Raw Diets for Cats

Raw diets reflect what wild cats eat

A number of pet owners take nutrition concerns a step further than what's possible with a commercial cat food by going with a raw food diet instead. While it's closest to what a cat would eat in the wild, a raw food diet can be expensive, messy and time-consuming to prepare. Additionally, great care must be taken to ensure that the proper nutrients (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 uncooked food is more efficient at delivering needed nutrients.

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 for learning 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. The main drawback is that you have to order and keep frozen a large amount to make this option cost-effective, and even then it costs much more per serving than even expensive canned cat foods. Varieties include chicken (*Est. $95 plus shipping for 20 lbs.), turkey (*Est. $115 plus shipping for 20 lbs.) and Cornish hens (*Est. $135 plus shipping for 20 lbs.). In July 2010, Feline's Pride recalled batches of its chicken variety over possible Salmonella contamination, though it held that the issue was a result of FDA mishandling rather than any problem with the food itself.