Easy Ways to Add Raw to Your Cat’s Diet

Last August, I made the decision to start feeding my cat’s a healthier diet. I had done lots of research and was making the connection of a poor diet and disease. It is the same for cats as it is with humans. Imagine if all you ate was McDonald’s. How would your body react to that poor diet? I knew that I wanted to feed them a species appropriate raw diet. Unfortunately, at this point, a raw diet is more costly than other choices. With 20 cats, I was going to have to do this in stages. I wanted all of them to have the benefits of raw, so I incorporated small, easy ways to give all 20 cats at least some raw in their daily diets.

Small Steps, Huge Benefits

It took me a few months, but all of my Resident Cats eat a raw diet consisting of frozen and freeze dried raw. They get 3 meals of frozen raw, along with freeze dried meals in between the main meals. I have noticed a lot of changes since their transition including shinier coats, better bowel movements, increased energy and just overall better health. Once I started seeing the benefits of a raw diet with them, I knew I needed to start incorporating raw into the rest of my cat’s diet. Here is how I am able to that without breaking the bank:

• Freeze-dried – The Resident Cats get mini meals of crumbled Freeze-dried. I started crumbling some freeze-dried over the other cat’s wet food. Freeze-dried is an easy way to add raw to your cat’s diet. Especially if you are having apprehension about raw food. I use Stella & Chewy’s. This is also a great substitution to dry food but still gives your cat’s the feeling of eating kibble.

• Bone Broth – Adding bone broth into your cat’s diet is another easy way to incorporate raw. However, you can’t just use the can at the grocery store. You need to make sure that the bone broth is formulated for cats. They do not need the sodium and other ingredients found in grocery stores. I use Small Batch Bone Broth. Because I had not made the decision to keep Lily and Cactus when I first trapped them, I did not start them instantly on a raw diet. Now, I am transitioning them to raw. They get frozen raw added to their wet food, along with bone broth mixed in. They absolutely LOVE it.

• Free-dried Treats – This is probably the easiest way to add raw to your cat’s diet. Throw out the Temptations. There are a lot of really good freeze-dried treats now. Some are freeze-dried organs of small animals that would be natural prey for our cats. Others are the actually prey freeze-dried. This is an easy and cheap way to improve your cat’s diet. Mine love Vital Essentials, Orijin and, of course, Minnow Munchies from The-Two-Crazy-Cat-Ladies. You can also use the treats as a meal topper.

See the Difference

Once you start making these small steps to incorporate raw into your cat’s diet, you will start noticing the big impacts it can make. Starting small is also a great way to transition your cats to raw. It is a process and one that can take time. Starting small is also a great way to see which proteins your cat enjoys. Mine enjoy a variety of proteins. I can switch things up for them with the tips listed above. If you are looking into making the transition to raw or just want to make your cat’s diet a bit healthier, these small ways can provide huge benefits. Dr. Katie Woodley has an amazing video on how we can optimize our cat’s food and nutrition. Small changes can make the biggest impact.

“The food you are feeding could be the safest form of medicine or the slowest form of poison.” – Dr. Katie Woodley, The Natural Pet Doctor