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Flesh and Bones?
Nov. 15th, 2006 03:19 pmOkay, medical/nutritional/feline people. (I am talking to you, ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
selchi and zoonut and hawklady. And also anybody else who's heard of this and might have an opinion, actually.) Here's one for you.
In my attempts to educate myself about all things Somalis, and how I might go about procuring one next year, I e-mailed a CFA-registered breeder whose bio indicated she was amenable to offering advice. She wrote me a very nice, thorough reply which definitely did its job. (e.g. initiated the thought process: Holy crap! Getting a purebred cat is a pain in the ass. Do I really want a Somali that badly? ...Yes. Yes, I do.)
One of the things she suggested I look into, however, was the concept of species-appropriate diets, where basically you feed your cats fresh foods from recipes that contain a significant portion of raw meat.
I'll leave aside, for the moment, the fact that it sounds like a hell of a lot of trouble. If it's really that much better for my cats, I'm willing to consider it. What I'd like to know is, what is your professional take (or unprofessional opinion) on these raw meat diets? I can appreciate that what animals eat in the wild is what they should eat in captivity; and that wild cats seldom stalk and kill a bag of Purina Cat Chow. But how important is this, really? Is it a good idea that we overlook in our desire for quick-feed kibble, or is it frou-frou fluff?
selchi and zoonut and hawklady. And also anybody else who's heard of this and might have an opinion, actually.) Here's one for you.In my attempts to educate myself about all things Somalis, and how I might go about procuring one next year, I e-mailed a CFA-registered breeder whose bio indicated she was amenable to offering advice. She wrote me a very nice, thorough reply which definitely did its job. (e.g. initiated the thought process: Holy crap! Getting a purebred cat is a pain in the ass. Do I really want a Somali that badly? ...Yes. Yes, I do.)
One of the things she suggested I look into, however, was the concept of species-appropriate diets, where basically you feed your cats fresh foods from recipes that contain a significant portion of raw meat.
I'll leave aside, for the moment, the fact that it sounds like a hell of a lot of trouble. If it's really that much better for my cats, I'm willing to consider it. What I'd like to know is, what is your professional take (or unprofessional opinion) on these raw meat diets? I can appreciate that what animals eat in the wild is what they should eat in captivity; and that wild cats seldom stalk and kill a bag of Purina Cat Chow. But how important is this, really? Is it a good idea that we overlook in our desire for quick-feed kibble, or is it frou-frou fluff?
