Fad diets are an epidemic. Your social media probably has a handful of folks peddling some new-fangled range of foods that promise to make you more fit, healthy, and energetic, with the added bonus of Insta-worthy aesthetics and flashy gymwear. Believe it or not, cats (or, rather, their owners) are not immune to this system of lifestyle trends.
More specifically, we are addressing the validity of raw food diets for your cat. To be fair, the thought process is reasonably understandable; cats clearly don’t cook their meals in the wild. Nobody wants to feed their pets unnecessary nasties like preservatives and fillers, and trying to imitate the diet they would consume in the wild seems logical.
Raw food diets aren’t necessarily harmful if served correctly, yet they pose unnecessary risks to the health of your cat as well as the rest of your household. Assuming you aren’t hunting and immediately serving your cat’s dinner, you’re likely purchasing uncooked food for them. Enzymes in raw fish can decimate your cat’s thiamine levels, devastating their body’s necessary B vitamins. A deficit in B vitamins can have serious neurological consequences that can include convulsions and coma.
Raw foods are not treated to remove pathogens and have the potential to carry parasites and bacteria. You run the risk of bringing E. coli, listeria, and salmonella into their diet, and these pathogens can cause illness or death. This would be a tragic fate for your cat, and said pathogens can also pass these diseases to any other pets and people in your household.
If for whatever reason you’ve set your heart on a raw food diet for your cat, it must be human-grade raw meat and meaty bones that are as fresh as possible, as pet food-grade raw meat tends to have potentially harmful additives. As a general rule, don’t feed your cat something you wouldn’t feel safe eating yourself. They may eat some weird and downright nasty things in the wild, but what you serve ought to be of a higher calibre.
Needless to say, we are clearly partial to our own nutritionally superior Cool Cat Club meals. With all due humility, we stand by the culinary magnificence of our recipes and cooking methods. The food we serve up is gently cooked for retaining maximum nutrition and safety, with minimal concern. We firmly stand against unnecessary junk and additives, and every parcel we send you is abundant in preservative-and grain-free goodness.
A well-fed cat is a happy cat, and we all like to see our cats happy and healthy. After all, no feline deserves a raw deal when it comes to their diet.