Feeder rats for cats?

[rhsm]

Do any of you guys feed your kitties feeder rats?

I am just curious as I feed my guys a raw food diet which is pre ground and frozen.
I belong to several natural cat groups and they feed what they call whole prey and I was thinking about feeding them some rats as a whole prey food for them.

Just wanted to see if any of you that have kitties and breed rats already do this or not.

If you do or know of anyone who does I'd love more info on it since I would be totally capable of doing this for my kitties.

Thanks look forward to your replies.
If you'd like feel free to send me a private message.
rhsm

[mainbutter]

We never fed our cat on a raw food diet, but I have read a handful of articles praising the benefits of whole prey feeding.

I'm very interested to hear what people have to say on the subject.

I know of one person who feeds.. gerbils I think.. to her ferret. Not quite cat+rat, but closest I personally know about. The ferret is one of the healthiest I've ever had the pleasure of being around.

[greghall]

This stuff drives me crazy!!!

[wolfy-hound]

You'd want to be sure you're providing a whole diet for the cat. They need more than meat, which is why people have turned to whole prey. It has the organs and bones which are more balanced than just the meat(in theory).
You should read up on it for a long time to make sure that the diet you are feeding fullfills all the nutritional needs of the animal.

[rhsm]

Well I have been researching it and my two oldest kitties have been on a raw food diet for 6 years now and are healthy as horses.
I put them on it orginally after I lost my dearly beloved kitty to acute renal failure and they had health issues as well.

I had my oldest 10 year old blood work done just a year or so ago and all was excellent .

I am memeber to many groups , list and forums for rawfeeding for my cats. I buy all kinds of books on this and natural care for them and I do research all the time to see what is new and exciting as far as products to help keep my guys healthy the natural way.

So all in all I think I am doing a pretty good job of talking care of my guys.

I won't be feeding them just rats . I will be adding these to their diet of their other meats as I give as much variety as I can get for them in meats, supplements etc.

But I will always continue to look for new and updated info as far as raw feeding and natural care go for my guys.

I just think I can feed them a good quality meal from what I will be breeding from my rats.

Anyway I really look forward to hearing all your comments of this subject.
Thanks rhsm

[wolfy-hound]

Sounds like you're on your way. I just worry that someone reading might have thought "Oh hey, I'll just toss my cat a rat every day, and it'll be perfect."
IMHO, whole prey is a good thing for any carnivore. That said, I feed mine kibble.

[Spaniard]

Cats are known for playing with their prey, I have no opinion to offer in regards to your original question but if you do go ahead with this I assume you will be feeding pre-killed?

[SatanicIntention]

Email Rebekah Lewis at www.sphynx.nu.

She's been breeding champion sphynx for a good 10+ years and has been feeding them a raw + kibble diet for almost that long. She knows the ins and outs and could easily find you a local raw-feeding group that can get you different selections of meat such as emu, rabbit, etc.

Go buy a grinder and make your own raw meat mix. This way the cats get more water into their systems without them knowing it

I would not feed the whole prey items to your cat. Extremely messy, not to mention the parasite issues.

Just go get some raw turkey pieces(bones and all) and give them that, or emu or even a whole rabbit(cleaned of course because of the parasite problems).

Just be sure to deworm your cats on a regular basis, especially if you ever gave raw pork(encysted tapeworms in the meat). Drontal Plus works really well and covers all the bases.

I feed my Sphynx a partial raw(ground chicken fully supplemented with minerals/vitamins, organ meat such as hearts, livers, etc, other organ supplements in powder form, baby rice cereal to bind it together a bit, raw egg yolks, etc, Rebekah can explain more in detail), and a partial kibble diet just for the micronutrients. I use Nature's Variety Instinct Chicken formula plus the dry rabbit kibble mixed in. He gets some canned food here and there for the calories, maybe a can per day. I use the NV canned too.

[wolfy-hound]

LOL, sorry.. I just had the mental image of a freshly dead emu lying there next to my cat. The cat would just be like "Whaa?"

Sounds like a great mix you have for the kitty, I love sphinx.

[rhsm]

Umm yes they will be prekilled by CO2 just like for snakes. I would never feed them live to my cats. That would be cruel.

I actually do have a grinder and have used it for years but when we moved from CA to Fl it got much harder to find meats for my guys.

I actually shipped 50lbs from PA when needed until shipping got to high and I was paying almost as much for shipping as food.

I am just exploring this avenue right now but from my raw groups it makes sense.
Also one plus to the whole prey is that it cleans their teeth.
I had to have my 10 year olds teeth cleaned when I got his blood work done due to the fact that the ground does nothing to help with cleaning teeth.

There are many many people some very well know cat people who feed whole prey and have had very good success with it.
It might be mice, rats, rabbit, gerbils, guinea pigs, baby chicks or chicken pieces etc etc but they feed with no issues.


I actually bought my grinder to regrind pre ground due to the fact that the bones scared me in the beginning. But about 2 1/2 years ago I stopped regrinding and my guys have been fine .

My dad had a cat that must of lived to be close to 20 . He fed her dry food but she lived out side and was always catching mice, rats , birds etc and I believe she lived that long cause she was able to get the raw foods that were better for her than the dry foods.

Don't get me wrong my guys get a good quality canned too on occassion. I used to do some dry but that just put weight on my guys and it made health issues creep back up after being on raw so now its mostly raw with some good quality canned.

If you read info on feeding cats you can find many many sites that say dry food kills and to be honest I really believe this is what happened to my beloved boy in 2003.
He had one kidney and I don't think he got enough water from the dry I was feeding him but this is before and why I started with the raw.

My guys haven't had to go to the vet for a health issue since I started the raw. Well I take that back . Our 6 year old had to stay with hubby for 6 weeks while I went home with our 10 year old and hubby wouldn't feed raw so he got dry and he had to go to the vet with a urinary infection which he hadn't had any problems since we put him on raw and I attribute it to the dry also.
Hes been back on raw since and hasn't had any problems since.

And I do add good quailty vitamin, mineral and other necessary supplements to their raw food.

And believe me we probably spend almost as much on cat food as we do on our food if not more. Hubby says we are going to have to start eating cat food soon too.

Anyway as far as I am concerned its to each his own and I am very interested in the best ways to take care of my kitties and I think since I will have rats anyway why not give it a try.

Anyway I am not trying to preach to anyone so sorry if it sounds like it but I am very passionate in the care of my cats and I take it very seriously.

And I have seen the results in my kitties esp for their health issues and I find its the best way for us.

And I respect everyones right to feed as they see fit and I expect everyone to give me the same consideration.

I appreciate and look forward to your input and opinions
thanks rhsm