Changing Your Cat’s Diet Type from Commercial to Homemade or Premium

Concerned by claims made by such pet nutrition advocates as Ann Martin, Richard Pitcairn, DVM, and Martin Goldstein, DVM, many cat owners have switched their cats from commercial, low-grade cat food to premium, natural and homemade meals.

Ms. Martin, author of “Food Pets Die For,” NewSage Press, describes her research in trying to uncover exactly what types of food go into commercial pet foods. She found that pet foods can contain 4-D meat, meaning diseased, dead, dying and disabled. Dr. Goldstein, author of “The Nature of Animal Healing,” Knopf, even adds a fifth D—“drugged.”

Ms. Martin found that some rendering plants (the place where dead animals are rendered into pet food) accept roadkill, euthanized dogs and cats from shelters and veterinary clinics and dead zoo animals. Shocked by her discovery, she sent questionnaires to U.S. states asking if any laws existed to prohibit rendering of euthanized companion animals. Twenty states replied that they did not have such laws to prohibit use of companion animals in pet food. Thirty states did not reply.

Dr. Goldstein notes that since most pets are euthanized with pentobarbital, residues of the chemical could be hazardous if it ends up in pet food. Dr. Goldstein further explains that an article in the New York Times (March 11, 1997) said that veterinarians were not aware that euthanized animals were going to rendering plants, and “that the city of Los Angeles sends two hundred tons of euthanized cats and dogs to a company called West Coast Rendering every month.”

So, will you now look at the words “meat meal” and “animal fat” with apprehensive eyes?

Some don’t buy the accusations. Others see no harm in feeding dead companion animals to pets and say that in the wild, cats, especially feral cats, will scavenge any dead animal like roadkill. Others are more concerned about the potential for residual deadly chemicals used to euthanize pets as well as the end result of where those pets’ tags and collars go.

Plus, Ms. Martin, Dr. Goldstein and Dr. Pitcairn all raise issue with the chemical additives like preservatives, dyes and other chemical additives.

As a result, many feline fanciers feed their cats premium diets based on the nutritional content of the ingredient list.

Dr. Goldstein recommends premium food brands like Wysong, Innova, California Natural, Cornucopia, Solid Gold, Abady, Precise and Pet Guard. Ms. Martin and Dr. Pitcairn feed homemade diets and include recipes in their books. Dr. Pitcairn, unlike Ms. Martin, advocates a raw diet. He feels it is the closest form to a real diet that cats would eat in the wild; whereas, Ms. Martin finds concern with how meat is treated from slaughterhouse to supermarket and with potential bacterial contaminants. Dr. Pitcairn feels that raw food is still holding that living energy of real unadulterated nutrients and that the cat’s acidic stomach is designed to handle bacteria.

Drawbacks? Homemade and raw take a little more time and thought to prepare. The drawback to homemade, raw and premium is that they cost a bit more than commercial.

If you choose to change your pet’s diet, do so gradually to prevent digestive upset like diarrhea or vomiting. Mix a little new food with the old and gradually increase the new and decrease the old over a period of days until you are feeding the new food in its entirety.

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