Life of the Lintee Bean

I feed my cats a homemade raw diet.  I think raw diets are the “gold standard” in feline diet.  However, I will state loudly and adamantly up front – I THINK CANNED FOODS ARE A PERFECTLY ACCEPTABLE CHOICE!  However, there is NO DRY (KIBBLE) FOOD I deem acceptable.  I will occasionally use a freeze-dried food, freeze-dried treat, or dehydrated treat as a TREAT, but not a meal… and you have to be CERTAIN they are truly freeze-dried, air-dried, or dehydrated, not processed – as many food labels are deceptive.  Even if these items were ideal in every other way (low in carbohydrates, little-to-no veggies, fruit, grains, etc.) they are LACKING IN MOISTURE and that moisture is imperative to proper kidney and urinary tract health.

Doing it “right” does not mean it has to be difficult!  Personally, I buy a pre-ground meat/bone/organ product (Hare Today) and add a few supplements.  It is SIMPLE.   See the video below!

 

So, it can be simple but it MUST be done right – note the Winn Feline Foundation Report On Role of Diet in the Health of the Feline Intestinal Tract and in Inflammatory Bowel Disease.  A group of cats fed ground rabbit were doing great, with better stool quality and coat condition than the group fed commercial canned food, until one cat DIED suddenly ten months into the study from taurine deficiency – and they then discovered the other raw-fed cats were also deficient in taurine.  That doesn’t mean raw is a bad idea, it just means we have to supplement!  Ground meat/bone/organ alone isn’t sufficient and meat alone is CERTAINLY not! 

I cringe when I hear people say they don’t think adding supplements are necessary, and I gasp when I hear people that just feed their cats cooked meat.  That most CERTAINLY does not contain sufficient minerals like calcium, zinc, etc. they would get from the bone.  Also, since it’s cooked it is DEFINITELY deficient in taurine.  Taurine oxidizes quickly on grinding, it is destroyed by heat (cooking), and it may be lost in storage/freezing.  Canned and dry commercial cat foods must be supplemented with taurine as well!  Now, rabbit (as used in the Winn study) is lower in the amino acid taurine than some other meat sources (like turkey) but personally, I would NEVER take the risk of feeding my cats a diet that wasn’t supplemented with taurine.  Taurine may be supplemented as a powder or as added raw hearts – I actually usually add both.  The hearts give my cats some chewing action, good for dental health.  More on taurine here.

There are several options for what I consider an ideal diet, such as:

• Feline’s Pride,
• homemade according to the recipes at catinfo.org or catnutrition.org or blakkatz.com,
• homemade using boneless meat, liver, salmon oil, and TC Instincts powder by Feline Future, or
• pre-ground raw meat/bone supplemented with Platinum Performance as described by Dr. Elizabeth Hodgkins in her book “Your Cat: Simple New Secrets to a Longer Stronger Life”.

For those that aren’t comfortable feeding raw, but want to feed a homemade diet, I’d consider:

• cooked meat, supplemented with Call of the Wild supplement by Wysong.

I’ve seen some really atrocious recipes published by very well-known names, so PLEASE find a reputable recipe!  Utilize some critical thinking.  Does the recipe contain vegetables, fruit, or grains?  Then it’s probably not suitable for an obligate carnivore.  Does the recipe recognize a cat’s need for nutrients like taurine?  If not, I’d pass it by.  Does it meet AAFCO minimum nutritional requirements?  That should be a MINIMUM, as these are the minimum requirements to support life for six months.

I’ve written up more about homemade options here.  I’ve written up more about creating a nutritionally-complete cat food from preground meat/bone/organ here.

A few excerpts from a Winn Feline Foundation Report On Role of Diet in the Health of the Feline Intestinal Tract and in Inflammatory Bowel Disease:

… one group was fed our raw rabbit diet and the second group was fed a premium brand of commercial cat food that had been tested for its ability to sustain normal growth in normal kittens.

The cats readily consumed both diets, but the palatability of the raw rabbit was noticeably greater; the cats ate it more rapidly and aggressively. After one week in the study, the cats on the rabbit diet all had significant improvements in their stool quality based on a visual stool grading system (developed by the Nestlé-Purina PetCare Company). After one month, the cats on the rabbit diet all had formed hard stools, while the commercial diet cats had soft formed to liquid stools. These differences persisted to the end of the feeding trial. The cats that were fed the whole rabbit diet outwardly appeared to have better quality coats, but objective measurements were not made… The numbers of cats shedding pathogenic type organisms (Giardia and Cryptosporidia species) were on average slightly higher for the cats that were fed the raw diet.

Although it appeared that the raw rabbit diet was significantly beneficial for the stool quality and appearance of health in the cats, the sudden and rapidly fatal illness of one of the cats that were fed the raw rabbit diet for 10 months was chilling and unexpected. The affected cat was diagnosed with dilated cardiomyopathy due to a severe taurine deficiency. Moreover, 70% of the remaining raw rabbit diet fed cats, which appeared outwardly healthy, also had heart muscle changes compatible with taurine deficiency and could have developed heart failure if continued on our raw rabbit diet. For the remaining three months of the study, the raw rabbit diet was supplemented with taurine and taurine levels returned to normal.

To read more of my posts on feline nutrition and health, click on the “feline nutrition and health” category on the home page.