Comments: The dangers of the raw food diet

“First of all, I don't feed my cats a raw diet yet, but that's only because I'm a vegetarian and I'm having a tough time adjusting to touching raw meat. I believe that raw feeding at the very least deserves some unbiased research.

That said, there are pet food ads all over this website. Unfortunately, even vets can be biased since they get a cut of the "prescription diets" they sell.

We don't know any of the details about what health condition these 2 cats were in to begin with, where the meat was from, how long it sat out before the cats ate it (if they were used to eating dry food, you can't usually just plop raw food down and expect them to eat it right away. Pet food has flavor enhancers added to it and is almost addictive. Also, it's too big a texture difference and you need to adjust gradually, just like the pet food manufacturers recommend when switching brands of pet food. Perhaps the cats were trying to "hold out" for dry food and just ate the raw because they were starving. Which means the meat could've been sitting out for hours.) If there was a large scale study of hundreds of cats being fed raw food and many of them had problems, I would be more likely to be skeptical. However, the opposite seems to be true. I know personally that my cats are so much healthier even after the comparatively small change that have made from a high quality dry food (grain free, no byproducts) to their mostly cooked homemade food (some components, such as eggs and organs, are raw, but the meat is cooked...see above).

One of my cats had urine crystals on the dry, both had dandruff and little energy. One was overweight. After switching to the homemade, the urine crystals and dandruff are gone. I noticed a huge increase in their energy levels right away. Both are maintaining a healthy weight now. They have a clean bill of health from their vet. That's enough convincing for me.

Is raw food the best food? I think so, as long as it's done with plenty of research and careful preparation. If one isn't ready for that research and prep, they should feed a high quality commercial food instead. Don't immediately jump to conclusions about raw feeding based on a study with two cats.

If you want to try it, do the research and if it works for you and your animals, great. If you notice your pets aren't doing well on it, try to figure out why and in the meantime give them a high quality pet food. ” — Holly, Nov 14 2009

“You guys are arguing the fact that dogs can't cook, so they must eat raw meat because it's natural. Well, look at our earliest ancestors. They lived in a more "natural" environment than us and even ate their stuff raw. According to you guys, it must have been healthier, hence a longer living life without diseases, right? WRONG -- look at our average lifespan in years now and compare it to back then. Why do you guys insist on dismissing science and going against what we have come so far to learn?” — Helen, Oct 22 2009

“And don't forget one thing, vets don't learn about diets in the University, they learn about illnesses accidents, imummisation, things like that, Pal teaches them about 4 hours about THEYR PRODUCTS, not about dog diet. Those companies calling the shots and the vets have to cowtow!” — redhill27, Sep 16 2009

“Steamed vegetables, green leafy ones, such as Celery, Capsicum, Spinach, Silver beet,(grow a batch,easy), and Carrots mainly, then add the raw meat to eat. 2-3 spoons of cooked brown rice, maybe an apple afterwards and your dog will finaly get get some nutrients that he has not seen in a while: FRESH ENZYMES!!!!! Missing in dry or canned dog food, everything is cooked! Dogs need their food raw! Feed your dog a bone from Dr Ian Billinghurst, is the best book ever written. You need to read it, so you can understand the few important differences, between human food and dog food.This is my own website, I have a section on food. I am a dog groomer: www.pet-affair.com.au and buy Dr Ian Billinghurst's book, worth every Penny!” — redhill27, Sep 16 2009

“I am very much leaning towards a raw diet for my dog, however, truthfully, I am scared to death. He means so very much to me that if anything were to happen to him and especially if it were a direct result of something that I did in his diet, it would literally devastate me. He's been on a raw diet now for the last three days, no vomiting, but he seems to be "heavy", passing gas (which he never used to do), and just "different" although I cannot pinpoint specifics. Personally, I simply cannot have him be a statistic, 1 out ____ where something negative happens. Does anyone have any statistics that I can research? It's all getting very confusing and frightening the more research and investigation that I do. Thank you! ” — Pam, Jul 19 2009

“Well about the wolf and carnivore thing... God created animals and humans to eat vegetation of the earth (meaning fruits, veggies, grains) He did not intend man or animals to eat meat but he allowed this to happen. So saying that a dog's original diet is meat is not true. It is actually vegetarian.

However, things have changed SO much (for the worse) in the past thousands of years that vegetation alone cannot provide enough nutrients for dogs,cats or people. Our bodies have adapted to eating meat and getting and needing nutrients from it along with veggies, fruit, milk, cheese, eggs. For now this is what we need. In the new world things will go back to the original vegetarian diet. (Isaiah 11:6-9) ” — Sara, Jul 01 2009

“I have a cat with Celiac disease. He was put on Hills RX by my Vet and was still loosing weight and very unhealthy. We tried all kinds of foods. Nothing helped. He was sick everyday. I started him on a raw food diet and he became a very happy and healthy boy. He's now eating Feline Instincts raw food supplement to which I add meat or poultry. He's just had his 22 birthday in January! ” — Mari, Jun 20 2009

“For 4 years I worked for a store that sells kibble, canned, freeze-dried and raw food.
Our customers were the type that they would immediately call us if their pet LOOKED FUNNY at their food.
Guess how many reports we had of pets getting sick on raw food? NONE.
By far the issues were mostly canned food, and that was generally due to things like mixing kibble and canned in the same bowl.
Check the FDA standards on raw food for animals and the same meat used for people and you'll find the standards are higher for meat used in raw pet food.
The study quoted sounds a bit flawed and if you do research you'll find good long term studies showing raw diet as being beneficial.” — dave, Jun 18 2009

“ AAHA is an accredited foundation but that's ok, just believe the schmucks that say dogs are true carnivores. Look at what vets are feeding their dogs...it wont' be a raw food diet. Bones pose a threat to their insides, the meat can contain salmonella- passing that off as "nothing's perfect" is ignorant and you obviously have no idea what an infection of that sort entails. True, your dog cannot cook it's food but it cannot hunt...by your idiotic standards that means it doesn't eat. These animals are domesticated, not wild wolves that need to feast on sloppy meat you get from some organic store. There are standards out there, look up AAFCO. Get educated you cads.” — Educated, Jun 15 2009

“It's kind of funny that this claim is made with advertisements for Wal-mart and pet food running up and down the left hand side of the article. I wonder who these "scientists" were and who was paying them.” — Heather, Jun 04 2009

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