Is Raw Food Best for My Cat

If you have been wondering about your cat's diet, you may have asked yourself, "Is raw food best for my cat?" The answer to that question is one that can only be answered by you.

While conventional cat food is cooked completely, raw cat food is exactly what the name implies. It is a mixture of meat, ground bones, organ meats and other food that is not cooked. Once the food is ground and mixed together, it is usually freeze dried or frozen to keep it fresh until it is fed to the cat.

Usually the raw meat comes from poultry or rabbit. This is because these meats are the most similar meats to what a feral cat would catch and eat. Proponents of raw food diets believe that you are coming as close as possible to a cat's natural diet by feeding these meats to your pet. They believe that this allows her digestive system to function the way it was designed to.

One of the arguments against feeding raw cat food diets is that dangerous microbes like E.coli and salmonella are often present in raw meat. During the cooking process for conventional cat food, these bacteria are subjected to enough heat to kill them and keep them from making your cat sick.

People who make raw cat food at home and even manufacturers usually deal with this possibility by buying the highest quality organic, human-grade meats available. Sometimes they will subject the outer layer of the meat to high temperatures so that any bacteria on the surface of the meat will be killed.

The possibility of your pet getting ill from the microbes in meat is very slim. The truth is that even conventionally prepared cat foods can be tainted. A few years ago, many pet food manufacturers had to recall food because people's cats and dogs were becoming sick from a variety of substances in the food.

Cats were designed to catch and eat their prey. They did not have cooked meat available and instead ate the muscle meat, organs, some bones and even stomach contents of what they caught. The raw food diet is the closest you can come to feeding your cat what she was designed to eat without feeding her live prey.

Raw cat foods retain all the enzymes, vitamins and other nutrients that are present in the body of the prey animal. In fact, a study by Dr. Francis M. Pottenger, Jr. showed conclusively that cats on a raw food diet were much healthier than cats that were not fed raw food.

Over a ten year period of time Dr. Pottenger studied over 900 cats, feeding them all kinds and combinations of meats and dairy products both cooked and raw. The cats that consistently had the raw and unpasteurized products remained healthier over generations than did the group that ate cooked foods. Each generation that was living on the cooked food diet became a little unhealthier until by the fourth generation the cats were suffering and dying rapidly from many of the same diseases that humans suffer.

If you are still kicking around the question, "Is raw food best for my cat?", you may want to consider discussing the idea of a raw food diet with your veterinarian. He or she should be able to answer your questions and help you to make the right decision for both you and your pet.

Changing your cat over to a raw food diet should be done gradually and carefully. Add raw food to your pet's normal food a little at a time over a two week period. This will give your pet's digestive system time to get used to the new way of eating. You will also be able to tell if your pet begins having digestive difficulties on the diet. Always move slowly and carefully with dietary changes.

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