The biggest myth surrounding cat ownership is that cats are worry free, self-contained and self-providing pets that require little or no maintenance. Cats are so good at giving people the impression of independence and self-reliance that people believe they don't have to provide the highly focused attention to cats that, say, dogs require. The fact of the matter is that cats do require the same attention to detail that any dog does, and maybe even a little more, in some cases. This is especially true when it comes to probing the controversy regarding whether raw cat food is better that canned cat food or kibbles for your feline ward.
It's a sad thing to look around our country these days and see so many people who have allowed themselves to become overweight and then have to deal with the consequential suffering and ill-health effects of obesity. Diabetes, shortness of breath, constant exhaustion from lugging around so many extra pounds and lowered self-esteem. Of course, the garment industry is singing happy tunes with all the extra thread they have to put together. There's no shortage of explanations for why this situation has come about, but I think when it comes down to it we can only blame ourselves at the individual level for allowing such a condition to take root. After all, how many pounds overweight does one have to get before they realize that something's not right and becoming a problem? 10, 20... 50 lbs? And how long does it take to realize that the magic pills, diets, elixirs and effortless, lose-weight-with-no-work-out machines are products being marketed to your ego, to separate you from your bank account, and not to solve your problem? No... the only way to find an ideal normality is with thorough research, discovery and a lot of hard work accompanied with a healthy life style change. But, enough sermonizing about the human condition. This is about cats, their eating habits and raw cat food.
One thing needs to come along with this discussion from the previous paragraph. Most people are not experts in animal nutrition and rely on others to lead them in the right direction. The source for most 'experts' available to a person for their daily decision making and selection of choices usually comes to us through the traditional media of radio, newspapers, television and now, the internet. Media offers two kinds of resources. Investigative reporting which is presented in newscasts or opinion pieces, and secondly, the marketing hype that provides commercial broadcast funding. The former is reliable enough to put credence into and might call for further research on your part if it interests you. The latter really only wants you to spend your money with them. That's not necessarily bad... it does ultimately put people to work and provides many with an adequate, and even comfortable living. Unfortunately, the bottom line is... corporations only have one objective in the end. That is to feed their bottom line. Now recent events have caused many to reconsider the morality behind a corporations goals. But, as long as this market structure is the paradigm for our economy, the ultimate goal for big business will always be to maximize their profit-loss statements towards the profit end of the spectrum, any way they can get away with, and at your expense... literally.
So, what does this have to do with cats and if raw cat food is what you should be feeding them? Simply put, most people rely on the marketing hype to base their decisions regarding the food they feed their pets. Which is exactly the wrong source for basing such a critical decision. Take the cat for example. It's not only a scientific fact, but a cultural one also, that the cat is described as an obligate carnivore. This defines cats as creatures who derive most of their food nutrients from the animals they hunt and consume (raw cat food). When a cat devours it's prey, she will eat everything including not only muscle meat, but the brains, organ meat and the stomach and its contents which may consist of grasses and grains. One thing she doesn't do is fire up a stove and saute or bake her dinner, or prepare a nice sauce to go with it. She eats it raw. Cultural purists use this description as an argument that feeding cats store bought, mass produced canned or dry cat food is doing your cat a disservice by depriving her of the natural nutrients she would normally get in the raw cat food she captures in the wild, and for which she was biologically designed.
Pottenger's cats
Francis M. Pottenger, Jr. (1901 - 1967) was the son of Francis M. Pottenger, Sr., the physician who co-founded the Pottenger Sanatorium for treatment of tuberculosis in Monrovia, California. Between 1932 and 1942 he conducted what is know as the Pottenger Cat Study. One part of this study was what effect heat had on the nutrient value of raw food. In other words, what happens to food when you cook it.
"Pottenger used donated laboratory cats to test the potency of the adrenal extract hormones he was making. The adrenal glands of these cats were removed for the experiments and Pottenger noted that most of the cats died during or following the operation. He was feeding the cats a supposedly nutritive diet consisting of raw milk, cod liver oil and cooked meat scraps of liver, tripe, sweetbread, brains, heart and muscle.
When the number of donated cats exceeded the supply of food available, Pottenger began ordering raw meat scraps from a local meat packing plant, including organs, meat, and bone; and fed a separate group of cats from this supply. Within months this separate group appeared in better health than the cooked meat group. Their kittens were more energetic and, most interestingly, their post-operative death rate was lower.
At a certain point, he decided to begin a controlled scientific exploration. Pottenger conducted studies involving approximately 900 cats over a period of ten years, with three generations of cats being studied.
Meat study:
In one study, one group of cats was fed a diet of:
Two-thirds raw meat, one-third raw milk, and cod-liver oil
A second group was fed a diet of two-thirds cooked meat, one-third raw milk, and cod-liver oil.
The cats fed the all-raw diet were healthy while the cats fed the cooked meat diet developed various health problems:
By the end of the first generation the cats started to develop degenerative diseases and became quite lazy.
By the end of the second generation, the cats had developed degenerative diseases by mid-life and started losing their coordination.
By the end of the third generation the cats had developed degenerative diseases very early in life and some were born blind and weak and had a much shorter life span. Many of the third generation cats couldn't even produce offspring. There was an abundance of parasites and vermin while skin diseases and allergies increased from an incidence of five percent in normal cats to over 90 percent in the third generation of deficient cats. Kittens of the third generation did not survive six months. Bones became soft and pliable and the cats suffered from adverse personality changes. Males became docile while females became more aggressive.
The cats suffered from most of the degenerative diseases encountered in human medicine and died out totally by the fourth generation.
At the time of Pottenger's Study the amino acid taurine had been discovered but had not yet been identified as an essential amino acid for Cats. Today many cats thrive on a cooked meat diet where taurine has been added after cooking. The deficient diets lacked sufficient taurine to allow the cat's to properly form protein structures and resulted in the health effects observed. Pottenger himself concluded that there was likely an "as yet unknown" protein factor (taurine) that may have been heat sensitive.
Milk Study:
In another study, dubbed the "Milk Study,", the cats were fed 2/3 milk and 1/3 meat. All groups were fed raw meat with different groups getting raw, pasteurized, evaporated, sweetened condensed or raw metabolized vitamin D milk. The cats on raw milk were the healthiest while the rest exhibited varying degrees of health problems similar to the previous cooked meat study.
This particular Pottenger cat study has been cited by advocates of raw milk as evidence that it is likely healthier for humans than pasteurized milk." +
Though Pottenger's experiments don't conclusively verify that raw cat food diets are better for sustaining a healthy support for the physiological needs of cats than cooked (canned) or dry kibbles, (because he didn't use canned cat food or kibbles in the experiments) certain conclusions can be drawn.
Cooking meat can destroy certain food nutrients, namely amino acids (proteins)
Cats thrive more healthily on raw meat rather than cooked meat with less degenerative results
Cooking meat for your cat requires the replacement of the essential amino acid taurine, and possibly other nutrients destroyed in the cooking process
Pet food marketing hype says that "XYZ" cat food products are healthy for your pet because it adds "ABC" nutrients, vitamins and minerals to their product which safeguards your cat's health. Fortunately, marketing laws require that the ingredients in any given product be listed on the packaging of your cat's food. Ultimately, it is left up to you to make the decision about which is the best shelf product for your cat.
After we examine how to make cat food, to begin with we really need to ask, what's cat food? When looking at how to make cat food we initially think about precisely what materials we want. When you consider commercial cat food, it would be understandable to suspect that making cat food needs to be an elaborate exercise, with unique compounds devised especially for cats. Others may possibly assume that you will feed them all you could eat, somewhat this can be true.
We can't utilize the food pyramid we've got for us, for our cats. They have diverse levels of different foods. As an illustration, the principal of the food we eat must be carbohydrates and plant matter, cats require little of this kind of food. Alternatively the most important food form that they need to consume is protein, available as meat. It actually is harmful to possess a cat on a vegetarian diet plan - even if you are in one. Cats likewise need close to 30% within of their eating plan being fat - once more very different to all of us!
First, we have a look at precisely what a pet cat would most likely feed on in the event it was walking the pavements with no owner. It's going to probably snatch a rat, bird or maybe the odd fish it could possibly scoop out from a fish-pond. For these reasons, it'd eat primarily the flesh of any animal, a couple of bones, as well as a little bit of plant substance that will be inside the gut of the animal that it was enjoying.
Be certain, when you talk about how to make cat food, we aren't meaning that you keep a flow of rats, birds and fish always ready for ones pet's day-to-day supper! Nevertheless, we are able to conveniently replicate this along with some thought and preparation.
Food Grades when figuring out how to make cat food
Whenever utilizing fresh products which includes meat to make cat food, I utilize human quality meat, not specifically prepared pet meat. This will depend on your own country, but generally speaking there is certainly fewer guidelines about what is assessed as pet meats. The meat can be made utilizing creatures which might be already dead (that is not specially slaughtered for that supply of food), and also critters that might be sick or seriously injured.
Pet class mince for example, does not need polices to what quantity of the mince ought to be meat as opposed to all the other 'bits' belonging to the animal. For that reason the personal preference when teaching people how to make cat food should be to stay away from this kind of meat - I'd like to create pet cat meals with food that I would certainly actually eat, and certainly nothing less.
How to make cat food - products required
With the Natural Cat Food book - we instruct you on how to make cat food, and every one of the ingredients that we apply can be found in your local supermarket. In reality - most of them you probably currently have at your home. That is why, you don't see any extraordinary or tricky products necessary. We don't cause you to put extraordinary components inside your cats food stuff to ensure that you feel as though you are carrying out something more baffling than it really need to be. Nourishing your pet cat, really should not be convoluted compared to feeding oneself!
Eliminating risky human meals for cats
When you understand how to make cat food you have got to understand you can find several ingredients which we consume which are deadly for felines. Even just in little dosage these food types can be harmful if not deadly for the cats.
1. Onions - these consist of a compound that will kill red blood cells in felines. Whilst your cat is not likely to chow down on a raw onion - be careful offering things like gravy which they might eat that you have put onions in! Garlic can also be a part of the onion family, however not quite as hazardous as onions, also needs to be refrained from.
2. Green tomatoes and green potatoes - section of the deadly nightshade family - these can cause gastrointestinal problems with your cat. (Green potatoes can also be toxic for humans, especially if are expecting a baby!)
3. Chocolate - Chocolate is equally harmful for pets. Do not ever share your chocolate sweets together with your household pets. Be careful of such things as chocolate ice cream or dessert that your kitty could help his or her self to from your very own bowl after you aren't looking.
4. Avocado - this is moderately harmful and may bring about throwing up and diarrhoea.
5. Milk - although it is not deadly, a large number of felines have got a lactose intolerance. Cats and kittens love milk, so we encourage you, if the cat gets diarrhoea when drinking cows milk to offer a lactose reduced variety in its place. You can purchase commercial cat milk that has the lactose eliminated, on the other hand, you can also buy milk designed for humans which has got the lactose extracted which is generally less expensive than specially packed pet cat milk.
So, to summarize kitty foods can definitively be made by means of food you have in your house, with some tweaks. In the Natural Cat Food book we explain how to make cat food using raw and 100 % natural ingredients that you can get in your grocer's. We certainly advocate using quality produce that is definitely nourishing and all natural for the cats. So we don't endorse utilizing ingredients that are known as cat meat - on the other hand when we reveal to you how to make cat food we use cuts of meats that can be developed for human consumption. We would like to allow you to imitate your cat's natural diet as a way to assist them to live more comfortable, far healthier, lengthier life.
As I began researching articles about cat food, I found many with authoritative documentation and some with personal opinions. I personally wanted to know what would be the best to feed our mature cat. He has been on dry food since birth with expensive treats and occasionally a few pieces of meat - table scraps - of cooked chicken, beef, tuna, salmon or pork. This may not have been the most correct choice.
Our cat Simba, is strictly an indoor cat. He has always had good health and has a beautiful, glossy, smooth, orange tabby coat. He has starting vomiting a little bit, which appears to be unprocessed dry food or treats, and occasionally hair balls. I will leave the hairballs for another article. In this article I will look at cat food options. I decided to find out what kind of cat food we should get for him or if a dietary change is needed.
In my opinion, it often the 'cost' that drives the consumer's decision on what cat food to purchase, even though our cats are very precious to us. I am sure we want the best food we can afford to give our pet, and what is best for him. In evaluating the issue, I believe that 'costs' can be evaluated in two ways.
First, we can get the best from the grocery store. Much of our decision is probably based on the advertising we hear or see through the media, and occasionally from a friend. It is often that we are at the store, cat food is on our list, our selection is on sale, it says it's 'natural' or some other persuasive word on the label, and we place it in our cart with little thought to read the ingredient list. At home, our cat likes it when we feed him the selected food, so we think we have made a good choice.
Second, we can do a lot of research, decide to go to a pet store or make a purchase online for a good quality, high protein cat food, and know from what we have read that it is a good choice, and 'cost' didn't really become the deciding factor. Our cat's health became the more important issue.
Some cat owners are probably a little on both sides when selecting the cat food; I know I am. Cost is important, but the quality of health our cat enjoys is also very important. We enjoy spoiling our cats, and our cats love to be pampered, so sometimes we supplement our cat's food with cat treats. Spoiling our cats with treats may not be a good decision either. He may want more because he is not nutritionally satisfied with the cat food we give him. How do we make the right decision?
As with ourselves, we feel better when we eat better, and so will our cats. Let me briefly share with you some information I found it articles that I researched.
1. Whole meats such as chicken, beef, lamb, salmon, etc. vs. cat food with 'meal', 'by-products', 'animal digest', and added sugars. Analysis: Whole meat is best, as you may know. If you really want to know what goes into some inexpensive pet food, and your stomach can stand the information, take the time to read about it on the web. Many of the products put into pet foods should not be ingested by any living thing, and these are products are put into pet food by many large pet food companies.
2. Grain based vs. grain free cat food: Analysis: Cats do not need grains. Most grains are used a fillers in canned cat food and as binding agents in dry cat food. Some manufactures believe that grains will add protein content, which it does, but cats need meat protein, not grain proteins. Some cats may also develop allergies to wheat or corn when added to their food.
3. Cat food with vegetables and fruits: Analysis: Often you can observe that vegetables, such as peas or corn, go right through a cat's digestive tract without being processed in the intestines. Cats process meat proteins, but not vegetables or fruits.
4. Dry cat food vs. Canned/moist cat food: Analysis: Dry cat food is not natural. It has carbohydrates for fillers, such as grains, to hold it together. The label may indicate that it has high protein content but most of the protein is grain or milk protein, not meat protein. Don't, however, feel that canned cat food is the only answer because it may also contain fillers including grains, meal, by-products, milk, etc. Several articles suggested that a combination of dry and canned may be the best for your cat.
5. Raw meat vs. high-protein canned cat food: Analysis: I never felt this issue was totally resolved. It has much to do with the individual cat and his owner. Canned food is more convenient and has a longer shelf life, and should be kept refrigerated after it is open. Raw food takes more preparation and has a shorter refrigerated shelf life. You can read discussions on this subject on several cat forums.
6. Grocery store cat food vs. pet store or online high quality cat food: Analysis: I believe that we could all come to the conclusion that a high protein from meat is the better choice, and that product would probably best be purchased at a pet store (which also carry the grocery store brands), or online.
In conclusion, here are a few final thoughts.
* Even thought the cost is higher with a better quality cat food, your cat will eat less because it is a better protein and he is nutritionally satisfied. He won't eat as much, and he will be less likely to develop liver or other diseases. You, therefore, will have less expensive vet bills, and a happier, healthier cat.
* Read the labels, do research (other than asking friends and listening to or reading ads), and become an educated consumer. Purchase the cat food you feel is best for your cat.
* Consider the age of your cat. A kitten shouldn't eat the same cat food as your mature cat. The brands will indicate on the label which food is best for your age of cat.
* Introduce any dietary changes slowly, probably over the course of a week or so.
* Research the web, read books, or talk with your vet so you can decide which cat food is best.
All cat foods are not the same. Your cat's taste buds may like some brands or meats better than others. Purchasing the cat food you feel is best will give you peace of mind by giving him the best cat food you can afford, and he will feel better and more satisfied as he adjusts to his new diet.
