Feeding Your Cat Raw | Animal welfare magazine

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A raw diet is one of the healthiest choices you can make for your cat. But here are two things you need to know before making the switch.

Have you heard or read about the benefits of raw meat diets? Proponents of raw believe that because cats evolved to eat whole, raw prey, modern cats should be fed the same way — or as close to it as possible. But many vets, the FDA, and others say raw food diets are dangerous, not just for your cat, but for everyone in the household. What is the good answer ?

The popularity of raw food diets has grown exponentially over the past decade, especially after the 2007 melamine contamination recall scandal that sickened or killed tens of thousands of cats and dogs. But the debate between raw feeders and everyone else continues and focuses mainly on two areas: quality and safety. Let’s look at reality, so you can draw your own conclusions.

Think about the quality

Many raw food enthusiasts like to prepare their cats’ food at home, pointing out that when you buy the ingredients, you control the quality of those ingredients. Certainly, the quality of low-end commercial pet foods has long been questioned. These feeds may contain so-called “4-D” meat products, which include whole carcasses and other unappetizing items from “dead, dying, diseased, or disabled” livestock, as well as parts not desired for human consumption, such as the lungs and intestines. The ingredients on commercial cat food labels most likely to contain such unsavory items are “meat and bone meal”, “meat by-products”, and “animal fat”. High quality natural cat foods do not use these ingredients.

Considering all of this, making a raw diet from scratch at home may seem like the best way to go, but you need to consider the nutritional quality of the diet. For cats, with their rigid nutritional needs, good quality is crucial. Although cats need meat to survive, an all-meat diet is actually terribly unbalanced because it lacks calcium and other vitamins and minerals. Many cats fed only meat will suffer bone fractures, deformities and other health problems due to severe nutritional deficiencies. And while many pet cookbooks and websites have plenty of great-sounding recipes, the majority aren’t balanced long-term and can cause medical issues if fed exclusively for more than a few weeks. Additionally, a phenomenon called “diet drift” can turn even a balanced recipe into a problem. This happens when you deviate from the original recipe or end up giving only the particular meat or recipe the cat prefers, rather than providing the variety it needs. This is another pathway that leads to nutritional deficiencies or excesses.

In order to ensure that your cat receives a good quality raw food that provides all the nutrition and variety it needs, you should either educate yourself in depth about feline nutrition or purchase some of the growing number of foods Premium quality frozen raws that are specially created to be balanced and well rounded.

Security concerns

Chemical and bacterial contamination of our modern meat supply is certainly a serious concern, and raw feeding can potentially pose a significant risk to very young, very old, immunocompromised or chronically ill cats, as well as human limbs. of the family. Salmonella is frequently cited as a major hazard associated with raw meat. And indeed, a survey of raw diets found that 80% of samples tested positive for salmonella. However, most foodborne bacteria do not pose a serious threat to healthy cats. In fact, about 18% of healthy cats (almost all of whom eat commercial pet food!) are already asymptomatic carriers of salmonella. Low-end commercial pet foods have a much worse safety record than raw foods in this regard – there have been several pet food recalls due to salmonella contamination.

The amoebic parasitic toxoplasma is the other major risk associated with raw foods. Human infection mainly occurs through the consumption of undercooked meat or through contact with contaminated objects, such as garden soil or reptiles. To prevent infection, remove cat feces from the litter box daily (cysts take 24 to 72 hours to become infectious) and wash your hands thoroughly after gardening, cooking, or cleaning the litter box. Freezing raw meat at -4°F for 72 hours destroys Toxoplasma cysts.

Other bacteria and parasites may be present in raw meat, although most do not pose a serious health risk to cats. If you’re concerned, periodic blood and stool tests can catch such invaders, so your cat can be treated if necessary. And always be sure to follow safe meat handling procedures – clean your hands, kitchen surfaces, bowls and utensils thoroughly after working with raw meat, just as you would after preparing a roast or a turkey for your human family.

The bottom line

As a feline veterinarian, I’ve seen hundreds of cats regain their health on raw diets. It doesn’t have to be complicated or unsanitary. Check out the frozen raw diets available at your local pet store – they’re designed to be not only balanced and healthy, but also convenient and easy to handle. Even adding a teaspoon of raw meat alongside your cat’s regular food will provide great benefits. As animal nutritionist Dr. Celeste Yarnall says, “There is nothing better than a properly prepared raw diet.



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