A Raw Deal

Whenever someone touches my furry little pussy cats, I always hear the same thing, “Ooooh, they’re so soft!”  I am very proud of my Keetains’ coats.  Their fur feels silky, luxurious, shiny and expensive, which it is.  In addition, their teeth are white and free of plaque, and their eyes are bright.

When the person who mentions this happens to be a veterinarian, I smile and keep my mouth shut. 
I do not advocate withholding information from one's veterinarian, dear reader, but I have grown weary of DVMs past having jumped down my throat.  I don’t want to have to take sides on one issue; an issue so controversial it has divided the cat care community right down the middle . . .

I feed my cats raw meat.  And they love it.

“You’ll give your cats salmonellosis!”  “You’ll get sick, too!”  “It’s a time bomb!  They may be safe now, but you’re playing Russian Roulette . . .!”

Puh-leeze.  In 6 years of raw feeding my cats have never become ill from any meat I have given them.   I don’t go scrounging for road kill or rifle through the dumpsters outside supermarkets or buy the nearly expired, green-gray stuff on sale.   I get the best I can afford and absolutely nothing I wouldn’t eat myself.  Wish I could say the same for the makers of commercially prepared canned pet food.  Or people food, for that matter ("New and Improved SPAM!  Now with Fewer Snouts!”).

Why feed raw meat?  Because this is what a cat is built to eat, silly.  The cat is an obligate carnivore and its natural prey consists of rodents, birds, lizards and bugs.  The meats I offer are chicken, turkey, rabbit, duck, lamb and beef, in order of appropriateness, not necessarily availability.  Some die-hards offer live crickets and frozen "pinkies" (newborn mice), but I have to draw the line there.  That's just too creepy.  And, to my knowledge, no ‘Tain has never popped its kill into a Le Creuset dutch oven, tweaked their favorite Ina Garten recipe and won a slot on "Master Chef."

Uncooked protein is also more efficiently digested.  My cats’ stools are firm, small and have very little odor.  When fed commercial food, especially dry food, they become large, soft and smelly.  That said, I still do alternate raw meals with canned because I want my cats to accept both kinds of food should one of them not be available.

     

Some enlightened folks in the public eye are on board with the concept of raw feeding.  Rachel Ray, foodie star, is a supporter.  In the segment below, her show “Rachel Ray Feeds Your Pets” pops in on Spoiled Brats Pet Boutique in Midtown Manhattan, which is the home base of Anjellicle Cats Rescue.  Its director, Kathryn Willis -- who by the way is on the fast track to sainthood -- is interviewed:

A note of caution: Although Rachel’s heart is in the right place, she (or her writer) mentions raw fish.  Neither Anjellicle nor I recommend giving your cat sushi, NOR do we recommend fish in any form.   Unless your cat is a Fishing Cat (Prionailurus viverrinus) you should not be giving it fish.

Do I look like a domestic shorthair to you?

Give a cat a fish and it eats for a day.
Teach a cat to fish and it eats for a lifetime.

Fish is not a bioavailable protein source for felis silvestris catus.  As a matter of fact, the cliched practice of feeding tuna on a long-term basis can rob a cat’s system of taurine and other vital nutrients.

Oh, and don’t think that just because Kitty likes a certain food it is good for her.  A cat is no more likely to choose what food is good for it than is a child who has been given the choice between oatmeal and chocolate cake for breakfast.   Some commercial pet food manufacturers—I am talking mostly about the cheap supermarket brands here—are tricky sons of guns.  They fill their product with that ubiquitous American grain, corn, and then add  "_____ (fill in an animal name) meal" and other crap, and heaven only knows what part of which slaughterhouse in which country provided the meat.  It is rumored that some foods are made using the carcasses of euthanized pets, but that is just too unconscionable to contemplate.  Soylent Green, anyone?  It is perfectly OK in my view, however, to will your body to be used for pet food, as some people in England have.  Boy, those Brits love their animals, let me tell you.

Anyway, to make this detritus palatable, manufacturers add the kitty equivalent of MSG: animal digest.   You know the goo at the bottom of the roasting pan you use as the base for your chicken gravy?  Animal digest is a similar substance, and its flavor is irresistible to most cats.  Unfortunately, it is made by rendering the by-products of the by-products in slaughterhouses – really horrid stuff – into a concentrate.  When added to canned food and used to coat dry food, it lends a highly addictive umami which can only be described as satanic.  Kitty doesn’t know what it is, only that it tastes good.  Likewise fooled, the unwitting owner watches Kitty demolish her food with gusto and is satisfied that she is feeding her cat just what she needs and craves.  One need only observe any human crack addict to see just what is really going on with Kitty.  Animal digest is whack.

By the way, if you want a way to get your cat to try a new food and don't happen to have a cauldron of random animal parts reducing on the stove, you can try these alternatives: freeze-dried chicken breast, liver powder, or nutritional yeast.  They love all three.

There are some commercial outfits out there that do produce excellent grain-free canned and dry foods.  I only give dry food as a treat on occasion, and when I do it is Evo Ancestral Diet.  The canned foods I use are Wellness (non-fish flavors) and the Nature’s Variety Instinct line.  Other good brands are Natural Balance and Innova Evo.  Canned meats such as those made by Abady, while good products, are not meant to be given as a meal in and of themselves, and it says so on the label.

If you’ve listened to anything I’ve said so far, and want to try raw feeding yourself, you have several alternatives.  You can create a diet from scratch using any of the many recipes out there on the interwebs, which is labor-intensive but will satisfy your zookeeper fantasy.

For lazy folks like myself, there are several pre-prepared alternatives.  I am not paid to endorse these products, mind you.  I have used them over the years and liked them.

Nature’s Variety Instinct frozen raw foods, which are available in pet stores.

Aunt Jeni’s Home Made (www.auntjeni.com) is another one my cats have enjoyed.  They are a small operation out of Temple Hills, Maryland.

Stella and Chewy’s, an excellent freeze dried raw food available in better pet stores. If you are at all gun-shy about feeding fresh raw meat, this product is completely safe.  Just rehydrate and serve.  Keaton likes to crunch it straight from the package, which is fine, but he then must make up for it at the water bowl.

My product of choice is TC Feline Premix Plus Liver, available by mail order.  It is a powder you mix with water and add to raw meat chunks for a complete diet.  I like both the ease of use and the control it allows over the quality of meat that goes into my cats’ food.  TC Feline can be purchased by visiting www.thetotalcat.com.

For more information on raw feeding, here are two excellent resources:

"Myths About Raw Feeding" by Carissa Kuehn

http://rawfed.com/myths/
It focuses on dogs, but just substitute "cats" for "dogs"

Linda Zurich's Raw Fed Cats

www.rawfedcats.org

So there it is.  Chocolate cake or oatmeal?  You decide.