An important element of any raw diet for cats should be balance. If whole bones are included, they should be ground up very finely as some have caused digestive and oral issues when not chewed properly.
Use only commercial raw diets approved and reviewed by a veterinary nutritionist, in order to ensure food safety and proper handling procedures are being observed.
1. Improved Digestion
Raw diets offer cats a much simpler digestion experience compared to commercial pet food that often includes ingredients they don’t need, since their digestion processes are far simpler for felines to handle. Furthermore, the smaller, firmer stool size and less smelly nature of raw diets has also proven helpful. Some owners have even observed their pet’s symptoms improving dramatically within just days when fed a raw diet; it provides the essential vitamins and essential fatty acids necessary for strengthening immunity systems and strengthening overall wellness.
Your lifestyle determines whether a raw diet should be prepared at home or purchased as pre-cooked and frozen meal. When making it at home, be sure to use gloves and clean work surfaces when handling raw food, store it in the freezer until needed, and sanitize bowls after every feeding.
If this is your first experience feeding raw, it is recommended that you gradually introduce it over several weeks by mixing small amounts of the canned food with their daily kibble and gradually decreasing their overall consumption over time. This allows your cat to gradually adjust before completely cutting out canned food from their diet.
2. Healthy Skin and Coat
Raw diets that mimic what cats would find in nature may provide your cat with essential nutrients not found in commercially processed pet food, providing benefits such as improved skin and coat health, which in turn may prevent itchiness, allergies and infections.
Raw diet cats typically produce smaller and less smelly stools than cats fed kibble, possibly because it is more digestible and they can process it better.
Advocates of raw diets claim it helps keep cats’ teeth healthier by providing chewable bones to scrape away plaque and tartar build-up on teeth, though this only holds true if bones are fed sparingly instead of becoming the sole source of calcium for teeth.
Raw diets have long been touted as beneficial in keeping a pet’s coat in good condition and shiny. This statement holds true if the raw foods include essential oils and fatty acids that contribute to overall pet wellness.
One drawback of feeding your pet a raw diet can be the difficulty in balancing its calorie, fat and protein contents. Home-prepared raw diets may contain nutritionally unbalanced meals that could result in serious health problems for your pet. Before opting to feed raw meals to your pet, make sure you conduct the necessary research and seek expert advice; the safest approach would be purchasing pre-made raw meals from pet stores which have already been prepared by professionals and tested for safety.
3. Improved Dental Health
Many pet parents who feed their cats a raw diet find that their cats’ teeth become significantly cleaner and whiter over time. This is likely due to raw meat being richer in phosphorus than canned or kibble food, promoting healthier tooth formation while decreasing plaque accumulation on feline teeth.
Raw diets provide a boost of energy as their nutritional profile is richer in proteins and lower in carbohydrates than most commercially available pet food diets. Cats are obligate carnivores and need the nutrients provided by raw diets in order to achieve optimal health. Many cat owners also notice improvements with sick pets from switching over, thanks to its abundance of essential fatty acids which reduce inflammation while strengthening immunity systems.
However, it should be noted that the American Veterinary Medical Association advises against feeding your pet raw food due to the risk of pathogens like E coli and Salmonella bacteria contaminating it – both can make them very sick and be transmitted directly from animal to human. Therefore it’s vital that safe handling techniques be employed when handling raw meat for your pet as well as using commercially prepared and frozen (or freeze dried) pet food that utilizes top-grade meats with nutritious vegetables and fruits that contain plenty of healthy antioxidants and nutritional benefits for optimal health in terms of overall nutrition.
Many pet parents looking to give their felines a raw diet opt for mixing raw food meals with canned or dry kibble, for convenience and budgetary purposes. You can also provide 100% raw diet via specially tailored pre-packaged meals featuring various meats like pure turkey, lamb, beef chicken rabbit or fish as the ingredients are precisely proportioned and accurate proportions provided.
4. Weight Loss
Raw diets contain plenty of proteins while being low in fats, providing cats with long-lasting energy and helping them maintain leaner body masses. Furthermore, this diet is filled with naturally occurring essential fatty acids which strengthen immunity while decreasing inflammation caused by allergies or other conditions.
Many pet parents who feed their cats a raw food diet have reported seeing significant weight reduction and more energy from their cats compared to kibble-fed counterparts, with their coats becoming shinier and teeth cleaner overall.
There are various methods of providing your cat with a raw diet, from making homemade meals and mixing powdered raw meat meal with kibble to using raw food powders and freeze dried foods as supplements. Unfortunately, creating and storing raw meals properly in both fridge and freezer is a time consuming task, which increases risk for bacteria or fungal growth if not handled correctly.
supporters of raw diets for cats believe commercial dry cat foods contain too many carbohydrates, plant proteins and fillers which may contribute to weight gain, joint problems and diabetes, along with digestive and kidney issues. It’s believed that providing cats with food similar to what they would find in nature would prevent such health problems from emerging.
