A Practical Guide
Transitioning Your Cat to a Raw Diet
Transition Time
If your cat has been eating a steady diet of commercial crud for his entire life, it’s important to realize up front that transitioning him to a raw diet might take some time as well as some persistence, perseverance, and above all, a good bit of patience on your part.
And then again, it might not. 🙂
Each cat is different. Some will take to raw as if they’ve just been waiting their whole lives for their humans to figure out what they really should have been feeding them all along. And for these cats, the transition to raw is relatively simple, quick and easy. Other cats may be a bit slower to make the switch, and still other cats may take even longer, particularly if they’re older or perhaps more set in their ways. Cats that have become very addicted to the carbohydrates in low quality kibble or canned cat food are the ones that may take the longest time to transition to an all raw diet. These cats are the ones that will require a bit more determination and effort on your part to help them make the switch to raw. But please rest assured, this transition can and will happen, as long you’re ready and willing to do your part. All it takes is a firm but gentle resolve and some patience on your part, along with as much time as your cat needs to get with the program.
If you’re reading this website, hopefully you’ve reached the point where you realize how important it is to feed your beloved pet a species appropriate raw diet, and you’re ready and willing to do what it takes to help your cat make the change to a more healthy and natural way of eating.
Those with kittens will most likely find that these little ones make the transition to raw almost immediately, with little or no hesitation whatsoever. Sometimes the younger the cat, the more quickly and easily the transition to raw will happen. Very young cats know instinctively what their bodies need, and most often will take to eating a raw diet like a fish to water.
Close Down that 24/7 Kibble Buffet!
If you’re used to constantly leaving a bowl of dry food down for your cat to eat, one of the very first steps you must take if you’re serious about switching your kitty to a diet of raw food is to stop free feeding kibble.
Please note that this does not necessarily mean you should stop feeding kibble altogether immediately. Rather the idea is to begin weaning your cat off kibble by discontinuing unlimited access to the 24 hour buffet and instead only letting him have access to it a few times a day for limited periods of time.
Cats that are used to grazing on doom nuggets (as they’re affectionately called by many experienced raw feeders) whenever they please are a bit like kibble junkies. And if they’re continually allowed to munch, munch, munch a little now and then on their fix anytime they want throughout the day, they never really experience any hunger, and so may never develop much of an appetite for trying something new.
If kibble is all he eats, there’s no need to force your kitty to go cold turkey from his junk. Rather the answer is to remove that bottomless, permanent bowl of kibble from your cat’s world, and instead start getting into the habit of offering it to him only a few times a day. Only allow your cat to eat that kibble for a few limited periods of time each day, say for about 20 or 30 minutes at a go. Let him eat his fill and once he’s done, pick it back up and put it away, out of reach.
Making several ‘meal times’ like this, instead of perpetually free feeding you cat dry food, will serve a couple of purposes. First, it will put a bit of an edge your cat’s appetite which will definitely work to your advantage as you help him make the switch to raw. And secondly, it will pave the way to breaking the cycle of your cat’s addiction to the starchy grain based carbohydrates that are found in most commercial kibble – which by the way have absolutely no place in the diet of an obligate carnivore such as a cat.
Switch from Kibble to Canned as an Interim Step (If Necessary)
Since kibble is so completely different in taste, texture and smell from fresh raw meat, if dry is the only kind of food your cat is used to eating and she’s not showing any interest in raw food, it may be necessary to transition her off the kibble and onto canned cat food first. The wet texture of the canned stuff is closer to the texture of raw meat than kibble, so using this interim step can be very helpful in the transition, as it’s generally easier to switch cats from wet food to raw than it is from dry food.
If your cat eats some kibble but is already used to eating canned food too, you can most likely quit feeding the kibble altogether straightaway. Otherwise, it’s generally best to gradually wean her off the dry food, perhaps by mixing it in with some canned, (and of course shutting down the 24/7 buffet) as this will make it simpler in the long run for her to get used to eating raw food.
Please bear in mind however, that these are all general guidelines and suggestions that have worked well for other people and their cats, and are not necessarily hard and fast rules. So for instance if your cat is used to eating nothing but kibble, but then you find she’s suddenly totally on board and enthusiastically eating plenty of raw food from the very first time you offer it, then by all means don’t worry about interim steps and just go with it!
Remember, each cat is unique. So your best strategy is to remain flexible, pay attention to your cat’s responses and adjust your game plan according to your own kitty’s particular needs.
Never Force a Cat to go Cold Turkey
One of the most important things to keep in mind when transitioning your cat to an all raw diet, (and one of the reasons it can take time to do so) is that you must never starve a cat into eating raw food. This point cannot be overemphasized. Tough love is simply not an option when switching cats to a raw diet. The reason for this is because some cats that are forced to go without eating anything for more than a day or so can become susceptible to a very serious and potentially fatal liver disease called hepatic lipidosis.
Cats have a unique predisposition to contracting this particular form of liver failure when they stop eating food for any length of time for whatever reason.
Hepatic Lipidosis
What happens when a cat doesn’t eat for a prolonged period of time, is that its body begins to tap into to its stored fat to survive. This fat is sent to the liver to be converted into a usable form energy. But unfortunately a cat’s liver is easily overwhelmed and often unable to cope with this sudden increase of fat being circulated through it. As more fat is deposited into the liver than it is capable of metabolizing and releasing, the cells of the liver become swollen with fatty deposits which cause serious damage to the organ itself. And once a cat contracts hepatic lipidosis they become terribly nauseous, which means they have no appetite and may vomit even if they do eat, making it extremely difficult to get enough nourishment into the cat to keep it alive.
As you can see, this is something you most definitely do NOT want to risk!
The bottom line is that when you start making the switch to raw, if your cat doesn’t eat enough of the raw food you’re offering her each day, then you must continue to feed her enough of whatever she will eat to sustain her every day – even if that means continuing to feed her some of her old commercial pet food.
Make the Switch to Raw at Your Cat’s Pace
During the transition period, the basic idea (as is described in more detail further on in this section) is to encourage your cat to eat as much of the new raw food as possible. If she goes for it immediately and enthusiastically, you’re on your way. But if she’s at all hesitant and isn’t eating enough of the raw food on a daily basis to sustain her, you must continue feeding her the old commercial food as necessary to augment her diet, and only decrease the amount of commercial food as your kitty begins to eat more raw food.
Just remember that it’s more important that your cat gets enough to eat every day than it is for her to learn to eat raw food more quickly than she’s ready. Although you should always be persistent and never give up, at the same time you must take your cues from your cat, and in essence allow her to transition at her own pace.
Disguising Raw Food – aka the “Bribe”
If you do need to continue feeding commercial food during the transition, you may need to get a bit crafty to help your kitty learn to like her new raw food. So as an additional incentive you should begin to disguise the raw food as necessary by making it taste or smell more enticing to your cat, which will encourage her to be more tempted to try it. In this way, as you ‘bribe’ your kitty into gradually getting a taste for her new raw food, she’ll begin to eat more and more of it day by day. And as this happens, you can then slowly but surely begin to reduce the amount of commercial food needed to feed your kitty each day accordingly.
Compared to crunchy kibbles or cooked canned cat food, both of which are relatively pretty darn stinky, fresh raw meat has a very faint odor and quite a different texture. As a result, some cats simply won’t recognize raw meat as actually being food when they’re first exposed to it. For this reason it’s sometimes necessary to disguise the raw food and ‘stink it up’ a bit with another, more pungent, smell or flavor.
It’s also important to keep on offering raw food to your cat even if she turns her nose up at it at first. Some cats need time to get used to this new raw stuff, so repeated exposure can be key.
You can use whatever favorite food you know your cat likes as a bribe food to encourage her to take the raw plunge. Some possible suggestions for bribe foods are:
- a drizzling of juice from a can of water packed tuna
- a smear of canned cat food
- a bit of grated parmesan cheese
- some smashed canned sardines, anchovies or herring
- a sprinkling of crushed kibble
- some meat, bone and/or giblet broth, used like a marinade
- whatever other favorite treat you know your kitty loves
Use your imagination and experiment with different things until you find what works. Once you find a disguise that works a few times, then you can begin to gradually offer that same raw food using decreasing amounts of the bribe until your cat will accept it without the bribe.