Putting Your Sphynx On A Raw Food Diet

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.

Big Thanks To Sphynx Cat Blog Readers

I really have to thank everyone that drops by to read the Sphynx Cat Blog. This fortnight has seen 5400+ Sphynx lovin’ individuals read 8000 pages, send me 20+ emails, left comments and of course signed up for the Sphynx Cat newsletter. To get here you have been using Google to search for information on everything from tattooed cats to Grandma Wrinkles (we will miss you on TV Grandma Wrinkles!).

Lots of you have us in your RSS reader and don’t even get counted in the numbers above, but we love you just as much as the browser visitors (extra special cuddles for you if you are feeling left out).

The last 500 of you came from these places in the world (funny how it’s mostly the Northern Hemisphere!)

Always feel free to drop me an email, comment or send a hello to @SphynxCatLuna on Twitter and send me pictures of your Sphynx – we loooove to see them.

Thanks again readers

Allison – Luna, Pierre and Lucy

Sphynx Cat Raw Diet

I have decided to move my three Sphynx cats to a full raw diet. There are a couple of reasons for this -

1. 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
2. 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
3. My Italian Greyhound is getting on in years and losing teeth, he can also benefit from eating the same diet
4. 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.

World Cup of Sphynx Cats?

It would seem that some Sphynx cats are in the mood to cheer on the world cup. I don’t think they have the lips to play a vevuzala, but their owners do like to get them in the mood with a little face paint.

Sphynx Cat Breeder Directory

I get quite a few emails from people seeking Sphynx Cat advice.  Some are easy to answer, but some are asking the question “do you know a good breeder in X” . X being a city or country that is not local to me. I pondered the issue of how to help people who are looking for Sphynx kittens find a reputable breeder.

I looked around for a listing that was exclusive to Sphynx cats, and you know what? I couldn’t find one. All the listings were tacked onto general cat sites. How are people going to know which is the best, most comprehensive listing?

So the obvious (to me) solution was to create one! So today I introduce the Sphynx Cat Breeder Directory.

Over the last couple of weeks I have been methodically going through all the Sphynx cat breeder sites and adding them to the directory. As I add a breeder to the directory they are invited to update their listing with pictures and details, but you can help out too. If you have a breeder that you love then drop by and add a star rating and a comment. If your breeder isn’t on the listing yet, drop them an email and point out they should add their details.

Here’s a video of what a breeder gets for the Gold Listing.

If you are a Sphynx cat breeder and want to add yourself then watch the video on how to create a upgraded listing

So if you are looking for a Sphynx cat Breeder there’s one place to go!