![]() More than a decade of running this crazy little website has brought in thousands of questions and comments from many smart, concerned, and discerning site visitors. Since I began using social media as another way of getting the word out, however, the volume of questions has skyrocketed. I can often refer folks to an exist FAQ or page on the website. But I'm seeing that even that sometimes doesn't get at the real heart of the matter or answer the more fundamental questions that underpin the messages filling up my inbox each day. ![]() As the speed of information-sharing moves into overdrive, emails and social media messages are taking on a more desperate tone. Committed cat caregivers have a serious case of Conflicting Information Fatigue. And often I'm at a loss to give them satisfying answers - not only because of the limits of my knowledge, but because there are lots of voices out there that offer up advice that contradicts mine. Commiserating the other day with my dear friend Terri Grow of PetSage, she said something that put all of this into a sharper focus. It goes like this: there are now scores of seemingly authoritative sources out there with wildly differing perspectives on the issue of feeding cats; even the most shrewd and critically-thinking of caregivers couldn't be anything but baffled. First there's the confusion growing out of whether it's a good idea to feed raw food at all:
Further complicating all this? Another layer of confusion. Recipes for homemade food are all over the map in terms of ingredients. I had the opportunity this past week to look over about half a dozen recipes prepared by professional veterinary nutritionists for their cat clients and found myself puzzled (understatement) to see that they almost invariably included ingredients that cannot be reconciled with the science and accumulated wisdom and knowledge on feline nutrition that's been published by leading lights in that same field.
So. AVMA doesn't want you feeding raw. Your vet may not want you to either. But then the cooked recipe you get from a vet can't be reconciled with what you know about a cat's biology from the literature published by the veterinary scientist professionals. Whaaa? Finally, none of all that even touches on the scores of recipes floating around on the Internet by lay people (and indeed, this website falls squarely into that category) that you don't know whether to trust. It's not like there's an Arbiter of Raw Truth Committee to turn to for a verified due diligence check on which are good and which are bad. Throw in the marketing machine of the pet food industry with its dire warnings about the dangers of home-prepared, and especially raw, diets and you're awash in both conspicuous and subliminal messaging that scares the crap out of you when you consider doing it yourself. It doesn't help that even among the raw feeding world, there's an unhealthy dose of unhelpful snarking, name-calling, and sometimes distasteful finger-pointing injected into what should be civilized debate. Who wants to join that club? You don't know who to believe and your head spins faster than Linda's Blair's in The Excorcist. Grains are healthy. Grains are deadly. Grinding is sensible. Grinders are bad. Vegetables are healthy. Vegetables kill your cat. You're gonna die of salmonella. Raw meat cures. Raw meat kills. Beware of raw. Embrace raw. Be afraid. Vets know best. Vets know nothing about nutrition. Do it my way and only my way. Jumpin' Jehosophat - no wonder so many astute people are stumped. I thought it was a pain in the gluteus a dozen years ago when I first began the dizzying work sorting out fact from fiction and deciding whether and how to feed a raw diet to my critters. The information explosion - heightened by intra-raw-feeding-world sniping - since then made it worse. If your head is spinning? Congratulations - you're human. With all the usual caveats about how I know that there are many successful ways to feed raw food to cats and that I'm not a veterinarian, here are the five principles that this lay person uses to guide herself through this confounding thicket.
Wait. There's a sixth principle too. Keep your good humor. When you're elbow deep in mind-numbing nutrient tables and just spent the last six hours hunting down that one solitary reference to how much taurine is supposedly in a mouse but you can't find it and your life is passing you by and you're ready to abandon all hope and fill the stupid gravity feeder with neon-colored kibble because what the hell at least it's pretty? Go watch a Simon's Cat video or listen to a Mel Brooks and Carl Reiner audio about the 2000-year old man. Take a few breaths. Then hug your cat.
33 Comments
Anne
9/21/2013 05:25:16 pm
The thanks should go to YOU, Terri, for being such an effective voice for sanity in the world of feeding and caring for animals.
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Anne
9/21/2013 05:24:01 pm
Thank you, Connie!
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Constance
9/21/2013 12:16:56 pm
Anne, just a bit of levity, but it reminds me of that saying "opinions are like assholes, everybody has one." All I can say is that my holistic vet confirmed that the diet you recommended to me is quite well rounded. His is much less so, truth be told, however it is with great relief that I have found a vet that is 100% behind raw or cooked homemade diets as both a preventitive and a curative for many illnesses that plague our pets today.
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Anne
9/21/2013 05:26:28 pm
You've hit pay dirt finding a vet that supports your decision to feed the way you feel best about, Constance!
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Melike Uzun
9/21/2013 10:40:42 pm
Thank you Anne,
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Carina
9/28/2013 03:43:58 am
Hi there, I want to start making homemade food for my cats but my baby Princess was diagnosed with a Mast Cell Tumor and shes on prednisone now, and so they said a raw diet while on prednisone or chemo isn't good because of the increased risk of getting salmonella or e coli. etc, if I make the food as you say but instead of feeding it thawed, bake it and then serve it? Does this work as well? I see no where on either your site or catinfo.org on whether I can fully cook this food. Thanks!!
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I'm sorry about Princess' diagnosis, Carina. Not being a vet, I can't confirm whether the immunosupressive action of the steroid dose your cat is on is sufficient to make raw feeding unsafe. I wouldn't advise baking the recipe on the site since it contains bones, and cooked bones can be very unsafe for cats. The other unknown is how much nutrient value is lost from cooking - I'm afraid I just don't know the answer to that.
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Constance Stamaas
9/28/2013 12:01:53 pm
Anne, the only problem with the Wysong Au jus is that it does not contain anything but the meat and guar gum. It is designed for both cats and dogs and is meant only as a treat food. It does not have any additional supplementation. No taurine especially. I am looking at a can right now and it said it is only intended for intermittent or supplemental feeding. It is a great bribe food for the raw tho. Calypso loves it... A little too much! Good point - Constance. By adding Wysong's "Call of the Wild" top-dressing - a product they sell to make au jus a complete diet - one can feed that diet more than intermittently. That powder contains the calcium and other ingredients to round out the phosphorus in the meat with needed nutrients.
leticia
10/14/2013 01:55:10 pm
I'm one with the head spinning. Thanks for the message and all the good information. So, we should keep away from pre-mix including kelp, right? A friend of mine gave me a bag of Feline Instance and it's one of its ingredients. I wasn't sure about if give it to my kitty or not.
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Valerie
12/3/2013 01:13:10 am
Thank you so much for this website and the immense amount of work it must have taken. Soon as I pay off the credit card bill for the humungous Vet bill, I promise to donate, really. Can you tell me HOW to "follow the money thread"? My new vet's office has tons of commercial/Rx dry food out front. This tells me something, something probably not good, but at the least it tells me to think for myself regarding my cat's newly diagnosed IBD and his diet. Due to the rural area I live in my choices are limited in choosing a vet. To make it short, I want to research the relationship between my vet and the food companies in order to plan my strategy for discussion with her. Googling the subject is not getting me anywhere. Do you have advice on what/where to further my understanding of this proprietary relationship? Do they get funds for prescribing, free food or supplies. How deep is this issue, and should I just look for a vet further away who does not sell food? Tomorrow my cat will have dental work at this vet, and already I must insist they not use certain drugs-from my research--thanks again. Heaven forbid they ask my what he has been eating which is NOT the "hypoallergenic" food they sold me. EEGADS, my cat needs help and they are going to think I am NUTS. Plan to ask this equine vet--if I have to--if her horse was sick, would she force him to eat steak and fish?
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Hi Valerie - it's rare to find a vet that ISN'T hawking dry "prescription" food. For many vet clinics, selling it is a moneymaker - it augments the income they get from their other services. You will be very hard pressed to find a vet that isn't selling those inferior foods, sadly - often the best you can hope for is a vet who doesn't argue with you when you won't feed them.
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Missy
2/7/2014 04:07:02 am
Dear Anne, do I add the lite salt when using quail? With rabbit, I read that I omit the lite salt due to the high bone to meat ratio. It seems like it would be the same when using the quail from Hare Today.
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The lite salt is there in the recipe not because of issues related to ratios of meat to bone, but because we are feeding relatively "blood-less" meats that lack the iodine and potassium in a cat's natural prey. I personally always add the lite salt to meat, regardless of the source. I used to use kelp and dulse for this purpose in the recipe, but stopped doing that because the amount of iodine in various brands of kelp and dulse varied so very widely and the inconsistency worried me.
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BookwormDragon
2/7/2014 05:56:22 am
Ah, the perfect post for posting questions, right? :)
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Boneless/skinless breast is not the greatest choice - but mostly my worry is feeding what you describe because I don't see any calcium mentioned in the mix. If you're not adding bone, then you'll need a calcium source - have a look at the recipe on the website for an amount to use.
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Missy
2/7/2014 06:40:45 am
I'm sorry, I was confused. The bone/meat ratio is why I add more muscle meat. I meant to ask because the ground rabbit had its internal organs, including the thyroid and we don't add the lite salt when using the whole rabbit, if the quail included a thyroid and if so, if it was enough. Thank you so much for your prompt answers to my questions.
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joan
2/17/2014 04:46:09 am
Thank you for all your info. I want to start feeding raw and i ordered a meat grinder. I have been searching for recipes and everything i have read said a cat needs taurine. How come it isnt in the supplements in the recipe on this site?? This leaves me so confused.
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Amanda Coffin
3/31/2014 10:34:50 pm
Bless you for this post! I have come to trust your recipes, and I'm fortunate enough to have vets that endorse them, as well. Getting the cats on board, however, is another story, and I have more than once sat back and told myself that wringing their furry little necks is kind of missing the point. I'll keep breathing, keep grinding up meat, and keep reading your posts. :-)
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1/3/2020 03:58:01 am
hello Amanda Coffin,
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Teresa
6/14/2014 12:19:39 am
Hi, my vet says Misty has Idiopathic Cystitis which is a disease and nothing we can do.. $350 later went to get a second opinion. Test results show stones and crystals. Urine analysis shows crystals are caused by the Liver, and has no urinary infection. New vet put her on Royal Canin, Urinary S/O Wet for the next 2-3 weeks, he has had great results. If this doesn't work more test on the liver needs to be done. No dry at all. Trying to understand the ingredients, goggled but no direct answer. Has Crude Protein (g1000kcal) 82.1. Crude Fat same cal @59.1. What does it mean when they say "crude"? Magnesium is .02, he wanted her on a low dose, initially thinking the mag causing the cyrstals. I'm concerned about the Pork and Chicken bi-product is this a filler? Before the 2nd opinion we started Taz & Misty both on naturally wet food, he says there is too much meat, but is open to this idea of natural once she gets better. I know you can't diagnose, just want to know your thoughts and suggestion. We are so confused on the different information on the net.
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Teresa
1/26/2015 02:03:37 am
Thank you Anne! I will look at the link you sent me for Dr Lisa.
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Hi Teresa - I'm so sorry for what you're going through with your cat. You're right, though - I can't really diagnose or recommend. What I can do, however, is point you to Dr. Lisa Pierson's wonderful and informative page on feline urinary tract issues - http://www.catinfo.org/?link=urinarytracthealth
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Sally
8/18/2014 07:16:23 pm
One of my cats had several bouts of pancreatitis and was a skinny little thing. He was put on Royal Canin GI but didn't thrive and didn't like it. In the meantime I did my own investigations on the condition and eventually tracked you down, Now all my cats eat raw and my pancreatic boy has never looked better or had more energy. I also looked round the supermarket shelves and was horrified that 99% or more contain carbohydrate and sugar. No wonder there is an epidemic of feline diabetes and dental problems (which the cat food manufacturers kindly solve by creating more specialised diets). So thank you. your work is appreciated
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Missy
9/4/2014 11:30:34 pm
Hello Anne,
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Heidi
1/11/2015 02:36:04 am
Hi Anne,
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Hi Heidi - Dr. Pierson's basic recipe (the one with bones) works with half the amount of meat as the one on my site - note that my recipe includes chicken hearts to up the amount of taurine-rich muscle meat in the recipe. Also note that in the 'boneless recipe' on my site, there's nearly another pound of heart plus 14 oz of liver.
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