Revisiting the raw diet

Discussion in Pets started by JosieP • Nov 18, 2014.

  1. JosieP

    JosiePWell-Known Member

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    I've been experimenting with some store bought raw foods for my cats, despite wanting to source the meats myself.. mainly lazy lol. These foods still have a bunch of unnecessary things in the foods (that apparently everyone still thinks animals need for some reason), when I just want the meat and other nutrients actually necessary for a healthy diet. It's a short list I'm not finding anywhere so I'm going to have to take it on myself.

    Which raw diet do you prefer? Do you cook or leave it raw? Bone or no bone? Supplements? Whole, chunks or ground?

    Someone a while back mentioned their friend's pet was sick on a raw food diet and I'm wondering now if it was lack of nutrients.. you can't just feed them meat and be done with it. There's a little more work involved than that. There are quite a lot of conflicting tidbits on the internet about this, especially when it comes to what an animal actually needs, so just wondering how conflicted we are here and how our animals are holding up?
     
  2. Denis Hard

    Denis HardWell-Known Member

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    Cats are carnivores. In the wild they munch on raw meat. In the country, where cats can roam the fields, they hunt, kill and eat their prey.

    Everyone these days happens to be an expert on how to care for/feed pets. They've lived in some city all their lives and all they know is store-bought pet food and myths spread by those who want to sell pet food. And because watching their cats eat raw meat grosses them out, they'll find ways to try to explain why cats shouldn't be on a raw food diet, etc.
    I doubt it. They can get most of the nutrients they need from meat. But of course you could include some grain and vegetables to the diet to provide any other nutrients which they might need.
     
  3. JosieP

    JosiePWell-Known Member

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    See.. conflicting info lol. From everything I've read (not from bloggers that think they're animal scientists), just meat isn't enough and veggies and grains are completely unnecessary.. and, I'll add, probably not a good idea. Especially the grains. Just like people, some will get sick and some won't.. I just want to make sure I don't risk that. I won't be buying them grocery store meats.. you may as well just feed them canned food then. But I don't eat animals at all and I'm not looking forward to grinding them up instead lol. So the bone thing irks me.. they need the bone and I'd rather not give them bone meal.
     
  4. H.C. Heartland

    H.C. HeartlandActive Member

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    Our cat growing up used to eat both. If we take the lion for example, its main source of food comes from 50% of scavenging for meat either alive or already dead. They cannot digest vegetable matter so they are purely carnivorous. Like cats however, a lion might ingest grass to force themselves to vomit when their stomachs are upset. A domesticated cat is different. Our cat used to eat green peppers on a regular basis and lived to be 21 years old. However, I know feel this was because it came off of our ham pizza and she was craving the meat juice off of it. Our cat used to bring us a bird or mouse every once in awhile. And I'm pretty sure upon reflection the look on her face was, 'NOW THIS IS FOOD!'
     
  5. JosieP

    JosiePWell-Known Member

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    LOL love it! Yes, we have to take into account how wild cats live.. but on the other hand, lions eat the meat and leave the bones as far as I know and domesticated cats eat pretty much everything of their prey. People also tend to think their diet should be as close as possible to a mouse diet, when in the actual wild.. not in a neighbourhood as a stray, they wouldn't be eating many mice, but meatier game. I don't know.. I just know I'll be keeping them far away from grains.. it's one of the main reason they shouldn't be eating all this crap in stores, I won't be voluntarily adding it to their food.
     
  6. xTinx

    xTinxWell-Known Member

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    We regularly feed our cats raw fish. They're not very picky with raw fish compared to fried fish (some types of fish taste better fried than others). The dogs like raw meat but we always give them dog food for snacks and just a tad bit of raw food for breakfast and dinner. It's more expensive to feed your pets with raw food.
     
  7. JosieP

    JosiePWell-Known Member

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    For pets, that's absolutely true. I just wouldn't feel right, knowing what diet does to every living being, continuing to give them something their bodies don't like. Of course so many will live a long life on foods they shouldn't eat, just like humans.. I just don't want to risk it. Most animals I've known that died too soon, died because of something food could have caused. The most common issues. And it's where we place our priorities. Proper food is before all else, so we can make sure our family (including our pets) are as healthy and comfortable as possible. We think down the road like that.
     
  8. Happyflowerlady

    HappyflowerladyWell-Known Member

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    This is a topic that definitely has valid ideas on both sides of the fence. Absolutely, both felines and canines in the wild eat only raw food; and they stay healthy enough on that kind of a diet. However, most of our pets have not been used to eating that kind of food; and the pets themselves do not much resemble the wild animals. there is no way that your Toy Poodle is going to be able to hunt like a wolf; just can't happen. that little guy can't chew upp the bones like a wolf can either. Toy Poodles just aren't found in the wild, soI think that they shouldnot be expected to eat like a wolf does either.
    That being said, I don't think that just feeding your pet a dish of dry dog food is getting it , either. For hundreds of years, dogs (and cats) have eaten scraps for the humans dinners. They are used to eating cooked food, just like people are. Food made just for a dog or cat is a very recent thing in the timetable of men and dogs. And it is made from scraps left over from food manufacturers.
    So, I feed my animals kind of a mixture. They have a dish of dry food, so they can eat and drink any time they want to. I also feed them from the table, and sometimes give them scraps of raw meat as well.
     
  9. JosieP

    JosiePWell-Known Member

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    You're absolutely right.. just as humans have become accustomed to a heavily processed diet, so have our pets. BUT, that does not mean any of us are healthy. In fact, the stats show very much otherwise. Same with pets who eat dry foods.. their kidneys, the crystals.. so so many avoidable illnesses. You're right to give a varied diet that gives them the opportunity to eat some raw, but for me it's not just that I won't feed them dry and I would like them to eat what they're supposed to be eating.. I don't like what's in those factory scraps (I don't want my family eating commercial meats, so I shouldn't be serving them to my animals either.. health and moral reasons) and of course, I don't want to be feeding my beautiful pets other people's beautiful euthanized pets.. because 1) hellooooo, beautiful euthanized pets :( .... 2) the drug used to euthanize doesn't just go away when the animal dies and c) I doubt it matters how healthy these animals are when they're rendered, but I don't care enough to look into that at this point.. all the other points are good enough to get my animals off this food.

    Fact is, my pets are not wild animals living off of mice and squirrels (although they were when I found them.. so how used to today's pet diet were they really? How used to it are any of them when many of them come from a long line of ferals?).. so they will be given all the best choices I can give them, I won't ever expect them to eat the way a wild animal would or I would have left them out in the cold. As chosen family members, they deserve the same health I help my family achieve and I'm doing my best to navigate this diet to give them the best, most comfortable, disease free life they can have :)

    Oh, and grains.. they absolutely should not be eating grains. And they're in almost everything.
     
    #9Nov 22, 2014
    Last edited: Nov 22, 2014