• mice and other rodents

• small mammals

• birds

• snakes and other reptiles

• insects

However, for various reasons most feline caregivers do not have the resources, nor the time to offer live prey to their cats; others may feel squeamish at doing so (although frozen baby mice warmed to room temperature may afford a rare treat.) Enter the raw food diet, which most closely approximates the diet of felines in the wild.

 Toward the middle of the 20th century, Dr. Francis M. Pottenger, Jr., drawing on the experiments of Weston Price in his treatments of respiratory disease, conducted a study on the effects of heat-processed foods on cats. His study was prompted by the poor health of cats he was using for adrenal studies; cats who were fed cooked meat scraps. As neighbors to his clinic in Monrovia, CA, kept donating cats for his study, his supply of cooked meat dwindled, and he found a source for raw meat scraps from a local meat packing plant. Dr. Pottenger observed within a few months that the cats receiving the raw meat scraps were in noticeably better health; thus his feeding study was born.

 The controlled feeding experiment took place over ten years, between 1932 and 1942, and over 900 cats were eventually included. The optimum diet consisted of 1/3 raw milk, cod liver oil, and 2/3 raw meat, with one group receiving cooked food instead of raw. The findings were astounding. Within a few generations, the cats receiving cooked food exhibited:

• facial deformities: narrowed faces, crowded jaws, frail bones and weakened ligaments

• an excess of parasites

• all manners of disease

• female cats became more aggressive while males became docile

• difficulty with pregnancy and after three generations, pregnancy failed

• kittens born of these pregnancies often did not survive to adulthood

• kittens showed skeletal deformities and organ malfunctions

Clearly, there was a direct link between the cooking of meat and the resultant evidence of malnutrition in Pottenger's cats.

What's in the diet?

 We are offering 2 different mixes for the complete cat diet. Turkey only and Chicken Mix.

Turkey only has 11% turkey organ meats and 20% turkey muscle meats. The balance is made up of whole human grade turkey. Bone in, ground and flash frozen in easy to feed servings. No water or anything else added. Tourine is optimal and balanced naturally. 1/4 lb block sizes.

Chicken Mix has 5 % turkey organ meats, 5% beef heart and 20% chicken and turkey thigh and leg muscle meats. The balance is made from the backs and necks of chicken. Bone in, nothing else added, flash frozen in convienent serving sizes of 1/4 lb blocks.

Is it safe to feed my cat a raw diet?

There are mixed reactions to this question. Certainly pet food companies will tell you of the dangers inherent in feeding raw meat to pets, such as salmonella, e coli, listeria, and other bacteria. Some veterinarians also take this stance. On the other hand, the "Raw, Meaty Bones" diet was developed by a veterinarian, and respected veterinarian Dr. Lisa A. Pierson advocates raw diets for cats.

While cats' stomachs are said to be more acidic than ours, and while cats often eat day-old carcasses in the wild with no ill effects, human-induced bacterial contaminants in processed meats can be problematical. However, thousands of people are successfully feeding their cats and dogs raw food diets, by taking certain precautions: 

• Use the meat immediately after defrosting, or freeze the meat mixture in individual serving-sized packets for future use. (Freezing also destroys many bacteria.)
• You can add priobiotics to the mix, for enhanced intestinal tract health (available in health food stores and online pet stores)
• Use safe food handling techniques - clean and sterilize all equipment, including cutting boards and food dishes after each use
• Always take up and discard any uneaten food 
• Consult with your own veterinarian before offering a raw meat diet to an immunocompromised cat

How much food should I feed to my cat?

The average cats eats 1/8 lb twice a day. Bigger cats slightly more, smaller cats slightly less. The raw diet comes in 1/4 lb blocks. 1 to 1.5 blocks a day per cat, divided into 2 or 3 servings. Boxes are sold in 2 sizes.
9 lbs $45.00
30 lbs $130.00
Bulk available on request

Should I add anything to the diet?

Both diets are prepared specifically for cats. They do not require anything else but many caregivers like to give the cats variety. I treat my cats with raw  mini wings from the grocer or ground poulty organ meats are always a treat.

Should I feed dry kibble as well?

In my opinion, dry food — kibble — is the worst possible food you can feed to your cat. It is a moneymaking venture of pet food manufacturers that is leading to horrible chronic disease in cats. It is marketed as a product that is 100 percent nutritionally complete for all stages of your cat's life. That couldn't be further from the truth.

Grains are typically classified as carbohydrates and are composed primarily of starch. Pet food manufacturers lead the consumer to believe grains provide energy, protein, fat, fiber, minerals and vitamins to cats. The cat is a member of order Carnivora. Cats and other members of the superfamily Feloidea are considered obligate carnivores as they have strict requirements for certain nutrients that can only be found in animal tissues. Cats cannot synthesize taurine or arginine, amino acids found only in meat. They lack the ability to convert linoleic acid (contain in plants) to arachidonic acid (contained in animal fat). They cannot convert beta-carotene to vitamin A. Cats cannot decrease activity of hepatic enzymes when fed low-protein foods — they must consume a high protein diet. Cats must eat meat to survive.

The principal function of carbohydrates in the process of manufacturing dry pet foods is to provide structural integrity to kibble. The starch works like a "cement" that holds kibble together, preventing crumbling throughout the manufacturing process. It is unusual for a dry pet food to be formulated with less than 40 percent carbohydrate ingredients because of the minimum requirement for extrusion.¹ Starch works like a "cement" to hold kibble together! Does that make you wonder what the long-term effect of cement is on your cat's digestive system?

I have used the textbook, Small Animal Clinical Nutrition, 4th ed. published by the Mark Morris Institute a/k/a Hill's Science Diet to do a lot of my research. This book, used by many veterinarian schools as a part of their nutrition curriculum, is a very large book packed with information on small animal nutrition. In the chapter on feeding normal cats, the author states, cats have evolved to a carnivorous diet that is high in protein and low in carbohydrates. Because they evolved as obligate carnivores, cats have difficulty digesting carbohydrates. In omnivores, both hexokinase and glucokinase is responsible for processing of carbohydrates into glucose. The feline liver exhibits normal hexokinase activity but glucokinase activity is virtually absent.²

Purrfect Health Frozen  Feline Diet