Everything seems to be going well. No bad poops or puke in the house. Well, yesterday Darby and Bill both threw up, kind of. Darby gagged and threw up a little drop of mucousy something, so I put her outside. Then Bill threw up a white liquid along with a hairball, about 10 mins later.

Here was their breakfast yesterday:

Left: (Darby) Chicken leg, small piece of chicken liver, and small piece of beef heart
Top: (Bill) Ground turkey, ground bone meal, chicken liver, pig brain
Bottom: (Flowers) Chicken wing, chicken liver

Flowers and Bill are eating a balanced meal as far as the 80/10/5/5 ratio goes, now I just have to incorporate more red meat and fish once in awhile.

Darby gets fed 1/2C goat's milk for probiotics, to help her thru the transition. Her poops have gotten better, they're not as runny, and their SO small now.

Flowers did fine with her chicken wing, took about maybe 30 mins to get through it. Bill actually finished eating before her and tried making his way to her plate. Flowers for all wild-cat and started growing with her prey in her mouth. She was using her paws to hold the meat as she was tearing meat and skin off the bone. She got right through the bone too, no problem. She just had a tiny piece of bone leftover and Darby swallowed that. 

I have to meal prep later today, hopefully add some beef, but I failed to take that out of the freezer last night.... Animals may fast tomorrow morning lol. 

Chicks with knives... Easy does it

Everything seems to be going well so far... Darby hasn't pooped in the house (thankfully). She's been getting her serving of bone in the mornings in her chicken legs or quarters, in the evening she gets a tiny bit of beef heart and chicken breast. This afternoon, I added powdered goat's milk kefir. The chicken breast was still pretty frozen but she got thru it in about a minute. She lapped the milk right up too. Perfect. Now, hopefully it'll help with her when I add liver again.

Bill seems to be fine with his little bit of pig brain. I sprinkle a bit of the probiotic over his food to make sure he eats it all. He seems to really like it (Fortiflora).

So, I've been thinking of getting a good knife, one that can cut through raw meat and chicken leg/wing joints. This is what I decided on, after consulting with a culinary friend in some food brands. I found this while I was just browsing. The ratings and reviews are awesome and the DEAL!

The Adventures of Darby Dog and the Returning Poop 💩

7.26 - 

Darby pooped again... before we got home. 

I didn't even give her liver this morning and the next meal prep for her does not have any. I'll transition her to beef before liver again. I did give her a little piece of beef heart, as I was cutting it up for Flowers' meals. I also put less than an oz into her food, over 6 feedings. Put it with 2 servings of bone, so hopefully it'll be ok and no runny poop. Also, I ordered powdered goats milk kefir for her for probiotics. 

I put .6oz of pig brain into Bills, about 2/3 of what he should get over 8 feedings. 

Giving Flowers beef liver to switch it up from the chicken. No chicken wing yet, she's been getting chunks of chicken breast and beef heart to put her little jaws and teeth to work. 

Things are looking up

7.25 - 

Gonna give Flowers chicken wings in her meals now. Also, increasing her to 2.5%. 2% just seems like not a lot of food and I'm bringing Bill down to 3%, Flowers is ending up eating what he isn't finishing.

Bill is starting to get a bit picky, seems he's hesitant to eat it when it's too cold and frozen. Sprinkling the probiotic helps. 

Darby still has to go out in the middle of the night. Let her out at midnight and again around 445am. No more poop in the house at least. Cat poop is pretty white, so may bump down the bone. Gonna introduce beef to all of them next. 

Just got more fresh eggs from Lindsey yesterday,  Bill will get an egg twice a week ( Sunday & Wednesday), Flowers and Darby, once (Sunday). 

NOTE (The lesson I had to learn first-hand: When transitioning, best to do bone and chicken first, then another protein, after about a month, introduce an organ, etc. 

I introduced liver before the second protein, except for Flowers, who started with beef initially, and did fine. 

7.25, sometime later -

Gave Flowers a wing tip to see how she'd take to it. She gnawed on it for a bit and I wish I would have watched her the whole time. I dont know if she finished it, or if Darby ate it... We'll see how she does next time she gets it. 

Mental note:

1 wing (drummette, middle, tip) = 10 feedings of bone for Flowers. I cut it in half to put in 2 feedings for a 10 meal prep.

The Shit Hits the Fan

7.22 -

No puke... but Darby has had runny poop since Wednesday [7/19]. Started feeding her liver around the 7/18, gave her 5%. 

She's had to poop more frequently, pooped in the house twice. [It was just liquid and  slightly yellowish and superrrr stinky]. She woke up Matt this morning around 4am to let her outside. 

Bill is doing well, eating his balanced portion of liver. [No more puke on the kitty end! #grateful It'd be horrible dealing with Bill's puke and Darby diarreah 🤢]. Next food prep, maybe I'll add brain to his... I need to start feeding Flowers beef too... 

Mental note: 

----Chicken legs = 30% --> every 3rd meal (Darby)

The more you know... The less puke you may have to clean up!

7.8 -
So, I haven't given Bill pieces of liver in a couple days, had to defrost more. Gave him 2 little bites this evening.
He threw up.
He's been getting probiotic once a day. I'm wondering if it's because he hasn't had liver, then had it all of a sudden? Is his stomach that sensitive? Puke looked like just kibble. [Now, I'm thinking it's because a better transition would have been to give him bone meal along with his ground turkey, I also should have transitioned him with another protein before giving him beef liver. Liver, especially red meat, was probably too rich.]
Flowers doesn't have as big of a belly anymore.

7.10 -
Gave Bill 2 little pieces of liver in the evening, no puke the last couple days...he threw up. Gonna try to get him chicken liver instead...
Flowers' weight is back to normal.
Not so much white poop anymore. There was moldy (whitish and furry) poop [weird]. Not a lot of poop either.

7.12 -
Bought chicken livers at Kroger, as well as chicken gizzards and hearts. Bought chicken quarters for Darby, left these out to defrost. Gave some chicken liver to Bill, 1 little piece at dinner, another for 3rd meal snack, while I was meal prepping. 

Bill & Darby

7.13 - 

Gave Bill some ground turkey with chicken liver, no puke at all! Flowers took it just fine. Flowers still at a good weight. Gonna keep her at 2%. Shes not an active cat anyway.

7.14 -
Bill's breakfast, gave him 2 pieces of liver with ground turkey and kibble. Bill's dinner, ground turkey, chicken liver, and 1.5tsp of bone meal, we'll see how it goes.  

Fed Darby a completely raw breakfast with a chicken leg and see ground turkey. Her dinner was a the other half of the chicken quarter, chicken liver, and a packet of Bill's probiotic for dinner.

7.15 -
Everything has been good, no puke! Have been feeding Darby all chicken and bone, poop is solid and whitish, so cutting back on bone and adding chicken liver to future meals. 

Bill will now be getting the correct amount of liver and I'll slowly introduce the pork brain.

A trip to the Oriental store...

7.3 - 

Flowers is doing great with her full transition. 

Went to Kim Nhung and got 2oz of frozen pork brains $3!! Going to try giving a bit to Flowers once it's defrosted and add little bits to her meal. Still doing a scoop of ground turkey for Bill but I added little tiny pieces of liver to add to his food moving forward. All is good, no puke! They're getting egg yolks twice a week, I give Darby the whites and egg shells. I'm getting a dozen farm eggs from Lindsey for $3.

7.4 -

Started pork brain with Flowers

7.5 - 

Reducing Flowers to 2%, weight currently at 9.5lbs, Bill almost 10lbs and he's being fed at 3.5%. I'm also cutting Flowers down to 1 egg yolk a week.

Puke, Glorious Puke 🤢

6.21 -
Bill still throwing up... It smells SO bad. I am now just giving a little beef with his kibble. Flowers is great! Poops are white and dry. 

6.23 -
Bill still throwing up. I decide to meal prep Flowers, ground chicken, bone meal, only liver, no other organ. Bill, I just started giving him a spoon of ground chicken with his kibble. No puke yet! 

6.26 -
Got more ground turkey and fully meal prepped Flowers again, just liver. Bill gets a scoop of ground turkey with every meal. Taking it really slow with Mr. Sensitive Stomach. Still no puke since the switch to ground chicken and turkey. Yay!

Score! 🍖🍗🐮🐔

6.20 - 

Got beef, beef liver, bone meal, beef tripe, & a freezer from Donna @ <$1/lb. 

Prepared balanced meals for cats - full transition from kibble/ground chicken. 

Feeding Flowers at 3% body weight (@8lbs) and Bill at 3.5% (calculated @10lbs - ideal weight). 

Bill throws up, Flowers is great. I decide to portion out 1 meal for Bill and just scoop out a spoonful to go with his soaked kibble to get used to transition. Flowers will get all raw from now on, since she's done so well. 

The Introduction of a Prey Model Raw (PMR) diet

Flowers is 8, FIV+, and is prone to UTIs. I had always wanted to feed her and my almost-12 year old Golden raw a few years ago, but wasn't in the right place, financially and space-wise. Having recently learned that my cousin had started feeding her smush-face baby kitten raw, it kick-started me into action. 

This is Grandpa Bill, William Whiskers. Who knows how old he is, my vet tech friend guesses 18?? He showed up in my front porch 2 weeks after I had moved into my new house. I gave him a bowl of kibble and notified my friend. She told me if he was there the next morning, to call her so that she could pick him up and see if he was microchipped and just a general check up. Of course, he was there the next morning, and the rest is history. He's now my Old Bill, with only 2 molars and no front claws, hip bones and spine popping out. 

6.16 - 

The cats try ground chicken. 

Flowers growls as she eats. 

No one threw up.

Flowers & Bill

Flowers

I think I just scooped some ground chicken into their bowls, didn't weigh it anything, just a scoop. Plop. The day before, I gave then both a little bite of it, to see if they'd even like it. I knew Flowers would because she's always trying to steal any food she can get to. [She'll open cabinets, get on top of the fridge, risk jumping on to the oven. We need to make sure any food is kept either in the oven or microwave.] They both ate it right up. I had been reading that it's harder to get a cat over the age of 2 to quickly take to the switch from kibble to raw. I was happy with how this was starting! 

6.18 - 

Still just ground chicken. Rough estimate of what I would think they should get. Bill doesn't meow for a 3rd meal anymore, nor has he gotten one (around 10/11pm).

6.19 - 

Started giving mixed kibble w/ ground chicken

I was afraid they weren't getting balanced meals with just chicken. I later found out, it's okay to transition like this, and meals can be balanced over the period of like a week, each meal doesn't have to be balanced, nor every day, just as long as their getting the required nutrients over a period of time.