Hi There
I'm pretty sure every cat will be different when it comes to switching diets so it may be a case of trying a few methods. When we put our two boys on the Raw diet, they took to it instantly and LOVE the meat so you might be ok too...
Some questions:
Firstly: Can you feed the cats in different rooms/parts of the house/garden/garage? You'll then be able to conroll what they all eat and stop the bullys.
Second: It sounds like the dry food is free-fed...do they get the pouches at the same time daily or are they free fed too?
Thirdly: Have you tried any of them on raw meat yet? Did they take to it?
If you can seperate the cats when feeding, that's your first problem solved.
As for stopping the free-feeding, it's just a case of phasing it out. Make sure the cats still have access to food (you don't want them to go without) and start reducing the amount of dry food and making sure they have wet food (raw or pouches) at particular times. They'll soon realise this is breakfast/dinner time.
As for changing from pouches to raw. Start slow. Put some raw in with the pouches (you can also just use the jelly from a pouch or juice from a can of tuna) and make it easy to eat (small chunks). Eventually start putting in more raw and less pouch and once they're used to eating just the raw meat, start working up to larger chunks of meat, small bones and meat on a bone. This will give their jaws and teeth time to get used to ripping and chewing (not something they'll need to do with pouch food).
I don't recommend grinding the meat into a paste (it will reduce the amount of taurine in the meat) but older cats might strugle with bones or large hunks of meat so this might be useful (I don't imagine a 6 year old will struggle).
Likewise, some cats prefer certain meats so try a bit of everything. Ours LOVE red meat but it's more expensive than poultry so they get it as a treat.
If they're still not taking to it, you could try disguising it as human food (if they like treats from you) and either accidentaly drop some from a chopping board for them to try, or feeding them from your plate at the table so they get the taste.
Problems you might face: By having set feed times, you'll have 7 meowing cats waking you up on the day you decide to have a lie in! I really wish our boys knew the difference between weekdays and weekends...
I've written a guide/review on how to feed cats Raw diets here:
http://www.purrsinourhearts.co.uk/index.php/topic,42407.0.htmlIt's easy to do, but can be time consuming preparing it all. If you have a good local butcher he/she might be able to do that for you.
Good luck! Message me if you need more advice.
