Raw Diets

Raw diets reflect what wild cats eat

For pet owners who are extremely concerned about feeding their cats species-appropriate foods, brands like Natural Balance and Wellness are an easy-to-buy, easy-to-feed alternative. Organic foods, such as Newman's Own Organics and Evanger's Organic, are attractive alternatives for those who want to limit the amount of additives, preservatives, hormones and pesticides in their cat's food.

A number of pet owners take nutrition concerns a step further, however, by going with raw food. While it's closest to what a cat would eat in the wild, it can be expensive, messy and time-consuming to prepare. Additionally, great care must be taken to ensure that the proper nutrients and in the right proportions are present. For that reason, some experts -- such as the Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine -- recommend that most cat owners stick with a high-quality commercial food instead of trying a raw food diet.

Still, many cat owners and experts rave about the health benefits of raw food, claiming improvements in everything from energy levels to health problems. The idea here is that cooking kills off so much of the "live" benefits of foods -- and that uncooked food is more efficient at delivering needed nutrients (many humans who have chosen raw food diets claim to experience similar benefits).

Since cats and dogs in the wild are predators, the natural thing for them to eat is other freshly caught animals, by-products and all. Raw food proponents go to great pains to provide meals of raw muscle meat with bones, ideally a whole carcass of a rabbit or chicken. Whole hearts and whole livers are especially important.

However, the preparation (including grinding the ingredients together and adding supplements like salmon oil) can be tedious. And some of the ingredients -- chicken hearts, for example -- might be difficult to find, not to mention expensive. CatNutrition.org is a great resource to learn about raw cat food. The site offers recipes, ingredient lists and instructions for developing a raw food diet for your cat; additional information can be found at CatInfo.org.

A number of frozen commercial foods that feature a raw food diet are also cropping up and have their proponents. Of those, we saw the best comments for Feline's Pride. Several cat-food experts claim that Feline's Pride is their favorite commercially produced raw cat food. Cost is the biggest drawback. Varieties include chicken (*est. $95 plus shipping for 20 pounds), turkey (*est. $115 plus shipping for 20 pounds), duck (*est. $135 plus shipping for 20 pounds) and Cornish hens (*est. $135 per 20 pounds).