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Copyright © 1999 -- No reprints without expressed permission.
Disclaimer: the information provided below is not intended
to replace or override the advice of your veterinarian. Both the author
and the site owner assume that this information will be used to work with
your vet in planning the best treatment plan for your cat
Read the label on your bag of cat food. The first ingredient is going to be one of two things: a grain / corn meal or gluten, or a meat by-product. The huge list of ingredients may include a few of these grains and by-products, and the rest will be vitamins, preservatives, and additives. Why? Well, first of all, a meat by-product isn't actual meat. It's waste -- feet, feathers, beaks, hooves, and floor waste, including feces, dead and diseased animals -- and those are the quality ingredients.
And if this weren't bad enough, food that's destined for pet consumption must be further "rendered", or made unfit for human consumption (as if it ever was) by the addition of things like charcoal. Secondly, cats don't digest grains very well as a primary ingredient, but they're cheap and they'll fill her up. Often the grains aren't the real thing either, but the nutritionally bankrupt husks and shells of the grains, or what's left over after all the good stuff has been extracted.
These ingredients are put together under high heat and pressure to form
those neat little shapes that cats are supposed to love so much. (Do you
think your cat really cares if her food is shaped like a fish?) The preservatives
and vitamins are added to make up for what's missing to start with, and
to give the food a good long shelf life in the grocery store. The additional
flavorings make the food attractive to your cat, and everyone is happy,
right? Wrong! There is another way. (For more information about the ugly
reality of pet food ingredients, see the API Report at http://www.api4animals.org/petfood.htm)
As I stated above, cats were meant to eat meat, and I don't mean by-products.
Successful hunters thrive on a diet of birds and rodents, and we wonder
why our cats keep getting sick with life threatening illnesses when they
eat grocery store food! Cats do about as well as people do eating fast
food every day -- not very well! A raw food diet can give your cat the
best of what she was meant to eat. It also costs less than feeding
premium pet foods (which are barely a step above grocery store foods, by
the way).
Does your cat have skin problems? Bad breath? Food allergies? These are all compelling reasons to improve your cat's food. And if she's in good health now, even better to try to avoid some of the long term problems that grocery store food can lead to, such as cancer, thyroid and heart problems, etc.
A good balanced raw food diet can improve fur and teeth, increase energy, help alleviate some health problems and prevent many others, including furballs. (And you thought they just sort of came with the territory!) Cats eating proper food will feel better all around.
WHAT EXACTLY IS A RAW FOOD DIET?
A good raw food diet is made up of about 75-80% meat, 20-25% veggies, perhaps some grains such as oatmeal, millet, or barley, and supplements such as bone meal. The idea is to create the kind of food your cat would eat if he was hunting for his meals -- birds, mice and other small rodents, maybe some grass. If your cat doesn't hunt, and you're not up to the idea of buying mice for her, chicken, beef, turkey, lamb and quail are good substitutes :) The bone meal is crucial in the recipe to ensure the right balance of vitamins and minerals in meat and bone.
WHAT ABOUT SALMONELLA AND E-COLI?
These are more worrisome to humans. Cats are much better able to resist these organisms. They eat their prey raw. Their digestive systems are designed to handle raw food. Their stomach environment is highly acidic, helping to break down and digest meat. Also, their digestive tracts are shorter than ours, and food spends a lot less time being broken down, digested and absorbed or eliminated.
If after you do some more research about cats and raw food you're still concerned, an option is to treat the raw meat with something like a solution of grapefruit seed extract (GSE) or food-grade hydrogen peroxide at first to get you and your cat used to the idea of raw food. Of course you should always buy the freshest meat, organic if you can find it, and freeze whatever can't be eaten in 2-3 days. Remove whatever your cat doesn't eat after 20-30 minutes, and clean up after him.
Take proper precautions when preparing the food, and your cat shouldn't have any problems with a raw food diet. It also helps to talk to people who have been feeding raw for awhile.
AREN'T YOU WORRIED ABOUT BONES?
Many people choose to feed their animals bones as a part of a raw diet. Raw bones are the only kind of bones one should ever give an animal, however, I advocate caution when feeding raw bones to cats. I would personally recommend avoiding bones altogether, though many cat parents do feed bones without any problems. For a good dental workout, chicken necks are safe and will serve the same purpose.
In her new book Keep Your Cat Healthy the Natural Way, Pat Lazarus discusses the topic of bones and cats, and says veterinarian Dr. Fudens recommends raw chicken necks for cats as "great for teeth, nutrition and psycho/emotional enjoyment. The bones of chicken necks are soft, so they are readily chewed, swallowed and digested... cats love them - at least once they get used to eating like their wild brothers and sisters." (p.65)
Yes! Unless you've been feeding raw food and researching long enough to know how to go it alone, a recipe is crucial. Because cat nutrition is worlds different from that of humans and even canines, it's especially important to ensure that everything is balanced. Meat contains a lot of phosphorous. Bone meal is heavy in calcium. The calcium : phosphorous ratio is critical in a cat's diet. (The proper ratio of phosphorous to calcium should be 1:1.2 for young cats, 1:1.1 for adults, and 1:1 for seniors. See http://www.dataweb.net/~sham/nutrient/index.html for calculation tables.)
As well, a diet too rich in certain organ meats can cause problems with too much vitamin A, and may increase the risk for urinary problems in male cats. Cats need a high level of protein, and a diet too heavy in grains or veggies may throw this off. These are just some things to be aware of in a raw food diet. Read everything you can get your hands on, and learn as much as you can about feline nutrition.
Some people prefer to let nature's balance take care of itself by simply grinding whole chickens and such, bones and all. If you have a manual or electric grinder equipped to handle bones, this is ideal. You should still consider your cat's requirements for organ meats such as liver, kidneys, hearts and gizzards. Include veggies, some cooked grains if you choose to feed them, eggs, and oil if you feed lean meats.
Again, until you know what you're doing, a recipe is a really good idea. To help with the nutritional analysis, see the FDA web site at http://www.ag.uiuc.edu/~food-lab/nat/mainnat.html . You'll note that it *appears* that cooked food contains more nutrients than raw. That is simply because one ounce of raw food will weigh less when cooked. One ounce of cooked food is really equal to more than one ounce of raw.
Regardless of how you choose to make your cat's food, the research is critical. Just because a diet is made with good raw food doesn't make it balanced or complete! A caution: avoid raw pork and raw fish. While trichinosis may not be as much of a concern these days as it used to be, it can still cause problems raw. As well, raw fish may contain some parasites that cats cannot handle, strong as their digestive systems may be.
To get an idea of the variety in raw recipes, you can take a look at my recipe, along with Vick's, Sandy's and Leah's on the Raw Recipe page.
HOW NECESSARY ARE GRAINS AND VEGETABLES?
Good question! There are those who feel that grains aren't at all necessary. Some feel that their cats are more likely to develop allergies to grains, particularly corn, or that cats just don't digest grains very well. Some feel that cats feeding on prey would get a minimal amount of grains in their diet, and thus grains are not really a natural part of feline food.
Some feel that cats cannot convert the vitamins and minerals in grains into a usable form, and thus grains are simply fillers in their cats' diets. Some cats have health problems where grains aren't recommended. For these reasons and many others, some choose not to feed their cats grains.
Others, however, feel that we still don't know enough about the role that grains can play in feline nutrition. Some have cats whose health problems make grains a very important part of their diets. And some feel that cats eating prey would indeed get a variety of grains, grasses, and seeds in their natural diet, however small the percentage would be. There are also people who feel that cats can and do metabolize grains well, and that there are important nutrients to be had from grains in the diet.
These are just some of the reasons why people choose to include grains in their cats' food. The decision is an individual one -- whatever works best for your cat! Good grains to include if you decide to: oatmeal, barley or millet, among others.
Vegetables are a slightly different matter. There are few foods that are better sources of fiber than vegetables, and they are necessary for cat health. They help to process the food and fur, preventing fur balls, constipation, and can improve certain health conditions that require higher fiber diets. Good vegetables to include would be carrots, zucchini, cooked sweet potatoes, or pumpkin (the plain unflavored kind if you use the canned variety). Veggies should be quite finely pulped or grated to help your cat digest them better. (And to make them easier to disguise if she decides she doesn't like them!)
Sick cats have very different nutritional needs than healthy cats. This is where research is critical.
There are many recipes available for cats with chronic renal failure (CRF), IBD (irritable bowel disease), diabetes, and others. Some cats have health problems that are a little easier to treat such as dry skin. Too many have diseases where the immune system is severely compromised, such as cancer. All of these problems can improve with a raw food diet.
My own cat successfully battled cancer, in part with the help of a raw diet. This is not a step I took lightly, however. As wonderful as a raw food diet is, it is not right for every cat. Sometimes if a cat is very sick, he or she cannot tolerate the things that other cats would easily shrug off. For these cats, it might be best to ease into feeding raw either by treating the raw meat with something like a grapefruit seed extract or food-grade peroxide solution, or else by lightly cooking the meat to start with, gradually cooking less and less until your cat is used to raw meat. Again, do your research.
WHAT IF SHE WON'T EAT THIS NEW DIET?
Any change should be made slowly. Gradually introduce the new food by mixing it with food she currently eats. If she's eating dry food, and particularly if you free feed (allowing free access to food anytime), start by feeding only at set mealtimes. Gradually, try mixing a good canned food in with the dry. Slowly change to canned. Mix a little raw food into the canned, and change the proportions slowly. Sometimes the canned food step can be skipped altogether if your cat isn't particularly fussy.
Bribe foods can be indispensable! Baby food meat (one that doesn't contain onion powder, as cats can have serious problems with anemia when fed onions), sometimes melons (some cats are particularly fond of cantaloupe), parmesan cheese, brewer's or torula yeast, the water from tuna (not the tuna itself!), etc.
Anything can work as a bribe food if your cat likes it and it's safe to feed her. (Tuna is not a good idea because it can cause very serious vitamin E depletion, and a cat can quickly become addicted to the strong flavor and refuse all other foods.) My cats are particularly fond of chicken gizzards, and beef kidney is also a big hit with one of them. One Thanksgiving I returned from a walk to find both my cats on the kitchen counter happily gorging on gravy! Greasy and full, they retreated and slept the whole night and most of the next day (moderation is the key :)
Always be sure that your cat's fussiness is just that, and not a problem where lack of appetite is a symptom of something more serious..
I HAVE A DOG TOO. CAN I FEED THEM THE SAME WAY?
Nope! Dogs and cats have different dietary needs, and cats need more protein than dogs. Dogs can tolerate, even appreciate, more veggies, grains, dairy and bones in their food than cats. Feed them each food that has been prepared specifically for them!
I AM VEGETARIAN AND WANT TO FEED MY CAT THE SAME WAY. CAN I?
Again, not a good idea!! Cats are carnivores. They cannot and will not survive on a vegetarian diet. It doesn't matter how many supplements you add, I can guarantee that you will have one very sick cat on your hands if you feed him a vegetarian diet. There are things critical to a cat's diet that can only be obtained from meat. Taurine is only available from meat, and cats cannot produce it themselves. Another example is niacin, which cats obtain best from meat. The vitamin A in carrots isn't going to help your cat any because she can't convert it properly. Most of what they need they can only synthesize from meat. Supplements will not work!!
Feeding an obligate carnivore a vegetarian diet is cruel. If you honestly can't stand the idea of feeding a raw food diet to your cat, then don't. There are other options such as a good preservative free canned food, made without by-products and other nasties. Do your research. But please do not feed your cat a vegetarian diet!!
WHERE CAN I GET MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THIS?
Check out our online book store, especially books by Pat McKay, Anitra Frazier, Celeste Yarnall, Pat Lazarus and Diane Stein. Each of these authors devotes a big chunk of their writing to raw feeding.
Looking for a supplement or remedy mentioned above? Check out MotherNature.com's
Home Page - a portion of your sale will be donated to the Holisticat
List Fund for kitties in need