Purrs In Our Hearts - Cat Forum UK

Cat Health & Behaviour => Health & Behaviour General => Topic started by: Marcia on December 06, 2009, 17:27:46 PM

Title: Raw meat
Post by: Marcia on December 06, 2009, 17:27:46 PM
I want to start giving raw meat to my cats as a treat and a bit of variety. I read that chicken wings were good and seeing as i buy them for the ferrets, i thought i'd give some to the cats.
Firstly, is it ok for the cats to eat the bone? And secondly, Molly kept on growling even though no one was anywhere near her, is that just a dominance thing?
Title: Re: Raw meat
Post by: Gillian Harvey on December 06, 2009, 18:43:12 PM
Yes its ok for them to eat bone as long as its raw, NEVER cooked. Mine often growl, (even the ones who wouldnt say boo to a goose normally!), when they have a chicken wing, quite normal.  :) 
Title: Re: Raw meat
Post by: Marcia on December 06, 2009, 22:09:32 PM
Thanks for that  :)

Tilly, Molly and Taco loved them but Holly wasn't that interested. I think she's struggle a bit anyway, she only has about 4-5 teeth  :( Poor thing.
Title: Re: Raw meat
Post by: Gillian Harvey on December 06, 2009, 22:41:52 PM
Ah yes, my Elsa had only one or two teeth left so she definitely couldnt eat bone, but she was game for raw meat on the bone, and was still able to tear the meat of a chicken leg, it used to amaze me  :Luv:
Title: Re: Raw meat
Post by: Fire Fox on December 07, 2009, 00:25:11 AM
I want to start giving raw meat to my cats as a treat and a bit of variety. I read that chicken wings were good and seeing as i buy them for the ferrets, i thought i'd give some to the cats.
Firstly, is it ok for the cats to eat the bone? And secondly, Molly kept on growling even though no one was anywhere near her, is that just a dominance thing?

Aaaawwww, Molly is probably enjoying the chicken wing so much she doesn't want to risk it getting stolen. :Luv: Noah purrs when he's given raw mince, and runs away with any chunks of meat!
Title: Re: Raw meat
Post by: Marcia on December 07, 2009, 12:45:58 PM
I want to start giving raw meat to my cats as a treat and a bit of variety. I read that chicken wings were good and seeing as i buy them for the ferrets, i thought i'd give some to the cats.
Firstly, is it ok for the cats to eat the bone? And secondly, Molly kept on growling even though no one was anywhere near her, is that just a dominance thing?

Aaaawwww, Molly is probably enjoying the chicken wing so much she doesn't want to risk it getting stolen. :Luv: Noah purrs when he's given raw mince, and runs away with any chunks of meat!

Molly tried to run away with it too  :evillaugh:
Title: Re: Raw meat
Post by: golden eagle on December 09, 2009, 10:59:32 AM
Gandalf always growls at Mishka and she just sits there real close to him watching him eat a chicken wing. I reckon she does it to annoy him. She then eats whatever he leaves even though there is a bowl full of chicken wings she could have. Go figure... :Crazy:

I finally ordered some raw mince from Food4cats last week and neither is very keen... It does disappear eventually but it stays in their bowls for hours which can't be good. Any tips how to make it more palatable for them? I mixed it with some pouch meat but still not much interest...

They love eggs though  :naughty:.
Title: Re: Raw meat
Post by: Susanne (urbantigers) on December 09, 2009, 11:05:38 AM
Jaffa growls with anything big.  If there's a big piece in his bowl he has to run off into the living room with it to eat it and if it's raw meat or anything he's very funny with his growling.  Until he realises he can't eat it and growl at the same time  :rofl:
Title: Re: Raw meat
Post by: Gillian Harvey on December 09, 2009, 15:43:25 PM
I finally ordered some raw mince from Food4cats last week and neither is very keen... It does disappear eventually but it stays in their bowls for hours which can't be good. Any tips how to make it more palatable for them? I mixed it with some pouch meat but still not much interest...


You might find that they prefer the chunks of meat rather than the mince, the pork tongue and the rabbit goes down well with my lot. Mine do like the mince - when I first introduced it I added just a tiny bit of the mince to their usual wet food and gradually worked up the amount of mince each time until they were eating all mince. I also found that grinding to a powder the Thrive chicken treats and sprinkling on top helped.  ;)
Title: Re: Raw meat
Post by: golden eagle on December 09, 2009, 16:03:29 PM


You might find that they prefer the chunks of meat rather than the mince, the pork tongue and the rabbit goes down well with my lot. Mine do like the mince - when I first introduced it I added just a tiny bit of the mince to their usual wet food and gradually worked up the amount of mince each time until they were eating all mince. I also found that grinding to a powder the Thrive chicken treats and sprinkling on top helped.  ;)
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Great tip  putting their favourite treat ground up on top of the mince. Will try that tonight. I actually had to defrost the mince, split it into about 6-8 smaller portions (can't remember now) and re-freeze as it would have gone off by the time they got to the last portion. I know refreezing is not recommended for humans so hopefully the same strict rules don't apply to cats?
Title: Re: Raw meat
Post by: Gatos on December 09, 2009, 20:46:16 PM
Jaffa growls with anything big.  If there's a big piece in his bowl he has to run off into the living room with it to eat it and if it's raw  Until he realises he can't eat it and growl at the same time  :rofl:

That made me laugh! Willow CAN growl and eat at the same time!  It's really funny.  :rofl:
Title: Re: Raw meat
Post by: Fire Fox on December 09, 2009, 21:43:13 PM

Great tip  putting their favourite treat ground up on top of the mince. Will try that tonight. I actually had to defrost the mince, split it into about 6-8 smaller portions (can't remember now) and re-freeze as it would have gone off by the time they got to the last portion. I know refreezing is not recommended for humans so hopefully the same strict rules don't apply to cats?

I feed Noah the mince exclusively on raw days, in order that one 'sausage' only lasts two days. I have found you can leave a sausage out to partially defrost for an hour or two (depending how warm your house is) then slice it in half with a large kitchen knife. I then defrost one half in the fridge and refreeze the other for day two: that way nothing is hanging about. I wouldn't advise defrosting and splitting into small portions as you have massively increased the surface area, so the mince will go off much more quickly.

I am now down to my last sausage, and then only one Noah wouldn't eat all of was the lamb which was the only one that smelled at all ... some seemed quite dry and Noah seemed to prefer a little added water and definitely prefers closer to room temperature.
Title: Re: Raw meat
Post by: golden eagle on December 10, 2009, 08:34:36 AM
Like your tip on only partially defrosting the sausage, FF. I actually think I opened the lamb mince first so maybe other types will have more success with my spoilt brats.  ;)This morning I left some of the mince they don't like for the feral cat I started feeding recently so hopefully he wont be so choosy and the meat wont get wasted. :innocent:

Title: Re: Raw meat
Post by: Marcia on December 10, 2009, 12:48:13 PM
They had some more last night. The growling sounded human  :evillaugh: I swear they were saying "Yum yum yum"  :rofl: