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Regurgitating chicken gizzard -- pieces too large?

This is a dedicated place for all of your questions and answers about Raw Diets. There are also some really cool groups like "Raw Fed" on the topic you can join. This forum is for people who already know they like the raw diet or sincerely want to learn more. Please remember that you are receiving advice from peers and not professionals. If you have specific health-related questions about your cat's diet, please contact your vet!

  
Gypsy

1210790		 
 
Purred: Sat Jan 26, '13 12:18pm PST 
Hiya, I've been feeding my cat a premade, ground, raw diet (Furry Foodie by Ayreshire Farms) supplemented with chicken gizzards (because everyone says gizzards are like cat dental floss).

Recently, she's regurgitated her meals a couple of times. I don't know if I got a bad batch of gizzards, or if she was swallowing pieces of gizzard that were too big for her to get all the way down.

I do recall reading that cats learning to take frankenprey may have a period of adjustment while they learn how much to chew their food before swallowing, and there may be some regurgitation until they get it figured out.

I've put her back on just the premade food for a bit, but plan to re-introduce the gizzards, for the dental floss reason listed above.

So my question is how big or small should I cut up the gizzards? Should I cut them into "strips" of whatever length the gizzard is, or "chunks?"

I want her to get the benefit of chewing the gizzards while avoiding having her regurgitate raw meat on the carpet.

Thanks!
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Amber

I didn't do it!		 
 
Purred: Sun Jan 27, '13 2:10am PST 
Where are you getting the gizzards from? A lot of them from grocery stores are enhanced with sodium solutions, and these solutions can cause regurgitation.

Do the gizzards come up pretty much intact or is it broken down? I guess I am basically asking if it looks like she is chewing them. If not, small pieces that she can continue to gulp may not be the abswer, larger pieces that she HAS to chew chunks off to eat are a better bet. Are you comfortable with bone-in meals? If so, chicken necks are great. If not, boneless, skinless chicken thighs are big enough that most cats have to chew pieces off to eat them.
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Gypsy

1210790		 
 
Purred: Sun Jan 27, '13 5:05pm PST 
She only did it twice, and I didn't do any forensics to see how big the pieces were before scooping the whole mess up and cleaning the carpet.

I get the gizzards from an international food store. I've been feeding her this way for around two months now, and this is the first time I've noticed a problem.

I've tossed the entire batch and will try again in a week or so. She never has problems with chicken hearts even though some of them are very large. I think they're soft enough that she can just bite pieces off without having to work at it.

I if I tried chicken necks, which I've also seen at the international food store, would I cut them into inch portions or so?
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Amber

I didn't do it!		 
 
Purred: Sun Jan 27, '13 11:57pm PST 
Not that small. I would say 3 inch miniumum. With bone-in pieces in particular, it is very important to avoid giving pieces that are small enough for her to even consider trying to swallow without chewing.
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Gypsy

1210790		 
 
Purred: Mon Jan 28, '13 2:56pm PST 
So, for the gizzards, I should cut through the "connective tissue" leaving each gizzard piece about golf-ball-sized? This will encourage her to bite pieces off instead of chewing it a few times then gulping it down whole?

I've given her chicken hearts, some of which were quite large, and she never regurgitated with them, I think because the heart was soft enough to chew through without much difficulty.
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