Can I Give Raw Beef to My Cat

Can cats safely eat raw meat?

No. Raw meat is a terrible idea for domesticated cats.

All it takes is ane serving with Salmonella or E. coli to infect your true cat. Once infected or simply inoculated and conveying the diseases, your cat can also infect your family (see below for more information on Salmonella & E. coli and what to look for in your cat if it has been infected).

Either cook the meats you are serving your true cat or stick to commercially bachelor true cat food. Yes, cats are "obligate carnivores" (significant that they need, or, are "obliged" to eat only meat)

While they may consume small amounts of plant fabric, they lack the physiology required for the efficient digestion of vegetable matter and, in fact, some cannibal mammals eat vegetation specifically as an emetic. For instance, felids including the domestic cat are obligate carnivores requiring a diet of primarily animal flesh and organs.

...yet, domesticated pets are quite different from undomesticated felines. Your firm cat has very different nutritional needs and considerations from a wild feline.

Raw fish is also a bad idea:

an enzyme in raw fish destroys thiamine, which is an essential B vitamin for your true cat. A lack of thiamine can cause serious neurological problems and lead to convulsions and blackout.

Liver is fine in very minor amounts, but is also a terrible idea as a regular source of food:

eating too much liver can crusade vitamin A toxicity. This is a serious condition that can touch your true cat's bones. Symptoms include deformed basic, bone growths on the elbows and spine, and osteoporosis. Vitamin A toxicity tin can also cause decease.

Please review this web site for an overview of "Harmful Foods for Your True cat" and this article covering "10 Myths Almost Raw Diets for Kittens."

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should we stick exclusively to factory-produced catfood?

Yes. Stick to commercially available food which has been approved by the AAFCO. In particular research and wait for foods which have passed the AAFCO feeding tests too equally the conception tests. Feeding tests actually involve feeding the formula and analyzing the nutrient absorbtion.

"Feeding Your Adult Cat: What Yous Need to Know":

AAFCO uses two methods to evaluate the nutritional adequacy of adult cat foods: formulation and feeding test.

The formulation method involves doing a nutritional analysis of ingredients and comparing it with AAFCO nutrient profiles for a cat's detail life stage. "That diet doesn't have to be fed to any live animal before it's sold," Larsen says.

The feeding test method evaluates the digestibility and absorption of nutrients in live animals. "I strongly prefer foods that have been through AAFCO feeding tests," Larsen says.

Although adult true cat foods may contain a wide range of ingredients, Larsen says your focus should be on nutrients.

Mindy Bough, CVT, senior director of client services for the Midwest Function of the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), agrees. "The presence of ane or 2 ingredients may make the food announced healthy, merely it's the balance of proteins, fats, carbohydrates, vitamins, and minerals that brand a healthy true cat food," Bough says.

When evaluating percentages of nutrients, keep in listen that these are measured on a "dry matter basis." For this reason, a dry out cat food may appear to take more protein than a wet food, for instance, but merely because it contains less water.

See also this article for more information on a nutritionally counterbalanced nutrition adequate for your true cat and common mistakes (due east.thousand. recall to brand sure your true cat always has water bachelor!)

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should we melt the meat first?

Yes, if yous are going to feed your cat meats, you lot should melt them commencement. No thing what you feed your cats though, the nearly important thing is that they become a balanced diet sufficient to their lifestyle (specially the amount of exercise they get) and health profile (which your vet tin diagnose).

From "When Raw Food is Not the Right Food for Your Pet":

an unbalanced raw diet of high quality fresh meat is in my professional opinion a greater chance to your dog or true cat than cheap processed pet food.

If you exercise want to prepare food for your true cat, I strongly recommend you at the very least read Waltham's pocketbook guide for "Essential Nutrition For Cats And Dogs." For a comprehensive overview of the vitamin and minerals needed, come across The National Research Council'southward "Food Requirements of Dogs and Cats." It is an expensive book, but an overview of the nutritional requirements is available by consulting the charts starting on page 13 of the AAFCO's article, "AAFCO Dog and True cat Food Nutrient Profiles."

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Regarding the dangers and inherently dangerous practice of feeding your true cat raw food, it is a very skilful idea to know what to look out for if yous decide to brand a habit of this.

Cats can become salmonellosis from the Salmonella present in raw meats.

Along with causing gastroenteritis and septicemia in cats, salmonellosis is a zoonotic bacterial disease, meaning it tin be transmitted to humans.

The severity of the illness will often decide the signs and symptoms that are overtly present in the cats. Symptoms commonly seen in cats with salmonellosis include:

Fever, shock, lethargy, diarrhea, vomiting, anorexia, weight loss, dehydration, peel affliction, mucus in stool, abnormally fast heart charge per unit, swollen lymph nodes, abnormal vaginal discharge

Chronic forms of salmonellosis may exhibit some of these same symptoms; nevertheless, they will be more than severe. These include symptoms:

Fever, weight loss, loss of blood, non-intestinal infections, diarrhea that comes and goes with no logical explanation, which may final up to three or four weeks, or longer

From the Center for Disease Control:

Salmonella infection has not declined in 15 years

Reducing Salmonella infection is difficult because

• It is found in many different types of foods: meats, eggs, fruits, vegetables, and even processed foods such as peanut butter.
• Contamination tin can occur anywhere: from fields where food is grown to cut boards in kitchens.
• What we eat and how we eat have changed: foods coming from one central location are widely distributed, meaning that sickness tin can spread apace; we eat more meals outside the habitation; and more foods and ingredients come from all over the earth.
• Some policies and procedures that can make a difference in reducing contamination take years to put into place.

*These contaminated ingredients or single foods (belonging to one food category) were associated with 1/3 of the Salmonella outbreaks.

†Other includes: Sprouts, leafy greens, roots, fish, grains-beans, shellfish, oil-sugar, and dairy.

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Though it is more often than not seen merely in kittens, cats can besides go Colibacillosis from Escherichia coli (ordinarily known every bit Due east. coli) in raw meats. Similar Salmonella, E. coli is also zoonotic and tin can exist passed from animals to humans.

From the Eye for Disease Control on East. coli:

How is E. coli O157:H7 spread? Outbreaks oft are acquired by nutrient that has gotten the bacteria, E. coli, in it. Bacteria tin can become accidentally mixed into basis beefiness before packaging. Eating undercooked meat can spread the bacteria, even though the meat looks and smells normal. Eastward. coli can also live on cows' udders. It may get into milk that is not pasteurized.

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Source: https://pets.stackexchange.com/questions/14/can-cats-safely-eat-raw-meat

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