Why Raw Diet?
More and more professionals in the world of dogs and cats (breeders, veterinarians,
breed ring handlers, sports competitors) and thousands of concerned pet owners, are
advocating a second look at what we feed our animals.
There is a growing belief that dogs and cats need a raw, natural diet in order to be healthy and that commercial pet foods cannot supply the nutrients necessary for good health and a long life.
The food your animal eats should provide all of the nutritional components which are
necessary for all organs and systems of a healthy body to perform in harmonious unison.
A properly functioning body does an amazing job at preventing disease and healing itself,
and to do this it requires the energies and nutrients of a well-balanced diet. An
overabundance of the wrong ingredients may serve to satisfy a hungry pet, but they
may also contribute to long-term health problems.
Just like us, our pets are what they eat:
* Shinier, healthier skin and coats
* Cleaner teeth and fresh breath
* Better weight control
* Improved digestion
* Reduction of allergy symptoms
* Harder, smaller, less smelly stools
* More energy and stamina
* Decrease in abnormal hyperactivity
* Increased mobility in older animals
* Reduced or eliminated need for veterinary dental work
Switching an animal with an existing health problem to a raw diet can often produce an
improvement in their conditions. Among healthy animals, a raw diet is likely to help them
avoid some of the illnesses that are now becoming common in our companion animals.
Regardless of the starting point for your pet, a high quality raw diet will help
promote a long and healthy life.
Keep in mind that millions of people around the world feed their pets a raw diet. This is not a fad.
Pottenger's Cats
Toward the middle of the 20th century, Dr. Francis M. Pottenger, Jr., drawing on the
experiments of Weston Price in his treatments of respiratory disease, conducted a study
on the effects of heat-processed foods on cats. His study was prompted by the poor health
of cats he was using for adrenal studies; cats who were fed cooked meat scraps.
As neighbors to his clinic in Monrovia, CA, kept donating cats for his study, his supply of
cooked meat dwindled, and he found a source for raw meat scraps from a local meat
packing plant.
Dr. Pottenger observed within a few months that the cats receiving the raw
meat scraps were in noticeably better health; thus his feeding study was born.
The controlled feeding experiment took place over ten years, between 1932 and 1942,
and over 900 cats were eventually included. The optimum diet consisted of 1/3 raw milk,
cod liver oil, and 2/3 raw meat, with one group receiving cooked food instead of raw.
Within a few generations, the cats receiving cooked food exhibited:
* an excess of parasites
* all manners of disease
* female cats became more aggressive while males became docile
* facial deformities: arrowed faces, crowded jaws and frail bones
* difficulty with pregnancy and after three generations, pregnancy failed
* kittens born of these pregnancies often did not survive to adulthood
* kittens showed skeletal deformities and organ malfunctions
Clearly, there was a direct link between the cooking of meat and the resultant evidence of
malnutrition in Pottenger's cats.
Just like us, our pets are what they eat.