Understanding there are reasons why some people cannot feed their cat or dog raw I do have alternative suggestions to help improve their diet. There is so much mis-information about raw food. I will help explain why it is safe and why many professionals, including vets, have not had in-depth nutritional training. We expect so much from our vets and yet we know our GP’s cannot advise on nutrition and we will visit human nutritionists and get personalised advise on our health needs. It is time we did the same for our pets.

The preservatives, additives and chemical residues often contained within conventional pet food brands can be jointly responsible for many diseases such as tumors, kidney and liver damage, impairments in the musculoskeletal system, fertility disorders and allergies. I have seen many pets with allergies switch to a raw diet and be healthier. 
General pet food is made from inferior raw materials, no longer fit for the human food chain, mainly cereals, bone meal and fats. Often, only a very small amount of fresh meat is contained within the food, instead, meat flours are processed and often declared as dried meat. It is also often the worst parts of the protein being used eg not chicken lean meat but feathers, skin, beak etc. It is very difficult to find out the exact contents of pet food. Just in the first 3 months of 2021 several common brands were pulled from the shelves following dangerous levels of vitamin D and too often other reasons, including popular brands like Pedigree and Chappie – common brands are often pulled and people do not always know. I raw feed 12 cats and dogs for less money that I used to feed 1 dog and 2 cats on Royal Canin. It does not have to cost the earth and even if you cannot buy in bulk the extra cost in food will be saved in dog health and lack of disease/sickness.

Humans, dogs and cats have very different digestive systems. The acid level is also different which is why a dog can bury a bone, dig it up weeks later, eat it and not get sick from any of the abundant bacteria’s on it. Cats, however, cannot do that and need fresh. It is one of the reasons they torture and slowly kill their prey – so it is fresh when they are hungry! Stomach acid kills bacteria. We humans do not have acid as strong as dogs. Fast freezing food also destroys parasites etc so things like game need to be frozen for a certain number of weeks before it is fed. Raw feeding becomes problematic when people don’t research it and buy from random places where it hasn’t been pre-frozen at certain temperatures properly. As always, it is ignorance that causes the problems and sadly this is why vets see raw food causing issues in the pets they have to treat. The raw food industry is also not regulated well enough for my liking so knowing what is quality is crucial. I analyze and advise on good reliable products. Feeding Dogs, by Conor Brady, is a brilliant book for anyone who wants to self-learn. There is not much on cats available sadly and I have built up my knowledge through numerous avenues over the years.