OUR JOURNEY TO RAW (B.A.R.F)
There is a great deal more knowledge available for cat owners who wish to consider raw feeding - also known as BARF - which means either Bones And Raw Food or, alternatively, Biologically Appropriate Raw Food. You may also see descriptions of whole prey which include fruit & vegetable as would be naturally consumed by them when they would naturally eat their captured whole prey species. It is even possible to purchase farmed whole prey animals so that pets can quite literally eat the whole prey item as they would if they had hunted it themselves.The popularity of this kind of feeding has grown exponentially with many pet parents seeing the values of ‘returning’ their pets to nature, that companies now produce commercially prepared frozen raw foods for cats & dogs which makes choosing to feed raw incredible easy, doing away with the need to make your own. That said, many people do choose to make their own food preferring to know exactly what is in it & with appropriate knowledge as to what ratios of meat, bone, offal & nutrients to include, to fully control their cats feeding/nutrition.
Undoubtedly, there are many pluses to feeding as evolution has designed the pet to naturally eat - their input mass is less, which directly influences output which is not only reduced but it is more compact & less smelly. With bone to gnaw, the teeth & gums are kept cleaner & are healthier, big gains indeed as anyone who has had the often repeated dentistry bills from their vet to contend with will testify too. However, there are things that become more difficult or are negative too. If you buy frozen (or batch make & freeze) you first need that freezer room & secondly need to remember to defrost the amount you need in time. Food must be stored correctly, put down but never left down where it will become a fly spawning ground or to go off & become rotten which not only smells bad but can seriously harm your pet making them very poorly. Bowls need to be kept scrupulously clean. There will likely be waste. BARF is a commitment & takes organisation & not a small amount of effort.
The gut of a kitten who is weaned to raw will naturally produce the enzymes within its digestive tract to deal with digestion of raw food however a cat who is has been weaned to commercial food, wet, dry or both will not have the good guys living within their intestinal system that are necessary to process raw food & so any decision to alter your pets diet requires undertaking a very slow & measured process of transition.
The gut of a kitten who is weaned to raw will naturally produce the enzymes within its digestive tract to deal with digestion of raw food however a cat who is has been weaned to commercial food, wet, dry or both will not have the good guys living within their intestinal system that are necessary to process raw food & so any decision to alter your pets diet requires undertaking a very slow & measured process of transition.
TRANSITION:
You must NEVER begin a transition of a pregnant or lactating cat to any other diet as this would put enormous stress on their system at a time when they already have extra internal stressors which are demanding energy from them. A diet change can harm the Queen or her developing or feeding kittens or, if lactating may cause her milk production to fail.
A transition to feeding raw away from processed commercial food must always be carried out slowly & carefully because the enzymes in the gut needed to process kibble &/or processed wet pouch/canned foods are very different to those that are required to process raw meat, sinew & bone. A slow approach allows the gut to adjust avoiding stomach upset or, worst case scenario, serious or even fatal complications such as digestive blockages.
At the bottom of this page you will find very clear details of how to make a successful transition over an extended period. For the smoothest transition most trouble free transition we highly recommend that you patiently follow the slowest transition described.
When you do make any transition, to any other food brand or in the case feed regime, if your cat shows sign of any difficulty at any stage, take steps backwards, allow the cat to re-settle then go forward again but this time even more slowly making smaller adjustments & waiting longer for this adjustment to settle before taking the next step.
See further information down this page.Natural Instincts offer a Puppy & Kitten Weaning Paste which is their most finely minced food containing only chicken as a protein source. It is a complete recipe & one of the easiest ways for a cat/kitten’s digestion to cope with, thus making it a good first raw food choice.
Natures Menu is another raw food supplier I use. Their their first kitten weaning food is supplied in cans/pouches. They steam cook the food while it’s sealed inside the can/pouch ensuring it is sterile & avoids risk of pathogens. I choose to use this to wean kittens & it is how they are fed when going off to their new families, thus I am assured that they have quality safe food, & new families have a good starting point from where to take their kitten to the food type they wish to use.
Over a period of time cats kittens can be introduced to less finely processed meat, moving to more lumpy textures before, eventually, chowing down on chopped meat, organ, bone & sinew. Some pet parents go the full way and give their pets a farmed whole prey animal complete with scale, fur or feathers.
Over a period of time cats kittens can be introduced to less finely processed meat, moving to more lumpy textures before, eventually, chowing down on chopped meat, organ, bone & sinew. Some pet parents go the full way and give their pets a farmed whole prey animal complete with scale, fur or feathers.
Some cats like to try different meats & fish, others are not so adventurous in their tastes. A process of trial & error will enable you to work out what is acceptable (& what is not!) to your own cat/cats.
Correctly storing raw food isn’t your freezer & fridge is vital so that it remains edible, but as it’s unlikely that you will have a dedicated fridge & freezer, you must also ensure in sharing, that your own food is not contaminated. Raw food is inside of the fridge must be well covered. You must be on hand to put food down but also to vigilantly take it up again (particularly important in hot weather), always practicing strict hygiene protocols with any uneaten food to safeguard your health & that of your cat(s). If uneaten food is stored (covered in the fridge) it can be put down again at the very next meal, but if left again, it must be disposed of.
DIY
When I started out looking into DIY raw food production I found a very friendly & helpul social media group with very passionate and knowledgable raw feeders who were keen to share their experience. If DIY raw feeding is for you, I highly recommend a visit to the Facebook group CAT CRAP . Here you’ll find links to video & photographic tutorials with step-by-step details of how to manage batch production all backed up with detailed meat preparation techniques. Best of all, there is an awesome spreadsheet calculator tool which aims to ensure your batch has its meat/bone/offal ratios balanced appropriately (more on that aspect in a moment).In this group I learned that grinding meat & bone in DIY is not essential and therefore for example that buying my grinder was not necessarily essential so if it’s the expense of buying this holding you back - now you know that it need not!
Since I first created this page, more & more suppliers have come to the fore. You can buy raw ground -with or without bone - as well as in chunks & also farmed whole prey items. You do not need to buy from these retailers though as you could choose to make your own buying your meats, offal and bone locally from a supermarket or a decent butcher.
BATCH PRODUCTION
Cost wise, DIY batch production is cheaper. You initial financial outlay would be having enough lidded storage tubs you can choose to buy & use a grinder or forgo this piece of equipment altogether.
Up-front essentials list:
- a strong stomach
- a heavy sharp meat cleaver
- a sharpener as your cleaver will blunt quickly.
- a dedicated chopping board used only for preparing your raw ingredients.
- a very large steel mixing bowl for batch production. Make that 2 or 3 bowls.
- a large capacity capable weighing scale which you’ll use both to weigh out your batch proportions & later to weigh what’s put into your tubs for freezing into the daily meal-sized amounts you’ll need.
- a collection of storage boxes with lids.
- lots & lots of freezer space!
You need to plan all your ingredients ahead of schedule to be fresh & ready to go on batch day & on this day be ready dedicate the time & effort. In fact you need to factor this in every few weeks so that you’re to make the next batch when you need it.
Once its done though, you'll have some superb, high quality food ready for several weeks ahead.
The easiest way to include oily fish is to use canned sardines in tomato sauce!
Vary the muscle meat sourced for each batch so that you are giving your cat as full & complete a diet as possible without the need to add mineral/vitamin supplements to it.
If bone isnt for you, you can add food grade bonemeal instead. Check that you add the correct amount to the batch weight being created.
Meats/offal for small kittens or cats not used to raw can be prepared by grinding/mincing. As your cat gets used to it the meat can be chopped. You might choose use a mix of chopped and ground meat for interest and texture. Some meats, when properly prepared with your meat cleaver, can even have some of the bone left unprocessed. Allowing hot cat to chew raw chicken breast bone is the best bone type to get the cat started on eating bones. Chewing bones will clean the teeth & gums so even if you decide to grind bone or use bonemeal it is still worthwhile giving some bone content for your cat to chew upon.
Once mixed the batch is ready, it can be portioned. I advise that you divide it weighing so that each tub contains enough food for two days maximum. Pop on the lids, label them up, & freeze immediately. Make sure to wash all utensils used in hot soapy water.
INGREDIENT RATIOS & TIPS
Regardless of the animal(s) going in your batch must be made up to contain- 10-15% of bone
- 75-10% of muscle meat
- 5-10% offal
- +1 raw organic free range egg per 1kg of batch mixed
- a quantity of oily fish.
- If it’s to be whole prey, it should also have a percentage of vegetable matter. Skin, scale, feathers optional!
The easiest way to include oily fish is to use canned sardines in tomato sauce!
Vary the muscle meat sourced for each batch so that you are giving your cat as full & complete a diet as possible without the need to add mineral/vitamin supplements to it.
If bone isnt for you, you can add food grade bonemeal instead. Check that you add the correct amount to the batch weight being created.
Meats/offal for small kittens or cats not used to raw can be prepared by grinding/mincing. As your cat gets used to it the meat can be chopped. You might choose use a mix of chopped and ground meat for interest and texture. Some meats, when properly prepared with your meat cleaver, can even have some of the bone left unprocessed. Allowing hot cat to chew raw chicken breast bone is the best bone type to get the cat started on eating bones. Chewing bones will clean the teeth & gums so even if you decide to grind bone or use bonemeal it is still worthwhile giving some bone content for your cat to chew upon.
Once mixed the batch is ready, it can be portioned. I advise that you divide it weighing so that each tub contains enough food for two days maximum. Pop on the lids, label them up, & freeze immediately. Make sure to wash all utensils used in hot soapy water.
Whole prey
As mentioned a variation of BARF is to feed using the WHOLE PREY ethos. This is the gold standard of biologically appropriate feeding as it includes whole (or chopped or minced) prey species. Pet parents can buy farmed rodents, day old chicks, quail, rabbit, pigeon, pheasant etc. All of these can all be fed whole making it as natural as possible. In a home environment, an indoor cat like the Sphynx will probably need to be kept in a room with their entire, unprocessed prey where it will be easy to clean up afterwards.
You can add/use any of those prey species items as meat ingredients to DIY batch of broken down processed food, just make sure that the ratio of meat/bone/offal are adjusted for nutritional balance.
Using Farmed meat in your DIY BARF or whole prey is ideal. It is free of pesticides & antibiotics & the animals used are reared specifically for human &/or animal feed purposes. Whole prey species for example are widely used by keepers of reptiles, for working dogs, for zoo animals & now more & more frequently, for the feeding of domestic pets.
Road Kill is sometimes even used by some, where that opportunity presents itself, however, these truly wild animals, while being a free source of meat for your cat, before it’s death may have been eating from a farmer’s crop field where, since pesticides are commonly used their stomach content may be contaminated or, this animal may be on the side of the road, having died after ingesting poisons. I would certainly urge extreme caution if you are considering including roadkill as a form of meat for your pet.
The tables provided below are for 10 & 21 day change schedules for a change of diet regimen. For the most gentle change to or from BARF feeding, I strongly advise opting for the 21 day change & to:
My mind turned now to SLOW FEEDING. Should I abandon the expensive microchip feeder and get her using a slow feeder? How will this help?
Using Farmed meat in your DIY BARF or whole prey is ideal. It is free of pesticides & antibiotics & the animals used are reared specifically for human &/or animal feed purposes. Whole prey species for example are widely used by keepers of reptiles, for working dogs, for zoo animals & now more & more frequently, for the feeding of domestic pets.
Road Kill is sometimes even used by some, where that opportunity presents itself, however, these truly wild animals, while being a free source of meat for your cat, before it’s death may have been eating from a farmer’s crop field where, since pesticides are commonly used their stomach content may be contaminated or, this animal may be on the side of the road, having died after ingesting poisons. I would certainly urge extreme caution if you are considering including roadkill as a form of meat for your pet.
MAKING THE TRANSITION
WARNING - I cannot stress this more - making any abrupt change to the diet of a cat/kitten can cause them to become ill & this can happen very quickly - Make any DIET change slowly.
- Diarrhoea can dehydrate a small kitten in a matter of hours & may even cause death.
- A blockage causing constipation or incorrectly digested food. This can be fatal.
- If you are changing food; be that product brand or the type of diet regimen, DO NOT ever make any abrupt changes (unless & except under the supervision of your vet)..
- NEVER make large changes (such as changing to or from a BARF diet) without first taking appropriate advice from your vet or a specialist pet nutritionist (see *note below).
* Note
Manufacturers of high-quality pet foods have in-house pet nutritionists who are best qualified to provide you with the appropriate advice & guidance on making any dietary change from/to their food type & brand.
If you are in any doubt always seek advice from your vet. This is particularly important if you are seeking change due to a medical condition.
Any food/diet change must be carried out slowly. Phasing in the new food type over a period of several days, while at the same time slowly reducing their existing food until it can be withdrawn. This slow phase-in/out is vitally important & crucial with a change to or from BARF. This is because the gut enzymes required to process raw meat, sinew & bone are not the same as those required for carbohydrate dense processed pet foods. The slow change will allow the necessary new types of gut enzyme to become present in great enough quantities whilst at the same time allowing the digestive system to acclimatise & prepare. Sticking to a patient elongated schedule will reduce the chance of your pet suffering an upset tummy, vomiting, diarrhoea, constipation, a blockage or worse.
The tables provided below are for 10 & 21 day change schedules for a change of diet regimen. For the most gentle change to or from BARF feeding, I strongly advise opting for the 21 day change & to:
- Always take a few steps back if the cats’ digestion is not coping with the change at the speed set out. Go back to the point at which your pet was still doing well. Remain at this step for a few days to acclimatise, then go forward again but this time try making smaller, even slower changes - see Going More Slowly below.
- Pay very close attention to your pet during & after any diet change. The litter tray is a vital source of feedback. You may see a change in the amount, texture, colour & aroma of the stools being produced.
- If there is diarrhoea or vomiting this would be strongly suggestive that change needs to be done more slowly.
10 Day Diet Change Feeding Plan
Best for a change of food brand rather than diet type this makes 10% change each day. To use this regimen more slowly, feed each change ratio for 2-3 days each before moving on again. See going more slowly below.
Step/Day 1: 90% regular food - 10% new food
Step/Day 2: 80 - 20%
Step/Day 3: 70 - 30%
Step/Day 4: 60 - 40%
Step/Day 5: 50 -50%
Step/Day 6: 40 - 60%
Step/Day 7: 30 - 70%
Step/Day 8: 20 - 80%
Step/Day 9: 10 - 90%
Step/Day 10: 100% change
Step/Day 7: 30 - 70%
Step/Day 8: 20 - 80%
Step/Day 9: 10 - 90%
Step/Day 10: 100% change
21 Day Diet Change Feeding Plan
This schedule makes smaller 5% alterations at each step & is the one I would recommend using for a change from a commercial pet food to a raw food diet (even if your buy a commercially prepared raw). Or indeed visa-versa if changing away from raw to a commercial pet food. To take this even more slowly, stay at each stage of change for 2-3 days before moving on again. See going more slowly below.
Step/Day 1: 95 regular food - 5% new food
Step/Day 2: 90 - 10%
Step/Day 3: 85 - 15%.
Step/Day 4: 80 - 20%.
Step/Day 5: 80 - 20%
Step/Day 6: 75 - 25%
Step/Day 7: 70 - 30%
Step/Day 8: 65 - 35%
Step/Day 9: 60 - 40%
Step/Day 10: 55 - 45%
Step/Day 11: 50 - 50%
Step/Day 12: 45 - 55%.
Step/Day 13: 40 - 60%
Step/Day 14: 35 - 65%
Step/Day 15: 30 - 70%
Step/Day 16: 25 - 75%
Step/Day 17: 20 - 80%
Step/Day 18: 15 - 85%
Step/Day 19: 10 - 90%
Step/Day 20: 5 - 95%
Step/Day 21: 100% change
Step/Day 8: 65 - 35%
Step/Day 9: 60 - 40%
Step/Day 10: 55 - 45%
Step/Day 11: 50 - 50%
Step/Day 12: 45 - 55%.
Step/Day 13: 40 - 60%
Step/Day 14: 35 - 65%
Step/Day 15: 30 - 70%
Step/Day 16: 25 - 75%
Step/Day 17: 20 - 80%
Step/Day 18: 15 - 85%
Step/Day 19: 10 - 90%
Step/Day 20: 5 - 95%
Step/Day 21: 100% change
Going more slowly:
If your pet needs a more gentle pace of change, & honestly, unless there is an urgency to the change, a more gentle pace means less chance of your pet experiencing digestive issues, you can use the ratio percentages given in the tables above but feed each of the ratio steps for several days before making the next adjustment. For example :
On days 1-3 feed the ratio given for step/day 1 On days 7-10 feed ratio given for step/day 3.
On days 4-6 feed the ratio given for step/day 2 On days 11-13 feed ratio given for step/day 4.
Continue in the same manner until a 100% change from new to old is achieved.
Be patient. While you may assume that your cat will welcome the decision to change them onto a diet which is biologically appropriate, it’s worth noting that commercially processed pet foods are filled with ingredients added with the sole purpose of making them more palatable to a cat. This has meant your pet readily tucks in to eat it (& so you’ll keep buying it) but it might mean that the change may not be appreciated by your cat. You may need to persevere.
Be patient. While you may assume that your cat will welcome the decision to change them onto a diet which is biologically appropriate, it’s worth noting that commercially processed pet foods are filled with ingredients added with the sole purpose of making them more palatable to a cat. This has meant your pet readily tucks in to eat it (& so you’ll keep buying it) but it might mean that the change may not be appreciated by your cat. You may need to persevere.
___________
With massive regret, after having done all of my research into BARF feeding & investing quite heavily, having bought a grinder, poultry sheers, cleaver, boards, bowls and containers, as well as several kilos of meat, Noodle started to get rapidly sick within just minutes of eating.
With a prescription antacid, she was able to keep the food down however, she found the antacid unpalatable and so dosing her with this 10 minutes before food quickly became stressful for her & me chasing her & forcing her to take it. She was getting depressed, losing some weight & condition. With deep regret, despite the fact she loved eating the raw food, her sickness & aversion to the antacid which helped her meant I had to make the decision to double back. With the help of my vet, we fast-tracked a transition back to a simple kibble diet on which she was so well previously.
To keep things simple feeding wise at that time, since feeding both diet types to different cats would cripple me financially, I also transitioned Prunella to the same kibble, thus doing away with the raw food diet I was so keen to use.
The truth of the matter for Noodle certainly is that while the cat has indeed evolved to eat raw, my beautiful Sphynx is a long way from that wild cat ancestor. Noodle had evolved into a life where her processed food managed nutritionally & made palatable suited her. She was healthy on it & I did not want an unhappy who was becoming unwell.
What is great is that this was not the end of the story & I did eventually find a road to BARF that worked for her, but it was not immediate.
So, at that time, things moved on feeding-wise for my cats. We had abandoned raw.
Well their kibble was fine. I was free-feeding. However, Noodle’s second pregnancy ended once more with a Cesarean section. At this point I asked my vet to spay her while she was under the anaesthetic. I would not put her through pregnancy again. Obviously this was not for her. This time there were 2 live kittens, one of whom was not great & sadly did not make it. Still on a high calorie diet while lactating, once her surviving kitten weaned Noodle gained weight rapidly never losing her pregnancy size.
Weight gain is common in neutered cats however her weight in April 2019 she was 4.5kg. Just over a kilo more than her pre-pregnancy normal. It does not sound a lot just 1kg, but when you think of it as it a ¼ of her weight, Or a ⅓ of her previous normal weight - so it is a large amount.
My vet advised a diet plan suggesting that I call & speak to a Nutritionist at Royal Canin. They’re highly respected so I took their advice and transitioned Noodle to their Satiety but Prune was to continue on the standard Royal Canin Sphynx (high calorie) because she was still growing & hormonally active . This meant that I had to make sure Noodle did not eat Prunes food.
I bought two microchip feeders.Phew, the expense! And the batteries for them too! I had on advice begun to weigh the advised daily allowance of food rather than free feed her, but Noodle finished this so early which meant no food until the next day. When she got that just as she did with the timed fed raw, she would get sick. Oh no, not this all over again!
She was though, losing weight well on the satiety food. Her ‘wide-load’ backside was shrinking so I thought she would maybe manage better if I re-allowed her to free feed. I would rather that than have her continually vomit.
I learned then of a new kibble called Orijen. More than twice the price, but crucially it is BARF raw food based food and a dry kibble. Can it be true? Not only that, but it came in a cat & kitten variety, perfect for Pru & future kittens & a Trim & Fit low calorie one too, perfect for Noodle. Blow the expense, I could continue a weight loss plan for Noodle, feed high quality food to both that was BARF. As a kibble it did not need the fridge, the freezer, nor would it attract flies or rot.
But before we got to that, while we were free-feeding again sickness stopped but Noodle’s weight loss stalled. Not only that, despite low calorie food she was putting weight on....
What am I to do???? She runs on her Catzami wheel, she is on diet food which is species specific. Her one issue was food volume & gaining weight versus getting sick when I restricted food.
In the movie world you’d see several calendar pages being ripped away as the year 2020 rolled around. By now Prune had had a litter of kittens, brought up on raw - with a lot of time spent with me fending Noodle and Prune off of the raw food while weaning the kittens to it. When they’d gone, I’ve had months of steroids & antibiotics ending with my having collapsed lungs in new year 2020. Noodle is getting fat & now food orientated she is begging for titbits of food from my plate & when she the little madam wanted treats was misbehaving by meowing & pushing things off of surfaces for attention.
Then along came Covid 19, quickly followed a few days into lockdown 1 by me breaking my ankle bones (yes all 3 of them) requiring surgery & subsequently immobility for 10 weeks plus. Forced to spend a lot of time stationery & needing my son, now on furlough to care for me each day I started to think & explore.
My mind turned now to SLOW FEEDING. Should I abandon the expensive microchip feeder and get her using a slow feeder? How will this help?
Well, while being immobile I was not feeding the cats but my son Calum was. Bless him. Crossed wires not once but TWICE meant that for several weeks Noodle was being fed Prune’s high calorie food while poor Pru had Noodle’s diet food. Noodle grew while Pru was her super sleek self.
Once this was discovered Noodle was wholly unimpressed by her return to diet food. But I stuck with it. There was not been a sea-change in her weight. She was asking for my food and treats a great deal. I say asking.... she waits as I eat what Calum brings then pokes me as if I needed reminding she is there demanding my attentions in the form of food.
I have to help her. She is way too precious. But she is snoring a lot. I’m concerned for her health and I can’t lose her early. I just can’t. I began to look at different slow feeders. The idea of them is to make it harder to access and eat the food. By slowing down feeding she will hopefully receive the I’m full message but have eaten less than she would otherwise have done if she had still had unfettered access. Fuller with less food would aid her in weight loss. PLUS, she will not be able to gulp food down & won’t therefore get sick. Could I get her eating only the properly weighed out daily allowance & be satisfied?
I have bought two types of slow feeder. The first was a feeder with a series of spikes. When this arrived, I was told by other cat people that she would not use it, so I put Dreamies in because I wanted her to want to use it. She had no issue with using her paw to get each treat. Importantly, she was not eating the same amount of Dreamies as she would have in the same amount of time (actually lots less) than she would have if she had easy access.
I then got it to the kitchen & now sprinkled in a little of Pru’s higher calorie food while her own was still free fed in the microchip feeder. This way, my plan was to get her to keep using the slow feeder because it had the higher calorie food. After a few days of this, I sprinkled her own food together with a little of Pru’s, still free feeding in the microchip feeder as before. I continued this until the second ceramic slow feeder arrived. The ceramic would avoid her face parts being on plastic & be more hygienic). It looks more like a traditional food bowl but its walls & built in barricades would make access to food more difficult, thus continuing to slow down feeding.
At this point I have not weighed the food so she still had unfettered access. In theory when food becomesweighed there will be less & it will be harder to get at and thus slow her down even more. This would then avoid her gulping which by now I’m thinking might well have been the reason for the sickness she experienced all along (remember, with fresh raw given at timed intervals she would have been scoffing it down)
Not everything is rosey in Noodle’s garden despite my careful thoughts & plans. I dare not add up how much money I’ve spent on all the food changes & equipment. She knows that she is not getting what it is she wants. She is feeling deprived. For her is like the dieter who can’t stop thinking about chocolate, crisps, a Chinese takeaway. She is thinking food.
She has food. It isn’t her favourite type of food but all that’s really changed is that she is not finding access to it easy (it’s still free-fed at this point). She is unhappy, meowing, knocking things over, trying to get her own way, to make me give her treats. She is in effect looking for an easy fix.
I’m not withholding treats by the way.. But they don’t get them every day... nor even every week... at this time we had just got our first LickyMat (in the soother design) delivered designed for squeezing on lickylick cat ‘yoghurt’. The LickyMat is a square rubberised feel mat about 20 x 20cm in side. In the ‘soother’ option the whole surface is covered by lots of little nubby blunt spikes. The cat yoghurt sinks into the gaps between the nubs which is then able to be licked away. This takes the cat much longer & more effort to have than when it’s offered direct from the tube or dispensing it onto a plate. The licking is like grooming, it soothes & as an extra benefit, the repeated licking is also helpful for keeping teeth cleaned.
Anyway, while Noodle was happy to have lickylicks she was not happy with her general eating regime. I’d been really looking forward to her annual health check and vaccination which had been due in April. I had wanted to know if all I had done in the last year had impacted on that 4.5kg. She did lose some at first with the Royal Canin, but then regained it again by eating Pru’s food (which has happened now in error on two Hospital admissions).
Unfortunately this vet visit did not earn the results we had hoped and I needed to think again. I had been against having auto-feeders. They seemed to me to be a ‘lazy’ solution. The idea is that you fill a large hopper with dry food, programme it when & how much food to drop & it feeds the cat. I didn’t get cats so that I was not taking care of them. But now I’m desperate to help Noodle. What if by giving her up to t or 8 small meals in a day I could cut down her meal size to te recommended daily amount while preventing her getting so hungry that she gulped her way to being sick? I decided reluctantly to try.
GAME CHANGER!!! Why did I put this off for so long? Within weeks Noodle was looking so much better, her weight was going down, she was not sick. She was happier. She very quickly adapted her internal clock & learned the sounds & would run like the clappers to it when food was imminent but this worked.
Sadly Noodle died in 2023. She managed her weight using automated feeders. I can’t say she was happy with the status quo, especially in her last months we had a male cat here (an unsold kitten) who was even greedier than her & who used his youth, speed & size to be a bully with food. He would eat over the shoulders of the other cats despite them having their own feeders in separate areas all of which were synchronised & dropped food at the exact same time. I miss her so much.
Since the first one, I’ve bought more auto feeders & have even loaned them out to others. Their design has come on a lot. You’ve always been able to record your voice which plays to them as food drops, efforts to make the automation more personal for those of us reluctant to hand over the privilege of feeding their pet. Now they are SMART, can be programmed on your phone app, through which you can call your pet at any time no matter where you are & dispense to them an extra drop of food. They even come with cameras so you can see your pet! I’ve helped people with their own greedy overweight cats too manage & create weight loss & so become healthier. Having had two emergency admissions to hospital, though I did not have them at the time, they can take worry out of needing care or being away from the home (as long as the hopper is filled).
The ceramic slow feeder is available in black or white from Amazon. The barriers are in the shape of a cartoonish fish skeleton £18
The Northgate cat Slow feeder with the spikes is on Amazon, eBay and a few Pet food/supplies emporiums.
LickyMat is on Amazon, eBay, Pet emporiums etc.
LickyLiks are available from supermarkets like Asda, Tesco etc as well as Pet emporiums.
Automatic & microchip feeders are widely available online from Amazon & pet supplies stores.
Orijen is sold in 300g & 5.4kg bag from Bern Pet supplies https://www.orijenpetfoods.co.uk/cat-food/dry-cat-food/orijen-cat-kitten/
