Does any one here feed their pet a RAW diet?

Cats with pancreatic insufficiency (malabsorption) generally do best on low-fiber diets. While a low-fat diet seems to work best for dogs and humans with pancreatitis, there’s no scientific evidence to indicate the same for cats. However, some caregivers report that a lower-fat diet seems to benefit their cats. As carnivores, cats are most suited for a low-carbohydrate diet, and tolerate animal fats well. As pancreatitis occurs so often in conjunction with diabetes, and diabetic cats do best with an all-wet low-carbohydrate diet, and cats with pancreatic insufficiency do best on a low-fiber diet, it may be best to feed cats with pancreatitis a highly-digestible all-wet (canned or raw) low-carbohydrate/low-fiber diet. Monitor your cat to see what foods it seems willing to eat and seem to make it most comfortable.

If you choose to feed a commercially prepared raw pet food, you must do some homework. One specific issue to look at is the percentage of vegetables, and occasionally fruits, that the product contains. My favorite commercial raw diet is Feline's Pride. It is grain-free and vegetable-free. Nature's Variety raw food is another quality product. NV contains 95% meat/bones/organs and only 5% vegetable/fruit matter. This is a reasonable blend although some cats with IBD (Inflammatory Bowel Disease) do not do well with any amount of vegetable matter in their diet. Other cats will do just fine with up to 10% vegetables or more, although I do not feel that diets containing more than 5% - 10% vegetables are optimal diets for a carnivore. Many products do not list this value on the packaging so a call to the company will be necessary or ask your local raw pet food retailer for product literature which may, or may not, list the breakdown of ingredients on a percentage-basis.

Some commercial raw pet diets are prepared without any vegetable matter. They are simply meat, bones and organs. Be aware, however, that a diet prepared with a large amount of necks and backs (common ingredients in commercial products) does not have an optimal calcium-to-phosphorus ratio. There is very little meat, when compared to the amount of bone, on this part of the animal. This leads to a diet that is too high in calcium relative to the phosphorus which can cause constipation in addition to other medical problems.