Those that feed their cats raw food...

Question

I found a stray the other day and he won't eat anything but raw meat. the bowl of cat food has remained untouched.

He needs to put on weight though, he's all skin and bones. I've been keeping him caged (he hasn't seen a vet yet, so IDK if he has a disease and he tried attacking my other cat before) and in a seperate room with the door closed. I watched him walk today and while he can he doesn't seem right when he does it.

What kind of meat would put some weight on him the fastest?

And before anyone screams, he does have a vet appointment to be checked out and neutered ;)

Answer 1

How about rabbit?  Our cats really like raw rabbit. The scrawny senior cat has managed to put on a significant amount of weight since we switched her over from regular canned stuff.  

Answer 2

Please don't be feeding him sausages and things like that - they are filled with spices, seasonings, and preservatives, and are more likely to cause him to have the runs than to put weight on him.  The purpose of a raw diet is to feed them something close to what they'd eat in the wild (and that isn't beef sausage).  I'm sure some of the posters who feed raw will give you some sound advice, but you should be using fresh chicken - and be sure it's very fresh due to the bacteria, etc. that can be found on it.

Have you tried an all-meat canned food for him, like Innova's EVO or Instinct?  

The weight will come back - it can take a while, especially if he's got a good case of worms, which is pretty likely if he's been outdoors.

Answer 3

I reckon you should feed it sausages chiken beef lamb

and for the drink you should give it either cold or warmish milk x

Answer 4

Unless you have access to a lot of different meats, I would stick with the basics.  Turkey is considered a lean meat so you should perhaps stick with chicken.  Unless you have a raw meat supplier, that'll be the easiest as well.  I would avoid beef for the most part, definitely avoid pork, but you could offer some lamb.  

I don't know which is going to have the most calories but chicken and lamb seem like good choices.  Turkey would be fine as well but like I said, it's likely to have less calories.

Duck might be calorie intensive as well; at least it's fattier so if you can get some that might work well.

Answer 5

Have you tried wet food (caned food) Its easy on their tummy's if he hasn't had a lot of food and will put weight on him. Try not to give him a lot of food at one time cause if he hasn't ate in a while it could make him sick. Glad you called a vet and yay your one of the smart ones out there thats going to get him fixed :)

Answer 6

A raw diet can be very healthy but for your cat to survive, it needs to be specially prepared. These show/tell you how

http://www.catnutrition.org/pictorial.ph...

http://www.catinfo.org/makingcatfood.htm

http://www.mousabilities.com/cats/food/h...

  Thanks for rescuing