Raw cat chow - Why it is the Best Diet For Your Cat, and What Are the Trade-offs For You?
The biggest myth surrounding cat ownership is that cats are worry-free, self-contained and self-providing pets that need little or no maintenance. Cats are so good at giving people the impression of independence and self-reliance that folks believe they do not need to provide the highly focused attention to cats that, say, dogs require. the very fact of the matter is that cats do require equivalent attention to detail that any dog does, and perhaps even a touch more, in some cases. this is often very true when it involves probing the controversy regarding whether raw cat chow is best that canned cat chow or kibbles for your feline ward.
It's a sad thing to seem around our country lately and see numerous people that have allowed themselves to become overweight then need to affect the consequential suffering and ill-health effects of obesity. Diabetes, shortness of breath, constant exhaustion from lugging around numerous extra pounds and lowered self-esteem. Of course, the apparel industry is singing happy tunes with all the additional thread they need to place together. there is no shortage of explanations for why this example has happened, but I feel when it comes right down to it we will only blame ourselves at the individual level for allowing such a condition to require root. After all, what percentage pounds overweight do I need to get before they realize that something's not right and becoming a problem? 10, 20... 50 lbs? and the way long does it fancy 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 checking account, and to not solve your problem? No... the sole thanks to finding perfect normality is with thorough research, discovery and tons of diligence accompanied by a healthy lifestyle change. But, enough sermonizing about the human condition. this is often about cats, their eating habits and raw cat chow.
One thing must come alongside this discussion from the previous paragraph. most of the people aren't experts in animal nutrition and believe others to steer them in the right direction. The source for many 'experts' available to an individual for his or her daily deciding and selection of choices usually involves us through the normal media of radio, newspapers, television and now, the web. The media offers two sorts of resources. Investigative reporting is presented in newscasts or opinion pieces, and secondly, the marketing hype that gives commercial broadcast funding. the previous is reliable enough to place credence into and might involve further research on your part if it interests you. The latter only want you to spend your money with them. That's not necessarily bad... it does ultimately put people to figure and provides many with an adequate, and even comfortable living. Unfortunately, rock bottom line is... corporations only have one objective within the end. that's to feed their bottom line. Now recent events have caused many to reconsider the morality behind a corporation's goals. But, as long as this market structure is that the paradigm for our economy, the last word goal for giant business will always be to maximize their profit-loss statements towards the profit end of the spectrum, anyway, they will escape with, and at your expense... literally.
So, what does this need to do with cats and if raw cat chow is what you ought to be feeding them? Simply put, most of the people believe the marketing hype to base their decisions regarding the food they feed their pets. Which is strictly the incorrect source for basing such a critical decision. Take the cat for instance. it isn't only an observation, 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 its prey, she is going to eat everything including not only muscle meat but the brains, organ meat and therefore the stomach and its contents which can contain grasses and grains. One thing she doesn't do is stir up a stove and saute or bake her dinner, or prepare a pleasant sauce to travel 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 chow is doing all of your cats a disservice by depriving her of the natural nutrients she would normally get within the raw cat chow she captures within the wild, and that 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's know because of the Pottenger Cat Study. One a part of this study was what effect heat had on the nutrient value of raw food. In other words, what happens to food once you cook it.
"Pottenger used donated laboratory cats to check the potency of the adrenal extract hormones he was making. The adrenal glands of those cats were removed for the experiments and Pottenger noted that the majority of the cats died during or following the operation. He was feeding the cats a supposedly nutritive diet consisting of milk, cod liver oil and cooked meat scraps of the liver, tripe, sweetbread, brains, heart, and muscle.
When the number of donated cats exceeded the availability of food available, Pottenger began ordering meat scraps from an area meat packinghouse, 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 particular point, he decided to start a controlled scientific exploration. Pottenger conducted studies involving approximately 900 cats over 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 meat, one-third milk, and cod-liver oil
A second group was fed a diet of two-thirds cooked meat, one-third 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 top of the primary generation, the cats began to develop degenerative diseases and have become quite lazy.
By the top of the second generation, the cats had developed degenerative diseases by mid-life and began losing their coordination.
By the top of the third generation, the cats had developed degenerative diseases very early in life and a few were born blind and weak and had a way shorter lifetime. 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 5 percent in normal cats to over 90 percent within the third generation of deficient cats. Kittens of the third generation didn't survive for six months. Bones became soft and pliable and therefore 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 aminoalkanoic acid taurine had been discovered but had not yet been identified as an important aminoalkanoic 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 permit the cats 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) which will are 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 meat with different groups getting raw, pasteurized, evaporated, sweetened condensed or raw metabolized vitamin D milk. The cats on milk were the healthiest while the remainder exhibited varying degrees of health problems almost like the previous cooked meat study.
This particular Pottenger cat study has been cited by advocates of milk as evidence that it's likely healthier for humans than milk ." +
Though Pottenger's experiments don't conclusively verify that raw cat chow diets are better for sustaining healthy support for the physiological needs of cats than cooked (canned) or dry kibbles, (because he didn't use canned cat chow or kibbles within the experiments) certain conclusions are often drawn.
Cooking meat can destroy certain food nutrients, namely amino acids (proteins)
Cats thrive more healthily on meat instead of cooked meat with less degenerative results
Cooking meat for your cat requires the replacement of the essential aminoalkanoic acid taurine, and possibly other nutrients destroyed within the cooking process
Pet food marketing hype says that "XYZ" cat chow 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's left up to you to form the choice about which is that the best shelf product for your cat.
For a discussion that details interpreting cat chow labels CLICK HERE
Today's problem-plagued market place has left many unsure of whether the company entities that provide the majority of our aggregate necessities can still deserve our trust. Arrogance and greed have always gone head to go with social morality and it's always the top user that finishes up paying with unnecessary suffering. Many pet owners have now taken matters into their own hands and are resorting to providing from raw ingredients meals made with their own hands for his or her pets. it isn't a nasty step but certain measures, which include a life-style change, got to be taken when preparing your pet's meals to stay her safe from bacterial infection and ensure that her nutritional needs are met.
Here's an example of a raw cat chow meal preparation from scratch:
2 kg [4.4 pounds] raw muscle meat with bones (chicken necks are mostly cartilage, are easy to cut and straightforward for the cat to digest) thighs and drumsticks or, better, an entire carcass of a rabbit or chicken amounting to 2 kg; if you do not use an entire carcass, choose meat like thighs and drumsticks from chicken or turkey)
400 grams [14 oz] raw heart, ideally from an equivalent animal (if no heart is out there, substitute with 4000 mg
1600 IU of Vitamin D--but attempt to use real liver rather than substitutes).
NOTE: If you can't find the guts or liver and choose to substitute with the Taurine/Vitamin A and D, then remember to exchange the missing amount of organ meat with the equivalent amount of muscle meat. In other words, if you can't find heart, you add another 400 grams of the meat/bones. If you cannot find the liver, add another 200 grams of meat/bones.
16 oz [2 cups] water
4 raw egg yolks (use eggs from free-range, antibiotic-free chickens if you can)
4 capsules raw glandular supplement (such as, for instance, "Raw Multiple Glandular" from Premier Labs)
4000 mg animal oil
200 mg B-complex vitamin complex
800 IU vitamin E ("dry E" works well) Buy vitamin E in dry powder form. It's much easier to affect than those little oil-filled capsules.
OPTIONAL: 1/4 teaspoon of kelp and 1/4 teaspoon of dulse (1/2 teaspoon total) attempt to get dulse and kelp in powder form that you simply can easily measure with a teaspoon instead of in capsule form. the dismemberment of those capsules is time-consuming. If you'll only find kelp in caplet form, you will need to spend time crushing the caplets with a mortar and pestle.
OPTIONAL: 4 teaspoons psyllium husk powder (8 teaspoons if using whole psyllium husks)?
It looks like this recipe will produce about 5- 6 lbs of finished raw cat chow product which might feed one cat for several weeks. meaning most of it might need to be frozen in individual airtight containers and thawed as required.
The gastrointestinal system of a cat is meant to handle things human systems can't. Their stomachs have a highly acidic environment, which is a superb deterrent to ingested bacteria like e Coli and salmonella. within the wild, cats sometimes eat some pretty iffy stuff with no ill effects. Wild cats die more often from infection thanks to injuries than from gastrointestinal disorder. However, there are steps you'll take if you've got concerns about raw cat chow bourn bacteria.
Avoid packaged supermarket hamburger using whole chunks of meat instead
Buy "free-range" meat and poultry as fresh as possible
Add probiotics (which help maintain intestinal health) to your raw food preparation
Proper handling of raw cat chow is important since some raw cat chow may contain bacteria that would cause illness to you or your pets. make certain to stay raw cat chow meat and poultry break away other foods. Wash hands before, and after handling raw cat chow. Wash working surfaces, bowls, and utensils that are available in contact with meat with hot, soapy water. Always wash your hands after cleaning your cat's waste; this includes litter boxes.
Pick up and eliminate uneaten raw cat chow within a half-hour of feeding your cat
Preparing raw cat chow meals from scratch for your cat may be a labor of affection indulged in by purists. most of the people do not have the time and perhaps lack the talent to require on such a task. If you count yourself among this latter group, rest easy. Ready-made products are finding their thanks to the market place. There are complete raw cat chow meals which are shipped frozen and there are mixes which all you've got to try to do is add the meat. Just remember that if you're going with the combination, be sure that the essential amino acids like taurine are included. If not then make certain to feature the guts (a source for taurine) and other organ meat from an equivalent animal if possible, with the raw cat chow meal so that your cat won't be bereft of these critical ingredients.
So, what are the trade-offs you ask?
Well, for one thing, you'll need to forego the convenience of one-stop-shopping within the supermarket pet food aisles. Orders for raw cat chow meals or mixes are mostly made online so you'll need to affect credit or debit cards. Pre-planning will need to be routine so that you do not run out of raw cat chow before the subsequent shipment arrives. If a shipment thaws, you'll need to return it because you will not want to require any chances with a bacterial infection. Most companies will honor returns thanks to thawing. And, if you prepare raw cat chow meals completely from scratch, be prepared to spend a few hours within the kitchen with this task.
The real trade-off is with the standard of cat chow you'll be providing. the shop-bought 'meal' based cereal foods are going to be replaced with the top quality fresh foods that cats were designed for. Some cats may balk at the transition initially because they weren't socialized with raw cat chow as kittens. But, their health will show marked improvement, you'll probably be surprised by the results which may be compared to how your cat behaved before being fed a fresh, top quality raw cat chow diet that meets their needs nutritionally, plus their immune systems are going to be stronger giving your cat an opportunity for extended, healthier life.
Ask any monk or maybe the standard, next-door-neighbor contemplative type, and they'll tell you that life isn't easy; suffering is that the characteristic that describes much of the existence during this corner of the Universe, which the punishment for ignoring this fact is in touch more suffering. Yet this suffering is often relieved with even a touch knowledge and understanding of why and the way things can operate to ease your burden. It does take a willingness on your part to vary and accept new habits to accommodate a changed life-style. But, knowledge and understanding can't be acquired through osmosis. It takes tons of labor to grasp even a little amount of the sense that holds life together. One can't depend upon epiphanies either. Like magic and miracles, instant knowledge occurs only rarely... and you'll get older expecting it while your cat pines for a raw cat chow meal. it would be like huffing and puffing along wondering why you're carrying around all that extra baggage.
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