I am sure that we’ve mentioned that we love our cats as our family members. They are not just little animals to us. Yet, we mindlessly open a can for their dinner and pay no attention to the ingredients inside the can.

Could you imagine if we were given a can of mysterious “meat” for our breakfast and dinner and were expected to be happy with it? To thrive off of it? We wouldn’t like that very much… I know I wouldn’t.

Attending CatCon last year really opened our eyes to the many ways that we can improve our cats’ lives, starting with their food!

When we were first introduced to Purrvana Kitty Kush, a selling point that we really liked is that they are an organic catnip farm that makes their catnip in small batches. The love and attention that went into producing this tin of catnip does not go unnoticed by our kitties, all 7 of them really love it! (We did a blog post about Purrvana Kitty Kush , you can read about that here : https://rayssewcrafty.com/2017/03/17/featurefriday-purrvana-kitty-kush-and-a-giveaway/  )

With all of these ideas in my head about transitioning our babies to healthier foods, I found this recipe that I just had to try as soon as we came home with Purrvana’s Kitty Kush. They are little “homemade kibble” with only 4 ingredients. It prompted me to read the ingredients on the back of the treats that we’ve been feeding them, and well, I can’t pronounce half of the ingredients in it! Why was I still feeding them all of this unnatural stuff?

We had quite the reality check that we weren’t being the best purr-ents and that pained us. We realize that cats can’t talk and just because they eat the food and treats that we give them, it doesn’t mean that they love it or are ok with it health-wise.

After learning about feeding our pets a more species-appropriate diet, we were so intimidated about where to begin. The pros and cons of feeding processed vs. raw are eye-opening and motivating! Here are some screen-grabs , loaded with information, that really pushed us to start to transition to raw! We learned a lot from CatCentric.org, it so detailed in teaching us about how to care for our cats better. I can’t possibly explain this as well as Tracy , so please check out her site! (www.CatCentric.org )

This chart about the ingredients in kibble really helped us realize that we had to do something about our babies kibble intake. We always leave a bowl of kibble out because having 7 cats with different eating habits is hard to stay on top off. It’s easier to leave a bowl out 24/7 but as a result, our cats are already eating stuff that isn’t good for them and some of them are over weight because of it. The vet has recommended that we only feed them kibble for 5 minutes a day, if we have to. But truth be told, our cats go bonkers when there isn’t kibble, which means that we get no sleep because the cats are whining and acting out, due to our act of war AKA eliminating the kibble bowl.  After two days of trying to reduce the kibble intake, we gave up and left the bowl out 24/7 again.

Cats : 1 , Purr-ents : 0

We found all of these better options at our local Pet food supply and switched from regular indoor cat kibble to grain-free kibble. It is still kibble that is baked at 460 degrees and zapped of almost all of its possible protein but we felt a bit better than feeding them the grain loaded kibble. We are fixing to get them off of baked kibble entirely, but the cats remind us that they are cats and will resist…and resist until I’m blue in the face. Luckily, after much trial and error, we found SOME stuff that they like!

They absolutely LOVE Ziwipeak’s air-dried cat food and it is way better for them than baked kibble. To my understanding, dehydrated and freeze-dried food are better because they gently remove the water from the protein at a lower temperature , therefore preserving the sought after protein. But air-dried is the best! With all of these options, it’s all moot point if your cat won’t eat it…

As if our cross- country move wasn’t traumatizing enough, we had continuos resistance on the food changes. Rightfully so, our patience was tested , time and time again. But we kept on being patient and little by little, the babies came around. Ziwipeak and Stella & Chewy’s for the win!

Cats: 1, Purr-ents:1

After settling in, we started to feed our babies raw chicken breast and some took to it immediately while others weren’t sure what to do with it. It has been about 2 months that we have been feeding our babies raw chicken breast and they are all on board now! Thank Goodness! They still miss their cans so we feed them a bit of canned food every now and then to keep them from completely hating us.

We are venturing into new styles of food and toppings. We added a bit of these “Veg-To-Bowl” dried veggies to their mix of air-dried and grain-free kibble. Little Jerry makes a point of eating them all except for the peas…what a sneaky fellow!

Next up to bat : Grandma Lucy’s Chicken & Fish Freeze-dried / Grain -Free cat food. Wish us luck!

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Do you feed your cats freeze-dried, air-dried or raw?
We would love to hear from you about what your babies like, don’t like or about how your transition went!

Toodles for now,

-Diana and The Miller Cats<3