety of protein sources. Begin using chicken and turkey for the first couple of days and then slowly incorporate red meats such as beef and pork.

Methods to Encourage

Sometimes all it take is adding in something extra special to get the pickiest eatersย to eat raw.

Canned Sardine Juice

Raw Goats Milk

Kefir

Packaged Tuna Juice

Warmed Bone Broth

Crushed Kibble Crumbs

Complete a Cat’s Transition to Raw

Follow the standard transition guide to begin providing any cat with a complete species appropriate raw diet.

GET STARTED GUIDE

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๐Ÿถ Daily meal for Pica, Ronny's 13 year old Bord ๐Ÿถ Daily meal for Pica, Ronny's 13 year old Border Collie. Pica is a healthy adult dog and does not have any diet limitations. He eats 1000kcal a day which is roughly 18-20oz (510-567g) of food. 

๐Ÿ“… April 21, 2021 Meal:
๐Ÿ‡ @topqualitydogfood Whole Ground Rabbit, with fur & organs
๐ŸŸ @topqualitydogfood Sardine
๐Ÿฆ† @topqualitydogfood Duck Organ Grind
๐Ÿ– Pork Fat
๐Ÿฅš @purepheasant Pheasant Egg, freeze dried
๐Ÿฅฌ Mixed Vegetables, steamed
๐ŸŒฐ Chia Seeds, fresh ground
๐ŸŒพ Kelp
๐Ÿ’Š Vitamin E
๐Ÿ’Š Manganese
๐Ÿ’Š Zinc

 ๐ŸŒ PerfectlyRawsome.com (link in bio):
๐Ÿฅฉ Custom Meal Plans
โ˜Ž๏ธ Phone Consultations
โš–๏ธ Recipe Analysis & Adjustments
๐Ÿ›’ Perfectly Rawsome Merch
๐Ÿพ Free Raw Feeding Guides

#PerfectlyRawsome #RawFeedingUniversity #TopQualityDogFood #RawFeeding #RawFeedingCommunity #RawFeedingMiami #FreshFood  #CanineNutrition #BarfModel #RawFedDog  #RawDogFood #DogFood #DogDiet
๐Ÿฅฃ Messy Bowl Monday with @mrfluffdaddy ๐Ÿ”– Don ๐Ÿฅฃ Messy Bowl Monday with @mrfluffdaddy ๐Ÿ”– Don't forget to add #MessyBowlMonday for a chance to be featured!

๐Ÿ‘‰ Many photos of raw meals look too "perfect" or "pretty" which can overwhelm pet parents who are considering a raw diet for their pet. Although these photos are a good example to show individual ingredients in the meal, it is an unrealistic view of everyday life for the majority of raw feeders. Messy Bowl Monday is a way to showcase real life examples of raw meals for dogs and cats. 

๐Ÿ”– Be sure to tag #MessyBowlMonday and #RawMBM in your messy bowl photos for a chance to be featured on our account!
ใƒปใƒปใƒป
#mmmonday๐Ÿคค + #messybowlmonday 

Every Monday we post our #rawfeddog bowl and get into a little more detail about whatโ€™s in it and what we love. Come follow along and share your meals with us by using the hashtag #mmmonday๐Ÿคค 

Todayโ€™s bowl:
๐ŸŸ smelt
๐Ÿ– pork mince
๐Ÿ„ beef spleen
๐Ÿ“ chicken liver
๐Ÿซ frozen berries
๐Ÿฅฆ veggie mash
๐Ÿฅ› kefir

#PerfectlyRawsome #RawFeedingUniversity #RawFeeding #RawFeedingCommunity #RawFeedingMiami #FreshFood  #CanineNutrition #BarfModel #RawFedDog  #RawDogFood #DogFood #DogDiet
๐Ÿถ Daily meals for Ronny's 2year old (almost) Ge ๐Ÿถ Daily meals for Ronny's 2year old (almost) German Shorthaired Pointer, Quest. Quest is a sports performance dog that participates in Tracking, Scent Detection, Dock Diving, and Barn Hunt. He eats 2300kcal which is roughly 3lbs (1200-1300g).

โ˜€๏ธ AM Menu:
๐Ÿ‡ Rabbit, front leg & ribs
๐Ÿ„ Beef Heart
๐Ÿ„ @texastripe Beef Organ Grind
๐ŸŸ @rawfeedingmiami Salmon

๐ŸŒ˜ PM Menu:
๐Ÿ„ Ground Beef, 95% lean, 5% fat
๐Ÿ– Pork Shoulder, with fat
๐Ÿ‡ Rabbit, hind leg
๐Ÿฅฌ Mixed Steamed Vegetables
๐ŸŒพ Kelp
๐Ÿ’Š Vitamin E
๐Ÿ’Š Zinc
๐Ÿ’Š Manganese

 ๐ŸŒ PerfectlyRawsome.com (link in bio):
๐Ÿฅฉ Custom Meal Plans
โ˜Ž๏ธ Phone Consultations
โš–๏ธ Recipe Analysis & Adjustments
๐Ÿ›’ Perfectly Rawsome Merch
๐Ÿพ Free Raw Feeding Guides

#PerfectlyRawsome #RawFeedingUniversity #RawFeeding #RawFeedingCommunity #RawFeedingMiami #FreshFood  #CanineNutrition #BarfModel #RawFedDog  #RawDogFood #DogFood #DogDiet
Raw meal from @therawstorm ๐Ÿ”– Don't forget to ad Raw meal from @therawstorm ๐Ÿ”– Don't forget to add #PerfectlyRawsome to your mealtime photos for a chance to be featured!
ใƒปใƒปใƒป
๐Ÿฆช๐—ข๐˜†๐˜€๐˜๐—ฒ๐—ฟ๐˜€๐Ÿฆช

โšก๏ธ Oysters are popular in raw diets since they are so high in zinc!

โฌ Zinc is one of the most common deficiencies in a raw diet but has the vital purpose of acting as a constituent or activator for 200 known enzymes. It also aids in skin & wound healing, immune response, growth rate, and so much more that we probably havenโ€™t discovered yet!

โœจ The National Research Council (NRC) suggests that a healthy adult dog should receive 15mg of zinc per 1000kcal.

๐Ÿ›’ I personally source canned oysters at Walmart or frozen oysters (์ƒ๊ตด) from H Mart. Then, I make an easy one serving molds to pop into her meals.

๐Ÿคง If your dog has a shellfish allergy, itโ€™s smart to stay away from oysters as a zinc source and use a zinc supplement instead such as Solgar Chelated Zinc or Trace Minerals Ionic Zinc.

๐Ÿ’ญ Do you feed oysters?

Todayโ€™s Meal:
+ Lamb Chunk
+ Duck Gizzard
+ Goat Kidney
+ Lamb Liver
+ Duck Neck
+ Canned Sardine
+ Oyster
+ Homemade Veggie Mix

Sponsored and formulated by @perfectlyrawsome
Custom Canine Nutrition by Certified Canine Nutritionists

๐Ÿ‘‰ Don't forget to use promo code โ™ฅ STORMY10 โ™ฅ for 10% off

๐Ÿฅฉ Custom Meal Plans
โ˜Ž๏ธ Phone Consultations
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๐Ÿ›’ Raw Feeding Merchandise

#PerfectlyRawsome #RawFeedingUniversity #RawFeeding #RawFeedingCommunity #RawFeedingMiami #FreshFood  #CanineNutrition #BarfModel #RawFedDog  #RawDogFood #DogFood #DogDiet
โ˜Ž๏ธ We are happy to announce that we are changi โ˜Ž๏ธ We are happy to announce that we are changing our available Phone Consultation hours to give you more opportunities to speak with Lead Canine Nutritionist, Ronny LeJeune on the phone!

๐Ÿ“… Effective May 1, 2021 our available Phone Consultation days will be Sunday through Thursday between 2:00pm and 5:30pm Central Time Zone.

๐Ÿ‡บ๐Ÿ‡ธ ๐Ÿ‡จ๐Ÿ‡ฆPhone Consultations are only available to US and Canadian pet parents at this time.

๐Ÿง Read more about our consultation service packages or schedule an appointment (link in bio):
https://perfectlyrawsome.com/raw-feeding-phone-consultation/

#PerfectlyRawsome #RawFeedingUniversity #RawFeeding #RawFeedingCommunity #RawFeedingMiami #FreshFood  #CanineNutrition #BarfModel #RawFedDog  #RawDogFood #DogFood #DogDiet
๐Ÿพ Daily meal for Michelle's 4 & 7 year old Ibiz ๐Ÿพ Daily meal for Michelle's 4 & 7 year old Ibizan Hounds, Ahava and Mabel. Each dog gets the same meal. The girls are fit & healthy adults without any food restrictions or allergies. They eat approximately 1000kcal per day which is roughly 19oz (539g) a day.

Thank you to @topqualitydogfood and @gefionpet for being kind enough to send us some samples.

๐Ÿ“† April 8, 2021 Daily Menu:
๐Ÿฆ† Duck Wing - @topqualitydogfood
๐Ÿท Pork Loin 
๐Ÿฆƒ Turkey Heart - @topqualitydogfood
๐Ÿ‘ Freeze Dried Organs - @gefionpet
๐ŸŸ Raw Salmon - @topqualitydogfood
๐Ÿฆช Canned Oysters
๐Ÿฆช Cooked Blue Mussels
๐Ÿฅš Chicken Egg
๐ŸŒฑ Chia Seeds
๐Ÿฎ Answers Kefir - @answerspetfood
๐Ÿฅฆ Green Veggie Mash
๐ŸŒฑ Now Kelp Powder
๐Ÿ’ง Now E Oil

๐ŸŒ PerfectlyRawsome.com (link in bio):
๐Ÿฅฉ Custom Meal Plans
โ˜Ž๏ธ Phone Consultations
โš–๏ธ Recipe Analysis & Adjustments
๐Ÿ›’ Perfectly Rawsome Merch
๐Ÿพ Free Raw Feeding Guides

#perfectlyrawsome #rawfeedinguniversity #rawfeeding #rawfeedingcommunity #rawfeedingmiami #freshfood  #caninenutrition #barfmodel #rawfeddog  #rawdogfood #dogfood #dogdiet

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