Is raw cat food safe? What are the dangers and salmonella risks?

Hi Jamie, There are a lot of people who advocate for a raw food diet, but you are right that there are a lot of risk factors. There is not a medical benefit to feeding raw food over cooked food. I think a balanced homemade (cooked) or canned food diet are the safest for cats. Making a homemade diet and keeping it balanced can be quite a bit of work, so I currently feed my cats canned. I have attached a link below that may be useful for you. It has a lot of great information about cat food. http://catinfo.org I hope that was helpful. Thanks for using PetCoach.

I don’t recommend raw food diets as they can be very difficult to formulate, balance and also to safely provide without risk of gastrointestinal infection from contaminated meat. I would suggest a home prepared diet if you are interested in avoiding mainstream packaged food brands. Here is a link explain what a Home prepares siet it. There is also a source which will help you formulate a home prepared diet. https://www.petcoach.co/article/how-to-create-a-balanced-homemade-diet-for-your-pet/ For any diet change, we recommend slowly switching over to the new food by adding increasing amounts of the new food to the old food during meal times over a week. Hope this was helpful and thank you for using PetCoach!

Hello, Veterinarians generally do not recommend feeding raw diets. Raw diets are associated with serious food borne illness (food poisoning) and the nutritional imbalances are associated with heart and bone disease. I would not recommend feeding any raw meat or bones to any pet, at any time, due to risk of illness. If you would like to feed a home cooked diet, I would recommend using the website balance.it which is formulated by veterinary nutritionists at the University of California-Davis. This website can direct you on making a homemade diet that is safe and nutritionally complete for Molly. If you're looking to purchase any complete diet, I recommend feeding one that is formulated to AAFCO requirements for canine nutrition. These requirements are based off of evidence based canine nutritional studies and the diets are regularly tested to ensure they are meeting every essential dietary need. Most popular brands are formulated like this- Purina, Iams, Royal Canin, Hill's, for example. I hope this is helpful! Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach!

Hi, I think it's great you are asking about this. I know there is a ton of conflicting information out there and nutrition seems to be a topic that is always under scrutiny. Also, I was not even aware of Thomas Sandberg before I read this, so I had to do a little research on him. The first thing I noticed is that Mr. Sandberg has absolutely no credentials in the topic he is researching. Meaning, he has no degrees in nutrition, animal science, veterinary science, or anything related. I cannot tell if he even has a bachelors degree, but he definitely does not have a PhD. I don't mean to tear the guy to pieces here, but his lack of credentials tells me: 1) He does not know the depth science behind nutrition that would be required to carry out his research; 2) He does not know how to run a quality scientific experiment. This information alone tells me that whatever research he is conducting is not quality. However, possible that he is hiring a nutritionist to do the study...I'm not sure, because there seems to be a big lack of information regarding the actual research. The biggest problem veterinarians and veterinary nutritionists have with raw food, is that there is a concern for infection and that there is no good scientific evidence that it is more beneficial than cooked dog food. That is why we do not recommend feeding raw food: we don't think the risk of making you or your pet sick is worth it. I can probably write a novel about this topic, but instead, I'll give you a link to a credible source that discusses raw food. Please check this out: http://vet.tufts.edu/wp-content/uploads/raw_meat_diets_memo.pdf If you would like to discuss more, then you are welcome to start a consult with me. I hope this helps.

Hello and welcome to Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. Raw food has a huge number of risks associated with it, including auto-immune induced paralysis, severe gut infections, increased vomiting and therefore increased chances of pneumonia, etc. Also, if you feed your animal BARF, then there will be E.Coli and Salmonella all over your house. I never recommend a BARF diet, as there are no benefits and lots of side effects, for both your pet as well as the people living in your house. It especially should be avoided if any immuno-compromised people (old, young, pregnant, cancer patients, people on certain drugs, etc.) are present in the house or around your animal. Bones should also be avoided as they have no benefit (they often cause more damage then good to teeth), and cause many problems as well. Unfortuantely, working in emergency, I see dogs die daily as a direct side-effect of being fed raw food and bones. Many animals have it and do OK, but these are ticking time-bombs waiting to go off and cause severe issues that sometimes, despite all medical care, cannot be saved. Human grade meat can be fed if desired, and if you wish to home cook that is great, I would just cook all meat the way you would for yourself (you wouldn't eat raw food or bones, don't feed it to your pet.). Best of luck with Ralphie!

Thank you for submitting your question regarding Tank. Raw diets are very trendy now and unfortunately, there is a lot of misinformation. There is a very high risk of Salmonella poisoning to both your dog and you by feeding raw food. This is especially problematic if anyone in the home is immunocompromised such as very young children, elderly or anyone with a disease that weakens the immune system. Furthermore, raw diets will not be nutritionally balanced for Tank. This can lead to serious consequences with longterm feeding. Finally, bones of any form can lead to intestinal obstruction or perforations. I hope this information helps!

No, I strongly urge you not to do it and you'd be hard pressed to find any vet who would recommend it. It's a fad and it's dangerous for both Kingston and you. Raw food diets contain bacteria like E coli and Salmonella, which poses a risk of poisoning him and you. You can get sick from handling it, and even sick from him licking you because the bacteria lives on his tongue for hours afterwards. In addition, these diets are often imbalanced nutritionally, and it's so vital to have a balanced diet for a growing puppy. I have a vet colleague that just saw an 8 month old puppy who was fed a rad diet and due to the nutritional deficiencies had broken his hip and had severe bone deformities. There is no scientific evidence it's beneficial at all, and all there are is bad things with it. You should feed him a dry puppy food such as Royal Canin, Hill's Science Diet, Purina Pro Plan, and Iams. I hope this helps.