Controvercial cat/ dog food Topic vs Wild/wolf diet?RAW-ish diet

[Ultum4Spiderz]

PEt food (filler) VS Wild diet(Dead prey/raw meat/bones Etc)
It is almost a Lost cause because our Food is so unhealthy , why would anyone worry about a PET !!!:cry: We should probably worry about what we eat just as much
Very hard topic to discuss beause Know one seems to know the amount of Raw food dogs need except Austrailian Raw feeders.
They Hold the world record in dog Lifespan something like 26-29 years.

I was wondering what other peoples ideas were on how unhealthy pet food is for our dogs / cats
I Helped my parents breed puppies before Our huskies were neutered :cry:
From a small age puppies seemed to throw up dog food , it is a un-natural Over processed food source.
I personally think that It shortens a Dogs lifepsan a LOT! and a house Cats also.
Since dogs are Scavengers & eat what ever there owners feed them dosn't mean they deserve unhealthy food.

I personally think If Dogs were fed similar to Wolfs / Hyenas / big cats from a small age they would be healthier & live longer.
Unfortunately dogs are Scavengers relying on humans for food so they cannot Chew bones quite as well as wild Carnivores.
+ our cats & dogs do not seem healthy on Pet food.... My Mother got mad at me & said she would not feed them Live/Raw prey 3 years ago. I gave up Convincing her.
+Cats get sick & throw up cat food atleast once every two weeks.
++DOgs are carnivores , only called omnivores so dog-food companys can add filler to there food for BIG profit$$$.

 

[Aviara]

I only know about cat food, because I have 2 cats, and have never (yet) owned a dog. There are those who actually feed a raw or even a live diet to their domestic felines. Generally this consists of juvenile or adult mice and chicks, similar to foods often fed to snakes. Others will feed a mixture of organic meats, a "frankenprey" diet that is balanced and meant to resemble a prey item wthout actually feeding a whole animal. Personally, I feed my cats a grain-free diet, because cats are obligate carnivores. I prefer the "Before Grain" line of Merrick food, simply because it is the best brand I have access to. I leave dry food out 24/7 for free access, with wet food offered at least 4 times a week. Since switching to this brand of cat food, I have noticed increased activity, less issues with diarrhea, brighter eyes and a shinier coat. My cats actually live at the barn where I keep my horse (inside, they do not get the chance to roam outside unless I am there to supervise), so it is important to have a food source I can leave out and don't have to change multiple times a day (dry food). Otherwise, I would switch to feeding only wet food, as dry food can lead to dehydration and other health issues.

 

[Tarac]

I personally think If Dogs were fed similar to Wolfs / Hyenas / big cats from a small age they would be healthier & live longer.
Unfortunately dogs are Scavengers relying on humans for food so they cannot Chew bones quite as well as wild Carnivores.
+ our cats & dogs do not seem healthy on Pet food.... My Mother got mad at me & said she would not feed them Live/Raw prey 3 years ago. I gave up Convincing her.
+Cats get sick & throw up cat food atleast once every two weeks.

I agree that packaged pet foods are not the ideal since they have to assume a generic diet for a large population of individual pets. Certainly cats are strict carnivores and as such could probably benefit the most from a raw diet, similar to the way in which large, non-domesticated cats are kept (when they are kept responsibly...what a food bill!).

But dogs are omnivores, not carnivores. Again, the food is generic and thus not tailored for the specific needs of your dog, but probably much closer to a wild diet save the moisture content and variety of sources providing varied vitamins and minerals, etc. that they would have access to in the wild. I think the main problem in this area is that they are fed the same type of food, day in and day out. So if you are feeding something that is slightly deficient in an essential nutrient that deficiency is multiplied over the lifetime of the animal. My dog, for example, is a giant breed for which there is no commercial food that is quite right- too much protein, too much fat, not enough oils, etc. So I have opted to prepare his food myself, which I have done his entire life. He is already above the average lifespan of a great dane and shows no health problems so far as of March this year- hips good, joints good, etc. It is surprisingly only slightly more expensive to prepare his food than it is to feed some inferior marketed kibble type and is worth it to me.

Note that there is no difference in the "chewing" component of a dog's v. a wolf's teeth. Incisors tend to be a little longer in wolves which is logical as they have to trap and detain their own food. But you should see my dane demolish a raw bison femur, it takes little time at all. His chewing is just fine, even compared to a wolf. If anything, wolves would be less able to chew in favor of better able to grapple and kill.

I think the main reason pet diets effect our animals is not directly nutrient related but volume and duration on a single brand of food. Pet kibble is very convenient, over fed fat dogs and cats are the majority of our pets. We tend to free range or just flat out overfeed. Also have to consider degree of genetic soundness in a particular breed, etc. etc. There are way too many factors overall to make any concrete statement about artificial diets and pet health which is why there have been no valid conclusive studies to date. The same thing is true of people- we can notice trends, but so much variation in lifestyle and genetics it is impossible to say much with confidence. That is the reason why it is difficult to say, it is not related to not knowing what to feed or in what volume. One thing that is easily correlated and has been studied formally- a fat dog will most likely live a much shorter life than one that lives on the verge of starvation. Feeding mice, for example, a near starvation diet will almost double their lifespan compared to a mouse on the same diet but in higher volume. You have to be careful about drawing false inferences, especially when you say yourself that "nobody knows"- then what exactly are comparing to? It's an apples to oranges issue or in this case and apples to... well... we don't know. So many variables, not enough to draw conclusions.

Cats throw up a lot regardless of diet for many reasons. You can't claim it is the food doing this- it could be the cat eating too much at once, eating too often, allergic because it's from a highly inbred line or local population that has a high frequency of intolerance to a certain ingredient found in the food, etc. etc. Cat's are pukey little buggers no matter what they eat, it's just a fact of life for cat owners.

All that said, I still cook my dog his stew every two or three days because I care deeply about him and his health and make every effort to make his life as wonderful and long as possible, so I do it just to ere on the side of caution because I am sure that commercial kibble is not balanced for dogs of his scale, just speaking in terms of raw nutritional content without factoring in vitamins and so on. I count his calories and ratios much better than I did my own most of my life, lol. In fact it helped me to learn and be more conscientious about my own diet.

 

[Louise E. Rothstein]

Since cats groom themselves with their tongues they may swallow their own hair.
Since intestinal blockages can become dangerous most of the cats we find alive do vomit "fur balls" before their intestines become obstructed.

It is a protective reflex.

"Better out than in."

 

[Notch]

there are no vital nutrients that your dog or cat can not get from a natural diet. a natural diet contains no grains (wheat, oats, corn, rice etc...) and ver very little if any fruit. same goes for cats.

raw or cooked meat is really all they need to stay very healthy and not suffer the consequences of a high carbohydrate diet fed to a carnivorous system.

yes, you do see wild cats and even dogs occasionally chewing a few blades of grass or what not, but the amount is microscopic in comparison with the rest of their meat diet.

their systems suffer the same damage as ours do from the carbohydrates and the resulting constant exposure to insulin...

there is NOTHING you can purchase that comes close to simple boiled chicken (if your worried about raw) for your cat's health and well being. my big orange tom of 11 or 12 years old runs around like a kitten since he went "primal". his fur is softer, he has lost his "house cat weight"... the changes are as awesome as the changes i experienced once i acted like evolution was a science and not just a subject in school...!

 

[desertanimal]

I have recently switched my cat to raw chicken with ribs because he hit middle age and was getting fat. Since cooking for my dog bc he has kidney disease and is allergic to poultry, he looks better than he has ever looked and he smells so much less like a dog. Went from weekly baths to monthly ones. The cat has dropped weight and his fur looks like it did several years ago and his teeth are much cleaner. I thought I was going to have to take him in for a teeth cleaning soon, but now that I've switched his diet, I'm not going to need to.