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When caring for your pets, we know you only want what’s best for them. There’s so much information out there that can be overwhelming so we’re here to break this down.

We’ve discussed that keeping your cat healthy, and even preventing health issues requires prevention methods. One of those methods includes a raw diet.

So what exactly is a raw diet?

A raw diet eliminates processed food and includes feeding your cat uncooked animal products such as muscle meat, organ meat, and bones.

This means no more canned or bagged cat food, just strictly raw products that are on the outside aisles at the store.

Why a Raw Diet?

It’s important to eliminate processed food because with bagged and canned cat food comes recalls, and a long list of ingredients that you wouldn’t want your cat having.

When you buy cat food at the store, the front of the bag looks beautiful. It brings you in with the colors on the front and a happy-looking cat ready to eat. But when you take a look at the ingredient list, some of the words are almost impossible to pronounce. It also might say things like chicken “byproduct.” This basically just means chicken leftovers. Does that seem worth feeding to your cat?

Is it Safe?

Usually, the biggest concern is whether or not a raw diet is safe.

I mean you aren’t even cooking the meat, so that has to be dangerous, right?

Wrong.

Cat’s have a much shorter digestive tract than we do and most cats can actually digest raw meat without issues of salmonella or sickness.

However, if the raw food is of concern, you can always cook the food before feeding.

The other thing to watch out for are the bones. If you’re including bones in your recipe, make sure they are ground up well so they don’t cause issues in their digestive tract.

The last danger is to you and possibly your family. When dealing with raw meat, it’s important to completely sanitize surfaces so that cross-contamination does not occur.

To keep your cat even safer, it’s important to supplement. If your recipe is slightly incomplete (they are missing something they need in their diet) it is vital that you supplement.

Even if your recipe does include everything, you want to make sure you’re helping to boost their immune system with supplements.

We recommend our Feline Immune Complete in order to do this properly. It comes in an easy-to-use spray bottle and is the best way to help prevent health issues in your cat.

How to Prepare?

If you’ve made the decision to feed your cat a raw diet, it’s important to do so carefully. In doing this, you have two options.

Option 1: Raw Food Delivery

There are meal services online that will deliver individually made meals. These meals are completely raw and take into account your cat and what you’re looking for in a meal.

All you have to do is place your order, wait for the delivery, and thaw out the food whenever it’s time to feed your cat.

The pros of this option are that you don’t have to do any of the work. It’s not time-consuming and takes little effort.

The cons of this option are that it definitely costs more. You’re going to be paying for the convenience of this option, but if money is not a worry, it can be a great option.

Option 2: Prepare Yourself

The second option requires you to do everything.

This means planning the meals, going to the store, preparing the meals, and feeding your cat.

It’s important when choosing this option to do your research. This not only includes exactly what to feed your cat at mealtime but also how much of each ingredient.

You want to include meats such as chicken, turkey, or rabbit. However, you want to avoid meats such as pigs, wild boars, or squirrels.

Lastly, eggs are a great addition to a raw diet.

Depending on what your cat’s needs are and where their current state of health is at, the recipes can vary.

It can be beneficial to talk to an expert that can give you a recipe breakdown for your circumstances.

Once you do find a recipe you want to stick with, many people will make meals in bulk. This way you only take one chunk of time to make meals that only require you to thaw out when feeding.

If you’ve tried a raw diet for your cat, what do you think? Let us know in the comments!