I am currently feeding Miko the Ziwipeak Air Dried Cat food and Nature's Variety/Castor Pollux wet food. He has been really finicky with eating the wet food lately, being especially picky about the flavors. I know his appetite is still there because he still scarfs down the "jackpot" foods I give him occasionally (boiled chicken mostly). And 99% of the time, he scarfs down the Ziwipeak dry food.

I am thinking of switching him to a raw diet- but since he is still a kitten (17-18 weeks old), he needs to be fed 4-5 times a day. Due to this & my work schedule, I have to leave dry food out for him during the 8 hours that I am away and I know you are supposed to feed kittens every 5-6 hours optimally.

I have read that feeding raw food and dry food (carbohydrate rich) food will not be good for their stomach. However, the Ziwipeak dry food I feed is really high quality and I don't think it contains much in it other than meat. I have included the ingredients list below. I also wouldn't normally be feeding a raw meal at the same time as a dry meal, but I suppose the two could mix at times if the dry food is left out & uneaten.

Brian: if you are reading this: I know you feed (or used to) feed a combination of raw, wet and dry. Do you still do this/have you had any problems?

So my question is: Does anyone here feed a combination of raw/dry diet? Or have in the past?

It would be either a 50% raw/50% dry ratio, or a 75% raw / 25% dry diet. Eventually once he is fully grown, he will go to a fully raw diet though hopefully. If anyone has any suggestions, that would be great!

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Ziwipeak Air Dried Lamb Cat Food Ingredients:

Lamb Meat, Lamb or Sheep Heart*, Lamb Liver, Lamb Tripe, Lamb Lung, Lamb or Sheep Kidney*, New Zealand Green Mussel, Lecithin, Inulin from Chicory, Dried Kelp, Vitamins (Vitamin D3 Supplement, Vitamin E Supplement, Riboflavin, d-Calcium Pantothenate, Nicotinic Acid, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Folic Acid, Vitamin B12 Supplement), Minerals (Iron amino acid complex, Copper amino acid complex, Manganese amino acid complex, Zinc amino acid complex, Sodium Selenite, Potassium Bicarbonate), DL-Methionine, Taurine. Naturally preserved with Mixed Tocopherols.*Depending on seasonal availability.

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Matt

Quasar's breeder fed both chicken-based homemade raw food and a hairball formula dry food, which she left out all the time. I can't remember what brand it was.

She sent some dry home with us. I fed a raw premix (NV Instinct Raw) and left the dry food out. Quasar would never touch the dry food, so feeding it wasn't an option. Since he was already eating raw, I chose to keep feeding him raw, exclusively.

As a kitten I fed him as much as he wanted, as often as I could. At the time, we were gone from the house up to 12 hours at a stretch on days hubby and I both worked. I have never really worried about leaving raw food out for him. His breeder said it shouldn't be a problem if I leave some raw in his bowl, and not to stress about it. Quasar is a slow eater and comes and goes from the food. He has never become ill while feeding him this way.

The only dry food he gets is one piece of dog kibble when the DH feeds the dog and a few pieces of Lotus brand grain free duck flavour for a treat.

I don't see why you can't feed a variety of raw, commercial wet, and dry cat food as long as you don't mix them together in the same dish.

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~ Kyenta

We do a simple raw chicken dice with 1/2t of Kitty Bloom mixed in, twice a day, and 1/3c per bowl of Blue Freedom indoor cat dry, twice a day. It resolved Maxwell's IBD issues for the most part, and satisfied their need for some kind of meat. The canned food was causing all kinds of issues. They just won't eat anything but the chicken with the Kitty Bloom. They'd rather leave it on the plate and destroy the house in protest. Max's weight stabilized at 19.4lbs and Faust at about 15lbs. They're almost six and almost eight years old, if that helps. We've been doing this for over a year.

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I feed all three of my cats Blue Wildnerness dry food every morning. In the evening, Serafina and Neytiri share some canned food and Gaga gets RadCat raw food about 75% of the time in the evening. The other 25% she shares what Serafina and Neytiri are eating. I wish that I could feed all 3 raw, but Neytiri doesn't recognize it as food, and Serafina just doesn't like it. I've been doing this for a number of years and it's working fine for all 3.

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The little monsters 3

Thanks you three for your input! Miko is back to ravaging his wet food the last few days, so I am not sure what to do now haha. I'll keep tracking it, but I definitely would prefer if he was on a mostly raw diet by the time he is an adult.

Also n00dle: Max is a big boy! 19.4 lbs wow lol! Good job :)

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Matt