"If a
Diet Is Unnatural, Disease Will Keep Company
With Those Subject To It"
Juliette de
Bairacli Levy.
I
maintain the health of my Ragdoll Cats as
holistically as possible. My cats are fed on a
natural, species appropriate based 100% Raw Food diet. What
this means is providing (as close as possible in
our modern world) what the animal would eat if it
was living in a natural environment, which is
small prey animals. Cats
are obligate carnivores, which means that
all the nutrition MUST come from meat
sources- they cannot digest grains or utilize them
properly - cooked or otherwise, and simply have no
use for vegetables.
Raw
Feeding Recommended ratios
- these proportions are relatively the same in
almost every prey animal that carnivores are
designed to consume, and the percentages are,
approximately:
-
5
- 10% organs (with half that amount being liver)
-
10
– 15% edible bone
-
80
– 85% meat, fat, skin, sinew, connective
tissue etc.
These
percentages, although approximate, should serve as
the basic guidelines for a cat’s (or dog's) diet.
These exact proportions do not need to be fed at
each and every meal, but rather should combine to
comprise the overall diet over the course of time.
If you
would like to see what I actually feed my cats, click
here
For those
who always ask...no, I
DON'T feed dry food to my cats
- despite what your vet (and Dr Harry) will tell
you - it is the very worst thing you can feed your
cat (or dog). Dry food is only about 10% moisture
whereas raw meat has around 70-80%, and cats never
drink enough to make up the deficit. Therefore
most dry-fed cats are chronically de-hydrated.
This is the MAJOR cause of most urinary and kidney
problems. If you must for convenience occasionally
feed processed food - canned food (in my opinion) is a much better
choice than dry.
Raw
meaty bones and by products are chock-full of
nutritional elements that cannot ever be duplicated
in the dried and canned pet foods that are massively
promoted by the Pet Food Industry. We humans,
ourselves, would never consider trying to survive on
processed meal replacement & junk food our whole
lives, yet we expect our animals to, by giving them
biscuits and canned food! By feeding your pets what
they are designed to eat naturally, you will have a
much healthier, happier and longer lived animal,
save on vets bills and often make a saving on feed.
You will also have no problems with intestinal
worms or fleas. So you won't need to put monthly spot-on
toxic pesticides into your pet's body, for their
entire life (imagine how badly these products impact
health over a lifetime!).
If you decide to feed a raw diet, you will probably
meet a lot of opposition from other owners and most
likely from your vet! Please be aware that most vets
are not trained in animal nutrition, they get most
of their knowledge from pet food companies, and a
large part of their income comes from selling
processed pet foods from their clinics. You need to
stand back and think for yourself, and cut thru all
the advertising nonsense and scare tactics, and you
will realise that your cat is absolutely not
designed to eat grain - which is the major part of
most cat foods.
I recommend that you do some research, and then make
up your own mind what is the best for you and your
animals. There are a lot of internet sites related
to Raw Feeding, some of my favourite links are provided below.
If you
would like to see what I actually feed my cats, click
here.
*
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Links
- Raw Food Information:
| rawfedcats.org |
highly recommended
|
| rawlearning.com |
highly recommended
|
| rawfed.com |
Excellent
website, mostly refers to dogs but just
applicable to feline carnivores too. Busts
the Myths
about raw-feeding |
| I
suggest you to join
the Raw
Cats
Yahoo group, which has many experienced and
in-experienced members. You can ask questions here
and will get helpful, informed and experienced
support,lots
of people changing cats over to raw food: |
| Discussion
group |
Yahoo
RawCat discussion group |
