Help me revisit my decision to feed my cats raw food.
December 27, 2024 5:16 PM   Subscribe

Given the recent news about raw cat food being infected with the bird flu, should I stop feeding it to my cats?

I have two nearly 8 year old cats. (Here's your cat tax!) When I adopted them in 2020, they had been eating raw food for at least a year, so I kept them on it as they adjusted to my house, assuming I'd move them off them eventually. But I never did -- they like it, I can afford it (though I don't love the $90/month price tag), and they are so healthy! They have weirdly smell-free poos and very glossy, shiny coats.

I am in no way a raw food evangelist; mostly just someone who wanted to maintain my cat's status quo as they transitioned to my house, and got too lazy to make any changes. FWIW, they get very high quality raw food made by a local pet food deli; it has added taurine and a bunch of vitamins and such. I don't make it myself or anything.

The news about the infected raw food has me reevaluating this. Some questions and musings:
- How scared should I be that their food might get infected with bird flu?
- What's the current thinking on giving cats raw food? I know a lot of vets say that it's unnecessary and possibly dangerous (due to food handling concerns); my own vet says as long as I'm being careful about the food handling, she's okay with it.
- One of my cats (the tabby) is super, super picky and I'm honestly unsure I could get her to switch foods even if I absolutely had to. Is the risk from bird flu or other contagions serious enough to put her through that?
- If you have transitioned your cats from raw food back to cooked food, any tips or tricks?
- If you have two cats and feed them high quality, cooked wet food, approximately how much does it cost you a month?

I'd love to hear your thinking on this. Thanks!
posted by leftover_scrabble_rack to Pets & Animals (15 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
What cooked food have you tried with your cats? Some appear to be only very lightly cooked.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:30 PM on December 27, 2024


Best answer: Excellent top notch cat tax!!! (Squeeee) Personally I would stop feeding raw food, they are relatively young and seem to be very healthy. The risk is terrible to contemplate. /Cat mom
posted by supermedusa at 5:50 PM on December 27, 2024 [2 favorites]


Best answer: I don't have experience feeding raw food, but I agree the risk is significant.

Re: high quality cat food, that's a really tricky one. I've spent so much time researching cat food and wish I had clear advice about what's best in all ways.

I am bothered by the way some of the fancy boutique foods are marketed--which frankly seem to target pet owners more than actual nutritional needs. For instance, some of them boast no animal byproducts, but animal byproducts (like rabbit blood) can be really good for cats. My vet told me that a good check is to ask if a cat food maker has a vet on staff and ask if they mill their own food. (Some brands may make a lot of purity claims, but then be milled elsewhere, risking contamination.). Once you look at the ingredients of some of the fancier brands, you may question how much better they are and if they're worth the cost. (There are a lot of brands out there, cats have their own particular needs, I'm not speaking for all those brands, etc, and also I can't for sure remember which ones I checked out.).

I do agree that at least trying cooked food is a good plan with lower risk. As far as what high-quality food is, it's worth it to take a minute to look past the marketing. Plus it's not like cats eat what we want them to eat anyway.
posted by mermaidcafe at 7:29 PM on December 27, 2024 [2 favorites]


Yeah, the "cat dies from bird flu in raw food" story that came out today . I would wait and see how that all shakes out.
posted by Windopaene at 7:31 PM on December 27, 2024 [1 favorite]


Please don't feed your cat raw food.
posted by Violet Hour at 8:19 PM on December 27, 2024 [2 favorites]


With how precarious the US meat supply chain is, I would really take the opportunity to switch. The usual advice is to do it slowly and gradually but I have to admit all cats I've owned have liked variety - if anything, it's feeding the same thing each time that makes them go picky. Get a range of samples from good brands that yes, focus on vet-verified nutritional completeness and food resembling what the cat would eat in the wild (including organs, blood, and rodent and bird GI tract contents). Mostly wet is preferable, but a bit of kibble is good for the teeth.

One thing I'd watch is sugar (or corn syrup etc) - for all that cats are supposed not to taste it, a lot of cheap and not so cheap cat food is full of it. You want as few simple carbs as possible.
posted by I claim sanctuary at 1:42 AM on December 28, 2024 [2 favorites]


Best answer: I'm just a random biologist on the internet, but right now it is clear that the USDA is not sufficiently testing herds/flocks and neither are the livestock owners, so we really don't have great data on how widespread H5N1 is. What we do have is stories all over the country of animals, especially big and small cats, dying of bird flu after eating raw meat or drinking raw milk. As someone who loves my cats, I would not feed my cats raw food right now. Here is the FDA's standard safe minimum internal temperatures chart.
posted by hydropsyche at 2:50 AM on December 28, 2024 [13 favorites]


Best answer: My partner has an animal bio background and has ranted to me about raw food diets before. The consensus among anyone who has a decent education in feline nutrition is that the claims of its proponents are bullshit, it can cause nutritional deficiencies (though your deli seems to have avoided this pitfall), and are frequently contaminated with pathogens. My mother has fed her cats raw for eight years and they’ll randomly get sick for a couple of days and she’s like huh, that was weird, anyway!

But at the same time vets are faced with many clients insisting that this is good for their cat. For rapport reasons (you don’t want the response to be never taking your cat to a vet again) and respecting owner autonomy, many of them don’t push back against pet owners feeding them raw as long as they’re aware of the risks. But people who don’t have to worry about client rapport are usually going “oh my god stop feeding cats raw food it’s marketing bullshit!”

So feeding your cats raw is generally bad or at least risky, but extra super bad right now. I wouldn’t feed my cat raw normally, but with the bird flu news I would absolutely switch.

I feed my cat high quality wet food, but she’s 20 and tiny and on a kidney diet so my math will likely not be helpful. But she’s also extremely picky and was hard to switch from dry to wet (opposite sort of thing from what you’re doing but similarly large shift in texture)—the foods that worked well for her were Taste of the Wild Canyon River, FirstMate single ingredient turkey, and right now she’s on Weruva tuna and likes it more than any of those. The Weruva is for kidney health but it’s not a prescription kidney food, just low phosphate (the prescription diets all have chicken protein which she has an allergy to). Most wet food cans tell you how much you should feed a cat per day based on its weight, and you could math that out for your two babies.
posted by brook horse at 6:09 AM on December 28, 2024 [13 favorites]


I have a 2 cat, 2 dog household and occasionally they'll grab a bite of each other's food. As a result, we just tossed about $100 worth of raw food toppers for our dogs so I'll definitely echo everyone: Raw food isn't safe right now. A friend who's fed raw for over 15 years now via local farmers just stopped his orders out of an abundance of caution. I've heard that vets don't have what they need yet to help with avian influenza in cats, the guidance is all over the place for owners and the risk is just too high.

There are tons of resources out there that look at each cat food, provide what brands have had recalls, provides a look at cost per day to feed each cat, etc. I did a ton of research when we first brought home our boys and we landed on Nutro Perfect Portions in a variety pack and they're still eating it (along with a small amount of dry kibble daily). It met our cost needs, nutrition needs, and allowed us to cycle through various flavors to find favorites. It was also always available locally, even during COVID when friends had issues finding particular brands or flavors of their cat's usual wet food.

A nearby sanctuary feeds nothing but Tiki Cat, and I've heard excellent things about both Weruva and Halo. At the end of the day, it's about what the cats will eat reliably, keep them healthy, and at a price that you can always afford for consistency's sake.
posted by Torosaurus at 6:27 AM on December 28, 2024 [4 favorites]


I used to feed my cats frozen raw food that I got a subscription to when I brought them home, because they had also been on raw food when they were fostered. But my cats were actually the ones who led weaning off of it—the formula or something else about its production must have changed at some point, and they lost interest in eating it.

These two sister cats love Fancy Feast, I think partly because it's what their rescuer lures cats into the trap with (their first meal of their new life!), so that was always my backup (especially since I could get it at the store locally if a shipment didn't arrive on time or was damaged in transit). Now they eat varieties of that all the time, and it's fine. They have Farmina dry food in their puzzle bowl to graze on as desired between meals of wet food.

The cat I'm fostering gets one can of BFF wet food per day and one meal of Taste of the Wild dry food. One of my cats always wants to steal his food, so it's also appealing! I'll give my cats a treat of some of his dry food when I'm getting it out to feed him.

I used to pay about $165 every 6 weeks for frozen raw food for my two cats, plus the occasional refill bag of dry food (~$35). Costs are comparable now for canned food and dry food for all three cats.

As others have said, I would just suggest trying various foods you're thinking about switching to and see how they respond to them. I will say, there's something to be said for finding a brand you can get at the store locally if your regular delivery or shipment falls through due to weather or other forces. Even as a backup, that's useful!

One of my cats concurs: ".,,,,,"
posted by limeonaire at 11:09 AM on December 28, 2024


Best answer: My most trusted source on pet food is Tufts Veterinary so here is a link to their FAQ on pet nutrition.
posted by Rhedyn at 11:30 AM on December 28, 2024 [2 favorites]


Best answer: I did this thought exercise about 5 months ago, just trying to decide if I felt like Cordelia's diet was okay generally, and my own concerns about food safety put me off as a primary reason I didn't. I also felt like it was unnecessarily unsustainable to ship and also, largely, just unnecessary: we've been feeding livestock and companion animals dried food for a very long time and the supply chain for it is well-established, relatively safe, and things would have to get pretty dire for local stores to be completely out of my chosen option plus comparable alternatives.

I also asked my vet a few years ago, when I had 3 dogs, if there was a "more right answer" to the standard 'what do you feed them' question, and she said that basically she wants to hear that it is a) food for their species (ie dog food for dogs) b) appropriate for their condition (ie puppy food for puppies and particularly large-breed puppy food for XL breeds, indoor/lower-cal food for overweight dogs, ideally a senior formula for oldsters especially if they have joint/weight issues) c) not some alarming trend d) ideally a step or two above the cheapest brands. Her point was that she sees healthy pets on every possible type of food, and unhealthy pets on every possible type of food, and honestly it doesn't seem to matter much unless they have sensitivities to certain ingredients OR have medical conditions that need kidney-safe or whatever foods.

Her other point is that big name brands are held more accountable for production safety and lab-backed nutritional claims. She'd rather hear a brand that passes AAFCO and FDA standards because it means it will have the critical nutrients.

I've actually done a whole circle and am back feeding her Purina One Urinary Health Formula (she goes through phases of very vocal litterbox use and this was originally recommended for that, but we are starting to suspect is not pain-related and she just likes everyone to know that she has just taken a shit and will want to play when she comes out) and she gets a Sheba Gravy Indulgence every morning because we are suckers for her sad little "please, my wets!" cries.
posted by Lyn Never at 11:33 AM on December 28, 2024 [4 favorites]


Response by poster: Thanks for all the thoughtful answers, y'all. I'm heading out of town for a conference next week, but as soon as I get back, I'll see about slowly making the switch. I claim sanctuary, my picky tabby is the opposite of what you mention -- she wants ZERO VARIETY. I used to feed them a bunch of different raw meat blends (chicken, turkey, pork, beef) and she slowly wore me down until they eat beef 100% of the time. She wouldn't touch anything else. So this will be an interesting process, to say the least, but well worth it to keep my fur kiddos safe.
posted by leftover_scrabble_rack at 5:16 AM on December 29, 2024


Hello, fellow Minnesotan. Can you try transitioning to Woody’s cooked food options? My cat eats Woody’s cooked food almost exclusively, and from a texture perspective I feel like that would be the easiest switch vs. whatever saucy smelly canned food you try. The cost would be similar to what you’re currently used to spending, too.

My cat was a rescue who supposedly ate anything at the foster home but didn’t like most of the canned food I tried. (She is a total monster for all bread, though.)
posted by Maarika at 9:28 AM on December 31, 2024


I don’t really feed my cats raw food. The thing with raw food is you have to make sure it's fresh, clean, and free from contamination, but it’s hard to be sure of that. It's better to be safe than sorry and avoid worrying about them getting sick later, which ends up being way more expensive. Btw, thank you for the cat tax!
posted by liza97 at 1:34 PM on January 2


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