Switching to a raw meat diet?

Transitioning a cat onto raw can be easy or it can be hard. I have dealt with both types of cats. Kibble addicts are some of the absolute worst and will push you to your limits, almost driving you mad as cats often like to do to humans.

To switch your cat to a diet of raw meat, you just need to try it. Offer any raw meat to them… a sliced up chicken breast is a good start, and see what they think. I have a cat who ate kibble and canned until 7 months and when I offered her meat, she refused to ever eat anything manufactured again. She would not touch anything but a fresh whole meat diet.

Salmonella? Ecoli? I won’t tell you that it could never happen, but I don’t know a single raw feeder that has ever had it happen or had it happen to anyone they know. I also don’t know any vets that have ever seen it or had it happen. Of course you need to follow safe meat handling procedures, just as you would with preparing your own meat dinners, but raw meat is what nature intended cats to eat and they are designed to digest it raw with little to no danger. Even their digestive tracts were designed shorter than other animals so that food borne illnesses do not have time to take effect in them.

A great place to read about safe meat handling is at http://www.catnutrition.org/faq.php#safety under the FAQ “About the safety issues that often arise when people start considering feeding this diet.”

I have been feeding raw for years and never had a cat suffer any negative side effects from it. I have never had a cat get worms or parasites, and I have never had a cat suffer from salmonella either. Furthermore, in all my sharing with thousands of other raw feeders I have never once heard of another raw feeder having to deal with any of those issues. In speaking with my vet he has not been able to personally confirm any solid cases of either worms or salmonella from raw meat fed to a cat.

I have only seen improvements in all aspects of their lives. Every cat I have ever transitioned to raw has had their over all health improve, from curing something as life threatening as IBD, and urinary tract problems to something as simple as creating the most beautiful coat you have ever laid eyes.

Nutrition is the key to good health… no matter what living being you are. . I believe since nature intended my cats to eat a healthy raw meat diet, that the benefits far far outweigh any accounts of risks. So feeding your cat what nature intended it to eat is the first step in giving your cat the best chance you can at a long healthy life. Now… if only I could learn to follow this advice for myself and eat as healthy as my cats do!