What a beautiful cat!

Raw diet is fed by a lot of owners. It is the most natural diet for cats, who are obligate carnivores. Their digestive systems are set up to consume only meat, not veggies or grains.

When we got Quasar, his breeder was feeding a raw diet. I investigated raw feeding prior to picking him up and I had the same worries you are having.

I discovered a few things. Cats have a very short GI tract. The food does not stay in their bodies long. Any bacteria that might be in their food does not have a long enough time to make them ill provided that the food is fresh and uncontaminated (to the best of your ability). A raw diet can provide the cat with all the nutrients they need but you need to be careful.

When we first got Quasar, I found a complete, commercial, raw diet that I purchased for him. I have since learned to make my own but it took quite a long time for me to feel confident doing so.

Now, his diet is largely made up of ground chicken gizzards & hearts, pulverized eggshell (for calcium, instead of bone), and taurine powder since he does not get enough organ meat to provide that for him. Taurine is an essential amino acid derived from organ meat that cats cannot produce themselves (unlike dogs).

We still feed a commercial diet when others have to feed him or when I don't have time to make his own food. We feed it for convenience also, as we will this weekend when we are traveling to participate in a hot air balloon festival, and stay in a hotel.

I am definitely a novice raw diet feeder. There are more expert individuals who will hopefully add to this discussion.

There is a "sticky" in this topic section on raw feeding also.

There is a Facebook group called Cat CRAP (completely raw and proud) that you can join to get a lot of helpful info, and a basic recipe for raw.

All this being said, I have never had a healthier cat with better teeth (and breath) than Quasar. A big bonus is that he only poops every day or two and it has nil odour.

Good luck! Enjoy your new baby boy. Again, what a beaut!

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~ Kyenta

Welcome to the forum and congratulations. Your little one is gorgeous!!! We love seeing pictures. Since your breeder started him out on raw and if you are comfortable continuing that, by all means feed him raw. Feeding the entire chicken (yes, bones, blood, etc.) will provide the necessary nutrients. The heart and liver in a chicken will provide the taurine all cats require. I've read that cats will not get salmonella from eating raw chicken.

Your little one will need to eat several times a day (just like a newborn baby). Most cats will stop eating when they are full and kittens have a lot of energy. Start with a small quantity and if he wants more, give him a little more. But I would feed him every few hours. Eventually, he will let you know when he's hungry.

If you are not comfortable feeding him raw, you can transition him to a high-quality wet kitten food. You'll just have to find something that he enjoys eating. Just note that any sudden change in diet can result in diarrhea which is always fun to deal with.

Read through the topic here on raw feeding. You can google and read even more about it. There is no law that states a bengal must be fed a raw diet. Mine eats wet food and has dry food out at all time to supplement. Educate yourself by reading as much as you can. There are companies that product raw food (my grocery store has it in a cooler in the pet aisle) that may make it more convenient for you.

Most of all, enjoy the handsome, little guy.

Thank you Sherry & Kienta1 for the info! This little guy eats anything, so I would like to start him on a raw diet that will be good for him. I am going out to buy a grinder today and will go with he recipe my breeder gave:

1. Six pounds of chicken thighs with bones
2. 1/2 pound of chicken livers
3. Five heaping tablespoons of unsweetened pumpkin
4. Ten quick squirts of salmon oil
5. 1 3/4 cup of water
6. Kitty Bloom VM900 +3. We add two tablespoons of this to the six Pounds of chicken mixture.
7. Mix thoroughly and freeze

I am hoping this recipe has all the nutrients and essentials he needs!
Again, I do worry about pesticides and unwanted bacteria, but if so many people feed their cats raw, how bad could it be?!

P.S - Share some pictures !

Your recipe appears to contain all the nutrients Jax will need. This will make quite a bit of food. You can always look for organic chicken thighs. I think your Jax will be just fine eating this.

Here's a picture of my Belladonna Prince Raiden:

As you mention you haven't bought the grinder yet, I just want to throw out that I personally do not understand grinding raw food. Grinding destroys nutrients, and leaves the cat nothing to chew. Chewing the bones is a very stimulating activity and good for their teeth. Buying a grinder costs you a lot of ££ and makes your homemade food less beneficial, basically.

Some grinders allow you to adjust the size of the meat. It's not pulverized, it's ground into chunks, thus the bones would be in smaller chunks, more for the calcium than chewing. I've never seen a chew toy for a cat, although they may have them.

I'm curious to see what type of grinder you get that will grind bone. I would definitely feed bone as opposed to egg shells if I could find one sturdy enough. The only one I have attaches onto my KitchenAid and does not do bones.

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~ Kyenta

You may need to find a commercial grinder in order to do bones. We also have a grinder attachment for our Kitchen Aid but we rarely use it. I did a google search and there are a lot of stand-alone units out there and I guess if you're serious about raw feeding, then it may be worth it to get something that can handle the bones.

Welcome and congratulations on your first bengal.

Raw food is definitely a great way to go. Grinding imo is ok, but it's much more natural to let the kitten chew down bones. Chicken or turkey necks are great for starting off onto bones, as they get bitten into, the bone will snap, and then chewed. Fwiw we started our four Bengals on chicken wings @ about 5 and a half months old. Only the dense joints would be left after a munching session.

If you can, try yours with the odd day old chick, mouse, wing, neck etc, and he'll soon get the hang of it. Be aware that you want to avoid weight bearing bones like leg bones as they are much more dense.

A quick word on taurine, it's in all meat, not just organ. Some meat has less, some has more. Lazy muscles like breast have less taurine than working muscles like leg meat, which is darker in colour. One of the best taurine sources is heart.

Also, on a raw or whole pray diet, a cats stomach acid is at its natural level, which is more acidic than an alternative commercially manufactured diet. At this point the PH level is acidic enough to break down bone into something that can be digested, this in turn leads to more nutrients being abdorbed, smaller poops and much much less smelly poops. Something not achievable on commercially manufactured pet food. Going from commercial to raw you'll see and smell the difference between the logs you used to get, and the little dice cubes you're likely to start getting.

After a couple of weeks, you'll want to get into the right ratios of meat/bone/offal on raw, that's the important bit.

Do the cats chew the bone into pieces that cannot get caught in their throat? That would be my concern. I've heard it's a problem in dogs. That would be my fear, which is probably why a lot of people use egg shells instead for the calcium.

I do not know of cats with raw bones stuck in their throat. My dog eats raw bones without difficulty. Quasar will gnaw on chicken wing tips when I give them to him. I just grind the food because that is easier for me to feed. That is why I add egg shells.

Raw bones are definitely alright. It's the cooked bones that splinter and cause problems.

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~ Kyenta

Kyenta, I appreciate the information. I didn't realize raw bones were different from cooked bones.

I have done a fair share of research, and turns out many people are feeding their cat raw meat with bone. They do have commercial grade grinders that get the job done, ranging from $200-$1,000.
If anyone has a grinder they can recommend, I am currently taking suggestions!

The Kitty Bloom that you're giving him as 75% of the calcium needs in there, so the bone chewing may be just a supplement. I commend you for going the raw route with Jax. I'm sure it will be very healthy for her.