Picky

So the gang has been feasting on quail every morning. Always cleaning up their plates. And eating a lot less for (non-quail) dinner. I should have seen it coming: today I changed the game and they got gizzards for breakfast - and they are all turning up their noses. It's now almost an hour since the food has been out, and except for some tiny bites it's all left there untouched. Picky beasts... oh, it's hard to stick to be a strict kitty-mom.

Quail fest!

And yes, the whole quail are a BIG hit!
The first time around I just cut the whole bird up in half (yuk) and woohoo! A 'wild' reaction from the kittens: the two boys batted their bits around the kitchen for half an hour before eating them - huge fun to watch but I spent another hour cleaning blood from the floor and walls. 
Next time I tried pulling some of the feathers off with my fingers (they come off easily enough) and that seems to have calmed the situation - no more batting just munching (Miki even ate two halves in one sitting, and wanted more - maybe I should stop cutting them up?). Several quail meals later they are still really happy with it - every last bit gets munched up enthusiastically, feet, heads, beaks and all.

I tried mice too - not as huge a hit: the kittens will eat them happily, but Psipsina will not go near a mouse, not even a cut up one. Strange (but I obey and offer something else). Just like the feathers the fur seems to provoke real predator behaviour - the mice get batted around for ages before anybody will start eating. At least the mice are whole so no blood to wash off the walls!

Whole prey - first order (1)

I'm daring the next step with raw feeding - I ordered whole quail and mice from Honeybrook, a rodent food supplier. Frozen foods delivery is not cheap, and the smallest packing box will just about fill up with 50 quail and 25 mice... no idea if this will fit my freezer (just a normal fridge-freezer) but I'm taking the plunge!

I have already tried dressed (cleaned) supermarket quail and everybody really liked it (I cut them up into half and they chomped it up with no issues, kittens included). In fact it seems to be the only meat all of them like consistently with no hesitation or reservation! So I figured this was a relatively safe bet to try whole, and then I just have to try some mice too!