Pets who eat RAF

[RawZi]

    Do you have pets?  What do they eat? 

    My hamsters eat unsalted raw grass grazed cheese, butter and cream, pastured egg yolks, raw 100% grassfed beef, lamb heart, lamb liver, calves liver, lamb kidney, pork, live crickets and live meal worms.  They don't like fruit, but they like a few vegetables. 

    I haven't tried nuts and grains on these yet, but I know other hamsters will eat that. 

    The foods they like seem to be good for them.  They are doing well.  I give them whatever I have around, and if it's animal origin they grab it and devour half right away.

    The crickets seem to do well with variety.

    You must all know what my cats eat, so I won't go there here.

[pc701]

My cat refuses to eat any raw animal foods. Just cans for him...

[Hannibal]

My cat refuses to eat any raw animal foods. Just cans for him...

One-week fast and your cat will devour the raw meat. 

[kurite]

Very cool that you do that for them. Just one thought is that most rodents are very sensitive to dairy. I know this cause I did a little research on mice and how it really makes no sence for them to like cheese as much as they supposedly do. Also I dont know if you have heard of the raw meat diet for dogs but its really the same concept. I find it funny that many people do this raw meat diet for their dogs and dont realize that their dogs diet is so much healthier than their own.

[djr_81]

My wife and I have allergies to pet dander so have "alternative pets".

We've got a North American Wood Turtle who's about 6 inches long now. We've had him for about 9 months at this point.
He eats a mixed diet with about 85-90% animal matter. I regularly chop him up a mince of whatever I'm eating at the time; beef, lamb, deer muscle meat & organs. He's also eaten more exotic fare from my diet including smelt & scallops. He also frequently gets crickets, "superworms", meal worms, garden worms, slugs & snails.
As for plant matter he loves berries and will greedily devour raspberries to his heart's content. He doesn't like much other plant matter though, maybe bananas. No desire for leafy greens or any other vegetables off the top of my head.
My wife feeds him the commercial turtle pellets on occasion, over concerns he get his vitamins, but I discourage this as they're pure shit and loaded with nasty byproducts. She's been giving him less and less of them over time so I'm hoping we can stop completely soon.
Of particular note we feed him twice a day most days and don't scrimp on the amount. Most turtle owners recommend feeding once every other day or once every three days as the turtles get fat eating so often. Our little guy just keeps growing bigger and shows no signs toward fat which looks to me like just another sign of how healthy we eat.

[William]

Most turtle owners recommend feeding once every other day or once every three days as the turtles get fat eating so often.

I tried to imagine a fat turtle and failed.

[RawZi]

Very cool that you do that for them. Just one thought is that most rodents are very sensitive to dairy. I know this cause I did a little research on mice and how it really makes no sence for them to like cheese as much as they supposedly do. Also I dont know if you have heard of the raw meat diet for dogs but its really the same concept. I find it funny that many people do this raw meat diet for their dogs and dont realize that their dogs diet is so much healthier than their own.

    Yes, I know of the BARF diet.  My chiropractor feeds his dog that way to control arthritis.  He thinks it's fantastic that I eat this way, but I'm not sure if he does.  He hasn't mentioned eating any of these foods.  I think his wife is a vegetarian or something, and he has an ongoing argument with her about food.

    The pet-store where I got the hamsters, I told the salesman I've been feeding the hamsters raw grass grazed cultured unsalted A2 local butter and raw grass grazed cultured unsalted A2 cheese.  He responded to be careful about cheese because he gets constipated by cheese and it will do the same to the hamsters.  The hamsters have not gotten constipated yet, but they do get very calm and just different (in good ways) after the dairy.  When one of my hamsters eats it, it's more slowly than the other foods, but concentrating on and savoring it and indistractable (single minded).

[RawZi]

My wife and I have allergies to pet dander so have "alternative pets".

We've got a North American Wood Turtle who's about 6 inches long now. We've had him for about 9 months at this point.
He eats a mixed diet with about 85-90% animal matter. I regularly chop him up a mince of whatever I'm eating at the time; beef, lamb, deer muscle meat & organs. He's also eaten more exotic fare from my diet including smelt & scallops. He also frequently gets crickets, "superworms", meal worms, garden worms, slugs & snails.
As for plant matter he loves berries and will greedily devour raspberries to his heart's content. He doesn't like much other plant matter though, maybe bananas.

    Sounds like he avoids sodium.  I never heard of superworms.  My husband was allergic to cats, but it seems with changing away from some of the SAD and from all the CAFOs foods he was eating, he lost his allergy.  I know you don't do CAFOs.  Are you less allergic since becoming raw?  I think turtles are cool anyway

[RawZi]

One-week fast and your cat will devour the raw meat. 

    It's said to damage a cat's liver to the great detriment of the animal to fast a cat for more than 24 hours.  My cats will try food if they see me eating and enjoying it.  I think this is a natural mechanism, where when one member of the feline pride maybe "tests" the new food first.  Also if one of my cats eats something new, the other cat often tries to steal that cat's portion.  It's hard to change a cat's diet.  They become very addicted to processed food.  Mine still are.  If the get catfood, they gobble it all down way too fast and vomit.  Raw meat they normally eat more slowly.

[Hannibal]

 It's said to damage a cat's liver to the great detriment of the animal to fast a cat for more than 24 hours. 

Cats in the wild do not eat any food for 5-7 days without any problems. Are the domestic cats so different from tigers, leopards or lions?

[RawZi]

Cats in the wild do not eat any food for 5-7 days without any problems. Are the domestic cats so different from tigers, leopards or lions?

    Their bones are lighter etc.  Have you fasted domestic cats?

[Hannibal]

  Have you fasted domestic cats?

No, I haven't. Maybe you're right, I'm just thinking loudly

[RawZi]

No, I haven't. Maybe you're right, I'm just thinking loudly

    I harmed one of my cats following the advice of a Friskies' bag.  I gave my cat only that food, just as it instructed.  The food was bad for this cat.  The cat avoided it as long as possible then gave in with very sad consequences.  LATER I read about fasting cats being so harmful to them, and have observed more now.

    It was terrible for my cat, but if my experience helps others, that is some consolation.

[Hannibal]

That's very interesting.
But it looks like that only these domesticated cats are so susceptible to fasting. AFAIK other animals do quite good - it's very logical, because if they didn't do good they would die in the wild.

[RawZi]

    Yes dogs and all the others I know of fast fine.

[Hannibal]

 Yes dogs and all the others I know of fast fine.

Human beings likewise.

[RawZi]

Human beings likewise.

    Yes.

    I found an unsalted grass grazed raw cheese my hamsters wont taste even if hungry.  I have two that I let age till almost a little blue.  They wont touch them. 

    I had tried giving cheese to mice as a child.  I didn't know about pasteurization, salt, factory farms etc but I did see that they wouldn't touch the cheese, unlike cartoons. 

[djr_81]

I tried to imagine a fat turtle and failed.

Here's a photo I just quickly found online.
Basically they have too much girth of their extremities to pull into their shells so they stick out of them. It renders most species defenseless. It's too large of a detriment to occur in the wild; the animal would get eaten if it could even find the food to get that big. It's a turtle's disease of civilization.

    Sounds like he avoids sodium.  I never heard of superworms.  My husband was allergic to cats, but it seems with changing away from some of the SAD and from all the CAFOs foods he was eating, he lost his allergy.  I know you don't do CAFOs.  Are you less allergic since becoming raw?  I think turtles are cool anyway

He very well may avoid sodium. What makes you suspect it?
Superworms are are basically big meal worms (Link). He takes down 3-4 of them at a meal whereas it would take almost a dozen meal worms to feed him.

As for the allergies they're lessened but definitely still there.
Cats get me going with sneezing, itchy eyes, and a bit of throat constriction within an hour of being in a place with them but usually quicker.
Dogs are quite a bit better but I still have some reaction. We spent 7 hours at my sister-in-law's babysitting our niece and nephews last night. They have one small to medium size terrier. By the end of the night my eyes were a bit itchy and I had a bit of congestion but it's tons better than it used to be.

[RawZi]

Cats in the wild do not eat any food for 5-7 days without any problems. Are the domestic cats so different from tigers, leopards or lions?

    They probably are. ... not as strong ... bred to weakness.

[ForTheHunt]

My dog has chronic ear problems so I'm switching him to raw lamb soon.

[RawZi]

My dog has chronic ear problems so I'm switching him to raw lamb soon.

    I hope he gets better fast.  One of my cats has an occasional ear problem, very old cat (like 18).

    Was he eating cooked lamb before, or a raw meat other than lamb.  Do you think lamb helps with ears more than other foods?  My ears are pretty good and lamb smell never offended me, unlike many other animal foods.  My cats don't eat much lamb.  They seem to like other meats more.

[RawZi]

    I have a cat who was fixed 14 yrs ago while kitten.  Has gotten very few vaccines, none in over a decade.  May have had a life long systemic candida.  Seems very healthy and strong.  Eats any kind of animal food (grassfed), the smellier or fattier the better.  Started RAF 3 yrs ago.  In the last couple days has suddenly for the first time become constipated.  Any raw paleo ideas what to do about that?  It looks very painful.

[yuli]

Cats in the wild do not eat any food for 5-7 days without any problems. Are the domestic cats so different from tigers, leopards or lions?
(...)
They probably are. ... not as strong ... bred to weakness.

Some things to consider...
1 - people that say cats should never be fasted are vets that usually only consider the cat on a cooked diet, so its very likely this unnatural diet for a cat hinders its fasting ability. A cat may have better ability to fast on a raw natural diet. How do we know a domestic cat can't fast on a wild diet, have we actually tried it.
2 - Yes domestic cats are different from tigers and lions because small wild cats are different from the big wild cats. Small wild cats prey is much smaller, they are lucky if they get a big bird, usually it a little mouse, its not a big meal, so after a small meal there is less ability to fast and it needs to catch another mouse quickly to keep its caloric need. Lions and tigers kill very large animals, sometimes they cannot even finish their food...looking at small wild cats and the large ones I'd say theres a big difference, but things like pumas and snow leopards are in the middle category but probably closer to big cats in the way they eat.

But 5 - 7 seems too much...try one or two after a raw diet.
My cat was locked in some garage for the long weekend, almost 3 days no food, he was fine when he got back, hungry and tired but he was ok. So if that was ok maybe 5 - 7 is doable, but whyyyyyy!

My cat refuses to eat any raw animal foods. Just cans for him...

Do not fast him long to get him to eat raw if he is on cooked food, it may be dangerous at this time, maybe try a whole day fast and feed late at night, rinse and repeat.

Here is how I got my picky kitties to love raw meat.
- First chopped the meat up small and mixed it with their canned food. Feed that to them when they are really hungry.
- Over a week decrease amount of canned food "sauce" you use on the meat till they are eating all meat. Presto!

At first I cut up the chunks small and gradually larger, now they are chewing huge pieces - I am proud lol

Also experiment with meat different cats have their own tastes.

Both of my cats like deer and grassfed beef, those are their staple.
They do NOT like lamb...
Only one likes raw turkey ground.
Both like raw salmon but thats only a treat when I have it.
Neither like marrow or big pieces of fat (cats don't need that much fat, some of the fat on their meat is enough, plus occasionally add a good fish oil or feed fish)....
My male cat HATES liver, and my female adores it...weird.
Sometimes they sneak to my parents cats and steal some dry cat food but its a little bit and they have leaned to like to eat raw meat.

For calcium I add eggshell powder to the meats.

    I have a cat who was fixed 14 yrs ago while kitten.  Has gotten very few vaccines, none in over a decade.  May have had a life long systemic candida.  Seems very healthy and strong.  Eats any kind of animal food (grassfed), the smellier or fattier the better.  Started RAF 3 yrs ago.  In the last couple days has suddenly for the first time become constipated.  Any raw paleo ideas what to do about that?  It looks very painful.

I have an idea...does he eat any grasses, try giving him dry catnip (my male eats it every other day as his 'salad'), or get some cat grass, in the summer my cats are grazing on the grass...if your cats old maybe he is not grazing enough, if he wount eat the catnip or grass try making him a treat of ground meat mixed with ground up grasses. Make sure you don't give him poisonous ones though lol, I'm sure I didn't have to tell you that 

Some cats may need a little vegetation depending on what meat they are eating, if they drink water enough or their age.

Also not sure but a little fish oil may get him to poop too?

-------

I find out of all domestic animals cats are the closest to their wild ansetors, that why I love cats, they are close with their human friends and have personalities yet semi-wild. Sometimes they forget to be wild if they are in an apartment, but they quickly learn it when put outside.

[Raw Kyle]

I've been feeding my cat RAF for years. He's does really well on it.

[Sully]

My sister's dogs gets raw animal foods. Especiallyw hen I am around.

it loves grass fed liver.