OK I am sold on the raw food, time consuming but so much better for them from what I can see.

I do have a few questions.

1) We tend to leave the meat out for a good few hours & sometimes when we go to bed, it gets a bit dry and crusty on the outside, is there any real issue with doing this. Often they will not eat the food immediately.

2) I caught my wife giving them treats last night (the ones from the shop) should this activity be punishable, is it best not to do this?

3) Chicken hearts, are they OK to give whole or should we be cutting them up?

4) Right around dinner time they go mad, almost like dogs, meowing and carrying on & then when I put the food down I get the "what the hell is this look" from all of them & they walk off, whats the go with that? They do go back to it.

5) They love Rabbit & crunch the bones:)

6) I put eggs in one batch and it looks disgusting, they also think its disgusting and did not touch it, if we leave the meat out for extended periods, is the egg mixed in goin to make it worse & will they eventually come round to the eggs.

I ask this because I have about $100 worth of meat I am about to chop up & I dont want to add something that ruins all that work.

1) NO WAY - you will poison your cats doing this. If they don't eat it within 5-10 minutes throw it away, they'll soon get the idea that they need to eat it.
2) You can always use freeze dried treets - they contain nothing but 100% meat, no additives, no preservatives.
3) You can feed chicken hearts whole or chop them.
4) When they realise the food isn't going to be down for hours they'll eat it straight away.
5) My 2 love rabbit, it's a better meat than chicken.
6) You don't need to add eggs if you don't want to. You can also just crack an egg into the bowl on it's own as a treat from time to time.

I really can't stress enough how much you shouldn't leave the food down, all raw meat has bacteria & every minute it's down the bacteria multiplies.

OK thanks for the reply, looks like we are whipping the food away after 10 or 15 minutes.
I would have thought cats would of eaten things in the wild that were considerably older than that but not going to take any chances.

The butcher gave me the evil eye when I told him it was all for the cats:) (The Rabbits)

I usually leave my raw down until they eat it, as they like to return to further crunch the bones, and sometimes they are like yours and don't want to eat it right at serving. I do throw it away after a couple of hours (though I find days old chunks of half-chewed bone under beds and sofas occasionally ) They haven't died yet...

Mine eat the egg I put mix in the raw, though they wont eat egg on it's own (even when cooked).

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The little monsters 3

I think both tactics can work (mixing in a little of something they really like, or just picking up the food after 10 minutes and they'll learn to eat it faster), as I have used both before myself. If you just pick the food up after 10 minutes, by the next day surely they will be hungry enough to eat it straight away... Because from what you've said, it sounds like they do like the food, they're just not eating it in a timely manner. I think the 'mixing in something they like more' method is more for when the cat doesn't like the food you're offering them.

I have one cat, Eevee, who is slightly more picky than the others. Sometimes she does pull this "I don't want it right now" crap, so I just put the food back in the fridge after about 10 minutes (you don't have to throw it away) and offer it to her again at the next mealtime. She always gobbles it down the next time - the food's not any different, she's just hungrier after having to wait longer!

As for all the other #'s from your first post, I agree with what mcjc has answered.

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The little monsters 3

Lol... I guess I'm a terrible mean mom then!

My kittens are fed 5 times a day at roughly 3 hours intervals they are hardly hungry. My kittens are very well looked after and healthy however i am not living my life around the whims of a cat or any animal, i'm sure the cats don't have your understanding of physcology so shouldn't be emotionaly scared by my 'punishment'.

Interesting discussion, on the plus side I have now packaged about 30KG worth of meat into 500gm bags which should last them a while.

I used the following for reference:

8 KG of Rabbit cut up with bones attached (that takes forever to do)
6 KG of steak & lamb chop cubes (approx half pre cut & half I cut off the bones)
4KG of broken up beef bones. (used a hammer & chisel for cat size chunks)
4KG of Chicken hearts
3KG of Chicken Necks
4KG of lamb liver
2KG of Lamb kidneys

Approx 1.5 cups of fish oil (from the capsules)

Reading all this and now I feel terrible. I didnt know about the leaving the food out thing but I did wonder..

I feed raw but I get up at 6:30 give him breakfast which he usually doesnt eat straight away then I go to work and dont come back till the evening. Luckily he hasn't got sick yet... I dont know what else to do, take away what he doesnt eat and starve him all day till dinner? He has biscuits but i'd prefer to feed him raw.
Usual scenario... work ruining my life!

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Jaz & Django

Actually I am the same, I put it out, they eat a little and then go back for more a little later, I have to go to work, do the school run etc. I tend to mix in some applaws in and they like it better, that being said its only the chicken versions they seem to go for, fussy things I am thinking I may put it out they eat what they want, I put the rest back in the fridge and put it back out when I return home just after lunch, around 1-2pm most days. Dry is always out but like many of you I don't want them to eat this as a major part of their diet. The breeder told me that the chicken mince I get may have too high ratio of bones to meat and that is why they don't like it too much? Or maybe it's too cold?

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Owned by Neko and Cinder
And a little white dog named Kasey

I have done SOO much reading on nutrition, what to do, what not to do, it's getting a bit overwhelming. I'm glad I found a complete raw mix from my pet shop that i'm happy has everything he needs, but with the fact I'm not home all day and dont have much time in the morning i've decided to introduce some wet food (which has no nasties and has added vitamins) for the morning, biscuits during the day and raw & treats at night.
I think it's the best I can do seeings I cant be home during the day to pander to him :P
:)

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Jaz & Django