Each owner wants his pet to be healthy and pleasing to the eye with its luxurious appearance. shiny wool, strong bones and agility, keen eyesight and scent are only part of the makings of nature, for the most part, the health of a cat depends on feeding. AT recent times it became popular to feed the cat raw chicken. The choice of product is justified by nutrition, price and the reaction of pets. Can cats have raw chicken, and if so, how much, we’ll figure it out below.
Everyone knows that Cats are carnivores, which means it's normal for them to eat meat. In nature, animals do not cook their own food, they eat what they manage to catch along with wool, bones and entrails. If guided by this argument, then all the rules for keeping pets will lose their relevance.
The truth is that our domestic cats have long moved away from wild ways of life, although they have retained excellent hunting skills. As before, tailed cats need meat, but in addition to it, cats can get a number of different, tasty foods, vitamin supplements, treats and industrial feeds.
industrial ration
Let us briefly dwell on industrial feed. The preferred option by many is "drying". No doubt, dry food is convenient, easy to store, dose, most importantly, you do not need to cook. In addition to drying, manufacturers offer semi-moist food and canned food, which can diversify your pet's diet.
When choosing food, it is important to understand that products are divided into classes:
Economy- the cheapest food, not recommended for daily use.
Premium and Super Premium- the average price segment for everyday feeding.
Holistic- special or medicinal feeds used for KSD ( urolithiasis), food allergies and other ailments.
The choice of brand, product line and type of product is an individual matter. Naturally, it is better to focus on manufacturers with a good reputation and original quality products. What you should not do is mix industrial food with natural. If you decide to feed your cat with chicken and dry food especially serious consequences you won't see by at least, straightaway. However, be aware that you are putting the cat's body at a crossroads. Her digestive system can digest either food or chicken, but two foods at the same time cannot. It turns out that the pet will not be able to learn everything useful material from food, but just fills the stomach.
natural diet
Chicken meat is combined only with a natural diet. Obviously, only chicken meat the cat will not be enough. Chicken can and should be alternated with beef, veal, rabbit, quail and turkey meat. Equally important are offal, which complement rather than replace meat. What other foods should be on the menu?
The proteins obtained by a cat from chicken are not enough, so other sources of protein should be introduced into the diet:
- Milk- can be kittens and adult animals that do not have lactose intolerance.
- Dairy(ryazhenka, curdled milk, natural yogurt, low-fat sour cream, kefir) - you can give it every day, controlling the fat content of foods. Homemade products are healthier, but fatter, that is, they must be introduced into the cat's diet gradually.
- Eggs- boiled and raw, chicken and quail. Can be 1-2 times a week. Some cats have allergies, in which case the product is excluded from the diet. raw eggs you can give your pet if you are sure of their quality and freshness.
- Fish and seafood- rich sources of proteins and trace elements and at the same time very controversial products. Seafood treats can serve as a source of helminth eggs. The inhabitants of the seas often bear in themselves not eggs, but worm larvae ready for molting. Especially dangerous river varieties fish. Nutritious and useful fish dangerous bones that scratch and even pierce the mucous membranes. Be careful, feed your cat only oceanic, boiled and deboned products.
- Vegetables and greens- an integral part of the natural diet of a cat. In addition to vitamins, these products contain fiber. Without plant foods, a cat's digestive and metabolic processes are disrupted, that is, even meat will not be fully digested.
Tip: so that the cat does not develop a fiber deficiency, plant a special grass for it.
Raw chicken in a cat's diet
Let's take a closer look at the nuances of feeding chicken. From the variety of meat products, a cat cannot:
- Fat meat.
- Raw and fatty pork (may be a source of false rabies).
- Lamb is too oily.
Important! Cats should not eat meat cooked in a marinade with spices and salt.
The ban also applies to any kind of semi-finished products, including canned meat and fish.
Poultry meat that can be fed to a cat is chicken, turkey and quail. Chicken is rightfully considered the most affordable, both in terms of prevalence and price. Now the main question is, will the cat be healthy if you feed her chicken every day?
Let's take a look at some of the highlights:
- The meat must be fresh.
- The point of sale must have documents for products and certificates of veterinary control.
- A cat can have chicken meat and offal.
- A cat should not have chicken bones, heads, paws.
Turning to the advice of breeders, we can conclude that chicken is a universal product. Many experts start feeding kittens with ground chicken, more precisely, fillet (breast). The experience of the owners only confirms the opinion of the breeders, many feed their pets with boiled chicken every day. Raw foods are controversial.
Let's start with the basics - chicken meat must be separated from bones, skin and fat. Leftovers cannot be used to make broth, especially when it comes to factory carcasses.
Many meatpacking plants "pluck" chickens with acid (which is absorbed into the skin of the bird) and keep the carcasses in saline solution so they don't spoil so quickly. How else can you ask? Believe me, there are permitted meat processing methods and the above do not apply to them. In addition, buying salted carcasses for a castrated cat, you risk his health. It is known that a sterilized cat and a neutered cat should be kept on a low-salt or salt-free diet.
Note! There are two ways to increase the weight of a chicken carcass: the birds are fed salt before slaughter, or the carcasses are soaked in salt water. In both cases, the meat drains heavily when defrosted.
The next moment is chicken, it is not only meat, but also offal: liver, heart and stomach. In terms of preparation for consumption, everything here is similar to meat, but there are nuances associated with the volume and frequency of feeding. raw liver weakens, and boiled strengthens the cat's intestines, that is, both constipation and diarrhea are possible. If your cat is not eating chicken liver before, you need to introduce it into the diet carefully and gradually. The heart and stomach are muscle tissues that are difficult to digest. Both products can be given raw (after cleaning, freezing or boiling water), but must be thoroughly crushed.
If the cat does not eat raw meat
Many owners are perplexed when they see that the cat ignores the offered meat. Especially often this situation occurs when a cat is trying to transfer from dry food to natural. It should be understood that if a cat has never tried raw meat, then it will be difficult to provoke it to such a decisive step. Instincts are on your side, every predator a priori knows the smell of meat, the question is whether it smells like store chicken.
Buy for the first try poultry . The bird smells the sweetest. Acquaintance with meat products is categorically not recommended to start with the liver. Quite often, a cat can be provoked to take the first step by eating boiled meat in front of her. If the pet has approved the processed product, you can take the next step. A raw piece of meat should be cut into small pieces and poured over with boiling water (so that they turn a little white). The cat will smell the familiar smell of cooked meat, but will taste raw meat. Further, instincts will take their toll.
Important! If your cat wants but can't eat meat, contact your veterinarian immediately. The animal may suffer from dysbacteriosis or pathologies of the gastrointestinal tract.
Some types of bones with joints and cartilage are used in natural nutrition cats as a source of calcium and phosphorus, as well as chondroitin and collagen. It is impossible to object to the presence of these substances in the composition of the bones, and therefore, in principle, chicken bones can be given to cats, but with a number of significant reservations and being well aware possible risks. Let's take a look at the consequences overindulgence bones and how to avoid it.
What are the dangers of bone feeding?
Chicken bones have almost no nutritional value, but contain a lot minerals(especially calcium, phosphorus and potassium). Therefore, they can in no way serve as the basis of the diet and even occupy a significant share in it. But even in small quantities, the use of bones threatens:
- trauma to the oral mucosa, esophagus, stomach or intestines;
- jamming of the bone between the teeth, followed by trauma to the gums;
- blockage of the esophagus, stomach or intestines.
Tubular bones are especially dangerous - their sharp fragments severely injure the delicate mucous membrane, this should be taken into account when deciding whether a cat can have bones from a chicken. spongy bones less traumatic, but can still cause inflammation and blockage alimentary canal, especially if their content in the diet is a significant part (more than 30%).
The described problems are accompanied by the following symptoms:
- lethargy, decreased appetite, or complete failure from feed;
- repeated vomiting and / or gagging;
- diarrhea, blood and mucus in the stool;
- profuse salivation (if the bone is stuck in the mouth);
- constipation (lack of bowel movements for more than 2 days);
- pain during bowel movements.
Cats may push when trying to go to the toilet, as well as stand in a characteristic posture of pain: with a lowered chin, a hunched back, and legs wide apart. At the same time, the abdomen is hard, and when trying to feel it, the animal reacts aggressively.
Why do some cats calmly eat chicken bones?
Proponents that a cat can be given chicken bones often argue that their own / neighbor / yard cat or grandmother's cat in the village eats any chicken bones all her life, and this does not affect her health. We can feed cats on the street with bones, but statistics show that outdoor animals live on average only 3-5 years, while well-groomed pets - up to 20. So if a cat eats chicken bones, this does not mean at all that they do him no harm.
At the same time, bones are part of the natural diet of predators, and the digestive system of cats is able to digest them, thus obtaining the necessary nutrients. However, we are talking about the bones of small prey - mice, small birds, from which chicken bones differ greatly in size, thickness and hardness.
To make chicken bones do as little harm as possible
That is why chicken bones should be given with caution and after pre-training following certain rules:
- Do not use tubular bones when feeding. Their epiphysis (hollow long part containing Bone marrow) consists of a compact bone substance, very hard. When a cat chews on bones, the pineal gland is crushed into sharp fragments that can easily injure the wall of the stomach or intestines.
- You can't boil bones. From this, they only become harder and more brittle, which increases the risk of damaging the esophagus and intestines. In addition, after heat treatment, the bones are digested worse.
- Before giving to the cat, chicken necks, legs and heads are beaten with a hammer, crushed, and the hardest parts (for example, beaks) are removed.
- For adult cat the share of bone products should be no more than 5-10% of the total diet. In large quantities, bones can cause constipation or even full intestinal obstruction because they are never fully digested. In addition, an excess of calcium and phosphorus is just as harmful as its deficiency.
- Special care should be taken when offering bones to young and old animals, whose jaws may be too weak to crush them well enough.
The adaptive abilities of the cat's body are very large, but they are also limited: it is not uncommon for animals that have been using bones for years, eventually end up on the table of a veterinary surgeon with intestinal obstruction.
The conclusion is simple: if you decide to definitely introduce bones into your cat's diet, then you should follow the basic rules for choosing and preparing bones, do not give too much of them, especially to young and old animals. And it’s better to just replace the bones with high-quality calcium-phosphorus top dressing or meat and bone meal.
What canned food is best for cats?
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Project for 3-4 months. Organizer - Petkorm LLC.
“How delicious it smells like boiled chicken,” the fluffy baby moves towards the kitchen, bumps into the owner’s legs and gently touches with his paw, trying to attract attention. The owner takes his pet in his arms, realizing that he came to the smell of chicken boiling in a saucepan and thinks: “Is it possible to feed a kitten with chicken?” If yes, how much and how?
Hen - green light!
Any food pet, including cats, especially if she is still small, must be balanced. Sometimes such balancing can be achieved if you feed your pet with high-quality industrial feeds. As a rule, these are premium class feeds. But such pleasure can cost a pretty penny, and therefore many cat owners prefer to feed their pets with natural homemade food, or, in last resort, combine homemade food with industrial food (but this is not acceptable for some breeds). So, if the owner decided to cook food for the pet on his own, then along with other meat products, is it possible to feed the kitten with chicken and chicken offal, because, you see, today chicken remains the most affordable and affordable type of meat. And the cat needs meat in the first place.
So, chicken can be given to a kitten and adult cats almost every day, but not fried, but boiled and without bones, especially if it is little kitty. At 3.5 months, when the baby has grown enough and his teeth have become stronger, you can start feeding chicken legs, by the year - heads. But it is better to take the heads of young hens or chickens, they are more tender, their bones are soft, it is convenient for cats to gnaw them. It is better to boil both legs and heads well so that they become soft. Of course, sometimes cats need to be given raw meat, but not in the case of chicken, because there is a danger of contracting salmonella.
Best food for kittens chicken breast- soft meat and no bones. You can give boiled chicken offal - heart, lungs, kidneys, liver. It should be noted that cats adore the liver almost the same as fish, only experts and veterinarians do not advise to get involved in it (they recommend no more than 1 time per week), because the liver, as you know, is a body filter, including animals, and therefore the coat may coarsen, and in light-haired pets, the color may darken. The lungs and kidneys of adult cats, and small kittens do not really like them, they do not really eat them. The heart is given 1-3 times a week.
A good option is to scroll the boiled chicken through a meat grinder and make a kind of minced chicken that can be given to kittens along with broth. So the kitten will be more comfortable and easier to eat.
Raw or boiled? Pros and cons
Two in one?
Some wonder: is it possible to feed a kitten with chicken, mixing raw and boiled meat in one meal? Experts do not recommend resorting to this method of feeding, since for digestion in the stomach of boiled and fresh meat different enzymes are secreted in the cat's body. Therefore, such a mixture will be difficult for the stomach, especially for a small kitten.
In conclusion, I would like to give a few general rules for feeding kittens:
- food should not be cold, and not hot, but warm, approximately at room temperature;
- in no case are bones given;
- in order for the baby to cope with the portion, the chicken is torn into small pieces
- it is advisable to place a bowl for drinking and eating in a place that is impassable and quiet so that the pet can safely eat.
- small kittens eat often, up to 5-6 times a day (you can provide constant access to food). After 6 months, the number of meals is reduced to 3 times a day. At the age of eight months, the animal is transferred to two meals a day.
According to experienced veterinarians and felinologists, the chicken contains all the fats necessary for cats. In any case, the main rule: the product must be fresh and of high quality. Fresh grated carrots can be added to raw chicken, and boiled chicken is best given with vegetables to avoid constipation.
About feeding kittens with meat. Video
Chicken meat, bones and offal are extremely useful for cats, but feeding them to pets has its own characteristics. Some chicken bones are potentially dangerous and have their own characteristics in cooking before feeding them to the mustachioed household. Is it possible to give a cat chicken necks - a question that arises from owners who seek to enrich their pet's diet as much as possible natural products without harming him.
Cats are carnivores that need complete diet necessarily including meat and bone products. The protein found in chicken offal should make up at least 30-40% of the total diet of adult cats. Before giving your pet chicken bones, you need to familiarize yourself with all the dangers and features of serving this product.
All chicken bones contain useful substances necessary for the cat's body. Chicken necks and heads are considered the most valuable, due to the presence of a brain in them. Head and spinal cord- a very useful and nutritious product for cats, as it contains a lot of phospholipids, calcium, trace elements, vitamins and minerals when fresh. In the diet of a cat, chicken necks should be regularly added to the main food. Eating fresh and natural chicken bones improves skin, coat and other tissues four-legged friend, which undoubtedly improves the condition and appearance pet.
Chicken necks contain:
- Vitamins - PP, E, B (12, 5, 6, 9, 2, 1), A;
- Minerals: (Se, Mn, Cu, Zn, Fe, P, K, Na, Mg, Ca);
- Proteins;
- Fats;
- Carbohydrates;
- unsaturated fatty acids.
Despite being nutritious and healthy, some chicken bones are dangerous and can be dangerous if cats eat them. serious problems with health. The structure of the bone skeleton of a chicken implies the presence tubular bones(paws and wings) which are very dangerous for the health and even for the life of the animal. Sharp fragments of tubular bones can lead to perforation of the walls digestive tract cats. It is also dangerous to feed a pet with boiled bone mass, due to a possible blockage of the stomach or intestines.
How to give chicken necks to cats
As already mentioned, chicken necks are very valuable and nutritional product, which does not have tubular bones in its structure, and therefore is safe for feeding cats and cats. But in what form is it better to give this delicacy to a pet - raw or boiled, whole or in the form of minced meat? - let's figure it out. Chicken necks should be given raw, after chopping them through a meat grinder. So they will retain all their valuable components and will not harm the pet. Boiled bones are also allowed, but the amount of boiled bones fed should be minimal, due to possible obstruction of the stomach and intestines.
It is unacceptable to feed chicken necks to cats constantly and in large quantities. It is recommended to include this offal as an additive to the main feed - 3-4 times a week. It is allowed to give the cat a raw chicken neck in its entirety, but under the supervision of the owner in order to exclude mechanical injury mucous membrane. Whole raw bones also have a beneficial effect on the teeth of the animal: they grind down, are cleaned of tartar and become stronger.
Age features of feeding cats
The diet and menu of the cat family largely depends on their age. So little kittens, who have just weaned from their mother's milk, need soft food due to young teeth that have not yet been strengthened and are not fully formed. digestive system. Older cats also have problems eating solid food due to the fragility and fragility of old teeth, or even their absence. In these cases, it would be advisable to use chicken bones and necks in the form bone meal, and regularly add it to the feed of kittens and old cats in measured parts. It is also possible to include chicken bones in the form of a broth.
Basic rules for preparing chicken bones for feeding
The benefits, as well as the harms of chicken necks, largely depend on their quality, method of preparation and serving. The fresh bone product must be free of foreign odors and have a natural pink color. If the bones have been frozen, then the storage conditions must be met, and the freezing time should not exceed two months. There is also a risk of the presence of pathogens (salmonellosis) in raw meat, and in order to prevent infection, it is recommended to pour boiling water over the meat and bone product or boil it for 2-3 minutes.
Preparation of chicken bones before feeding includes:
- Removal of tubular bones;
- Skin cleansing;
- Heat treatment (scalding with boiling water or boiling);
- Removal of the beak from the heads and claws from the paws.
Giving chicken heads and necks to cats is most useful and safe as fresh minced bone, added in small amounts to porridge, broth, or other staple food. Each owner should know that it is dangerous and undesirable to feed boiled bones to cats, due to the possible blockage of the stomach or intestines by them, the resulting obstruction can threaten the life of the animal.
A complete cat diet should include only high-quality and healthy foods. Chicken bones added to the cat's menu will favorably affect the quality of the animal's coat and teeth. In order for feeding bones to bring only benefits, you should follow all the rules of preparation and choose only those bones that do not carry the threat of causing injury to the animal's digestive tract.
EXPERT COMMENT: veterinarian, instructor-felinologist Yulia Brovko
At heat treatment(cooking) is changing chemical composition bones. Protein and fats go into the broth, the protein itself undergoes denaturation (including collagen denaturation), plus vitamins are destroyed. But the most important thing is that calcium (or rather, calcium phosphate) passes into a form that is more resistant to the action of acid, bone decalcification does not occur.
The veterinarian Sergey Savchenko, the host of the popular YouTube blog "Children of the Fauna", also warns about the dangers of feeding cats with thermally processed and large bones.
In other words, if a cat eats a boiled bone, it will not be digested and will cause intestinal blockage or bleeding. This is the case when an animal, after a delicious dinner, ends up on the operating table.
What bones can cats
Raw bones in the digestive tract of a healthy cat are digested. This is due to the fact that in carnivores the concentration of hydrochloric acid in the gastric juice is much higher than in herbivores and omnivores. High acidity gastric juice predators also need to destroy pathogenic bacteria. Therefore, the first condition is that the bones must be raw.
The second condition is that they must be spongy. You can give chicken and quail necks, tails and heads of chickens without a beak. Spongy bones are soft and do not form dangerous chips, unlike tubular ones.
Heads are an excellent source of calcium and more
The third condition is that bare bones without meat are not given to cats. Bones are suitable only with meat grown on them. Such bones painlessly enter the stomach, and there they begin to be digested with the help of hydrochloric acid along with the rest of the food, which also should never be boiled.
The fourth condition is that the bones must be crushed. There are cats that can digest nails, but it's better not to risk it.
Let's summarize. Bones are served to cats raw, with meat, not tubular, not many, not large. If there is the slightest doubt about whether the cat can have this bone, it is better to refuse it.
And it is always worth starting to introduce such a product into the diet in a crushed form: ground in a meat grinder or well-beaten with a kitchen hammer. Many stop at this option and practice only it. In this case, the cat does not develop the jaw so well and the effect of brushing the teeth is less, but the beast is guaranteed to digest all the food and not damage the gastrointestinal tract.
Watch a video on how to beat a chicken neck for a cat. The same can be done with quail. Many zoologists believe that cats should deal with quail necks on their own, but it's better not to risk it and grind them up.
Who can't have bones
You can only feed bones to cats that are completely on food. raw meat. Cats that consume food or boiled meat are unable to cope with the bones. The fact is that such cats have a less acidic environment of the stomach, which does not allow the bones to be digested. As a result, there is also a blockage of the intestines and bleeding of the gastrointestinal tract.
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