The dangers of the raw food diet

Comments

“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