She is doing so well on the Stella & Chewy's!

[Middle Child]

My Little Cat has increased her intake of Stella & Chewy's freeze dried to 7 nuggets, re-hydrated, which consists of one meal (out of five) a day, for her.

Well, I thought it has been six weeks, but I just checked the journal, it's only been a month!

Anyway, in that month, with only one meal a day consisting of the raw, her appetite has improved so much.  I almost never have to follow her around to coax her to eat any more. She cleans her dish, no matter what I have offered her!  And she has gained a whole ounce!

Not only that, her coat is thicker.  She has very fine black fur, it's always been shiny and soft but not thick.  It has thickened up quite a bit.

One 12 oz bag is about $22 shipped and is lasting about 6 weeks at the current rate of 7 nuggets a day.  If I can find a way to tweak my budget, I may up her to two meals a day.

On the other hand, she normally will not eat the same food more than once in a day, so that might backfire anyway.

[Lola]

Glad to hear!   

[Mo]

That is great!

[Middle Child]

She's now eating 8 nuggets as one meal, one meal a day.  Her other four meals remain as they have always been, but she actually is cleaning her plate when she eats them, rather than leaving half so I have to follow her around and coax her to finish.

[Lola]

8 nuggets for one meals SEEMS like a lot  ...in combination with 4 other meals.   Are 8 nuggets the suggested serving?  Are the other meals a lot smaller?  NOT judging or anything wacky like that...just very curious. 

[Middle Child]

8 nuggets for one meals SEEMS like a lot  ...in combination with 4 other meals.   Are 8 nuggets the suggested serving?  Are the other meals a lot smaller?  NOT judging or anything wacky like that...just very curious. 

Okay this is what I did. On the package, the recommended feeding for a 7 pound cat (she is slightly less than 7 pounds) is .9 cup (9/10 cup) a day. Since I wanted her to only have one meal a day of the S&C, I needed to know how many nuggets that would be, so I filled a one cup measuring cup with nuggets...it took 35 nuggets.  Split into five meals a day, that would be 7 nuggets per meal.  I started with 4, and gradually worked up to the 7. One day I dropped an extra one in, and she ate it all, so now I give her 8.  At approximately 6 calories a nugget, that is a good high calorie meal for her, 48 calories.  Once the nuggets are completely hydrated it does not look like very much food at all.

I will take a picture of what they look like, hydrated, tomorrow, she's already had her raw meal today.

Her other four canned meals consist of .75 ounces of canned food per serving. She will eat no more canned food than that, ever. Since I have not ever been able to get her to eat more than 3 ounces of canned a day, she also gets 1/8 cup of Evo chicken kibble as a bedtime snack, it is the only way I can get enough calories into her. Up until I started the Stella&Chewy's  that's all she was eating.  3 ounces of canned, and 1/8 cup of Evo, as four canned meals and the kibble snack.  The S&C is actually working out to be an extra added meal, and it is the extra meal she needed to gain those last few ounces to be slender instead of too skinny.

That's why I decided to try it in the first place, I was desperate to find something extra to add to her daily intake, and I wasn't finding anything canned she would eat, or could eat, as she has some sensitivities, such as carrageenan.

So, to break it down here's how her food has been served today so far:

8:00 a.m. declined to eat

8:30 a.m.   .75 ounces  By Nature Organic Turkey&Chicken, with ProViable DC added

9:30 a.m. declined to eat

12:30 p.m. .75 ounces Caster&Pollux chicken casserole

5:30 p.m. 8 nuggets Stella&Chewy, re-hydrated

7:30 p.m. .75 ounces By Nature Organic Turkey&Chicken

at about 10:00 p.m. she will have another .75 ounces of the By Nature organic

at about 11:30 pm she will have her 1/8 cup of Evo kibble

The schedule was slightly different today, because I have been home all day for the holiday.  Normally, morning meals are closer together and earlier, the midday meal is usually around 2 and the first evening meal wouldn't be until 8 p.m. and they eat at 8, 9:30 10:30 and 11:30.

Hmm...I guess that's six meals a day, not five, LOL.

The other cats do not get any kibble.  This one just needs that extra bit of variety in texture and flavor every day, to keep her eating.

[Middle Child]

PS  I forgot to mention my tentatively thought out next step.  Since she really seems to need that textured snack every night I'm hoping.......to turn that snack into a chicken wing..even if only once or twice a week.  My other cat, the one who can, and does, and will, eat anything put in front of her might like a wing, too.  Struvite kitty does not recognize "people" raw meat as food though she would eat the Stella&Chewy's if she could. (too high in minerals)

If you want to know the truth..I can't believe this is me saying these things.  I never would have believed I would have even gotten this far (freeze dried raw) in raw feeding. But it's because of Little Cat. She just isn't getting the nutrients out of commercial foods, her body isn't absorbing enough through them.  You know, I was even considering adding something like Prozyme.

But, gosh she is thriving on the small amount of raw she's getting. I can't take my eyes off her as she moves around the house. I am now eager to get her on more.

[Middle Child]

PS she has now gained TWO WHOLE OUNCES!!!!!  On the diet she's eaten for the past 9 months, she was maintaining at 6 pounds 10 1/2 ounce most of the time.  Sometimes she'd drop an ounce, and then get it back, but she's never gone over 6 lbs 10 1/2 ounces.

Until now! I just weighed her at 6 pounds 12 1/2 ounces!

[Middle Child]

I have a few tips about the freeze dried nuggets. Start by offering only three or four, gradually work up to a meal of 7 or 8. Figuring out how much water to use takes a few tries but after a while you just now. I feed in small ceramic saucers. I add a little warm water, then place the nuggets in the dish.

I let them sit for a few minutes while preparing other cat meals. When they are about half hydrated I start stirring them around to absorb more water, then mashing them down until they look like this:

[Lola]

Thanks for the pictures! 
p;[''''''''''''  <----- Leonard just thanked you also. 
I couldn't get past that it looked like water-logged kibble.  Apparently, I didn't smash it up good enough. 

[Middle Child]

tonight I took two pictures.

What it looks like soaking, the water about half absorbed, but not yet mashed:


what it looks like with all the water absorbed, and the nuggets mashed up


I also took some video of her eating it, but photobucket is really realy slow tonight so it may or may not load.  She ate it in less than 60 seconds. About 52 seconds. I've never seen her eat ANY food this fast, until the Stella&Chewy's.

here it is (click on the picture to play video)

[Pookie]

LOVE the video.  I swear I could almost hear "nom nom nom nom . . ."   

[Middle Child]

Thanks Pookie!    She was purring pretty loudly when I first set the dish down but my camera doesn't pick up that kind of sound well.   Sure, you can hear my chicken and rice crackling in the frying pan behind me, but you can't hear the purr.

My Sweet Pea  always made Yummy Noises when he ate something especially good.  I loved his sounds.

[Lola]

Adorable video!!   

[Middle Child]

She has gained 3 ounces now.  She's up to 6 pounds 13 1/2 ounces.  I don't expect her to gain much more than that. After all she does have a slender frame.  The Ziwi Peak should be in today.  This should be interesting.......