transitioning cats to raw.. no grinder

[PipMama]

can anyone share links with me about how to transition a cat to raw without owning a grinder? Every website i found says I need one. Theres no way I can afford one right now, but I dont want my cats to continue eating dry food. So far I've ground up some meat in the food processor & gave it to them, but they havnt been very interested in it. I'm also a little nervous about completely taking their dry food away, because the first day I tried one cat wouldnt eat the new food & started to eat some paper instead. any tips?

[Ilse W.]

I have a meat grinder, but sometimes don't want to go through the trouble of setting it up. Then I use my food processor. My cat is 16 years old and has not had ANY teeth for over 10 years. I have been feeding him very high grade dry food that comes in tiny pebbles. Now I still have the dry food available to him 24/7, but in the morning and in the evening, he gets one heaping tablespoon of ground up chicken breast. He's really finicky and only eats breast meat. That's the main reason why I still also give him dry food. He needs all the things he doesn't get in just chicken breast. Without the dry food, he seizes to have bowel movements...not a healthy thing! I would cut the food really fine, smash the bones with a hammer and feed this to your cats. As long as they have teeth they will be able to handle meat that's not finely ground. Start them slowly. Cats really can't go for long without food, so it's not that good to just take away their food and force them to eat the new stuff. As you probably know, cats have a mind of their own and won't really be forced to do anything. Good luck. In the long run it's worth the trouble to switch them over. My 16 year old (he's a champion siamese) acts like a kitten .

[Rose J.]

I started feeding my cat raw a few years ago. She looked like she was starting to have health problems, but now she seems to be fine. She's 11 years old.
At first I just put out chicken breast for her. She loved her dry food, and I had to take it away completely or she would never switch. For many days, I'm not sure if she ate anything. But eventually she got used to it, and now she loves her meat! All she eats is meat, and she's doing fine.
I think maybe one reason why it takes so long for them to transition is that dry cat foods have things like sugar and salt in them, and they literally get addicted to it. (Or that what I've heard.) So, just like us, they have to get used to the change. Hope this helps!

[rawkchicster]

I started my cat out doing raw by just cutting up chunks of fish and she seemed to do fine for a while. I also didn't want to deal with the bones and organ meats, but knowing that they need that stuff, I turned to raw frozen food (which I now feed to my yorkies as well, it works for cats and dogs) from Nature's Variety. Most specialty pet stores have it, but you may want to search online to verify. I find it's very convenient as well as almost as affordable as making it myself... being vegan and raw it's sometimes difficult to deal with all that meat!

Good luck!

[Cerellia]

When you introduce a new food, try mixing it with something she already knows. Idont know if mixing try food with raw meat works but maybe she will eat it and you can reduce the amount of try food until she is fully on raw food.

[oceanluv]

no grinder needed. start with small chunks, like the OP said, and gradually they will chomp up their own food. I buy mostly chicken- breast with ribs,legs livers, gizzards, etc. have been doing this for quite a few months, offer beef or fish on occasion, but Bubba loves his chicken. Cats are creatures of habit, but start slow, and they will be happier and healthier for it. you can get frozen whole baby critters on line, but I don't think I could get used to seeing baby chicks and mice on the plate. but then, I didn't think I could get used to handeling gross meat, either. and yes, stop feeding the kibble, commonly known as kitty crack, lol

[Belisarius]

My cat used to eat whole raw chicken legs, bone & all. His teeth made a pretty good grinder ;)

[Rose Goddess]

We have several stray cats in our neighborhood and I occasionally feed them raw eggs and a green blend called "Green Mush" which was formulated especially for pets by Dr. Jameth Sheridan (HealthForce Nutritionals). They seem to love it:)