Embrace your raw desires—the truth about a raw diet. I started my raw journey as merely a naïve, uneducated, loving cat owner. I never grew up with any pets except a fish named Boomerang. Although he was awesome, he didn’t prepare me for the life of being a cat lady. So when I got Ravy, my boy cat, I bought him Friskies and really whatever he wanted just to make his stop meowing. I had no idea that I was essentially giving him kitty McDonalds morning, noon and night. When Ravy started peeing outside of his prive, I would get so frustrated with him. I thought he was just being a pest or territorial. I tried changing the brand of litter and the location of the litter box; I pretty much tried everything to no avail.
iAt the time I had been working as a receptionist at a veterinary clinic while going to school to become a veterinary technician. I asked the doctors and technicians what to do. They told me that he could have a medical issue and perhaps he was peeing outside of the box to show me he was in pain. So I brought him in and it turned out he had some crystals (ouch!), as well as cystitis, inflammation of the bladder. So my doctors prescribed him medicated food that is tailored to help with his specific issues, which happen to be very common in male cats. I tried Science Diet and Royal Canine brands that seemed to be big sellers. Things calmed down a bit, but he still had random, manageable episodes. While working towards my veterinary technician degree at my internship, Ravy’s condition started acting up. He was meowing very loudly when he urinated and I found blood. It was awful. Low and behold, he still had crystals and a lot of inflammation in the bladder. I just didn’t know what to do. My luck changed when I was hired at a holistic animal hospital a week later. I told the doctors and technicians what was going on with Ravy and pretty much all at once everyone said “RAW DIET!”
All I had heard about raw diets was that it caused salmonella and that the pets didn’t get enough nutrients. Vets and technicians I made friends with from my internships laughed at me and had very strong and negative opinions about raw diets. But I was desperate and trusted my holistic coworkers. WELL… I am happy to say that almost immediately after starting a raw diet, Ravy stopped meowing in pain when he urinated. It has been over a year and he has not once peed outside the box. My carpet is saved! So it seems is his bladder ☺
While it is a controversial issue, there are many health benefits including “shinier coats, healthier skin, cleaner teeth, higher energy levels and smaller stools.”1 These results are due to effects of living enzymes and proteins in raw, unprocessed foods that promote healthy organ function. The “BARF” (Biologically Appropriate Raw Food) diet, proposed in 1993 by an Australian veterinarian Dr. Billinghurst, supports this notion. The diet argues the need for a raw diet because “[e]nzymes are only beneficial to the body if they are living. Once food is cooked or processed, it no longer contains living enzymes. Foods without living enzymes put stress on the pancreas to produce the necessary proteins to function.”2
Another benefit to switching to a raw diet from commercial diets is the elimination of additives, preservatives and GRAINS! Most commercial pet food manufacturers use grains as the major ingredient because it is cheaper to produce. This presents a problem because dogs, for example, “do not have the digestive enzymes or system to cope with grains. Grains are one of the biggest sources of allergies in dogs.”3 Raw food diets and products allow pets to consume what they would have eaten prior to being domesticated. These diets are comprised of muscle meat, bones (ground would be best to avoid choking), organ meats such as liver and kidneys, raw eggs, vegetables and fruit, and some dairy such as yogurt.
A couple of great raw food companies are Primal and Darwins. Check out their websites: primalpetfoods.com and darwinspet.com. If you are interested in making your own raw food diet for your pets, check out the awesome youtube video below. Enjoy!
