Guest post by Andrea Tasi, VMD
My name is Andrea Tasi, and my whole life revolves around cats and cat care. I graduated from the University of Pennsylvania School of Veterinary Medicine in 1988 and was determined to go out into the world and help sick cats get better, and keep well cats well.
I have been in feline exclusive practice since 1991, first in Philadelphia and now in the Washington DC metropolitan area. I have watched cats become the most popular pet in our country, and been part of the evolution of feline specific veterinary medicine. Where cats were once “second class” citizens in the veterinary community, there is now an explosion of interest in feline medical care and increasing research into feline disease.
How Did I Become interested In Raw Food?
Despite my intentions to try to help cats stay healthy or regain their health, I began to see many cats with chronic problems that I could not “fix”. More and more of my feline patients were on one or more prescription drugs and/or diets to try to help them with the diseases I encountered day-to-day in feline practice: recurrent bladder (lower urinary) problems, obesity, diabetes, chronic vomiting and/or diarrhea, chronic constipation, asthma, skin and ear problems, to name a few.
As I prescribed more and more drugs to try to help these cats, I ran into complications and side effects from the drugs themselves, or they often stopped working after awhile. Prescription diets served me no better: often the cats wouldn’t eat them and, even if they did, I did not see uniformly positive results.
One day, a client of mine who had a lovely old cat named Max, told me that she had switched Max’s diet to raw food and all his chronic skin and ear problems went away within several weeks. Poor Max had been on cortisone-type drugs and prescription diets (prescribed by me!) for years, to no avail. My interest was sparked! I began to read about cat nutrition and cat diets and talk to people (veterinarians and pet owners) who had been feeding raw foods.
I was amazed at what I was hearing, so decided to try a raw diet with my (then) new kitten, Bug. I had adopted Bug as a sickly (actually near death) and underweight 6-month-old. I watched him blossom on the raw food diet, gaining healthy muscle mass weight but not becoming fat, developing a beautiful coat and clearing many of his chronic health problems without the need of conventional drugs. I am convinced that his raw diet was the foundation for his wonderful recovery.
I watched him blossom on the raw food diet, gaining healthy muscle mass weight but not becoming fat, developing a beautiful coat and clearing many of his chronic health problems without the need of conventional drugs.
I now recommend raw diets to virtually all my clients, and have seen wonderful improvements in my patients’ health. I will never go back to recommending or using processed pet foods.
Why Not Just Use Dry and Canned Cat Foods?
Grain based dry foods are the worst possible thing to feed a cat. Carnivorous predators were designed to eat a meat/whole prey (bones, organs, etc) diet, simple as that! Grain-free dry foods, while perhaps a bit “better” than “regular” dry foods, are extremely high in calories and do not have the water content of a flesh-based diet. Many cats, when on a dry food diet, do not drink enough water to keep their bodies optimally hydrated.
Canned foods are better than dry, but all canned foods are high-heat processed, resulting in breakdown of many natural nutrients. These then need to be replaced with added supplements (all the chemical sounding ingredients on your canned food label tend to be these replaced nutrients). Many, but not all, canned foods also contain grain based ingredients, which can be triggers for a variety of health issues.
Are Raw Diets “Safe?”
There are a couple of ways to examine this question. First, we can ask ourselves if commercial pet food is safe? Numerous pet food recalls have occurred over the past few years and many pets have died from eating commercial pet foods contaminated with melamine and other toxins. Some pet food recalls have involved Salmonella found in dry food. Believing that mass produced foods are uniformly “safe” is a big leap of faith, in my opinion.
Second, we can look at the reality of how a cat’s anatomy and physiology were designed to eat and digest raw meat. Cats have a more acid stomach pH and a shorter gastrointestinal tract, making them less vulnerable to many types of food-borne bacteria. I remind my clients that cats lick their bottoms every day, and do just fine! Third, it is not difficult to create balanced diets that are safe from a nutritional perspective. Using a variety of recipes and meat sources is the best way to ensure that your cat gets all the nutrition she needs.
Isn’t It Very Complicated to Feed Raw Food?
Feeding raw food can be simple! The easiest way to begin is to use commercial frozen raw food diets. Making homemade food is not difficult either. The easiest way to begin is to use a powdered premix such as Instincts-TC™ that turns meat and liver in to a complete and balanced diet. One can then “graduate” to using recipes that require adding several supplement items like taurine, fatty acids, etc.
The most common problems my clients have is that they try to transition too fast, and that they forget to defrost food in advance so it is ready for feeding.
Why Do So Many Veterinarians Caution Against Raw Diets?
Veterinarians actually receive very little training in nutrition. In my four years of veterinary school, I had one class, one semester long, on nutrition. Most of this course focused on which prescription diet to recommend for which disease and why. For well pets, I was taught to recommend “pick one dry food and stick with it.” A major pet food manufacturer supplied free pet food to veterinary students, and free prescription diets to the university’s veterinary hospital for use with hospitalized animals.
Is it any wonder that most vets come out of school recommending that manufacturer’s products? We were cautioned that it was “complicated” and “risky” for owners to make their own pet food, and that raw meat was full of harmful bacteria and parasites and would sicken animals, and possibly their owners. As I began to become interested in raw foods and spoke with veterinarians who had been recommending them for years, I was happily surprised to find that raw-food related health problems were few and far between, but that the benefits were amazing!
What Cat Diseases May Be Helped With Raw Food Diets?
I have seen diabetes, asthma, lower urinary tract (bladder) problems, chronic vomiting and/or diarrhea (inflammatory bowel disease-type symptoms), skin and ear problems and other health issues either markedly improve or completely resolve when raw diets were introduced. Every cat will respond in their own way, but I now view real, fresh, raw food as the “best medicine” for many of my patients.
What Do I Feed My Own Cats?
I use a combination of homemade and commercial frozen raw diets. When making homemade food, I use several different recipes and vary my meat sources. My youngest cats like pretty much anything I make, as they were raised on raw. Their favorite meat source is rabbit. My oldest cats love homemade food made with Instincts-TC powdered premix. This “all in one” powder, when mixed with meat and liver, makes a complete diet.
Who Should Not Use Raw Diets?
I recommend avoiding raw meat based diets for cats that are on immunosuppressive medications like chemotherapy drugs, or higher doses of cortisone-type drugs like prednisolone. I also recommend that if anyone in the cat’s household has a weakened immune system (HIV/AIDS, chemotherapy, immunosuppressive drugs, etc.,) extra caution should be used or raw diets completely avoided. In these instances a commercial or homemade cooked diet would be an excellent substitute.
This article was first published on The Conscious Cat website in February 2011, and has been updated. It originally appeared on the Feline Nutrition Foundation website, and was re-posted with permission. The Feline Nutrition Foundation is dedicated to providing thoroughly researched information on feline health and nutrition. If you care about cats and their health, please consider joining the foundation. Membership is free, and a growing membership base will help the organization spread the word about species-appropriate nutrition for cats.
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great article. i have found many vets do not like raw, especially at the ER’s or vet schools. my dog was quarantined when she went to the er at the vet school because she ate raw. i hate the prescription foods, the ingredients are terrible, fillers, junk. a lot of vets get kick backs from selling prescription. the poop is less and smaller with raw. however, be sure to get a reputable brand, etc. i was feeding my dog raw venison given to me by someone that i had let hunt on my property. he changed grinders without telling me, wanted cheaper,. however you get what you pay for, the new processor did not clean the grinder after each time, which you are supposed to do. my dog got e coli and ended up with severe hepatitis. she has almost died over 6 times. i could have gotten this grinder closed down but the so called friend refused to give me the name and said it was something else. my vet did a biopsy so i know it was the venison. after 4 yrs, my dog has cost me over 200k in vet bills. so be careful with raw as well.
Fantastic article! It is purr-fectly explained and covers all the points! We’ve been a “raw food house” for 7 years now and preach continuously to friends and family about the benefits of raw. We switched to a holistic vet so that we could be with a vet who is a believer in the raw food diet too. Tired of hearing the same old story from the vet that the raw food diet is dangerous when they seem to nothing about nutrition!
We serve a mix of frozen and freeze-dried raw with a 1/2 cup of lukewarm water to “emulate the warm blood of the prey” – and our 3 cats eat everything and lap up all the water at every meal! The brands the cats love are Raw Dynamics beef, Steve’s Quest Pork and Vital Cat Turkey. We think it is important to rotate the proteins.
We have also noticed how many more raw food vendors there are today which is great – and that we can feed each cat for $2.50 a day with fresh human grade hi-quality food for the same price as the supposed “hi-quality canned foods” at PetSmart and PetCo. For us it is affordable considering the health benefits and reduced vet bills, etc.
And the best part for us cat parents is the REDUCED amount of poop – and virtually NO “cat box” odor in the house. Quite remarkable as we have 6 litter boxes for 3 cats!
I made the switch to a complete nutrition raw cat food a couple of years ago. I was advised to do my due diligence and so read a lot of information about it. I tend to be a little anxiety prone. So, I decided to take it slow and make it as gentle a process as possible for myself, and my cats. (My Vet did not support raw food at any time. However, having done my due diligence, I ignored that Vet’s advice.) The results are good. My cats maintain healthy weight and their skin and coats are good. They’re temperments calmed down after I switched too. While I’ve always wanted to make my own cat food. I haven’t yet bc I’m not sure what recipe to follow or which supplements to add. My anxious prone self needs to be very certain that the supplements I choose aren’t a bunch of marketing hype. It didn’t occur to me to keep on with my current prepared raw and add simply add homemade.
Hi,
My cat, neko, recently had a radical mastectomy. In the course of her diagnostics an xray revealed evidence of asthma. I have long suspected she has allergies. She has so far outlived prognosis and is as energetic as ever. But her allergies are kicking up again. We just started a 30 day course of prednisalone. 5mg daily 10 days, then 2.5 mg 10 days, then 2.5 every other day
After the oral, we are suggested to transition to inhaler flovent. Before putting her on a lifetime of corticosteroids I want to test for food allergies. I suspect she has a problem with chicken. I’m also interested in introducing her to raw. Starting with freeze dried raw.
So, should I wait until the oral dosage of prednisalone is completed ? I noticed you said that you do not recommend raw while on corticosteroids. My vet and I planned to start an elimination diet during her treatment this month.
I’ve eliminated her temptation treats. She currently eats smalls chicken and turkey. They have a cow that I was considering as she hasn’t ever had beef.
I just can’t figure out a time line for the food elimination diet I would like to start it asap while we are finally treating her inflammatory asthma.
When can I begin to transition to raw? Should I wait until after stopping the oral prednisolone? If so, how long should I wait?
Also, is freeze dried raw or air dried acceptable raw with as many benefits as frozen?
One more question, can I also give her pet honesty probiotics and/or omega drops. Also I am looking into zytec and cbd drops. She does have upper respiratory allergies always has. My lifetime with asthma myself, I know for me that allergy induced asthma is the number one culprit. I occasionally need my inhaler, but not a lifetime of daily corticosteroids.
Oh and she has so far NEVER had a serious asthma attack. She will cough sometimes. It’s not daily, but happens – moreso seasonal like now and at the start of winter when furnace kicks on and dust kicks up.
Sorry if tmi
Hi there, I just stumbled on to this article. I have a clowder in my home & have been researching how I might be able to get my least well kitties on raw. Did you get answers to your questions? If you need a great experts take on raw, look up Jess cuticles & her cat Jericho. She is a amazing font of raw diet info & supporting study & research. Her articles not only support raw diet she explains the whys AND give great info on the nutritional data of many wet & dry(never, never use) diets. Good luck with your kitty’s transition
Thank you for this! The world needs more vets that learn beyond what their school taught them about pet food.
My cat has been on a raw diet for over 6 years. ( She is 9) Recently she has been having issues. She has excessive ear wax and is not feeling well
I have taken her to a few vets and all they will focus on is her raw diet. They say that is the reason. They tell me I need to put her on their “prescription diet” from the typical brands you see in vet offices.
The most recent vet insisted it was her teeth and I paid to have her teeth cleaned. She said I can only give her one protein and I need to be giving her grain and vegetable supplements. She told me domestic cats can not eat raw food.
I am really struggeling finding a vet that will support me in her raw meals and look beyond that to actually find out what is going on. All of the vets here make me feel like I am harming her for feeding her raw food.
I have fed her both commercial raw food and home made.
I am at a loss. 🙁
How frustrating, Michelle! The AVHMA has a search function to locate holistic vets, maybe there’s one in your area? https://www.ahvma.org/find-a-holistic-veterinarian/
Hello, I have three senior cats (14, 15, 15.5yrs old) who are in different stages of CKD. Two of them are also FIV+ and one has hyperthyroidism as well. They have been off dry food for a while (I used to feed them a cooked meat diet), but in the last two/three years they have transitioned successfully to a balanced raw diet. Which protein sources contain the least amount of phosphorous that will not be detrimental to their CKD? All three cats love chicken and I have a choice of which one to feed…. so my question is, would 1 day-old ground chicks be a better option than older ground chickens (16-18weeks old) in terms of the phosphorous level?
Thank you.
You may want to take a look at this raw diet: https://ingridking.com/2021/12/02/darwins-intelligent-design-raw-food-to-support-cats-with-kidney-disease/
I live in South Africa and we do not have this product here 🙁
What would you advise would be the best raw diet for them please?
I am in South Africa and we don’t have this product here 🙁 What would you advise would be the best raw diet for them please?
Unfortunately, I’m not familiar with what’s available in your country, and I can’t answer your original question about whether the age of a chicken matters in terms of phosphorus levels in the meat – I just don’t know, and a quick Google search turned up nothing useful. Perhaps using a phosphorus binder along with your regular raw diet would be your best option?
I’m getting my kitten in a few months time and because I don’t have any experience with cats, I want to make sure I do as much research as possible and as such have looking into raw feeding. I’m keen to start raw feeding when I get my kitten at around 12 weeks of age, which you mentioned earlier is around the time you can start a raw diet. My problem is, I have read about different nutritional requirements for kittens i.e they need more fat in their diet compared to adult cats because more energy is required. I haven’t been able to find any raw feeding recipes tailored towards kittens nor have I been able to find in-depth articles discussing the nutritional requirements of kittens in particular, and I’m unsure whether the recipes linked will be able to nutritionally support their growing bodies (I have read “feeding kittens a raw diet” from feline nutrition but the article didn’t go through the serving sizes required for kittens or whether there was modification of the raw feeding recipe they used).
This article should help, Anita: https://ingridking.com/2021/08/19/raw-food-for-all-life-stages-from-kitten-to-senior/
Question! My cat Bongo is 5 years old. I have been feeding him a raw food diet (Primal Raw Frozen Nuggets) since he was 8 weeks old. I feed him this as his primary food and supplement with Orijen dry food as an occasional treat at night. Giving him the healthiest food I can is one of the most important things to me. Recently, he has been getting Urinary Tract Infections and the vets want me to switch him to Royal Canin Urinary SO canned food. The meat is mostly animal byproducts and there are tons of fillers. All of the options I am seeing for cats with urinary conditions are commercial brands with questionable ingredients. I know he has a condition and I would do anything to help him but I REALLY don’t want to have to give him this food. Note, his current diet is not the cause of the UTI’s. A raw diet is typically recommended to help prevent this but he is apparently predisposed. Are there any other options, brands you know of, or advice you can give me? I truly appreciate it. Thank you.
I don’t blame you for not wanting to feed the “prescription” diet. You may find this information helpful (don’t let the dated design of the website turn you off, the information is solid:) https://catinfo.org/feline-urinary-tract-diseases/
why would you not feed a cat on prednisone a raw diet?
As explained in the article, high doses of corticosteroids suppress the immune system.
Hi, this is more an observation by here goes. I was reading this as a friend just got a new kitten and I want to convince her to put it on raw. My little Havanese pup is 14 and has been eating raw all his life. He is deaf now but he is otherwise in excellent health. He can do a 5 kilometer walk and come home to supper and a good nap. I would recommend a Raw diet in a minute whether you have a cat or dog. If you’re in a pinch, use a canned wet food and never go near the kibble bag. That stuff is disgusting.
Thanks for reading, cheers.
Thank you for your answer and for your caring, Ingrid.
My dear little girl has terminal kidney disease, plus a mass in her abdomen. She is still lucid and alert, so we are letting her take the time she needs before calling an at-home euthanasia doctor. We give her small amounts of raw rabbit (Nature’s variety feline instinct) every few hours. It’s the only food we find easy to get down her throat. Is this okay? She’s not on chemo or steroids. Thanks in advance.
I’m sorry about your girl, Ben. In a situation like yours, what matters is quality of life, and if she enjoys the NV raw rabbit, then that’s what she should get.
Can you recommend some of your favorite feline raw recipes? We have a new Savannah cat we have been feeding raw but can’t seem to find anyone who knows or recommends any info on raw diets. We are concerned because there is no support and we aren’t 100% sure our recipe is right. We do a chicken recipe as well as feed him finger mice snd whole baby quail. Any info would be appreciated
Here you go: https://catinfo.org/making-cat-food/
The raw pet food options in my town are very limited and my cat hates the cat raw food but looooves our dog’s raw food (from the same company – the cat food just has more organ meat and packaged smaller). Is there any reason I couldn’t just feed her the dog food if I added perhaps necessary supplements specific to cats like Taurine? Any help from anyone would be appreciated!
How interesting that your cat loves the dog food but doesn’t like the cat food from the same company. I guess maybe she likes the addition of veggies? As long as you can get a good nutritional analysis (including vitamin levels) for the dog food so you know exactly what’s in it, I don’t see why supplementing it with taurine and possibly some other supplements wouldn’t work. I would probably consult with a holistic veterinarian, though, just to be on the safe side.
i am just so confused.. to me it does make sense that raw would be better but in my experience..of feeding cheap and i mean cheap kibble and only giving canned again cheap as a treat now and again.. ive had one cat that had kidney issues 30 years ago and was on canned food from the vet from the time he got sick.. my other cat lived to be 20 on cheap kibble and i now have a 20 year old cat that is still going strong. Neither of the two cats on cheap kibble ever have been to the vet other then when they were kittens and got their kitten shots and to be fixed and declawed. so since they were about 6 months they have never seen a vet. the one with the kidney disease only lived to be about 6 years..and was in and out of the vet constantly.. i now have a new kitty.. well he adopted me.. just showed up one day.. we are in a rv and i was trying ot find a way to cut the litter box smell and of course raw diet came up.. has anyone fed raw long term? how long did your cats live?
Why would you declaw your cats? Would u like your phalanges cut off? That is how it is for cats when humans declaw them. Their claws is attached to their bone and you are amputating their phalange making them to be in constant pain and sensitivity.
But where do you buy it? Can I just buy the human grade ground chicken from the grocery store?
No, raw chicken is not a balanced meal for a cat without following a properly formulated recipe and adding in supplements. There are plenty of properly formulated raw diets available in specialty pet stores or online. You can find my preferred brands here: https://ingridking.com/2012/03/22/the-best-food-for-your-cat/
I’ve also seen other forums not recommending ground up raw chicken as its been exposed to too much bacteria and its ground up into it-making it much less safe than whole pieces you can rinse and grind up yourself. You must always follow a recipe that adds in the correct amount of supplements that a cat needs. Raw meat only isn’t a compete diet.
cats with feline leukemia can’t eat raw meat??
My cat Jack is 12 and has been on a quality raw diet his entire life. He is now experiencing much difficulty peeing and no one can figure out why. Do you have any suggestions? Thank you.
The one thing the article misses is some kind of comment on cat’s with kidney issues. My 10 yr old cat just had an operation after getting into a scrap. Some blood work showed she has the beginnings of kidney issues typical for older cats. All the vet wanted to talk to me about was buying “vet cat food” from major companies that they stock. I’ve been feeding my dogs raw for 15 yrs and they have always thrived. My cat has always preferred kibble but I’ve managed to get her eating raw now. Ecological, raw produced cat food made by the same supplier that makes the dog food. Is raw more dangerous for a cat with the first signs of kidney issues? Because the protein is much higher? I really don’t want to buy super commercially produced stuff from the vet because that’s what they are pushing unless it really is the way to go.
Put simply: is a raw diet ok for older cats who vets are pushing to switch to “Kidney” kibbles.
You can find more information about what to feed cats with kidney disease here: https://ingridking.com/2016/02/15/the-right-diet-for-cats-with-kidney-disease/ Protein restriction is not necessary until the latter stages of the disease, what’s more important is keeping phosphorus as low as possible. Darwin’s makes a raw diet for cats with kidney disease: https://ingridking.com/2017/03/14/darwins-offers-raw-prescription-diet-for-cats/
I have a 17 yo Burmese boy with diabetes and suffers from pancreatitis flares, likely due to IBD. He’s on a low dose of Prednisolone to manage it. He’s had raw kangaroo, beef or lamb his entire life, although in the earlier years it perhaps wasn’t as wholesome (supermarket pre-packaged food). He also grazes on freeze dried meat during the day. Just wondering why raw might not be appropriate for cats on Prednisolone?
That depends on whether the dose of Prednisolone he’s on is immuno-suppressive or anti-inflammatory, so this would be a question for your vet (assuming your vet is even open to raw feeding, many vets are opposed to it on principle.)
This sounds ridiculous, but I’m a little worried about going raw because I’ve been reading that there’s no research behind it and there is the chance they could die from certain bacteria. Are my fears valid?
Raw feeding isn’t for everyone, but your fears are not valid. This article offers an overview of why raw food is safe: https://ingridking.com/2018/01/30/balanced-blends-guide-to-raw-feeding-is-raw-pet-food-safe/. You can also find a wealth of information about feeding raw on Dr. Pierson’s website: https://catinfo.org/ and on the Feline Nutrition Foundation website: https://feline-nutrition.org/
My baby died of liver failure from toxoplasmosis. She was on raw diet entire life. So, I’m now against feeding raw diet.
As I’m sure you must know, toxoplasmosis is killed by freezing meat for 3 days, which is why raw cat food should be frozen. If your cat food was frozen as all protocols recommend, then the toxoplasmosis must have come from somewhere else.
I am very sorry for the loss of your baby. I lost mine a few years back and I know how much it hurts. We will all be reunited again. In the past I did a quick glance, and to the best of my memory – when I researched if freezing would kill the egg/cyst form of toxoplasmosis- not only the virus form, it needed a much higher freezing temperature than done with commercial sushi products. Toxoplasmosis can cause blindness, seizures… I decided not to use raw for my cat because of this. I met a lady in Pet Smart many years ago with a cat in it’s 20’s. She was buying dry food, I think it was Purina. I had a cat with IBD who I told the vet I was able to get rid of her throw up towel after using Royal Canin pr or pd – can’t remember which one. However she decided she did not want to keep eating it. My current cat has digestive problems ate age 10 . Just started feeding it (can)and he likes it. Also, long ago I researched freezing prior and again to the best of my memory regular refrigeration/ freezers do not maintain the temperature because of the defrost cycle and possibly opening/closing the door.
correction- meant to say -‘not only the parasite form’
There is a lot of confusing information out there about whether freezing effectively kills parasites, but several studies suggest that freezing for 48 hours or more will kill the ococysts. Opening and closing a freezer door results in minimal loss of temperature and is most likely irrelevant.
I just stumbled upon this article while researching food for my new kitten.
I’m a first time cat owner. Found him abandoned by his mom at 3/4 weeks. His is now transitioning to wet food. I have been giving him the mother’s and kitten royal canin brand but wanted to look into raw as I know it is better. I don’t fully trust dry food. I wanted to know at what age can I start feeding him raw food?
I generally recommend starting kittens on raw food once they’re three to four months old, although some raw feeders start them much sooner. You may find this article interesting: https://feline-nutrition.org/features/tales-from-the-trenches-feeding-kittens-a-raw-diet
We actually gave a raw diet and dad had a grinder and all. Being handicapped he has trouble making food and with 6 of us it is too expensive. He says if the hotel has less guests he will give it to us again. Great article
I agree totally with raw feeding with this caveat: if feeding non-organic meat, then chances are the animal(s) were fed genetically modified organisms (GMO) grown food. Some research shows that GMO food affects the animal eating it which in turn is NOT good for anyone eating or fed that meat including animals.
I started feeding raw years ago. At that time my supplier bought chickens from a local farmer and GMOs were not prevalent in corn fed to animals. The cat I have now was approximately 6 years old when I adopted her. There is no way to know her history but when rescued she had to have medical attention (spaying, teeth work, etc.).
I started her on the raw diet I’d fed all my other cats but two years ago she started violently upchucking. She was diagnosed with pancreatitis. The vet suggested the low-fat cat food they sell but I refused as IMO that food is almost as bad as feeding nothing! Instead I went to a holistic pet store and they recommended several low-fat high quality canned foods. She took to the food right away and she has been in remission since then. Her coat shines, her eyes again sparkle and she regained her energy fairly quickly. She stopped upchucking after eating. I also gave her two appropriate holistic recommended supplements for some time, now dropped.
Meanwhile, I checked with the meat supplier I was using who is totally ethical etc. and right away she forwarded me the link for the meat supplier she was using at the time. Turns out her business outgrew her neighbor’s chicken raising capability so she had changed to a more chicken factory situation (clean etc but a chicken raising factory nevertheless). Long story short, those chickens were eating GMO corn and I honestly believe that contributed to making my kitty sick.
I’d like to get my little girl back on regular food perhaps by cooking first, then eventually trying a little raw as I know where to buy organic meat in bulk which I eat myself! I’m just afraid of causing her to have a setback. I really like her vet but he hasn’t jumped on the raw bandwagon yet. We all do the best we can for our fur babies so I’m posting because this is my situation. Perhaps this will give others something to consider and/or will have opinions about and/or who have faced a similar situation to know how changing food with this diagnosis affects the animal.
Ingrid thanks for posting this to open up the discussion again regarding feeding raw as IMO it is best for them and even the organic meat I buy doesn’t cost any more than the high end canned food I’m presently buying (I’d buy the raw in bulk, prepare the food, then freeze in freezer bought so I could raw feed my cats LOL)! When trying to do the right thing sometimes we can feel confused for sure. So talk about hand wringing LOL!!
Very helpful. Thank you
We’ve been feeding our male and female cats (siblings) a raw food diet (Darwin’s) for about 6 months. They are 16 years old. For about a month now, the male has been pooping all around the house. Fortunately, the poop is not nearly as nasty as when we fed them commercial pet food. Today I noticed he was twitching, spasming around his hind end. He quickly sat up and cleaned his rectum. My question is, do you think he could be constipated? Is he getting enough fiber from the raw food diet. Healthy otherwise. Thanks.
If you haven’t already done so, check with your vet, Julie. Maybe this article will help: https://ingridking.com/2015/03/09/the-scoop-about-cat-poop/
I am interested in finding a raw diet menu and stick with it. I don’t know how many times i would feed my cat he is about 9 years of age. Any suggestions and also could you point me in the right direction.
You can find a wealth of information about raw feeding right here on this website: https://ingridking.com/?s=raw+feeding and on Dr. Pierson’s website catinfo.org. An adult cat should eat two or three meals a day.
I have been feeding my 7 year old cat raw meat since I got her at 6 months old. I do not grind her food. I make 10 oz packages that include chunks of dark meat chicken, pork, beef and organ meat. I include 15% in pieces of chicken neck and back (for calcium) organ meat and 5%% liver. I make about 4 months worth and freeze the packages. I thaw them and give half a package a day (she’s only 7.5 lbs). We don’t worry about her teeth because she chews the meat and bone. Her coat is beautiful and she has not had one health problem yet. We have had her blood tested and our vet says she is wonderfully healthy.
My 2 year old kitty has calicivirus. I currently feed her grain free high end canned food. She has mostly respiratory and energy issues, and she’s stuffed up 24/7. Is she a good candidate for the raw food diet?
Yes!! A resounding yes! We are former Rescuers and we unfortunately brought in a cat that had calicivirus and spread it to the others and so we had 12 cats infected with calici at the same time which was hell on Earth. But we also had just started to feed our cats raw food and I think it really helped them and we have continued since that infection in 2014. They eat nothing but raw food and I never have canned or dry for them. We make it all from scratch. With regard to the calicivirus it is imperative that you take your cat to you’re veterinarian to check on the mouth. Ideally if you can do this it would be better if you saw a dental surgeon to examine the mouth. Calicivirus unfortunately is now known to cause directly stomatitis and other severe mouth disease such as tooth resorption. I didn’t know that at the time but now I know so much about it and have seen 4 veterinarians for the mouth three of them being board certified dental surgeons. Please don’t put off doing this because the earlier you intervene the better. I’m so sorry to hear that you have had this infection of this virus with your cat. But she will get over it. The actual initial flare-up of the calicivirus is for 8 days and after that usually they don’t have the upper respiratory infection or the fatigue. Initially most of them do get an ulcer in the mouth or tongue which eventually goes away when they start to get better. Be careful about introducing other cats into your household because many calici cats are known to be silent carriers. Even if they are recovered and appear healthy.
What recipe do you use? I currently use ground turkey from a supplier and add supplements
I have two cats who are feline leukemia positive and the other five are not (they are vaccinated yearly to protect them and so far the protection is working) so I know that I cannot feed them raw food unless they are separated. In addition to the cats, I also have a 14 year old dog, who rejected raw food.
Any suggestions to feed this menagerie?
You can find my recommendations here, Candy: https://ingridking.com/2012/03/22/the-best-food-for-your-cat/
Oooh I just saw your earlier post talking about Pre-made mixes that you can just combine with meat! That makes it so easy!! This is the link you provided:
http://tcfeline.com/2011/04/06/prepare-tcfeline-plus/
I’m totally ordering this stuff and going to at least start giving both a little raw + the dry to see what happens and if Ms. Luna’s tummy can handle it….
Lisa, let me know how that works for Ms. Luna!
Why should cats on prednisone not eat raw diets?
Steroids suppress the immune system, Deb.
I wonder what is considered a high dose of prednisolone? My cat is on 5mg tablets 2 x daily.
If you live in the United States and you buy your raw meat at a quality supermarket and you freeze it for a few days to kill any possible parasites I absolutely feel that you can feed your cat, who is getting prednisone, raw food. We have 12 inside cats and one of my cats takes 5 micrograms of prednisalone daily for some post full mouth extraction refractory stomatitis. He has been eating raw food the entire time he has been on prednisolone which is going on over 2 years. He also has some lung damage having been asthmatic and quite sick before we rescued him from the streets. He does fabulously well on the raw food and in fact I think he is much better since he went on raw food. I really strongly urge you to consider feeding raw food to a cat who is on pred so long as the meat is purchased at a standard quality supermarket.
Freezing may kill parasites, but it won’t kill bacteria, it just renders them inactive. That means that once the food is thawed, if it had bacteria before freezing, it will still have the same bacteria after thawing.
Great article Ingrid. After reading it this morning, as well as doing some research over the last couple of months, I decided to go into my local specialty cat food store today and check out their raw food. I was very pleasantly surprised when it came to the price of a raw food diet. They had 1 pound tubs of Aunt Jeni’s (which was what one of the store employees suggested) for about $5.50 each. When compared to the cost of different high-end canned foods it was very comparable. The 1lb tub, according to it’s feeding instruction, would be enough for about 4 days worth of meals for a 10 pound cat. That came to about $1.38 a day. If you look at most canned foods, the servings a day is usually about 1 oz for every pound the cat weighs. For a 10lb cat that come to 2 cans a day. If you go buy that formula some of the high end cat foods would cost about $3.00 for 2 cans a day, and the cheaper stuff could be as low as $1.00 a day. This of course is if you go by the foods recommended serving size, which I’ve never done, as I feel it’s a little much for a cat to eat. I also like to feed a little variety of wet and grain-free dry food, so the cost per day, as well as the serving size per day, is much lower. All-in-all the raw food wasn’t nearly as expensive as I thought it would be (in fact it was fairly affordable,) and I picked up a couple of tubs to try out. We’ll see how it goes over with my little guy during dinner time tonight.
Thanks for providing this information, James! I agree that the recommended amounts to feed on commercial cat food are always too high. After all, these companies want to sell food – and you can’t blame them for that. One of the things I’ve found when I transitioned Allegra to raw food was that quantity wise, she ate less than she had when she was still eating grain-free canned, but wasn’t as hungry. I’m sure that is due to the higher protein content (and no carb fillers – even the best grain-free food still contains more carbs than cats really need).
I’d love to hear what your little guy thinks about the raw food.
Well, dinner time was a success!!!! I fed my guy a tablespoon of the raw food during my dinner as a treat, and then fed him another tablespoon with his normal canned food at his dinner time a few hours later, and he ate both helpings right up. I’m very happy, especially after the women at the food store told me that it took her 8 months to fully introduce raw food to her cats. She suggested that when I got home that I immediately start thawing out some of the raw stuff and give him some as a treat to see if he liked it. I did, and he did. She was saying that when she was starting out she could only give her cats a teaspoon at a time, otherwise they would reject the whole meal. She gradually increased the amount of raw, and over many months they finally accepted it fully. Looks like my guy has a head start. I’ll be slowly adding more raw meat to his diet, and hopefully within the next month or two he’ll be fully over.
That’s great news, James! Some cats take to the raw food readily, and it sounds like your little guy is one of them. It’s almost like they go “finally, the human figured out what I’m supposed to be eating!” 🙂
That was a super post about the raw foods. I would love to be ablet to give all my cats the raw food but I believe that it is very expensive to do. My theory is that if the kitties here are just getting something to eat, and have some shelter, they are better off than a homeless cat. And most of mine go outside and they get their own raw food.
Also, doesn’t it take a lot of freezer space?? I think the raw food is the very best for the cats since that is what they eat if they are left to their own resources. I had a cat disappear for 3 months and she came back thin, but she was alive. Great post.
Marg, if you make your own food it can actually be fairly inexpensive to feed raw. One online retailer that I’m aware of who sells quality meet at reasonable prices is Hare Today: http://www.hare-today.com/ . I use prepared raw foods (I rotate between Primal and Nature’s Variety), so I don’t have any personal experience with them, but I’ve heard from raw feeders I trust that this is a good company. I suppose you’d need a certain amount of freezer space, depending on how many cats you have and how much food you want to have on hand at any one time.
The other thing to take into consideration when feeding raw is that while your cost for food may be higher, you’ll probably save the money on veterinary bills in the long run since your cats are going to be healthier.