Auntie Crazy and Crew Intro

[Auntie Crazy]

Hi, all! My name's Auntie Crazy and I am the proud meowmy to five rescued ex-feral cats, 2.5 year old siblings Allen, Rachel and Meghan, and 5 month-old siblings Spencer and Heather.

Like so many others, I was hit by the pet food poisoning of 2007. We were able to save Allen and the two girls, for which I will remain eternally grateful, but I lost their brother, Oliver. Since then, I have been obsessed with all things cat food related.

Even before Ollie passed away, I knew kibble was a bad deal. After not all that much research, it became clear to me that a raw diet was the healthiest and most natural for my furbabies, but I only just recently began feeding it. Today, in fact, ends my cats' first full week eating raw dinners. They are totally LOVING IT! If and when I get my sources lined up for regular purchases, they'll be going 100% raw.

Allen, my heartkitty.

Rachel

Meghan

(Well, I'm not allowed five pics in one post, so you'll have to read the next one to see Spencer and his sister, Heather. *grin*)

I look forward to getting to know all of you!

A.C.

[Auntie Crazy]

And here is Spencer...

and Heather.


Heather has been sorta petite and thin since I trapped her family, but within three or four days of eating one (large) raw meal a day, she is finally and for the first time, beginning to put on some weight. Yay!

Here's a new pic of her.

[juliebove]

Nice kitties!

[spicyfull]

What Beautiful Family you have. I Feel your Loss because they Truly are Family.

[buffalogal]

I think what you have done is wonderful!:) It's great that you were able to tame the ferals and have them become family pets! I hope that you have had them all spayed or neutered. I volunteer with an organization called Feral Cat Focus. One Sunday a month, many volunteers "trap" feral cats from whereever we know they congregate. (Of course we use humane "have-a-heart" traps). We take them to vets who volunteer their time to spay and neuter the ferals. (We get charged $15.00 - $40.00 per cat and they also give them rabies shots, ear mite medicine if they need it, and flea stuff like "Advantage".) We keep them sheltered for a few days after the surgery and then return them to their familiar surroundings (as long as it's a safe place), where they are happiest. We "caretakers" make sure that the colonies always have food and water. It's been a very rewarding experience and it's good to realize how many cat pregnancies we have prevented. I've probably paid to have over 100 cats sterilized (a few at a time of course!). If any of the cats seem friendly enough that they could be "socialized", they are not returned to the colony, but "socialized" and then fostered or adopted. I'm just proud to be a part of an organization that cares so much about animals...how I wish every animal could be spayed/neutered and have a "forever" home. We're working on it one kitty at a time!! Maybe you could get involved with an organization like this in your neighborhood!! (Over the years, our home has been a "forever" home to 31 cats - not all at once, of course! The most we ever had at one time was 18!) We live in the country and, unfortunately, cats get dropped off all the time. We get them fixed and let them stay! (With welcome arms!) Every one of them has turned into a very friendly, lovable cat and have brought us lots of joy!! Your kitties are very lucky to have such a loving home!! Enjoy them!!

[spicyfull]

Do you know the Breed of the First one........He looks like a little Fox.

[Auntie Crazy]

Thanks for the compliments, everyone!

I've worked all my life in animal welfare and rescue and spent even more time teaching people and helping them with problems, usually behavioral. I own a website that (once complete) will have links to all the resources folks need to properly care for their animals, and I'm quite active on several forums.

So you can bet, Buffalogal, my furchildren are S/N! (And a have-a-heart-trap is a feral catcher's best friend!) I like to caution folk, however, it's important (nearly vital), and it's wonderful to be passionate, but we don't want to spend our passion in an unfocused manner. We need to get those abandoned and homeless cats, dogs, horses, birds, rats, ferrets, rabbits and many more into forever homes and of course, we don't want them indiscriminately breeding, but! Our agenda can't be the end of all breeding, or we will, within a lifetime after that last animal is fixed, have no cats, dogs, horses... you get my meaning. :)

All five of my kitties are ex-ferals, Spicyfull, and they are considered "moggys" which is the cat version of a mutt. Allen's type and coloring label is domestic medium hair (often abbreviated DMH) orange tabby. Rachel is a DMH calico, while Meghan is a DSH patched tabby calico (since some of her patches have tabby stripes). Spencer is a DSH black and white tuxedo and Heather is a DMH gray tabby. Heh, I'll bet that was more info than you were looking for! LOL! I LOVE talking about my cats!

[Auntie Crazy]

They had their first raw beef dinner tonight. I was kinda skeptical about offering it because I've read that beef is an iffy prospect for most cats.

Not at my house. LOL! Between the five of them, they downed just a hair over a pound of Round Stew Meat in about ten minutes flat. And I gave it to them exactly as it came out of the package, in nice big chunks straight out of the fridge.

[Auntie Crazy]

Today is two weeks and two days I've been feeding at least one raw meal a day to my cats. About a week in, they became reluctant to eat their canned meals and a few days ago, began leaving more canned than they were eating.

Because they've done so well accepting everything I've offered (with the single exception of the whole mice: after two acceptable meals, they began eating only the top half of the mice ) and the improvement I've seen in their coats and their energy levels - despite the fact I was watching them closely for possible negative reactions to their change in diet and was NOT, with only a single raw meal a day, expecting any positive changes - I decided to give them what they want and feed them entirely raw.

So I sat down and (finally) performed the calculations necessary to plan their diet (3% of food by weight with 80%/10%/5%/5% meat/bones/liver/other organ respectively). And guess what I found out?

The buggers are supposed to be eating around 9 ounces shared between the five of them per meal, NOT the pound and a quarter they've been gobbling down every night! I repeated my calculations several times to make sure I was doing it right, and there is no doubt about it.

I guess that explains the 6.5 ozs Allen's gained, the 6 ozs Rachel's put on and the 3.5 ozs Meghan's added in the last two weeks. In Rachel's case, I'm happy about the weight increase - she has always been too thin for my comfort and has steadfastly refused to gain no matter what I fed her. The kittens have picked up quite a bit, too, but I don't mind since they're so young and Heather was another too-thin kitty.

I spent several days trying to find sources and figure out the best way to handle the ingredients with little progress, and then I got a call from local raw-feeder who had heard I was looking for help. She gave me some very awesome, very specific tips (not to mention a grinder she's no longer using!) and, together with my research, I've been able to put together a menu I am comfortable with. (The best tip she gave me - I can order any amount of anything Whole Foods sells and they will grind it up for free!)

I wanted to continue to feed as much chunked meat as possible, but needed a way to get the bones and other stuff into their diet, too, so I divided their monthly numbers by three and calculated the percentages so that meat alone could be fed twice a day and a ground combo of meat, bone, heart, liver, organ and supplements could be fed for breakfast every morning. Feeding them this way, their ratios are balanced at the end of every day, which I like a lot. (I know they can be balanced over a whole week, but if I can do it daily, so much the better!)

Today, I made the following Whole Foods order: 10 lbs chicken wings, 13 lbs chicken hearts, and 5.5 lbs chicken liver. This will be mixed with 6.5 lbs of ground chicken breast and some salmon oil, vitamins B complex and E, Taurine and maybe a multigland supplement. This mixture will last for two months and, with 9 ozs of raw chicken, beef, whatever I can get my hands on, for their lunch and dinner meals, will cost me an estimated $240.

Compare that to the $200 I was spending every single month for canned food!

[oceanluv]

thank you for all your info. have just this past week started feeding my guy raw chicken breast, and don't have a grinder. wonder if the butcher at Publix will grind stuff up for me? were do you get your taurine, and other supplements? keep us updated on your raw adventure. :)

[Veronica01]

I have an 8 year old cat and I am wondering if i can transition him and how much to feed him. He's only active 4-5 months of the year when it's warm outside, but when he is outside im sure he's eating mice as he leaves organ "presents" on my steps lol. Is it natural to feed them chicken or order things like rodents? Would you be able to help me with some info and where to start, i feel guilty eating raw and feeding him organic cat food, but it only costs me $16 a month.

[circle]

for info on raw feeding, there is a really great yahoo group that i highly recommend. it is the best place on the internet for advice and information on raw feeding for pets and animals.

http://pets.dir.groups.yahoo.com/gro...sec=dir&slk=11

there is the link.

basically you calculate the ideal weight of your animal, and then you feed a certain percentage of that number in a ratio of 80/10/10 over time of meat, bone, and organs. I forget the rules exactly at this point in time because after a while you just kind of eyeball it, and also your animal basically knows how to feed itself after a while, too. it's kind of like when a person goes raw and they are not so ravenous after a while when you get all the stimulants and stuff out of the diet.

[Veronica01]

Cool! I will check it out. I was googling CSA's in my city and I found a link for a couple that sells raw pet meats, so I messaged them to find out pricing. I think my cat will like it too, he's always hunting and eating mice outside in the summer anyways... cat food can't be very appealing.

[oceanluv]

Asked the butcher at Publix about grinding meat and bones. He said there is a law in Florida that prohibits (bans?) grinding chickens, etc, but said they had ground chicken meat (no bones)that comes to the store already ground up. It grossed me out to cut up the chicken breasts for my guy. then having to buy and add all the supplements, etc
(which I haven't done yet) anyway, long story short, went on line, found Feline Pride, ordered a sample 2.5 pound ground chicken with everything already added.comes frozen. it should come in a few days. Hope he likes it, it would sure make things easier. (except for the shipping costs) will keep you updated.

[Veronica01]

Yeah Im thinking i don't want to be grinding my own meat for my kitty. After telling everyone I dont eat meat, i don't want them to think i will cook meat for them just because i would touch raw meat just to feed my kitty. lol