back to ground
The cats have been eating whole prey for several months now, and for the most part I’ve been very happy with that style of feeding. I do think that whole foods are the ideal diet for any animal, be they carnivore or not. But just as Peanut can hardly tolerate a single fresh vegetable without terrible stomach upset, what is ideal for our pets may not be what is best for them. And so it goes…
Whole prey (versus ground foods) is rather contingent upon the cats actually eating whole meat, bones and organs. Many will. I have three that won’t. Miko, bless her stout soul, will eat whatever I put in front of her. But her mom and siblings have slowly been turning their noses up at their food, organ meat in particular. Organ meats like liver are a critical part of their diet and provide key nutrients not found elsewhere – they can’t live only on muscle meat and bone.
Over the past two weeks the food strike intensified, and I became genuinely concerned that their finickiness was going to hurt them. So tonight I got the meat grinder out of storage and mixed up a batch: thirteen pounds of chicken meat (breasts and leg quarters), a dozen egg yolks, and a pound of chicken liver. Not a perfect mixture, but for the next week or so it’s an improvement. For some reason I couldn’t find the Taurine capsules, and we’re out of salmon oil; they’ll have to be added later. The taurine is really only necessary because I didn’t happen to have any chicken hearts. Always good to have those handy, you know.
The cats have never transitioned well to new foods, and I was of course expecting some resistance. I portioned out four plates worth and set them down, spaced generously, around the kitchen. Miko, Stephanie and PJ immediately settled down and polished their plates within just a few minutes. Gone. All of it.
And you know, I actually felt bad to see them wolf it down that fast. I’m sure they liked gnawing on bones, and I loved that they had the opportunity to eat as God intended, but I think even they recognized that the ground mixture provides good, solid sustenance. Scully was the only one who remained skeptical. Not that she’d suffer for a few missed meals or anything.
