Considering raw diet

I'm seriously thinking about starting a raw diet supplement for my kitties. I'm going to start a little bit at a time. Do any of you do raw?

http://www.shirleys-wellness-cafe.com/sampleraw.htm

http://cats.about.com/cs/nutrition/a/rawfooddiet.htm

 

I don't do raw but I recently read an article regarding salmonella in raw diets and cats...I'll see if I can find it

 

found it!!!! Took me hours too :mrgreen:
http://www.thecatsite.com/content/view/36/0/1/0/

 

Thank you for the article Mary. Now I'm thinking twice about raw feed since I cannot guarantee that their food source will be E-Coli and Samonella free.

 

What about the premade frozen diets vene? One of the ones I was considering trying one time was Steves Real Food.

Here is the website: www.stevesrealfood.com

I was very impressed with their website. They gives lots of info. on how the foods are prepared as well as who their ingredient suppliers are. They also state this on the website:
"Product Testing: We regularly test our foods for Salmonella, E. coli 0157:H7, & Campylobacter to ensure our products safety. We also test our foods for pesticides (our food sources are of such high quality that bacteria and pesticide residues are very unlikely, but we love our pets too much to take any chances). We flash freeze our foods to eliminate the possibility of parasites."

 

I wouldn't feed a raw diet b/c of the potential for bacteria to infect the cats or the humans in the household. This is especially a consideration if you have young children who are more susceptible to infection, and can have serious complications.

Unless they test every piece of meat they can not guarantee they are free from bacteria, not to mention if they only test for those 3 there are still hundreds of other bacteria to worry about like Clostridium perfringens.

The quality of food doesn't have much to do with whether or not the animals have bacteria. Salmonella and E. coli are common organisms in cattle and poultry intestines regardless of how the animals are raised. The contamination usually occurs in the slaughtering process. It is hard to keep the salmonella and E. coli in the intestine from contaminating the rest of the meat from an animal.

I think the health risks of a raw diet are too great. If you want more articles, I can send some. I have some about salmonella in cats and dogs that were fed a raw meat diet.[/quote]

 

Ahhhhhh. Fleafly, my head is spinning with your new info. :m20: I give up on the raw feed for now. I need to think about it some more. :qm1:

 

well...i wouldnt ever do it. what fleafly posted is what max has been battling for months. clostridium perfringens. i have no clue how he got such high levels. he never received raw food when i have had him. all animals and people have naturally occuring levels of clostridium...but...i cant take any chances. [-X

otis...my kitty that died in march....was almost twenty. his diet was cd, wd, kd dry, then kd wet. seemed to work for him. he was very healthy all his life. :kiss_heart: :m9:

 

I am so sorry everone, especially Milo and Rene. I fed them raw chicken because they were begging for them and ended up with explosive diarrhea for 2 weeks. I should've known better. They are fine now. :cry: :m13: I have also stopped feeding them cold cuts as well (breeding ground for bacteria, not to mention nitrates and salts).

 

aw vene *nuzz* it's ok u didnt know any better. i'm sure the kitties forgive u- i know i do. lol i'm sure everyone here does too. u are too darned cute not to forgive. :mrgreen:

i didnt like the idea of a raw diet anyway... raw... blech

 

I'd be really paranoid about a raw diet. E-Coli and Samonella are both deadly and transmutable to humans. I'm no expert by any means but I had a pet iguana for many years and Samonella was always a concern due to fresh foods which harbor bacteria quickly once reaching room temp. I had to keep his bowl fresh and steralized twice a day.

I personally woulnd't even consider it unless it was an occasional thing under tight controled situations. Like give meat at 5PM and remove and clean the bowl at 5:05PM.

Nowadays with quality control on butcher meats, they're about %99 clean and safe. But there are always exceptions to the rule and bacteria builds up quickly and naturally at room temp.

Nope, I'd be too paranoid to try it.

 

since the whole deal w/ simba and his ear and finding other ways to treat it etc.. i have read about the raw diet and i refuse to try that... but now making their own food w/ chicken etc... thats different im considering doing that...

 

I'm sorry vene. {{Hugs}}

I've always been too unsure of the idea of a raw diet to try it on my cats. Although, I do know of others that feed it and seem to be really impressed with it...I'm just too paranoid.

 

Thanks everyone! *sniffles* Nern, I usually feed them their regular chow and they are all happy but when I cut meat, the entire gang greets me on the counter or by my legs. It has been a bad habit of mine to treat them raw chicken. I don't like doing that because Monty usually gets diarrhea and the other kids are fine. But now Milo and Rene got so sick. I"m just going to have to excercise some control on my part and just say no the next time I prepare meats. Better safe than sorry.

 

Rene puked up green stuff an hour ago. I'm going to have to keep an eye on her. I feel really guilty now. She must have caught some nasty GI bug and it's all my fault! :m13:

 

Oh no, green stuff?? I hope she is feeling better soon vene. How long ago did you feed them the raw chicken?

 

2 weeks ago Nern. Rene's poop has just gotten better but now she puked up green stuff. She's otherwise normal. :0011:

 

They do suggest, with raw food diets- to cut up the raw meat and pour boiling water over it- letting it sit for about 30 seconds then draining to kill off parasites, and other forms of bacteria. Also, another idea was to raise the temperature of the meat- not enough to cook it but high enough to kill off the e.coli,etc. Microwave usage ( there's an article on the SWC site about that) doesn't seem to be one of the choices as it is being found out that they do more harm than good.