Raw Food Diet (for a cat)

Back in the Good Ole Days the cat food market was not what it is today.

The market has become very commercialized in line with the profitable nature of the pet market generally. This is due to the inexorable rise in the number of pets kept by people (a testament to the benefits they bring to humans).

In the past, a lot of the time, we used to give kitchen scraps etc. to our cat. A raw food diet for a cat was more common. I’ve actually given partially cooked kidneys to a pregnant cat who visited a lot when I was living in Notting Hill Gate. She adored kidneys.

So accustomed have we become to giving a canned or a bagged diet of processed wet or dry food to our cat, we are not sure if giving raw food to our cats is a bad thing. But the bottom line is that if done properly it can only be a good thing. There are, though, things that need to be checked when providing a wholly raw diet.

A raw food diet for a cat can be given in at least two ways:

1. Prey Model (simulating the wild cat’s prey)
2. Homemade cat food – ground chicken for example plus additives and supplements.

I am pleased to say that a homemade raw food diet for cats is gaining in popularity in response to the proliferation of kibble which is increasingly seen as unhealthy if feed exclusively. The veterinarians are worried.

Prey Model Raw Food Diet

There are concerned cat keepers and keepers of other companion animals who like to go back to basics and approach the wild raw food diet. The best way I think to present this is to hand over to the experts and in this case I have selected some Yahoo Groups.

One advantage of this kind of raw food diet is it helps to keep teeth healthy. They say whole food does the dental work.

“We use every kind of meat you can think of and try to feed in proportions as closely as possible to what’s in a cat’s natural prey–mostly meat, a little bit of bone and a little bit of organ (counting heart, tongue, skin and gizzard as meat rather than organ.) Repeating–nothing ground–the cats learn to eat a little bit of small bones. I have fed 3 cats this way for over 2 years (one was 9 when he started) and some on the list have done it for over 10 years. REAL simple and natural way to feed. Maybe add some Omega 3 fish oil to balance the Omega 6 overload from grain-fed store-bought meat, no other supplements needed. We wouldn’t HAVE cats today if this hadn’t worked throughout history!” –Lynda

Here are links to three Yahoo Groups concerned with prey model raw food diets. I believe that they are all USA based – the 3rd one definitely is:

UPDATE: NOV 2017 – ALL THESE GROUPS ARE NOW DEAD SADLY AND THE LINKS ARE BROKEN, BUT PLEASE CHECK OUT YAHOO GROUPS. THEY ARE HANDY.

• RawPaws™ Holistic Pet Care – they discuss the Quick Start™ Diet
• Prey4Pets – this is a group that is designed to promote Prey 4 Pets LLC, a company that sells raw materials for the prey model raw food diet.
• Colorado Carnivores

Homemade Cat Food – Introduction

I have included a number of raw food diet homemade cat food recipes on this page that come from people who know and who have had success with these recipes – cat breeders. There are differing views but the underlying principles are the same. Like many people I find manufactured cat food very convenient but I have a sense of guilt sometimes because the quality does not look that good to me. Sometimes the quality is very poor.

You have to search carefully for grain free cat food. And despite a number of veterinarians trying to sell Hills Science Diet from their premises I don’t believe a purely dry cat food recipe is wise even if our cat drinks more water. Then there are mystifying ingredients such as ash in we cat food? It just doesn’t instill confidence.

In the USA manufactured cat food is better, I believe, and cheaper. If the effort can be made there is no doubt that a raw food diet is best and probably the cheapest.

Warning: We need to make sure we do things with care and include proper supplements as there are reports of cat suffering from malnutrition. Update May 22nd 2010: I am at A1 Savannahs and they feel that the best method is to feed good quality commercial food and some raw food. The argument is that it is difficult to replicate a normal prey diet when you are caring for a large number of cats. This does not undermine the general argument that a raw food diet is best, provided it mirrors the natural diet of wild cats. A1 Savannahs agree this. Update December 11th 2010: I haven’t made the point that in handling raw food there is a risk of bacterial contamination of the food unless proper procedures are followed. It is this risk that allows vets to present the argument that it is not wise for people to prepare a raw homemade diet for their cat. There is a much lower risk of bacterial contamination when dealing with commercially manufactured food.