Much is talked about canine nutrition.   Much is talked about equine nutrition.  Not much is talked about our feline friends.

Why, for example is kidney disease the number one killer of cats in the western world?

Why, too, do cats almost invariably get terrible teeth causing pain and leading to systemic disease, not least of which is chronic renal failure?

Why are bladder stones so common that most cat owners even know the vet name for the condition 'FLUTD' (Feline Lower Urinary Tract Disease) or Urolithiasis?
Could it be to do with what we are told to feed our cats?   I will leave that one for you to ponder.

Feeding cats is simple.  All we need to do is look at what they choose to eat themselves in the wild.  That is; raw whole fresh prey and water...there, I told you it was simple!

How do we emulate this in the kitchen? Here's how:

Buy good quality frozen meat from your pet shop/supermarket/butcher, blend this, in a 9:1 ratio with pureed (super-fine blended) vegetables and fruit, seeds and nuts and feed as necessary.  Always vary the meat source, always vary the vegetable etc. sources.   Feed offal/viscera once a week.  Always feed raw bones and chicken wings regularly for calcium.

That's it!

Natural Feeding for Cats

Cats, Food and History: For thousands of years cats roamed the ancient world. They made their homes on the Savannahs of Africa, the plains of India and the forests of Eurasia and the Americas. Cats, big and small, swirled through every type of terrain in every climate. They hunted in every different niche, surviving on mainly fresh herbivores; rats and rabbits; deer and buffalo in the case of the big cats.

A cat will eat the whole of its prey - except the gall bladder. That is the squidgy green-red thing that the cat leaves for you in the morning if it has been eating a rabbit in the kitchen as you slept soundly upstairs. Unlike dogs they are eaters of fresh meat, not older scavenged meat. Similar to dogs, however, is that they will eat the entire carcase - whole rabbits included. In this way they gain complete nutrition; the prey contains all the protein building blocks in muscle and connective tissue, but also fatty acids are absorbed from adipose tissue from fat deposits, nerves and central nervous tissue.

So where do cats get their carbohydrates from? Answer: the gut contents of their herbivore prey! Yes, their rabbit dinner is full of partially digested grass, cereal and vegetable matter all ready to give the cat the vitamins and minerals unavailable to it from other sources.

There you have it - the complete meal, ready packaged and keeping fresh out in the neighbouring fields or nearby mouse nest. All ready for a nutritious snack containing all the vitamins and minerals the cat needs - all in exactly the right proportions.   Isn't nature clever?

Commercial Diets: Food producers in the USA at the turn of the century, with lots of poor quality meat, gristle, viscera and cereal by-products that they could not hide in sausages, came up with a novel idea to sell it - put it in tins and call it 'cat food'. For the first time in history, people could buy food specifically for their cat. The idea caught on. Soon people forgot that they just used to feed their cats raw meat and all the scraps - a broad range of foods, minimally processed to maintain the food's value.

We find ourselves today bombarded by pet food advertisements for this tinned brand or that dry brand or this sausage preparation. There is so much processed food to choose from we don't know where to turn! When I was at College, one of my old lecturers said 'If there is more than one answer to a problem, then they're probably all wrong'. Is this true with pet food? I think we've forgotten about the basics as a consequence of our drive for convenience. Admittedly, we all try to buy the best for our wonderful cats, but have you ever asked yourself these questions: a) If this processed food is as wonderful as they say it is, why don't they use it in people - for astronauts or prisoners, for example? And b) Would I eat this stuff?

The answer to these questions, as we all know, are a) No they do not use it for people at all, in any extreme and b) No I wouldn't eat it if you paid me!!

Convenient Disease: So why do we feed it to our cats? Convenience, in a word - convenience !

But how convenient is it if your animal develops a persistent itch or eczema, dental problems or smelly breath, flea allergic dermatitis, colitis, food hypersensitivity, lethargy, dull and scurfy coat, arthritis or kidney disease?

Raw Food: Cats, in my opinion, should eat a raw diet; raw meat, pureed raw fruit and veg and raw chicken wings (for calcium and for their teeth). It is simple to feed and, logically, it is what cats were, and are still are, designed to eat. Here's how it works:

The Rules:

•  Cats should be fed on a variety of raw meat and chicken wings. Just sticking to one meat source is no good - you don't get all your nutrients. Poor quality cuts with gristle and a bit of fat are better than pure meat. AMP meat contains bone particles if you are not happy feeding chicken wings, but this will not clean teeth. Do not feed pork.

•  For every 90-95g of meat, feed 5-10g of pureed raw veg*. Cats will avoid veg at all costs. By pureeing the food you can smear it on the raw meat which will usually be eaten with gusto. By giving such a small amounts of veg it is easily hidden. If fruit and veg is impossible for your cat, a very good supplement called Pet Plus for Cats is essential (ring on 01225 48 7778 or email orders@holisticvet.co.uk for enquiries or to order). Onions are toxic to cats - do not feed.

•  Quantities - Feed similar quantities as for wet food or 1 ½ times the volume of dried previously fed.

•  Feed raw chicken wings once or twice weekly, minimum. (RAW chicken wings are easily chewed and digested. It is very unlikely, but not impossible, they will get stuck in the gut. If you do NOT give bones to clean teeth, however, a general anaesthetic for dental work is very likely). Fine ground bone is contained in the AMP Chicken, Turkey or Rabbit Dinners, this will not, of course, clean teeth.

•  Feed fresh, non-frozen viscera (kidney, heart, lung or liver) once a week instead of meat. Remember, wild animals come with viscera (organs) alongside the meat. It is a necessary part (however distasteful) of a balanced diet. Vary the organ meat weekly, but make sure heart is often on the menu. Cats cannot live without Taurine. Fresh heart is high in Taurine. Frozen meat has little or no Taurine.

•  Do not feed cereals.

* Take any vegetables, especially green leaved ones, fruit and salad items and place in the liquidiser. You can use just one or two ingredients at any one liquidising, but make sure you have variety from week to week. Blend to a puree. Add some water to give a liquid texture, if necessary. Pour on the meat in a 9 or 9.5 to 1 ratio, meat to veg. You can feed 2-3 times daily.

How to bend the rules:

•  If you cannot bear to feed raw meat, light cooking in olive oil to 'seal' the juices is ok.

•  Pureed raw veg will last for 48 hours in the fridge, so you can do the blending only 3x weekly, but remember it looses its goodness pretty quickly after liquidising. Alternatively puree the mix and put into an ice cube tray and freeze - thus you can take out small quantities daily.

Further Reading.

The best book on the subject is 'The Barf Diet' (ISBN 0 958 592 1 9) by Ian Billinghurst, an Australian vet with 20 years' practice experience. It can be found on the Internet or from some mail order houses in the UK. If you can't find it, let me know. Also Kymythy Schultze has a good book called Natural Nutrition for Dogs and Cats (ISBN 1-56170-636-1)

Scares:

Certain authorities are concerned with feeding cats raw food. They claim, without any good evidence, that this can lead to the infection of cats with pathogens that can pass to people. I believe that cats are able to cope with a certain low level of contamination of their food. I believe they can eat such food and not be more of a threat to human health than a cat fed on a commercial diet. Indeed, if a cat is fed regularly on a raw food diet, I believe they will be healthier and better able to cope with bugs transmissible to people. If you have any concerns, or have very young or very old or immunodeficient people in your household, then your best advice would be to talk with your vet or other health professional.

Frozen Raw Meat Suppliers to Pet shops and private delivery:

Anglian Meat Products - 0800 0183 770.

It may appear difficult at first, but many people pick up the basics ofnatural feeding very soon after starting.

Give it a try; with the positive difference it will make to the health of your cat, they will thank you - for years and years to come.

I recommend using a mineral and vitamin supplement such as Pet Plus for Cats

- available from my office (Tel: 01225 48 7778 or email: orders@holisticvet.co.uk)