RAW FOOD DIETS       
 
For hundreds of years, our feline companions have subsisted on diets of wild animals but this changed when the Purina Corporation developed dry kibble pet food in 1957. Since then, commercial pet foods have grown in popularity, supplanting the more natural diets. In the past 10 years, however, we have seen a rise in raw food diet feeding strategies, often called “BARF” or biologically appropriate raw foods. This emergence of raw diets has created a bit of controversy. Raw diets are not mainstream and not uniformly tested for safety, therefore their are some health risks. Many of these risks depend on the source of the meat products because some may be infected with bacteria or parasites while others may be free of these disease agents. In any case they should be handled with care. 
 
 
CONCERNS  
 Many veterinarians have concerns about feeding raw meats to pets. The biggest concern is  food-borne illnesses for the pet such as Toxoplasma, Salmonella and E. coli.  Feeding raw foods to sick or debilitated pets raises the risk of a pet's infection.
 The second concern is the public health issue from the spread of Toxoplasma, Salmonella and E. coli to humans. This can occur when handling the raw food and by poor handling of your animals waste. These are real concerns which make the feeding of raw foods an undertaking that should be handled prudently and only when the people in contact with the cat are in good health and follow good sanitary habits such as hand washing.  We do not recommend feeding raw food in households with small children and with immunocompromised individuals ( for example AIDs, chemotherapy, radiation therapy, immunosuppressive drugs, and general poor health.)
 
Cats can end up choking on bones and injure their stomach and small intestines. While these events are rare, they are still possible. To avoid this when cats are fed raw meat with bones, the food should always be chopped up into very small pieces, one-quarter inch or smaller, and never feed cats whole chicken necks. If your pet is sick or debilitated, have your pet examined before you embark on feeding it a raw diet.

Veterinarians that recommend feeding raw food diets have not noted illness resulting from ingesting these raw meats potentially tainted with Salmonella and E. coli unless the cat was weakened by disease or age.  This may be because the gastrointestinal tracts of cats are designed for handling and digesting raw meats. When raw meat is ingested, the stomach produces a highly acidic pH of between 1 and 3, making it very difficult for these organisms to survive. This does not kill non bacterial organisms.
        
CONVERTING TO A RAW FOOD DIET            
 
Converting adult cats to a raw food diet may be difficult. By 6-12 months cats become fixated on whatever foods they have eaten.This means that a cat eating only dry food tends to continue to eat only dry food. If a cat has been eating only canned fish varieties of cat food, it will continue to eat only canned fish varieties of cat food. In other words, adult cats that have not been introduced to raw foods as kittens might present a challenge.

The easiest way to circumvent this problem is to introduce your cat to raw foods when it is a kitten. Most kittens will eat any food placed in front of them, as they still maintain their instinct for raw foods. This is the time to begin feeding chopped up chicken. Wings, chicken backs and thighs are both the cheapest and easiest to feed.You may also try feeding one of the commercial foods such as BARF OR OMAS.
 
For adult cats who have never been introduced to raw foods, hiding the raw meat in canned food often is the easiest option. Simply mix a tiny amount of turkey burger or hamburger in with the canned food and don’t tell your cat. Then, each day, gradually increase the amount of burger in the diet. Another trick is to mush some raw chicken liver into the canned foods. It is safe to feed a small amount of raw liver every day to your cat. Often the cat will reject burger meat in its food but, will accept raw chicken liver in its food.   No matter how you try some cats will constantly reject any attempts to add raw foods to their canned foods.

 
In the wild, cats eat mice, moles, squirrels, rabbits,  and baby birds. In doing this it takes in more than muscle meat to provide the nutritional elements it needs. In making or buying a raw food diet you must take this into consideration and be sure the necessary supplements are added.