h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hi Kea,

Saw your posts on the Cat Food thread and just wanted to say yay! from another raw feeder. As I said in my post there, my cats are doing so well on the raw diet that I'd never go back to commercial food, and although I risk being a bit full-on in my enthusiasm for it, I just want to tell everyone how good it is! Unfortunately it's a bit too much like hard work for some people, and in a way I'd rather they stuck with commercial food than made a badly-constructed home-made diet...

How long have you been feeding raw?

Lbclaire

Hi Just saw your post on the other thread

My cat's not living here anymore, but he was on raw food from the moment I got him until he left (about 4 years).

I totally agree with your description of the health benefits. Once you've fed pets that diet it's hard to imagine going back to commercial food. Virtually every person that met my cat commented spontaneously on how healthy he looked. I think that we have such a low idea of what is healthy now that when people see a raw food cat it really stands out.

The only time I took the cat to the vet was to get him neutered. This is a heavy duty neighbourhood catwise and so he was in a fair amount of fights but he never got infected bad enough to go to the vet.

So many people I know have to take their cats to the vet frequently

I agree it is more work than commercial food, although, like you, not having to have really bad smelling cat food around makes up for that

I meant to say, I'm vegetarian too. I don't find handling raw meat a problem (can't stand cooking meat though) - for me too it's a matter of the wellbeing of the cat.

Hi Kea,

Sorry to hear you don't have your cat any more .

It was a real eye-opener seeing my friends' cat the other day - as you say, you don't realise what a really healthy cat looks like until you see a raw fed one. One of my friends remarked a couple of weeks ago that my younger cat, who has thick black fur, was like a mink, his coat was so soft.

My friends' cat, although admittedly about four years older than my eldest (who at 11 still looks like a young cat), was skinny in front and distended behind, dull-coated, constantly begging for food even though she was fed lots, and produced copious quantities of stinky poo within hours of eating. I'd forgotten how foul it can smell, as raw poo just doesn't!!!

My vet has told me that he sees so many pets with tooth, skin, allergy and digestive problems, and they are all diet-related. It's such an easy thing to change as well, I think that's why I'm so enthusiastic about it!

Lbclaire

Definitely! As long as the meat is fresh (meat that is starting to smell, even though it's perfectly edible, makes me feel sick), I have no problems. I consider it my decision not to eat meat, and my obligation to feed it to my cats. The way I see it, if you can't stand feeding meat and want to align your animals to your vegetarian diet...get a rabbit!

Lbclaire