The Raw Deal – Protein Rotation To Rabbit

I was very reluctant to try rabbit, actually.

But finally, for the sake of the cats, I relented.

Rodents are the natural food of wild cats, I know.

Chicken or rabbit – they are all animals, so I’d be a hypocrite if I placed rabbit above chicken.

Cats are obligate carnivores, like it or not. They HAVE to eat meat. Nature made them so. We have no choice.

So, I bought a 200g jar of Cubgrub Rabbit the other day and today I decided to try it on our cats. Actually, it was the story about a cat parent who solved his rescued cat’s (Julien) chronic diarrhoea that prompted me to try rabbit – it was purely for Indy. In this story, the parent tried EVERYTHING and nothing worked. Finally, he just changed the diet to rabbit and the diarrhoea started to heal. That was all it took – just a change in diet. It turned out that his cat was intolerant to chicken (probably due to eating only chicken for too long) so he just needed a different protein for a while. After a few months on rabbit, his cat went back to chicken again (and was okay!) and now, the parent makes sure all his cats get a different protein for every single meal.

I’ve been trying to locate that story so that I can share it here, and finally, I found it again this morning!

Here it is: http://savingcatsdogsandcash.com/how-i-cured-my-cats-diarrhea/

I must read it again too. I might be able to find more information in a second or third read.

Indy is still not 100% “cured” yet.

Anyway, so it’s a rabbit trial this morning.

Guess who took to it naturally?

Why are we even surprised, right?

Of course it would be Ginger! But he didn’t go crazy over it – not like Quail and Duck – he’s crazy over these two.

Ginger, you are now officially our high maintenance cat. You only like Quail, Duck and Rabbit and these are the expensive “exotic” meats. And you don’t like Chicken!!

Indeed, after a meal of these exotic meats, Ginger walks away from a bowl of Chicken and would even skip an entire meal.

“Gimme my exotic meats, else I will go on a hunger strike!! And I’d be starving. Poor me….poor me….” 

Now, this is a surprise! Bunny liked it….a lot.

Ooh….Bunny eats Rabbit?  (I know how that sounds….sobs.) I’m trying very hard not to think of the rabbits.

Ginger came back to ask for more.

So, it’s confirmed, Bunny and Ginger eat Rabbit.

The rest – no. But they weren’t as aversed to it as they were with Quail and Duck. Cleo and Pole didn’t mind that there was a hint of rabbit in their bowls. I didn’t have to use a freshly cleaned bowl to give them their usual Chicken.

Heidi did not walk out of the kitchen. She would if I served Duck or Quail to Ginger.

And Indy?

Indy backed away from the bowl of Rabbit as though he was so afraid of it. So there goes my plan of converting Indy to Rabbit….for now.

I’ve decided to limit the different brands of foods for our cats now, so here’s what we have. Of course, this food plan is still very fluid and subject to change.

Cow: Cubgrub Chicken, Primal Chicken Salmon and Turkey.
Bunny: Cubgrub Chicken, Cubgrub Duck, Cubgrub Rabbit, Primal Chicken Salmon and Turkey, Bone broth.
Pole: Cubgrub Chicken, Cubgrub Duck (iffy), Primal Chicken Salmon and Turkey (sprinkles).
Cleo: Cubgrub Chicken, Cubgrub Duck (iffy).
Indy: Chicken fillet and liver, Bone broth, Cubgrub Chicken (still transitioning back).
Ginger: Cubgrub Chicken, Cubgrub Quail, Cubgrub Duck, Cubgrub Rabbit (he is our Cubgrub cover boy!).
Heidi: Cubgrub Chicken (must add Naturvet’s).
Tabs: Cubgrub Chicken, Primal Chicken Salmon and Turkey (she is our No. 1 Primal fan).

I must add that Pole and Cleo love Coco&Joe’s Chicken.

So, again, only Heidi and Indy are on a single protein. These two were also the trickiest to transition to raw food, to begin with.  Heidi was hooked on her canned fish while Indy was a kibble-king.  It’s a total miracle I got them to even eat any raw food!!

I’ve checked with several reliable sources and the word is out that cats do not need vegetables in their food. They might need to eat grass occasionally, and we have serai and the Malaysian grass for them.

Coincidentally, we brought in the Malaysian grass purely for Heidi but until today, we still have not spotted her eating it. Ginger monopolised the patch of grass at the patio, though.

Ever since the wound-scare the other day, we have decided not to let Heidi out to follow us for our taiji practice. Firstly, she normally won’t come back with us and recently, we spotted some displeasure from a certain neighbour (Heidi used to go into their compound). Secondly, we have also noticed that Heidi isn’t as agile as she used to be now. To compensate for not letting her out, we ensure she gets her half-boiled egg yolk every day.

Aren’t we such slaves?

New update: Heidi HAS been eating the Msian grass that we planted. She vomited some hairball today and along with the vomit, was the Msian grass!  Yay!!

I must say this, though. Previously, when the cats vomit out hairball, they might vomit out some food, digested or not. Whole unchewed kibble was the norm. But since being on raw food, no one has vomited any food out anymore. If it’s hairball, it’s only hairball with some fluids and some grass. No food. The raw food must be well digested and absorbed. Or at least, it’s not regurgitated, which I think means that the body doesn’t reject it.

Source: https://myanimalcare.org/2019/11/26/the-raw-deal-protein-rot..

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AnimalCare is a registered society that promotes caregiving to street animals and helps in their neutering and medical needs. AnimalCare has a Medical Fund, Food Fund and Education Fund.

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