JUST SAY NO TO GROUND

As long as your cats have teeth**, there need be

NO GRINDERS, NO GRINDING,

AND NO GROUND RAW FOOD

involved in their diets…ever!

There are a number of very good reasons to say no to ground foods in your cat’s diet. But one of the most important reasons for this has to do with your cat’s teeth. Those teeth are the only grinders your cat will ever need! Nature designed cats’ teeth eons ago, (a very, very long time before human beings ever came along with mechanical food grinders) and cats have been using those teeth to successfully grind their own food for many millions of years.

It’s perfectly natural for cats to use their teeth to gnaw apart whole raw carcasses, including meaty bones and organs. What’s unnatural is for them to be fed food that’s been reduced from its whole, unadulterated state into a pile of mush. Those sharp teeth in your pet’s mouth are there for slicing and crunching through whole foods - not for gumming up ground pulp. And if your cat doesn’t use those teeth of hers, there’s a chance that she may very well lose them. The unfortunate fact is, that if cats do not use their teeth for the purpose they were designed to be used, it’s very possible that those teeth might end up either becoming diseased, falling out or having to be extracted.

  Over time, a regular diet of ground food can cause plaque and tartar to build up on the teeth, and this can cause gum disease, which can lead to a myriad of health problems. Gums that are weak, inflamed and unhealthy can’t support the teeth properly, and cats that are fed ground foods for a long period of time may risk tooth loss.  

Gingivitis and periodontal disease are also an indication of a chronic presence of an increased amount of unhealthy bacteria in the mouth. That bacteria, which is regularly swallowed, in turn affects the entire system, and over time, this can be a major contributing factor in many serious systemic diseases.  

Many people take their cats to the vet for regular teeth cleaning. This procedure is not only costly, but is also very stressful for the cat, and requires anesthesia, which always carries with it some degree of risk. Feeding cats the way Nature intended however, will, in most cases, eliminate any need for this procedure, because the natural scrubbing and flossing action of consuming raw meat, bones and connective tissue helps to keep teeth white and clean, and gums pink and strong.

  Click here for a graphic illustration of the difference between the diseased mouth of an improperly fed cat undergoing a dental cleaning, compared to a prey model fed cat, whose mouth is clean and healthy.  

Besides the issue of oral health with regards to whole vs. ground foods, is the matter of digestion. Feeding ground food encourages speedy gulping, because virtually no effort, and so very little time, is needed to consume it. Quickly inhaling ground food allows it to arrive so rapidly into the cat’s stomach, that often there's no time for its necessary digestive acids to be fully excreted. Such meals may end up causing irritation or indigestion, which can mean a greater chance of them either being vomited up, or coming out the other end in a less than desirable form.  

On the other hand, one of the great benefits of feeding whole raw foods, is that it requires some work on the part of the jaws and teeth to hack away at fleshy fibers and bones, and this takes some time. The time it takes to gnaw away at whole meaty bones to the point where swallow-able sized hunks have been torn off, gives the gut time to activate its gastric juices so that when the food finally does hit the stomach, it has a much better chance of being properly digested.  

There’s a growing market for prepackaged raw frozen pet food patties these days. Along with the other reasons mentioned here for not feeding ground food to your cats, there are several more very good reasons not to feed these prefabricated products.  

One of these reasons has to do with the control you have over the handling procedures of the food you purchase to feed your pets. Feeding your pets prefabricated frozen ground patties means that you have no idea how the food that went into them was handled, what kind facility it was handled in, what kind of sanitation procedures were in place, or how well it was kept frozen between the time it was assembled and the time it ends up in your shopping basket.

  And speaking of shopping, by and large, these patties are very pricey. Pound for pound, you can get a whole lot more for your money buying whole foods, than you will by spending it on these kinds of prefab patties.

  Furthermore, those premixed patties sometimes contain ground bone and organs and sometimes don't, and it’s often unclear exactly what proportions of meat, bone or organs they do contain. Besides that, some of those patties even contain vegetables, which really have no place in a true carnivore's diet.  

On the other hand, since Mother Nature knows best, she puts exactly the proper proportions of parts right there in the whole critter. So compared to Nature's model, those ground up, frozen processed products are simply vastly inferior to whole foods ala Mom Nature.  

Some people purchase their own grinders (a considerable expense, which would be much better spent on high quality whole raw foods for their cats) and grind their own raw foods according to a recipe, which most likely includes several kinds of nutritional supplements, which again, are virtually unnecessary when feeding whole raw foods. The reason supplements are generally recommended in these ground recipes is no doubt due to the fact that grinding damages the nutrients naturally present in raw foods, thereby reducing their viability and availability to your cat.

  Yet another benefit of feeding whole, minimally processed foods is the fact that their nutrients remain essentially intact, just the way Nature made them.  

Ground raw food, whether prepackaged or homemade, is, in essence, nothing more than an attempt to reverse-engineer commercial petfood, and as such, it’s unnatural. Nature’s way is always the best alternative.

Finally, as if all this weren’t reason enough not to feed your cat a diet of pre-chewed, ground raw food, consider the overall mental, physical and psychological implication of feeding whole raw foods.

 Feeding whole foods to your cat stimulates him, involving him in the entire process of eating his food much more than if he’s just offered up a bowl of easy to gobble food with a porridge-like consistency. Having to actually use his teeth and jaws in order to eat as his body was designed to, engages your cat in a way that just lapping up ground food does not. Something comes alive in a cat that is fed whole, involving raw foods. If you have such a cat, you understand exactly what this means. And if you don’t, perhaps you will come to see what it means for your furry feline friend, when that carnivorous spark within him comes to life as you start feeding him a prey model diet.

  To summarize, the reasons to feed whole raw foods to your cat as opposed to ground raw food are:  

***If by chance for some reason your cat does not have all of her teeth and you intend to feed her a raw diet, it will be necessary to grind at least some, if not all, of her food. In this case, please check out the information offered at:   http://www.catnutrition.org

  There you can find recipes and advice for grinding whole foods, which must include some bones and organs, to feed your tooth challenged cat. Please do bear in mind though, that there are those cats who no longer have all their own teeth, who are actually able to gnaw apart fairly large hunks of meat.