Cats eating raw meaty chicken bones
Like 2 Dislike 0 Published on 4 Feb 2016
Brooklyn (left) and Melvin (right) are two cats I adopted from my local humane society in early summer 2015. Brooklyn is a seal point Thai (traditional/applehead Siamese), about age 1.5 years here. Melvin is a black domestic shorthair, about age 2.5 years here.
Here they are in their designated feeding area, enjoying their dinner of mouse-sized chunks of raw chicken legs/thighs (with bone and skin attached), straight from the refrigerator, the temperature of which they don't seem to mind. The meat is lightly drizzled with a squirt of Grizzly brand salmon oil and a dash of filtered water like a "sauce" which they enjoy licking up, but this is optional. Afterwards, I simply disinfect the floor (Lysol spray + paper towel, or a Lysol wipe) and wash the food dishes with dish soap and water. Raw feeding is not complicated.
They have been on a raw diet like this (with occasional raw organ meat) within a couple weeks after I adopted them. They quickly became very confident with any type of meat I gave them. Just for fun, I once gave them each an entire turkey drumstick. It was amusing watching them struggle with it, and I bet it was a good stimulating workout for their jaws. They will eat an entire quail or an entire chicken drumstick if I let them, bones and all.
I also set out a bowl of actual fresh water elsewhere in the house (cats in nature don't drink where they eat). However, they very rarely need to drink from the bowl because there is sufficient moisture in the meat and "sauce", which any cat's super-effective kidneys are designed to extract, an adaptation to cats living in deserts with little available moisture.
The resource I used to transition them from a commercial diet of kibble and canned food to this raw diet is http://rawfedcats.org/practicalguide.htm.