The Importance of Raw Fresh Cat Food
Did you know that a raw fresh cat food diet is even more essential for cats than a raw diet for dogs? This February being National Cat Health Month, we felt it important to highlight exactly why cats thrive on raw fresh cat food diets and don’t necessarily on other foods – our feline friends are wired differently in very special ways and tailoring our approach to them can be both interesting and highly informative! We hope this article empowers you to make the best health decision for your furry family members, even if they do remain aloof and pretend not to care 😉
Essential Elements
Moisture
Cats don’t really drink water, and they are woefully inefficient at utilizing it when they do – they rely on the innate cellular moisture of raw fresh cat foods. Without water as part of the diet, cats are at high risk for kidney and urinary diseases, organ failure, metabolic syndrome, and many other diseases related to malnutrition. Most cats today are chronically dehydrated due to their diets, which absolutely contributes to their mood and energy.
Animal proteins
Cats are obligate carnivores; they cannot use protein (or any other nutrient) from plants efficiently. Feeding a high-protein diet isn’t enough – the source of the protein matters just as much as the amount of it. Feeding whole animals is an excellent way to achieve an appropriate balance. A raw fresh cat food diet utilizes the whole animal. The inclusion of carbohydrate-based proteins and other plant-based materials can cause diabetes, kidney failure, liver failure, pancreatitis, metabolic syndrome, and other degenerative diseases.
Healthy fats
Animal-based fats are enormously important for cats as well. Seed or plant-based fats are stored as fatty tissue – plant-based fats literally cause fat cells to expand because the body can’t process them. Fat from sources like fish, animal skins, dairy, and egg yolks are balanced sources of fatty acids that the body can actually utilize. Raw, non-oxidized, non-altered fat must come from an animal source.
Vitamins
To be properly utilized, vitamins must come from animal sources. Plant-based vitamins or synthetic vitamins are not bioavailable and end up wasted, putting stress on the kidneys and the entire urinary tract. Due to the non-functionality of plant vitamins, cats will experience vitamin deficiencies, even though they are eating “enough” vitamins. Foods like organ meat, raw milk, and eggs can provide the complete range of necessary vitamins and should be the source of them in any raw fresh cat food.
Probiotics
Real food is teeming with microscopic life in the form of living and active probiotic bacteria! These wonderful microorganisms contribute to every single aspect of health, from food digestion to mental acuity to immune system functionality and much more. Modern pet food manufacturing practices typically either render these bacteria inactive or remove them from the food altogether. If a pet food is pasteurized, heat processed, dried, or irradiated, then the innate bacteria are either inactive or dead – synthetic isolated probiotics must be added back into the food. Supplements created in a lab can’t come close to the activity, virility, diversity, and functionality of foodborne bacteria in their natural state.
Digestive enzymes
Enzymes are responsible for an incredible number of bodily processes but essentially, they help nutrients go where they are supposed to by breaking down food into its more basic elements. The body doesn’t make a massive amount of these, but they can be consumed – it is very important that the food we feed (and the food we eat!) contains digestive enzymes. Foods that are cooked, dried, pasteurized, or irradiated have either damaged enzymes or no enzymes. Enzyme deficiencies lead to degenerative diseases like pancreatitis, muscle wasting, diabetes, arthritis, and food sensitivities.
How Does Bacteria Affect Your Cat?
Interesting note regarding bacteria – they all need to feed but not all of them feed on everything. Certain bacteria feed on each of the basic elements of the macronutrients and the ones that we choose to feed are the ones that will become the strongest. This, in my opinion, is the deepest cause of pickiness. If the bacteria in the gut can’t utilize a certain food, the host will not want to eat that food. In order to truly fix pickiness, we need to allow those bacteria to die and we need to rebuild a diverse and healthy microbial community in the gut.
Thank you for reading all the way to the end! Whether you are a seasoned raw fresh cat food feeder or a complete newbie, we are excited to help you continue your raw fresh cat food feeding journey and look forward to helping in any way we can! For tips on transitioning cats to raw fresh cat food, check out this article! If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to reach out! We’d love to connect.