I know this post doesn’t seem to fit the overall theme here, but this topic is just too important and I really want to help spread the word on this. While most of this site is about living frugal, this is one area in which I won’t scrimp.

Short story: 13+ year old Cat was sick. Chronic diarrhea, often vomiting. Vet gave antibiotics, only helped a few days. Switched cat to raw food.  Cat cured.

Ok, now if you’re intrigued, here’s the full story:
My pets didn’t seem sick after the big pet food recall of 2007, even though I had been feeding them a brand from the recall.  I simply checked all the dates and styles, returned the possibly contaminated ones, and bought more of the same brand. I wasn’t too worried, and they’d been on the brand for years and years.

In late 2007, both my cats started vomiting a lot–about once a day or once every other day. I thought to myself, I should do some pet food research and see if I’m missing anything. But I put it off until one of the cats started to get bloody diarrhea. Now, he’d done this before years ago and it always cleared on its own. He seemed fine, so I didn’t rush him to the vet. Instead, I did the research and switched them back to a brand I’d fed years ago when I had more money: California Natural, made by NaturaPet.

The cats loved it at first and then stopped eating it.  The diarrhea continued despite the antibiotics. Before I returned him to the vet for more in-depth testing, I felt that I should do yet more research.

This time I found that NaturaPet had been included in a class-action lawsuit for false advertising and using bad ingredients. Now, some people wouldn’t worry about that. Many people stand by the company and feel that a class-action lawsuit does not indicate guilt.  But it was enough to push me to research taking yet one more step further: switching to raw.

At first I was confused. I thought it sounded crazy! It’s filled with bacteria!  What do you do, throw them some meat??? I read ALL about it; how many vets don’t condone it and how vets don’t really get schooled on nutrition, and when they do it’s sponsored by commercial pet food companies that pay them commission on sales. I read how a cat with the exact same symptoms as my cat was switched to raw and the diarrhea STOPPED. I learned a little about the prey-model and the BARF diet (Bones And Raw Food).

I learned the obvious: cats are carnivores. They need meat. They were designed to kill their prey and eat it right there and then, bacteria, bones, heart, liver, and all! I learned that their digestive tract is so short, bacteria doesn’t have time to multiply like it does in humans. I learned that feeding them kibble all day is like feeding them sugared cereal. It’s not full of meat like they need, it’s full of grains and carbs, things they DON’T need and cannot process and break down well! And no, it doesn’t help clean the teeth. Both my cats were fed kibble the first 10 years of their lives, and both are practically toothless now.

So please, if you are reading, please consider feeding raw. If you cannot fathom that, please consider feeding at least 1/2 canned or preferrably all canned…even if it takes you MONTHS to get your cat to start eating it. Don’t give up.  If your cat only eats kibble, they might not seem interested in eating canned, but they need it and can learn to like it. Your vet bills will be SO much lighter if you do this, trust me! There are lots of online links to help you with transitioning them.

Now, there are two ways to feed raw food. One is to buy from a butcher, grind it all up, and compile it carefully so that your pet gets all the correct balances of nutrients following recipes. Now I am no kitchen conisseur, so I do the other method:

Pre-made raw. I started feeding Nature’s Variety Frozen Raw a month ago. My diarrhea cat loves it; the other one, well he was addicted to kibble so it was more difficult. When I discovered what the freeze-dried raw was, I started mixing it into his medalions and now he loves it!

My diarrhea cat has NO MORE DIARRHEA. Seriously, the antibiotics the vet prescribed took away the diarrhea for 4 days.  The raw food diet took away the diarrhea completely, for one month now so far. Also, I wish I had a picture so you could see, this cat’s coat has grown in a lot and is fuller than it had been for 4 years, since the last time he got sick and lost some fur! He’s a Persian, by the way, which is why I talk about “fullness.”  He has also gained much needed weight, comes to the table now at feeding time (which he never used to do), has a lot more energy, plays more, feels softer and looks healthier. All this in one month!

Feel free to ask questions, but if you do a google search you’ll find what I did. Not all the pre-made raw brands are good, but many are much better than any canned and kibble.  I chose Nature’s Variety because it’s as closest to doing it yourself as you can get.  It’s 95% meat and bones, and the rest is the fruits and vegetables. They dont need fruites and veggies, but they *would* get some in the digestive systems of their prey, so 5% is ok.

Thanks for reading!

PS To learn more about feeding raw yourself and the good pre-made brands, please visit this site.