One of the biggest concerns Sphynx cat owners, or potential owners, have is what to feed their Sphynx cat. I now know what the answer is for my Sphynxes after having them on a raw food diet for the last week.
Raw Food Value
One of the main reasons I was looking to move the cats to a raw food diet was the cost of the premium food I was feeding them. The three of them were going through on a daily basis around 10 cans of wet food (10 x 85grams) at $1.45 each. Add on top of that the dry food at around $2 a day ($42 a bag for 3.63 kg ) and we have a total of $16.35 a DAY.
Compare that to my first batch of raw food in which I made a bit of a logistical error on when I purchased chickens at $5.95 a kg (when I thought the sign said $5.95 each – oops!). All up I made around 6 days worth from 2 chickens + giblets + hearts + livers + turkey mince + butternut pumpkin (squash). Sum total $30 or $5 a day.
That’s a 66% saving.
Raw Food Bowel Benefits
If you are a Sphynx owner then you will know the pain and embarrassment of what can happen when your Sphynx eats something that doesn’t agree with it. Firstly there is the soft bowel movements (to be kind) or the out and out explosive diarrhea.The stench of the stool is so bad that sometimes it felt like we were living in an open sewer. Finally there is the rumbling belly that can end in gas so bad it can clear a room. A Sphynx’s gut is a sensitive thing.
On the manufactured food all three of my gang had stinky poos and the kitten had smelly farts. The consistency of their bowel movements were softish.
Introduce the raw diet and within one day they had firmer poos and ….none of that house clearing stench! It used to be easy to know when one had gone to the litter box. Now I have to check the boxes to see if there is poo there because the smell is not strong enough to alert anyone that they have gone.
I didn’t bother doing a slow introduction to the gang as they were having chicken wings a few times a week to supplement the manufactured food. There has been no negative response from their digestive tracts what-so-ever.
I don’t think I have been this happy about the state of poo since I had my human babies!
But Do The Sphynx Cats Like Their New Raw Diet?
From the moment I put the first bowl down all three have been massive fans of the new food. The three eat around 650-800 grams at a sitting which is around the same as what they were eating with the manufactured food. Sphynx cat Luna used to eat mostly dry food whereas Sphynx cat Pierre and Sphynx Kitten Lucy ate a combination.
Feed times are filled with smacking lips as they race each other to finish their bowls. They just LOVE it.
Raw Sphynx Cat Food Recipe
For 6 days – 3 cats
4 kilos whole chicken
.5 kilos chicken giblets
.5 kilos chicken hearts
.5 kilos chicken livers
.5 kilos turkey mince
.5 kilos butternut pumpkin
Lysine freeze dried powder
Pro-Biotic liquid
Meat cut up and run through a Northern Tool Grinder (highly recommended!) and the whole thing took less than half an hour.
I have decided to move my three Sphynx cats to a full raw diet. There are a couple of reasons for this -
- It’s winter here in Australia and all 3 are eating 10 x 85gram cans of food each between them a day. At $1.45 a can thats OVER $100 a WEEK
- While cat food in Australia is good (much better than I believe it is in the USA) I have always leaned towards doing what is natural, rather than artificial
- My Italian Greyhound is getting on in years and losing teeth, he can also benefit from eating the same diet
- The more I read about the pet food industry, the more I despise supporting them
There are some excellent posts on the topic over at the Sphynx Forum and I have certainly learned a great deal in the last weeks of research.
Up until now my guys have been on a mix of raw and artificial foods. They enjoy eating both and I don’t think they will be much of an issue crossing over straight into raw. I have had an issue in another area though.
Getting my hands on a meat grinder that is powerful enough to munch up chicken bones, but not a full deer/cow carcass has been quite difficult. I am not going to spend a gazillion dollars on an industrial/commercial model, nor do I want to by a plastic “mincer” that won’t do the job. In the end I purchased from good old Amazon a model I saw recommended on another blog – Northern Electric Meat Grinder
– at $99 it is much cheaper than anything the same quality here in Australia.
Once I have it in my hot little hand I am going to put videos up of making that raw diet for people that are looking for instructions on how-to.
The make up of the diet will be 1/2 whole chicken meat and bone, 1/4 chicken and turkey gizzards including kidney/hearts, 3/16turkey/beef mince, 1/16th cooked pumpkin, pro-biotic mix, l-lysine, and vitamin mix
My next step is to find if there are any organic chicken outlets with reasonable priced birds. Breast enlarging hormones can’t be good for cats.
This week has shown another burst in people showing interest in Sphynx Cats. Being “discovered” as a breed is a double edged sword. There are those people that genuinely want to care and love their Sphynx Cat and will be sensible by gathering all the information they can about the breed BEFORE buying one (such as buying my Sphynx Cat Book ). Then there are people that want one for Christmas, but come Easter are looking to dump or sell their kitten because it isn’t as fun or cute as it used to be.
Headlines like the one below also attract the unscrupulous kitten mill breeder who will exploit a breeding Queen and the people they sell to, all in the name of a quick dollar.
If you are here to get more information about the breed than I congratulate you on putting in the time to research the breed. They do have a set of needs that are distinct from other cat breeds and more resemble that of a toddler child. The pair used as models for the article above are in desperate need of a face wash, and that is not unusual of the breed. Wiping mucky eyes, ears, and staining on the nose is going to be part of your daily routine. Can you put up with that as an owner?
If you have any doubt at all whether you will be able to dedicate yourself to a Sphynx then I implore you to wait, or choose something else that requires less care. It doesn’t mean that you are a bad person, but not everyone has the lifestyle that can fit in with the needs of a Sphynx Kitten or Sphynx Cat.
Today is an exciting day in the Sphynx Cat world! I have created www.sphynxcats.com and built a portal to all things Sphynx cat (or Sphynx Kitten) related. This means that when you are looking for Sphynx cat pictures, Sphynx cat videos, Sphynx cat products and other Sphynx cat related sites all you need to do is go to www.sphynxcats.com and follow a link.
In the near future added links to the Sphynx cat podcast (The Naked Truth) and my Sphynx cat designer clothes line (Sphynxy) will be added.
Love to hear your feedback on the site… drop me a comment below
I was happy to receive the results of the PCR swabs today from the vet as it explained why previous treatments were not working. The diagnosis is Feline Herpes Virus (which we now know Luna brought to us as a Sphynx kitten from her breeder) and Mycoplasma Felis (previously called Hemobartonella felis) which appeared at around the time Pierre was attacked by the dog. The treatment for Luna and Pierre is Doxycycline for the next 4-6 weeks with a follow up visit to the vet in 2 weeks time for assessment. As the tetracyclin antibiotics do nasty things to kitten’s teeth, and Lucy is now fit and well, she will not go on the antibiotics.
The good news is that with the medication, nursing and rest, they all should be back to their crazy selves soon enough. In fact the Mycoplasma Felis should disappear completely and with a little luck (and some L Lysine) the FPV should not rear its head for a long time.
the blue dots are Mycoplasma felis infiltrating red blood cells
Sphynx People Say…