Disclaimer: This is only a sharing. Please consult your pet nutritionist for expert advice.
My recent hospitalisation has made me realise a few things about cat nutrition.
When someone else has to takeover to do the feeding, it is so much easier if that person handles canned/cooked food and kibble. Because when I came back, I saw that a few tubs and bottles of raw food were spoilt. This is one of the challenges of handling raw food – the thawing, how fast it is used up and/or how fast it spoils. Not only that, I was chatting with a person who is making cat food now and I’ve learnt a few things too, which I shall share below.
Then, there’s Juno’s recent coccidia infection which landed her in hospital, with high fever and really bad diarrhoea. There is almost no doubt that she contracted the coccidia from raw food. Coccidia is found in the intestines, the liver and maybe other parts of most animals. When we feed raw, the coccidia is present in the food. If our cat is so unfortunate to have a weaker immune system, she can fall really, really sick from a coccidia infection, as Juno did.
Then, there’s Riley’s and the Blondies’ insistent preference for either cooked/canned food or kibble. They just don’t like raw food anymore even though the Blondies were born in my house and brought up on a 100% raw diet. Maybe raw food is just not suitable for them and they know it.
Now comes what I’ve learnt from the friend who has done deep research in cat nutrition. He also has a medical degree and he speaks based on evidence and research. I love speaking with people who talk facts with evidence. This are his personal thoughts:
The idea of raw food is nice but I honestly don’t think raw food works well for domestic cats and our lifestyle. The premise here is that wild cats hunt for wild prey but they eat them immediately. We don’t however, do that with the raw food that we feed our cats.
The biggest risk here is food poisoning and unless you have a butcher that guarantees fresh meat daily, you’re not getting the full benefits of raw diet.
With raw food, you have to ensure there is a comprehensive cold chain logistics from: animal butchered > processing > to shop/supermarket > home journey into freezer. Any interruption there, you risk having thawed meat contaminated with bacteria. That’s not a risk worth taking personally for incremental nutritional benefits.
What is cold chain logistics: https://www.altexsoft.com/blog/cold-chain-logistics/
That suddenly made so much sense to me: cold chain logistics. All our cats have recently boycotted one of the raw brands they used to eat. I don’t know the reason for this and will never know. But I realised that we are not in control of the cold chain logistics. No single party is.
Cold chain logistics is a set of activities aimed at handling and transporting such items securely from the manufacturer or supplier to consumer.
A cold chain is a supply chain that deals with perishable, temperature-sensitive goods (also called cool cargo) such as fresh produce, meat, dairy, seafood, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, flowers, wine, etc.
Usually, a specific low-temperature range has to be maintained to ensure the quality and integrity of perishable goods, i.e., some groups of products have to be refrigerated, some must be frozen, while yet others require extreme conditions (a so-called ultralow chain or deep freeze). Failure to maintain the right temperature leads to product spoilage and, ultimately, financial losses.
And furthermore, I’ve always believed that we must respect our cats and that they are still very much in touch with their primal needs. They will tell us what they need. They know better than us. I don’t believe in withholding food just to force the animal to eat whatever food we have served just because we want them to eat it. In any case, it doesn’t work with our cats.
Riley and the Blondies have been telling me for so long that they do not like raw food. I have not been listening, thinking that I know better than them when I do not.
Ever since Ginger came back from the vet’s and I was advised to give him cooked/canned food, he seemed to know that is what he needs. I did cook for Ginger since then. I have my own recipe for cooked food for cats. I used to make home-cooked dog food for Bobby in his golden years. I also used to make home-cooked food for our cats before jumping onto the raw food bandwagon.
It’s like a sudden huge knock on the head for me.
So, for dinner today, I tried something else: Only cooked and canned food.
Although Juno was brought up on raw food since her rescue, she doesn’t like raw food anymore now, especially after her coccidia infection. That was when I explored other locally-made cooked food and I found Fur/Ball, which I’ve already shared with everyone. Juno now eats Fur/Ball and Cindy’s canned food. I did sneak in some Cubgrub for her too, only if she wants. I do trust Cubgrub because the founder maintains such high standards of hygiene and she personally makes the food herself. She takes a special interest in everyone of her customers. And she is totally open to revealing her supply sources, her recipes and how her food is made. There are no trade secrets with her.
For the Blondies, I offered Fur/Ball and Cindy’s canned food. It’s a buffet, girls. Take your pick and I watched them.
Fur/Ball is a complete food. Cindy’s Original is a complementary food (snack). It is very important to read the ingredients label.
They went for Fur/Ball and also Cindy’s. Samantha, Kai and Indra ate. The only one still stubbornly prefering kibble is Akira! Later, please.
For the Monsters, Ginger had home-cooked food, the rest were offered Fur/Ball and Cindy’s. But to test them, I also put out a plate of raw rabbit. Take your pick, boys and Minnie. They all went for the cooked food first, but they also finally finished up the raw rabbit. I think the Monsters can eat anything!
I’ll continue with my experiment in the days to come. But Gerald and Creamy definitely want raw food. I shall respect that.
But just think of how much easier it would be if everyone were to eat cooked/canned food. It is so much easier to handle, it doesn’t spoilt so fast. The challenge with raw food is knowing if there is zero contamination in it during the cold chain logistics (beyond any single party’s control) and in my own handling of the food from receiving it, thawing to using it. Once raw food is served, it has to be quickly eaten up. Remember that in the wild, carnivorous animals kill and eat their prey immediately. They do not keep it in the freezer, thaw and eat it later.
I’ll continue to learn.
But all said, there is no right or wrong. There is only what you think is best for your pets. And of course, there is respecting what your cat wants.
Juno is willingly licking up her Pro-Fibre. She has to be on it for a month to increase the good normal flora in her gut. Just as I need weeks or months to recover from this bout of pneumonia, Juno also needs time to recover from her coccidia infection.
It was just so unfortunate that Juno got infected with coccidia while none of our other cats did. Maybe our other cats have strong-enough stomachs, better immunity and they are also older. But contaminated food and food poisoning is VERY scary. It can hit anyone at anytime. It can be mild and easily overcome, or it can be very severe as well.
Disclaimer: These are only my personal thoughts. Please consult a pet nutritionist for expert advice.