Feeding your Bengal a Raw diet

Are Raw food diets good for Bengals? 
Everyone knows that proper nutrition is essential to a cat's well-being. Choosing the right food can be hard, especially when we have to worry about the ingredients in commercial pet foods and pet food recalls. Some owners choose to feed their cats home-prepared diets, so they know exactly what is in the cat food. Other owners choose a Raw diet.

What Is a Raw Diet for Bengals?
Feeding cats a Raw diet means feeding them uncooked animal muscle meat, organ meat, and bones. This type of food is sometimes called the BARF diet, which stands for "bones and raw food" or " biologically-appropriate raw food." The ideal Raw diet is prepared based on a carefully designed recipe.

Many cat owners choose to prepare these diets themselves, but commercial forms are also available. If you choose to feed your cat a raw diet, it should be one that has been determined complete and balanced.   A biologically appropriate raw diet is the closest thing to what your cat’s ancestors would have eaten in the wild. By feeding your cat the way nature intended, you fuel a happy, healthy, vibrant lifestyle for years to come.

Why Consider feeding a Raw diet?
Bengals are obligate carnivores. In short, this means they must eat meat to survive. Cats do not actually need vegetables and carbohydrates in their diets. In fact, they can only tolerate carbohydrates in small amounts. Instead, cats thrive on high-protein, high-moisture diets rich in substances only found in meat. This includes amino acids like taurine, fatty acids, and other essential vitamins and minerals.

Supporters of Raw food diets believe that cooking meat alters or decreases these vital substances. They advocate for a biologically-appropriate diet that closely mimics what a cat would eat in the wild. In general, small wild cats hunt and eat rodents and other small mammals, birds, fish, insects, and even reptiles. When it comes to feeding your own cat raw food, the idea is to create a diet that is similar.

There is some controversy revolving around raw food diets for pets. Those who support raw food diets have much to say about the health benefits: 

• Coats are shinier
• Teeth stay cleaner
• Obesity is prevented
• Overall health is better.

While these claims tend to ring true, the opposition has valid concerns about the safety
of Raw food diets.

Are Raw Food Diets Safe?
It is important to know that feeding raw food to your cat comes with some risks. Raw food may contain pathogens like Salmonella and E. coli that can lead to serious life-threatening infections. Cooking food removes most of these pathogens, which is why we humans cook our food.

Cats can digest raw foods better than humans, because they have shorter, more acidic digestive tracts. Many pathogens will pass through a cat without causing any issues. However,
not all cats can tolerate raw food.

Perhaps the greatest risk of feeding and handling raw meat comes down to cross-contamination. Feeding your cat a raw food diet can expose you and other people in your home to dangerous pathogens. Pathogens can remain on preparation surfaces, food dishes, in cat fecal matter and even on your cat (especially around the face).

Raw diets should not be fed to cats living in homes with immune-compromised individuals. They should also be avoided in households with young children and/or elderly people.

While it's impossible to eliminate all risk, there are some ways to try to be safer when feeding a raw food diet to your cat:

• Prepare the food in a contained area of the home; clean and sanitize thoroughly when done (use a 1:32 bleach to water solution if possible)
• Wear gloves when handling raw meat
• Handle food frozen when possible
• Use meat ingredients from a reliable source
• Feed your cat in an area that is easy to clean (no carpeting or upholstery nearby)
• Sanitize food bowls immediately after feeding (scrub clean, then use a 1:32 bleach to water solution, then rinse and dry bowls)

Bones are a safety concern when it comes to Raw food diets. Small whole bones or pieces of bones can cause complications such as gastrointestinal obstructions, oral injuries, and airway obstructions. If animal bones are included in your cat's Raw food diet, they should be ground up thoroughly.

Complete and Balanced Raw Food Diets: 
One of the biggest mistakes owners make with Raw food diets is not making sure the diet is complete and balanced. Some people just feed "all meat and bones" or a wide variety of meats without actually paying attention to the calorie, fat, protein, and nutrient content.

Don't assume your cat is getting everything needed for good health by simply feeding "as much meat as desired." Over time, an incomplete diet can lead to serious health problems for your cat.

When developing your cat's raw diet, consult with your veterinarian about recipes that offer complete and balanced nutrition for your cat. Know that many vets will not recommend raw diets due to the risks involved. If you feel strongly about trying a raw diet and your vet is not flexible at all about raw diets, seek out a veterinarian who is experienced with raw diets. Better yet, find a veterinary nutritionist. 

It is essential that you find an expert to help you develop a complete and balanced diet that will truly benefit your cat. Your vet may also recommend special supplements to ensure your cat gets the nutrients needed to stay healthy.

Ingredients used in a raw food diet may include the following:

• Raw meat from muscles and organs (good sources include poultry, rabbit, and fish)
• Raw bones, ground
• Eggs
• Supplements (required)

You will need the following equipment to prepare the raw diet:
If you choose to prepare your Raw diet yourself, you will need the items below.

• Large cutting board that can go in the dishwasher
• Meat grinder
• Poultry shears
• Stainless steel or glass mixing bowls
• Disposable gloves (latex or nitrile)
• Storage containers (may people use ice cube trays or small freezer-safe containers
• Freezer and refrigerator space

Preparing a Raw diet at home can be a bit time-consuming, so most owners prefer to make enough to last several weeks and keep it frozen.

If you are not able to take the time to develop recipes and prepare raw food at home, you may wish to try one of the many commercial Raw diets available. Raw diet supporters often consider commercial raw diets inferior to those prepared at home. However, they are healthier than feeding kibble.

Commercial Raw diets are usually frozen or freeze-dried to minimize pathogens. Remember that safe-handling precautions should still be taken with these diets to prevent cross-contamination. Ask your veterinarian or veterinary nutritionist for help finding the right commercial diet. Make sure it is complete and balanced.

Summary:
Bengals need a diet composed primarily of meat. Switching to a Raw cat food can greatly improve your cat’s health by avoiding many of the problems associated with poor nutrition such as hydration imbalances, kidney disease and crystals and urinary tract infections.

Cats are obligate carnivores, meaning they have nutritional requirements that can only be met with a diet based almost entirely on animal tissue. Their bodies don’t produce the enzymes required to digest carbohydrates.

When you switch to a Raw Food you’ll notice:

• That your cat’s fur will become silkier and softer. Their breath will be fresher and their teeth will be cleaner.
• They will have fewer digestive health issues and you will notice that there is much less odor coming from the litter box!
• Their immune systems will improve and they can better fight off disease on their own.
• Cats are carnivores. Their bodies are specifically designed for a low-carb  / No-carb diet. They don’t produce the enzymes needed to digest carbohydrates, such as vegetables. 
• A balanced raw diet should include flesh, organs, abone or ground bone and a small amount of vegetation. In addition,  pet parents can also add supplements to a raw-food diet for cats.

How much Raw should be fed:
The general rule of thumb for the amount to feed adult cats, either in Raw food or canned food, is to feed 2 to 4% of the cat's ideal body weight per day. For an inactive and/or older cat the 2% amount might be good and for a very active and/or younger cat, 4% might be closer to what's needed.

For more Bengal Raw feeding information and resources please consider these vendors:
Hare today for your Raw Diet - Hare-today.com
Nu-Vet plus for supplements  Nuvet.com
Registered Bengals - Products Page - For other Bengal related products and resources.

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