Feline BARF Natural Diet - Would a Cat Like to Eat BARF?

The BARF diet—doesn’t sound especially appetizing until you understand what the acronym stands for. BARF is short for both biologically appropriate raw food and bones and raw food (also known as born again raw food).

The BARF diet is based on the concept that bones and raw food are the closest form to the real food cats would eat in the wild. Proponents of the diet claim that cats receive greater health benefits from eating raw food and that commercial cooked pet food can be detrimental and cause health problems. Supporters feel that the cooking process destroys many essential nutrients that cats require. Opponents to the diet point to the fact that raw food can carry bacteria that causes food-borne illnesses and that the potential risk outweighs the potential benefit. Unfortunately, both sides can point to just a handful of studies to support their beliefs.

A study by Lisa Freeman, DVM, and Kathryn Michel, DVM, published in the Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association, March 2001, was an evaluation of five dog food diets—three homemade and two commercial. They found that the raw diets lacked phosphorus and potassium and had high levels of zinc, all of which were considered a concern when feeding puppies. Additionally, one homemade diet showed presence of E. coli 0157:H7, the bacteria known to cause illness in humans.

Conversely, the Pottenger Cat Studies, conducted between 1932 and 1942, found that cats fed a raw food diet of raw meat, bones, raw milk and cod-liver oil outlived and out-reproduced their peers fed a cooked diet. The study also found that the group fed the cooked diet, after several generations, failed to reproduce; however, the study notes that this group, when later fed the raw food diet, had a health reversal. Critics of the Pottenger study cite the fact that no one knows for certain what aspect of the raw food diet actually affected the health of the animals, whether it was raw meat, raw milk or cod-liver oil. They also note that the study has yet to be reproduced to determine scientific merit. Critics also say that raw bone shards can break teeth and perforate the intestinal tract.

Even Ann Martin, the author who took on the commercial pet food industry, calling them to task for the unhealthy ingredients used in pet food, does not support the raw food diet. In a Better Nutrition article, June 2005, she notes the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had found that a high percentage of raw meat contains at least one form of bacteria. She quotes a veterinarian who explains that certainly it was normal in the wild for wolves to eat raw meat, but it was also normal for wolves to occasionally die of salmonella poisoning.

She describes a study in the Journal of the American Animal Health Hospital Association that showed that two cats became sickened by salmonella in raw food that led to their deaths. Bacterial cultures of the cats and the meat were identical.

Yet, supporter Dr. Richard Pitcairn, author of the “Dr. Pitcairn’s Complete Guide to the Health of Dogs and Cats,” Rodale Press, notes that in his 20 years of practice, he has seen amazingly positive changes in many animals who were switched from commercially processed food to a home-prepared raw diet. For example, he explains that a study found that the amino acid taurine was reduced by 79% in boiling food and that commercial pet food manufacturers now add taurine to their food, suggesting that our knowledge of food is still minimal with regard to what other ingredients may be reduced or ruined by cooking. Supporters also state that feeding raw meat diets to greyhounds and sled dogs has been going on for years.

As the jury is still out on how safe the raw diet is and how much, if any, bacteria is destroyed by the cat’s stomach acids, if you are considering a raw diet for your cat, speak to your veterinarian first.

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