Cats are predators. They evolved eating a prey based diet, and more importantly, eating that diet raw. Cooking degrades nutrients in meat, causing losses of vitamins, minerals and
amino acids. Meat used in highly processed pet food is cooked at high temperatures and the nutrients lost must then be added back in. This supplementation is not exact, and there are nutrient losses which aren't always replaced.
Cats in the wild eat the bones of their prey, as raw bone is highly digestible and is their primary source of calcium. Cooking bone not only reduces the nutrients available but also makes the bone brittle and dangerous to ingest.
Providing your cats with a diet that is modeled on what they would eat in the wild has many benefits, for you and your cat.
- Improved digestion
- Greatly reduced stool odor and volume
- Healthy coat, less shedding, fewer hairballs
- Increased energy
- Weight loss, if overweight
- Better dental health
- Better urinary health
Improved Digestion
Cats are
obligate carnivores, they must eat meat. Their digestive systems are adapted specifically for a meat based diet. A cat's digestive tract is short and acidic, and processes a species-appropriate raw diet highly efficiently in about 12 hours. This gives very little time for bacteria to proliferate, so cats are naturally resistant to food poisoning.
Cats have no requirement for carbohydrates and limited ability to digest them. For cats, a raw meat diet is more digestible than a diet of plant based foods. Because they evolved eating a diet with almost no carbohydrates, they have only one enzyme system capable of handling them. This is quite different from humans and dogs who have multiple enzyme systems that digest carbohydrates.
Greatly Reduced Stool Odor and Volume
When cats are fed a proper diet, their bodies use most of their food, so there is much less stool volume. Stool production can be cut in half. They also eliminate less often, sometimes once a day or even less. Their stools are often dry, a little crumbly and hardly smell at all. In the wild, this makes sense for a predator that is small enough to also have to worry about being preyed upon itself. It wouldn't want to be leaving too many smelly advertisements of its presence.
When cats are fed a diet with a large amount of carbohydrates, their systems will struggle to digest the excess carbs. Since much of what they eat isn't being efficiently processed by their systems, the amount of waste is much greater than it should be. Those big, gloppy, smelly puddles in the litter box are not normal.
Healthy Coat, Less Shedding, Fewer Hairballs
After a few weeks on a raw diet, people notice that their cat's coat has gotten softer and silkier. Cats require unsaturated fatty acids,
omega-6 and
omega-3, in their diets. These need to be from animal sources, as cats have a limited ability to make these acids from plant derived precursors. These
essential fatty acids contribute to healthy skin and coats, reducing shedding and thus the incidence of hairballs.
Increased Energy
After switching to a raw diet, people notice how much more energy their cats have. Couch potatoes start running around and playing! Through a species-appropriate raw diet, cats are getting more readily available energy from their food.
Cats are uniquely adapted to utilize
protein for their energy requirements. Cats essentially "burn" protein, turning it into energy in their liver in a process called
gluconeogenesis. Animals such as dogs and humans also burn protein in this way, but turn it on and off depending on how much protein is available. Cats can't do this; their "burn rate" is always on high, thus their absolute requirement for high quality protein from meat sources.
Weight Loss
If your cats are overweight, they will most likely start to lose weight on a raw diet. Cats will overeat when fed an improper diet, trying to make up for the nutritional deficiencies in the food. Usually they won't overeat when fed a species-appropriate raw diet, as the diet is satisfying to them. They don't feel hungry all the time. Cats that used to wake you up in the middle of the night for food, acting as if they are starving, start sleeping right through the night. The increase in energy they have will also help them burn off more calories.
Better Dental Health
Just as in humans, dental health in cats partly depends on genetics. Cats in the wild usually don't have gum disease or tooth loss due to periodontal disease. Why? Chewing on raw bones, meat, connective tissue, skin and fur helps keep the teeth clean. Carbohydrates create a starchy film that promotes plaque buildup and encourages gum disease.
Carbohydrate laden food will not help control tartar. Reducing or eliminating carbohydrates in your cats diet will help keep dental disease at bay, and providing raw meaty bones to chew on is "nature's toothbrush" for cats. This is important as the bacteria from dental infections can spread to other parts of the body.
Better Urinary Health
Raw diets have a high moisture content of about 65 to 70% that mimics that of natural prey; a mouse is 65-75% moisture. Carbohydrate laden, low moisture foods, specifically dry food, cause alkaline urine and chronic dehydration in cats. This can lead to urinary tract inflammation. Because they get enough moisture in their food, cats in the wild don't often have urinary tract problems.
Peace of Mind
Perhaps the best benefit of feeding a raw diet is the peace of mind it can give you. Realizing that cats evolved to eat a diet that is about as unprocessed as it can get, many people have become concerned about the highly processed pet food they feed their pets. Raw diets are different. The ingredients are simple and identifiable, processing is minimal and it's either fresh or fresh frozen. You know what you are feeding your pet.
