I’ve been feeding my cats ground, raw meat and bones since 1992, and I recently decided to switch them over to whole prey to improve their teeth. Over the years they have enjoyed occasional whole chicken necks, but I didn’t really have a reliable, affordable supply for whole prey. I do now.
Tonight I cut up my first whole rabbit (I’ll spare you the pictures, unless you want to see them). I cut one up a few nights ago, but that one was already skinned. Tonight’s rabbit was complete.
My supplier raises rabbits in a humane environment where they can run around, and she buys others from local farmers, mostly from the Amish. The rabbits are euthanized with CO2 gas and then bagged and frozen.
The first thing I did was use a cleaver to take off a foot, which I gave to Pinegar. He gleefully ran into the living room with it, throwing it up in the air repeatedly and catching it again. He was acting just like a cat. I love to see it.
I had to cut off the fur, because I realized it would get everywhere and make a mess. I threw out the intestines and stomach and dismantled the rest with knife and cleaver, making sure everybody got a good piece with meat on it.
My 15-year-old cat Lyla has completely taken to the whole prey concept, happily crunching bones and eating organs. And I’m so happy about it, because her teeth need cleaning desperately, which was the main reason I switched to whole prey.
Lyla and Pinegar eating an Oregon rabbit Boy brought home
Tibbs, my 16-year-old, has been slow to come around. She’s never cared for bones, and not once has she eaten a chicken neck, but this morning she ate some whole baby rabbits, and she did a good job tonight on the piece of rabbit I gave her, leaving only a hard section of bone behind.
TipToe ate her share and then threw it up on my desk, right on the place where I had just moved my beading books for fear she might throw up on them. Sure enough.
The cats ate the whole rabbit, including the head. Pinegar is still growling over his rabbit’s foot, and his brother Arthur is in the kitchen entertaining himself with an ear. In the freezer I have pieces of turkey, chicken and duck along with organ meat: chicken gizzards, hearts and liver.
For those of you who find this whole idea distasteful because bunnies must die, where do you think canned and bagged pet food comes from? From the left over pieces of the factory-farmed livestock you eat (who lived a wretched life), from roadkill, from euthanized pets, from anywhere cheap meat is found with no regard to how it’s raised.
My cats are getting the best nutrition possible under the circumstances from animals humanely raised and slaughtered. I don’t like cutting up rabbits. But I like having healthy cats. I don’t like eating factory-farmed meat, so I sure don’t want my cats eating it.
If you’d like to improve your pets’ nutrition, think about feeding them whole prey. It’s more work and it can be messy, but you’ll improve your pets’ health considerably. Look for videos on YouTube of animals eating raw meat and bones. Next best thing is ground, raw meat and bones, which is much cleaner and easier.
If you live on the east coast, you can get food from Hare Today, Gone Tomorrow. They have several distributors on the east coast. If you live on the west coast, you can get rabbits from Wholefoods4pets. When I was in Oregon I got raw food from a healthy pet store. Search the Internet.
Oh, an added bonus of feeding your pets raw meat is little or no odor from feces. When we first moved into this apartment and my cats were on canned food, the stench was unbelievable. Now I never know when they’ve defecated. Healthy teeth, clean, shiny, sweet smelling coat, and few or no vet appointments. You will, however, have a very energetic animal.
Visit:
Raw Meaty Bones
United States Raw Meaty Bones Support Group
Raw Learning
Raw Fed Cats
Two hours later, Pinegar is still playing with this foot. This is the most exercise he’s gotten this year! He’s on the futon with me now tossing it up in the air, plopping against me, having an absolute blast!
Want to give your pet a real treat? Order some dehydrated rabbit feet, ears or how about some dehydrated ground goat?
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
I have a 2 year old snowshoe and a 4 year old shorthair mix. They’ve been eating raw for about 3 months and they LOVE it. I’ve been mixing human grade powder bone meal with plain yogurt and diced chicken breast (some days livers and hearts) and they eat it up. I’d like to get them eating bone-in pieces of meat like my jack russel is; but they’re extremely resistant to eating anything not diced and mixed with some yogurt. They don’t seem to know what to even do with a meaty bone (they’ll eat around it) even though they watch my dog crunching away. How did you get your cats to accept meaty bones?
My cats had been eating ground meat for 6 years before I added meat with bone. The younger ones also had experience doing their hunting.
I would start by reducing and then eliminating the yogurt so they get used to meat straight. Then give them chicken necks but chop them partway through with a cleaver. That’s pretty much what my cats started on. Get a cornish game hen and cut it up into 2×2 inch pieces and then smash the bone a bit.
Right now my cats are eating ground turkey and bone-in rabbit and cornish game hens. One cats eats a mouse every morning and lately two other cats have shown an interest in them. Most don’t care for dead mice. A couple cats like week-old quail. Turkey bones are too big and hard for cats, so they don’t get that anymore.
Funny thing is my cat Puddy will eat rabbit that I buy from a store that has been cleaned. But he won’t eat the rabbits I buy from a farmer and skin myself, I’m sure because of that farm smell.
Anyway, I think your best bet is to go slow and transition them into the new food. Let them go hungry a couple days and see if that improves their appetite.