Cat Nutrition Testimonials

What Lay People, Vets, and One Verbose Cat Named Rocko Have to Say About This Site

Dr Corinne Chapman, BSc, DVM, CVA (IVAS), GDVCHM

Hurrah! Glad to see such a great website. If only Veterinarians would start listening to their clients! I am a Vet, and I am a huge advocate of raw meat diets for cats and dogs. I cannot fathom why other vets still sell low quality “artificial” pet food. Luckily for me, I did extra “schooling” after my Vet degree. I also have a Bachelors degree in Wildlife Biology and Ecology, I guess that helped track me back to pet nutrition roots. It is so sad that we have to see our pets get so sick in order to start feeding them right! I will pass your website on to my kitty clients ASAP!

Calgary, AB Canada

Dr. Elizabeth Hodgkins, DVM

I love your catnutrition.org website and will recommend my clients go to it. Here is the article I give ALL of my clients as I insist they stop feeding dry if they want ME to be their vet. Thanks for helping in this hard fight. We will win.

Author, Your Cat: Simple New Secrets to a Longer, Stronger Life

Dr. Lisa Pierson, DVM

I enthusiastically endorse the principles laid out in Anne’s letter, and strongly urge my veterinary colleagues to consider what it has to say. As a practicing veterinarian whose eyes have been opened in recent years to the illogical practice of feeding a high carbohydrate, water-depleted dry food to obligate carnivores, I am increasingly disheartened by many of my colleagues who continue to (at best) disregard or (at worst) ridicule the growing body of scientific data that validates common sense when it comes to feeding carnivores.

Amber

I’ve been feeding my 2 little grey kitties raw for a few weeks now, since the beginning of January. They are 2.5 years old litter mates, short haired, neutered and indoors. I’d never heard of raw food, and always chose what looked like great high quality dry food and plenty of fish and chicken for their canned food. I was always reading the ingredients on their food, and thought I was doing very well by them. 

About October they both just stopped playing. It was like a switch was thrown. Lila was gaining more weight (she’s always been heavy), and started scooting because she couldn’t reach to clean herself properly. Her fur had always been sort of lank, feeling oily, coarse and dry all at once. She had dandruff, goopy eyes, tartar on her teeth and hated to have her back touched. She never snuggled, and if I petted her back she would twitch and wiggle away. Since she turned 1 year old she’u never ran or jumped, never chased string, even though she wasn’t obese until recently. 

Over the winter holiday while I was away she became sort of bloated. When she pooped outside the litter box one day I realized she couldn’t fit in the door comfortably. I removed the lid of the litter box and started doing research on their diet. Lila always ate the dry food, while Bardo ate the canned food more often than the dry. Bardo had soft fur and no weight problems but also had the goopy eyes, dandruff and difficulty pooping because it was huge and seemed occasionally painful for him. And it stank. That boy could have heated the house some days. They both tended to ‘beat up’ the food bowls after using the litter box.

SO: enter raw feeding. I was very very careful with the recipe and supplements, made extra sure I had the quantities correct and had mixed everything properly. It’s been a gradual transition away from canned food (I returned the dry food before I started this, never again) and now they are on just the raw food.

It’s been a month: I have different cats. Lila’s fur is soft, smooth and dandruff-free. Her eyes are only a little goopy, her teeth look better (though she will need a scaling), she is running (!) and jumping and talking and climbing. I haven’t seen that cat run in over a year. 

Her breath is better, her weight is gradually going down and she loves to have her back scratched. She was never fluffy before, and now she is! Bardo is happier, running again and chasing string, playing with Lila. His dandruff is gone, his fur is lovely and his poop is small, dry, odorless and easy. They both have improved dispositions, and clean their bowls to a shine. No more ‘punishing the plate’.

They no longer get any fish, because they both get itchy when they eat it. I am so impressed at the difference in them, especially Lila. Thank you so much for creating this resource.

February 2014

Barbara

My 15 year old (at the time) cat Shimi had lost almost ½ her body weight, didn’t want to eat, was vomiting and had constant diarrhea. She had been on all the prescription diets and even had an exploratory surgery to see what was wrong with her. Shimi had severe IBD. I threw out all the prescription diets and made my first batch of raw food using a food processor which was all I had. Shimi ate the food and started to feel better almost immediately. Today she is 18 years old and doing great thanks to you and the raw diet.

I feed raw to all the cats I care for in rescue as well as own two cats. My rescue kitties all have beautiful glossy coats, good body weight and energy and just look full of life. No foul smelling litter boxes here and no vomiting cats. All my adoptees go out the door with your handouts and a link to your website as well as a small supply of raw food. I don’t want my foster cats to ever go through what my own poor cat did from being fed dry cat food.

Thank you from all the cats here and from me.

La Honda Mountain Cats Rescue

BARF-a-rama!

It’s been a few months of raw diet now, and the miracle continues.

My littlest, sickest cat gained weight on the diet, and all of her troubles went away. She’s the most dramatic case, but the condition of all five other cats has drastically improved as well. Two of the cats took a bit longer to adjust to the diet – maybe two weeks longer – one of these cats had eosinophilic granuloma, which disappeared completely for the first time in three years. The other always had bloody stools (probably an irritable bowel) – and this problem has cleared up completely. She is so much younger looking and acting – I saw her dancing around in the grass the other day – a big change in this 9 year old!

One of the cats is a great big fat fluffy slob – he’s lost 3 pounds of flab, and his coat is gorgeous. All the cats have thick beautiful healthy coats now.

My biggest cat had an ongoing flea allergy, which made him look and feel awful – you should see this big boy now! He’s gleaming with health. The little brainy cat has stopped trying to steal people food, and now tries to steal vitamins, supplements and seaweed as if they were candy. I have to keep her upstairs when I prepare the cat food. She knows what’s GOOD for her!

Aside from the general weight adjustments, which were considerable, and their overall look, which is hard to believe – the most wonderful thing of all is the positive change in their behavior. Somewhere along the line, I read a testimonial saying that the cats became more “catlike”.

At the time, I thought this statement was a little “over the top”, but NO MORE. It’s true – they ARE more catlike. Their stride has lengthened and become more fluid – lighter. They play more, and with a lot more enthusiasm. They sprawl around SO relaxed. They “talk” more. They are more affectionate. It’s just plain amazing. They drink a LOT less water, and the cat box – well, there’s a lot less in it.

I prepare the food in double batches and freeze it in snack-sized Ziploc bags. It takes about 2.5 hours to make and freeze a double batch. I freeze a dozen small bags together in a gallon-sized bag, and take out two in the morning and two at night, thawing them up to “mouse body temperature” in the sink with warm water. (Feeding it too cold does cause two cats to throw up their meal – but all other throwing up has ceased. And I’m grateful!) Then I cut off the end of the bag and squeeze out the meal onto uncoated paper plates. This feeds six cats nicely, and is a most easy and sanitary method of feeding. Gone are the smelly cans and dried up bits of God-knows-what. No more commercial cat food for this cat family! I use crushed Flea Treats as the B complex, and guess what! No fleas, naturally.

They eat every bit of their food, all of them together (which is a small miracle in and of itself!), and then they s t r e t c h luxuriously, and retire to the living room, where all six then wash up – it’s quite a sight. I’ve included a photo of them eating – this is the very first time I have ever captured all six of them in one photo!

I can’t think of any downside to feeding cats this way, except that it is more expensive and takes some planning and labor. I’ve tried to price it, and I come up with say, $1.50 per cat, per day. However – when I look into my “cat medicine closet,” and see all the expensive failed products and pharmaceuticals – and I think of all the unproductive vet visits and shoulder-shrugging I have endured……when I think of the worrying and agonizing I have done over the health of my animals, and the food I have thrown away because it was refused …I’ll crunch the bones and do the work gladly. Thanks, Anne!

Christina and Frida

I came to Annie’s wonderful website after the 2nd time my cat has been to the vet for cystitis within 1 year. Both times the vet (different vets) could not give me any definitive answer on what is causing the illness nor any preventative measure besides treating it symptomatically ( giving my cat antibiotics). The cost of both visits with test came was over $500. 

When one of the vet requested me buy Hills Perscription c/d canned food at the office, I begin to looked into the ingredients and was astonished that by-products and corn meal were in the top ingredients of this vet prescribed food. This is when I begin to do my own research on cat nutrition and discovered your website along with Dr. Lisa Pierson’s website. Both have been instrumental in my understanding my cat nutrition and making the changes that we need switching from half canned half dry cat food to home made raw food. I have to admit I was highly intimated to purchase a meat grinder and handling raw meat and organs. 

However, Annie’s website and videos have made that so much easier, her humor, instructions and pictorials gave me the confidence to make the initial investments. All the recommendations of supplies, supplements have been nothing but appropriate and top notch. Frida and I have been successfully switching to the raw diet for over 3 weeks, and she has been happier than ever! Her coat becomes super soft, her eyes look bright and moist, her butt looks healthy and not itchy anymore, and she even got rid of the running nose that had her drip everywhere she used to go. 

I am very grateful for this website and all the people who made this possible. My sincere encouragement for people who may be on the edge of trying raw food is it’s so worth it, and it’s so true like Annie said, it’s cat food not astrophysics! :-))

Los Angeles, CA USA
May 2014

Barry Ira Geller

August 2009 – I cannot express enough my gratitude for your website, which I am reading a 2nd and 3rd time. Thelonius Monkey was on death’s door, if not one paw already out of it. Had I taken him to my vet at the beginning of this episode there is no doubt in my mind the recommendation would have been putting him down right away.

I’d read over your site some two months ago but only had changed their dry food to EVO a 95% meat, but was till feeding them regular wetfood. (5 persians). But when Monkey appears walking clumsily and falling down while walking and then not getting up for a whole day, then lying dead-like with closed eyes all night, I thought he’d pass during the night. Refused water and everything. But he wasn’t in pain, so I felt he could pass with dignity and being in comfortable surroundings (as had his father, six years ago, of congenital renal failure). However the next day he was still hanging on, so (remembering your article a bit) I tried giving him some lightly cooked ground turkey with powdered supplements called Missing Link. He ate some of it — and I could see life coming back to him almost right away. Then I spent the next few hours going over everything on your site and threw together raw chicken legs and things, Missing link powder, and hearts. and some water. All the cats went nuts over the food, to my real surprise — but Monkey, by the hour, showed more and more life, ate more of it Yesterday I found Bone Meal (no grinder yet) and cod liver oil; today I found chicken livers and a few hearts with a ton of gizzards. Tonight I found taurine…..

All I can say is that this is the 3rd day and I am astonished and in quiet joy, seeing there is a possibility he may even make a continuing recovery. He is jumping up (although his hind legs are still somewhat askey, but much improved) to his chair and dinner table and even started to drink water. He is alert again, using the litter box on the first floor of my condo, going down the steps himself (he had to be carried down, before I got him on the raw diet!).

He would have appeared to have had a stroke or something like that. I am not sure what he had, but I am certain I am not taking him to a vet until somewhat down the line. I remain amazed — and bless you for putting together such a well written, well-thought site.

9/23/12 UPDATE to a testimonial I wrote in August 2009 – when I first started using your Raw Diet recipe. At that time, I did not have a grinder and was registering a recovery going on just a week on the diet. I am happy to say Thelonius Monkey, who was at death’s door & ready to be put to sleep, made a TOTAL recovery — gain back his lost weight and more, within 6-8 weeks on the diet. His recovery is confirmed by his medical records before and after at my vet’s hospital who, seeing it before her eyes, now has gone into the raw area herself. I have told the story a hundred times and recommended Anne and this website to hundreds of people, since. Monkey Man is now 12 years old and Super Healthy.

His mother, Ivana, was also put on the diet at that time and recently attended her 16th birthday celebration. She is a healthy old gal — who last year survived nearly two months in some pound, when she got out for the first time 11 years and a “do-gooder” picked her up from outside my door. The pound and attending Vet thought she was 8 years old (listed on her pound records). I finally found her in a cage in some temporary home — who also thought she was 8!  No one believed a cat her age could have looked that good and survived the ensuing emotional and physical turmoil. But survive she did! Getting her back on her raw food diet was easy – she loves it. So I also attribute her health and life extension to a solid two years of preventative maintenance on your wonderful raw food recipes. I nearly tore up half of Los Angeles in the process, but I finally found her and brought her back to her loving home. The funny thing was, because she was so physically healthy, all the vets thought I was abusing her as a kitten factory because her body appears thinish and elderly. Again, it was your Raw Foods recipe which unquestionable saved her life — and mine as well.

BTW A few months after starting the Raw Foods diet I found a local butcher who is certified to provide total raw ground chicken, bones and everything, of which I get three pounds. With it I purchase a lb. package of chicken hearts and livers and a pound of course-ground regular chicken to allow for partial chunky mixture. I use half pound each of the hearts and livers for 4 pounds of chicken, mixing in all the ingredients of your recipe. This guy also will ship anywhere, called Harmony Farms, in La Crescenta, CA. So while I leave all the grinding to them, I mix everything up according to your recipe, freeze about 10 days worth at a time. Cost? About half of what other pre-packaged “natural non-grain foods cost (like EVO) — which always amazes me.

The truth is I have followed the recipe EXACTLY for three years now. It Works! The only thing I would add (for people new to Raw Food) would be emphasis on caring for the freshness of the food. I defrost each portion naturally and never let a defrosted portion last more than 24 hours — and the cats will show their disdain for anything less fresh 🙂 And I never spare the Taurine. That is why it is so important to freeze small portions. Still takes me an hour of mixing ingredients and packing away.

So When I revisit this site after all this time, I just cry at all the other success stories and I reach out to everyone’s joy: I know, had it not been for Anne’s recipe and her website which opened my eyes to true Cat Nutrition, my dear dear dear Monkey would have lost his life. 

Thank you !!

August 2009 and September 2012

April Polichette

I can’t thank you enough for this website.  I’ve worked as a veterinary assistant at a busy small-animal clinic for the past 4 years. Being bombarded with dry foods and prescription diets and being taught that these dry diets with low magnesium and ash were good for cats, going by what I knew at the time, I fed these to my kitties. I have three handsome male cats. One of them, Kit-Kat, developed FLUTD. I thought, “What, how can this be?!” I was feeding them the adult maintenance diet that was highly recommended from the veterinarians I work with, supposedly for a healthy feline urinary tract. As a veterinary nurse, my baby was hospitalized for one week.

I took care of him day in and day out. I saw him in pain, with IV and urinary catheters in. One of the doctors put him on a prescription diet made for crystals. From that, he gained weight – a total of 7 pounds (which is a lot of weight for a cat to gain). I dove into research about the disease- causes, cures, etc. I came upon your site- loads of information, and guess what? IT MAKES SENSE! Why fight mother nature?

Now all three of my kitties eat a wonderful grain-free canned diet, with the occasional raw meal, and are thriving! Beautiful shiny coats, perfect body weights, and healthy urine pH/ S.G. levels. I recommend raw/canned diets to people who have questions about their kitties with urinary problems, weight problems, and tell them to do their own research. I wish the veterinarians I work with would  “see the light” and promote a more healthy diet for their feline patients. It would save their owners a lot of grief and their kitties a lot of preventative pain! Thanks again!!!

Albuquerque, NM

Carol

My beloved Birman Siamese Mari was diagnosed with diabetes in January of 2006. After 5 months of veterinary hell, where all the vets could tell me was to keep her on a mature MediCal formula and an insulin for dogs, (Caninsulin) her condition worsened to the point where she developed recurring urinary tract infections and peripheral neuropathy. Her coat was raggedy, she was lethargic and she had quickly lost a lot of weight. My kitty was in bad shape and I was in a constant state of stress confused and upset. Nothing the vet told me to do was working.

In desperation I turned to the web. Something in me was telling me the food was the problem. My intuition was screaming at me that if I kept up with the so-called “treatment plan” that the vet insisted on of the 2x a day dosing, no home testing and dry senior MediCal cat food, my kitty would either remain diabetic for life or be dead.

Finding catnutrition.org was like hitting the jackpot for me. It all made sense! Of course cats should be eating meat, not cereal! Certainly they should not be eating dry food coated with rancid oil made from rendered pets!

It took me a while to find and get all the supplements, but in the interim, the kind Shelby of Feline’s Pride sent us — for free — two 2.5 lbs of organic raw chicken pate to get Mari on the road to health.

I gave her methylocobalamin B12 for the peripheral neuropathy — she was walking again in one week!

I found Dr. Elizabeth Hodgkins’ website about diabetes. I learned how to home test and chart my kitty’s BGs and give PZI insulin correctly according to Dr. H’s sliding scale.

Within 2 weeks, my kitty BGs had dropped from high or OFF THE SCALE into the normal range of numbers. We persisted. After 6 months of TR, she was well enough to finally get a dental and I found a vet who would actually listen to what I had to say. She had the dental and less than 3 weeks later — she was cured! Off the juice! Yeah Mari!

Vet #5 who was opposed to raw diet (like all the others) actually conceded that the raw diet recipe I had been using her from www.catnutrition.org had been “excellent” for Mari’s diabetes.

I urge everyone with a kitty to ditch the dry food and transition their kitty over to a raw diet.

Thanks to Anne for this life-saving site!

Christy and Bryce

I am so grateful for this website! It is the most comprehensive education I’ve found on feeding cats appropriately.  The pictures of making the food and the recipe have been very, very helpful.  If you are reading this and are new to the idea of feeding cats naturally, please keep studying and reading so you, too, will know and trust that it’s the only way to properly feed a cat.  Now my story of coming out of my ignorance…

In June 2004 my best friend, White, was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma of the lower left mandible (jaw bone), aggressive and poorly differentiated.  I immediately went online to find out what this was and what to expect.  What I learned was heart-wrenching.  My cat had 30-60 days to live before the cancer would make it necessary to euthanize her.  What was worse, she got this problem from long-term gum inflammation due to bad teeth.  I had always done what I’d heard was best and given my cats dry kibble.  At this time I had 8 indoor-only cats ranging in age from 5 to 12 years.

I also have a cat, Darling (11), with inflammatory bowel disease.  The vet told me she was allergic to chicken and to try various prescription formulas.  One gave her a bladder condition, and the others were an improvement for a week or two and that was all.  One vet suggested canned food, but by then I didn’t trust him.  It was probably the only good suggestion he made.

Darling had some behavioral problems, too.  She always hid even though I’d had her since she was 5 weeks old.  She went through a phase of licking all the hair off her tummy.  She didn’t play much and was very skinny and lethargic and she hid from anyone but me.  I thought she was traumatized from the events of her first 5 weeks before I got her.  As a side note, I need to mention that Darling and her sister, Pooch, always had “toxic” smelling poop and large amounts of it when compared to my other cats.

So, in the course of trying to help Darling, I came across Dr. Pitcairn’s book . . . I didn’t think his recipes had ingredients that cats could hunt and eat if in the wild.  But the seed for raw food was planted and made perfect sense.  As I searched online for ways to help White, I came across Anne’s site and a few others.  My new vet also told me about a premade raw meat-based food (that also contained fruits and vegetables) that I could buy frozen.  I purchased it immediately, fully intending to make my own as soon as circumstances allowed.

Some of my cats liked it immediately, a couple took a week or so to get used to it and I had to mix it with commercial canned food, and Pooch was my hold-out kitty, not fully on the premade raw food for four months.  No more toxic poops with the raw food and a lot less waste and odor overall.

Along with the raw food, special natural supplements and a medication called Piroxicam, White lived 9 months with good quality of life.  When she was unable to eat, I had her euthanized at home.  She was purring on my chest as the tranquilizer took effect.  Darling, meanwhile, after only four days on the raw food, became a real cat for the first time in her life!  She left her hiding place, raced to the top of the cat tree, scratched it a bit, then raced down and around the house.  I was so happy for her!  I realized that my poor Darling had been suffering from malnutrition for 10 years!

Over the course of the 1.5 years that I fed my cats the premade raw food, my fat ones got thinner and Darling improved, but did not get entirely well. She still didn’t gain weight well and still had episodes of severe IBD.  I also noticed that all my cats still had bad teeth and gums despite having their teeth cleaned at the vet.

Come November 2005, I adopted my two foster kittens, Sammy and Velvet.  I had Sammy since he was newborn, only 2.6 ounces, and Velvet from about 5 weeks.  With nine cats under my roof and limited income, I had to make some changes… I had to make my own food!

A friend gave me a hand grinder belonging to her grandmother-in-law and off I went to my butcher.  He showed me how to use the grinder and we experimented and it did grind bone.  That night I made my first batch of raw food according to Anne’s recipe, but I still added a little produce because I saw these ingredients in the premade raw food I had been buying. I know better now and don’t add produce. I felt like Mother Nature, chopping the chicken and grinding the bones and my cats were going wild with anticipation.  Their excitement told me right away that this was what a cat is supposed to eat.  I don’t think it was any coincidence that Bianca was the most enthusiastic. She was my only cat I acquired as an adult that had lived on the streets, most likely hunting for herself between doorstep handouts of dry food.

Well, the hand grinder was fine, but it was old and the handle nut broke off, the threads were just gone so I ordered the electric grinder from Northern Tool after making the promise to send me the real Tasin TS 108.  I was running out of food so I made a small batch by hand and then bought more of the premade raw food.  When the grinder came, it was the wrong one.  Back it went and I ordered the real Tasin on eBay from One Stop Jerky Shop.  I couldn’t make myself buy more of the premade raw food so I made a 10-pound batch by hand.

By hand, you might say?  Yes!  I chunked up ALL the meat and put the heart and liver in my food processor.  I diced all the bones with a cleaver and then put them into the food processor.  This batch lasted until I got my Tasin.

With nine cats, two of them being four month-old kittens, I go through a lot of food, up to about three pounds a day!  So, what did I do once I got my grinder?  I made a deal with my butcher on organic free-range chicken thighs.  He gets them in a forty-pound box. If he doesn’t have to open the box, he’s not providing time and labor and I get a great price. I got forty pounds of thighs and then the work began.

I de-skinned, de-boned and chunked on a Friday.  I had almost 2 gallons of chunked meat by the end of a few hours. I felt like the sorcerer’s apprentice.  I kept taking chicken out of the box, but it seemed bottomless.  Finally, I had a two-gallon bucket almost filled with chunked chicken, a huge plastic container full of meaty bones and a small plastic container full of meat I just couldn’t chunk any more.  On Saturday, I washed and ground 7 pounds of hearts and 5 pounds of liver.
 
Okay, now the eggs.  At this amount, 36 eggs are needed.  According to Dr. Pierson’s site, recommended by Anne, I cooked the egg whites since I can’t abide wasting that much and it makes a difference in the budget to be able to add that much more to the recipe.

Just wanted to let you know how much we love your website. It has EVERYTHING. You could spend countless hours scouring the internet (as I did when we got our first kitty) and not find a fraction of the information available on yours: what cats need and why, where to get it, what tools you need, where to get them, a precise recipe, and instructions, step-by-step with pictures. I have yet to find another site that is as organized, complete, and helpful. Frankly, many of them have dubious information which is either transferred from what they know of raw feeding dogs (e.g. that flax seed oil can be substituted) or from what they know of human nutrition (i.e. that fruits, vegetables, and grains are “good”). And many of them are forums for well-intended but unknowledgeable people to pass along their speculation as advice.

We were ready to give up on trying to raw feed due to the paralyzing frustration of the mixed messages, misinformation, and immense burden (before we got our meat grinder. LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the meat grinder!). When we found your site, we were able to approach raw feeding in an organized, manageable way. Our little Kofi and Gomez are bright eyed, sleek coated, fit, and happy. Your website has really helped us get them that way!

Pittsburgh, PA USA

Caroline

I love your catnutrition.org website and will recommend my clients go to it. Here is the article I give ALL of my clients as I insist they stop feeding dry if they want ME to be their vet. Thanks for helping in this hard fight. We will win.

Author, Your Cat: Simple New Secrets to a Longer, Stronger Life

Bonni

I’m a member of the FelineFuturediet chat group and I’ve passed your website along to all the newcomers to the group ever since you passed it along to us, back when you were a member as well. I’m from NH and we don’t have too many vets to choose from here. I’ve been feeding raw for three years now without my vet knowing it. I started feeding the Feline Future recipe as a trial for two of my cats that had soft/loose stools no matter what I fed them. The cure was instantaneous. Overnight their stools became formed and I switched ALL my cats to raw and we’ve never looked back.

The one time I broached the subject to my vet, his reaction against raw diet was so vehement, that I never brought it up again. But this has made me very uncomfortable, being less than honest with him and I really like him and consider him a friend. This morning I passed your website along to another new member of a feeding group I belong to and I decided to send a link to your open letter to vets to MY vet. I was amazed that he wrote right back and sent me a copy of an email that he’d just sent to you. It ended saying he was darn near, but not quite 100% behind you and to keep up the good work. He must have ever so slowly been coming around to a raw diet in the 3+ years since I mentioned it to him. He still has some qualms, but I think he will come all the way around some day soon. He obviously likes your website (and so do I) and I want to thank you for all the work you put into it. I wonder how many cats it has cured/helped/saved?

It is a wonderful source for information on almost any problem a cat owner encounters. I hope you and my vet become friends and allies. Thanks for all your hard work Anne!!!

Laconia, NH

Cindy

I can’t thank you enough for your website. I adopted a male tabby from a shelter four months ago. He had had diarrhea, we were told, for “quite some time.” He seemed so quiet too. I thought that was just his temperament. I took him to our vet immediately, who switched him to a hypoallergenic kibble and ran some tests. He suggested waiting 6-8 weeks to see if the change in kibble helped. After 2 months, and no changes, he diagnosed him as having irritable bowel syndrome and put him on steroids which, he said, he may have to be on for quite a long time.

I thought there has to be another way. I found your website for a raw diet and tossed the kibble. Within 12 HOURS of feeding it to him, his diarrhea completely disappeared. I explained this to our Vet but he did not seem interested in learning more about it!!!!

We realize now, too, that our little guy was so quiet because he wasn’t feeling well. He now plays all the time, is very talkative, and his coat is becoming SOOO shiny. Thank you, Anne. I believe your caring and compassion has added many years to our cat’s life.

~ Cindy

Cindy

A little over two years ago, my cat, Lady, began having soft stools/diarrhea every day. She would have it anywhere from 2-4 times a day. She was eating one of those dry “prescription” diet foods you get from the vet’s office. She tried different types of holistic capsules and various meds from the vet to no avail. The vet even suggested some invasive, expensive tests, biopsies, and such, but I decided I didn’t want to put her through those (she is 12-and-a-half years old). It even got to the point where she was not using the litter box for her stools – she would go right outside the box.

About 3 months ago, I happened upon this website and its creator, Anne. I emailed her our dilemma and she suggested that we quickly get the dry food out of Lady’s diet, COMPLETELY. Of course, I was a bit nervous to do this due to Lady’s sensitive digestive system, but I knew we had to do something. By the way, through the past two years, Lady has seemed to maintain her weight of 12 pounds, did not vomit or have any other health concerns, but was extremely hungry all the time. So, after some encouraging emails from Anne, I finally decided to try canned food – a high-quality canned. Anne had told me that probably overnight, Lady would have firm, normal stools. I was still pretty skeptical. Well, she was right! Basically, overnight, this kitty went from having several soft, messy stools a day to having one solid, normal stool every day. Just switching to a good canned diet. I have even noticed that Lady plays a lot more, seems friskier and seems like she is not begging as much for food.

I feed her a half can in the morning, take away her bowl, and then feed her a half can at dinner time. No snacking during the day, and she is getting used to that! We are one month out and she is doing great. I thank Anne and her website from the bottom of my heart for helping Lady get healthy again. Anne is very attentive to emails — she writes emails packed with information and an understanding heart. Lady thanks Anne also!

Connie

Thanks to you and Duke, my Missy (six-month old kitty) finally has a solid stool. The “all-diarrhea-all-the-time” started to cease with the very first raw meal. I could hardly believe it. Even the gagging, bad breath, and her smelly flatus disappeared completely with the second raw meal and by the third the diarrhea had stopped completely.

My two-year old female cat “Priny” still balks at the raw chicken but considering she has gone from dry to canned food in a few short weeks, she’ll eventually get the idea that it’s “Mom’s raw menu or catch your own.”

There are no words to thank you enough for sharing your time-consuming research on feline nutrition, cat food recipe directions, and your super website.

Fiona Fitzsimmons

In 2011 we became the besotted servants of our magnificent Bengal, Carlos. Unbeknownst to us, the ‘breeder’ was a very negligent individual and amongst other health issues our boy had, he suffered dreadfully from bloody diarrhoea. Our vet advised an expensive prescription dry food for sensitive digestive systems and as he was already accustomed to dry food we were more than willing to try it.

Sadly, the food made no difference to his tummy and he seemed to be worsening week to week. He used to cry when he had a poo and started pooing around the house, piles of utterly foul smelling diarrhoea covered in blood and mucous. His temperament suffered too and he became listless and withdrawn. I started Googling ‘Bengal cat diarrhoea’ and found a thread on the Bengal forum about IBD and how prone they are to the condition. One of the posters was raving about the improvement in her cat after switching him to a raw diet and she had added link to your site. BLESS THAT WOMAN!

The day after we started feeding Carlos your recipe he rewarded us with a wonderful SOLID poo! Odour free, in the tray and no crying when he passed it. I was so amazed and overwhelmed I had to call my mum, sister in law and best friend to tell them.

Over the next few weeks he became a different cat. He became much more cat-like and would prowl and pounce out at us from all over the house. He stopped yowling all the time, he gained muscle and his shape totally changed. He looked sleeker and more like a wild cat, his eyes were brighter, his breath was nicer, and his coat became stunning. People who see him for the first time always comment on how healthy and alive he seems and can’t believe it’s 100% due to raw feeding.

In 2012 we rescued another cat from the same breeder who by then was awaiting trial for neglect. Milo is a Bengal x Lilac Oriental and he was in an even poorer state than Carlos was when we got him. His coat was very poor, it was dry and coming out in clumps and he was terribly thin, almost certainly because of a similar bowel problem to Carlos. Fortunately, he took to the raw food right away and again the improvement was astonishing. Today his coat is sleek and rarely sheds and although still a lean boy, he’s a healthy weight and is full of life.

I tell every cat servant I meet to try a raw diet although the majority still look aghast at the idea of their animal eating meat in a natural state (crazy, isn’t it?) and I regularly thank Carlos’s guardian angel for leading me here to your site. Our cats owe you their lives and that makes you a very special lady so thank you 🙂

Seamill, Scotland
July 2014

Crystal

I wanted to write and thank you for putting together this wonderful website. I have found the reading very enjoyable and wanted to share how a raw diet has improved the quality of life for my two, recently adopted girls. 

A few months ago, I met Kio and Synda at the Norfolk SPCA. Although life obligations had prevented me for sharing my life with a cat for several years, I felt it was time for me to open my home and my heart again. I’d been to the SPCA a few times before, but had not met the right cat. But when I held then 7 month old Kio and Synda in my arms, I knew they would be coming home with me.

The transition was hardly a smooth one. Both girls had terrible, sometimes explosive, diarrhea since they were young. They were litter mates, and the staff speculated it might be related to an inherited condition. When I spoke about wanting to adopt, the staff warned me that these cats might never get over this issue and asked if I was still willing to commit. And I was. After all, I believe your cats choose you, not the other way around. 

The SPCA, with the best intentions for the kittens, would not let me take them home at first. Almost two weeks went by while they tried to determine a treatment/diagnosis and finally, it was decided that I would foster to adopt, which meant that the kittens would be wards of the SPCA until it was determined that nothing further could be done for them medically speaking. We tried various diets and treatments and vitamin shots. I spent every Saturday bringing Kio and Synda in for their weekly exam, but nothing we tried would provide a permanent solution. The kittens continued to have diarrhea and sometimes bloody stool.

It wasn’t until I found this website along with Dr. Peirson’s website (catinfo.org) that I began to see the light at the end of the tunnel. Obligate carnivore? Well, that makes sense! And so, I shifted the girls to canned, and finally raw (once the shipment came in). And boy, what an improvement that made! Not only did they stop having diarrhea completely, their stool was smaller, firmer and never bloody. All three of us could not be happier!

I’m now committed to the raw diet and have purchased a grinder to make it official. I look forward to being able to supply a more species appropriate diet and wait eagerly to report that Kio and Synda are no longer fosters, but true adopted furry daughters. And if I can offer support to other cats suffering from a dry food malady, I will! Thanks again for opening my eyes and giving my girls a shot at a healthier, happier life!

Diana Waldron

Last year, our eldest cat, then 10-year-old Trivet, began to have trouble keeping his meals down. He rapidly deteriorated and went from a hale 10 pounds to a skeletal 6. We saw three different vets, ran complete bloodwork, including 4 thyroid tests, but never found anything definitive. We switched him from a mixed wet and dry diet of Hill’s cystitis diet to all-wet Wellness chicken and turkey. He improved some, but continued to vomit regularly. The vet ultimately diagnosed inflammatory bowel disease and put Trivet on prescription “hypoallergenic” food (Hill’s zoo diet) and daily Prednisone, along with Nutrical weight-gain paste. He improved some, had his 11th birthday along the way, but eventually began vomiting again, and we just couldn’t get his weight up. He looked so awful with the skin just draped over his bony hips. I truly thought we were going to lose him — he couldn’t continue to lose weight indefinitely — and I began thinking about when I would make the decision to end his suffering.

Then I read about your site on the Best Friends message board. At the beginning of March we switched Trivet to a grain-free raw diet (Nature’s Variety rabbit), discontinued the Nutrical, and began weaning him off the Prednisone. In the 2 months since making the transition, he has only vomited twice, and both times were when he got into someone else’s food. He now weighs 11 pounds! He looks fabulous and is completely off the Prednisone. I wish I had before and after photos to show you, but I didn’t take any when I thought he was dying.

We’ve also moved our other two cats to the new diet. Nine-year-old Kirby, who had always been on the thin side, has filled in for the first time in his life, and his always-gorgeous fur is plusher than ever before. Three-year-old Clayton is also doing well, and all three cats show an enthusiasm for their meals that we had not previously observed. But the most important thing is that Trivet has his health back.

Thank you so much for sharing the information that saved his life!

Jacksonville, FL USA

Jill and Matt

I cannot even begin to explain how much my husband and I have learned from reading this site (from beginning to end, more than once!) After gathering up all the ingredients and vitamins, we got to work and it was MUCH easier than we expected. The smell alone drove the kitties wild but we never in a million years could have imagined the way in which they DEVOURED their new food. One of my kitties was actually groaning, she was so into it! They now eat all their food at one sitting and it is so gratifying to see how truly happy they are (if they could talk, we’d be getting some serious thank yous!) The begging at the dinner table even stopped — probably because they’ve been trying to tell us all along to feed them what they are meant to eat: real meat. Finding Anne’s site has been one of the most inspirational moments for us — please trust me, do this for your kitties and you will completely understand why feeding raw is the ONLY way to go!!!

New York, NY USA

Glenn and Jan

We have the sweetest rescue cat, who we believed suffered the loss of his tail and one back leg by falling asleep on a warm car engine (but that’s just a guess). His name is Stumpy. This poor guy has been through a lot so we’ve always sympathized with his plight, especially because we’re pretty sure he has no sensation “back there” so he doesn’t know when he’s dirty.

In any event, his stools have gotten progressively loose, more and more over the years to the point where he would “let go” anytime, meaning he had to be confined not only in a separate, tiled room but much of the time in a large cage. We tried everything our vet offered but had no luck at all. I’d seen your website in several searches but hadn’t fully embraced “the method” at first, just feeding cooked chicken which resulted in a minor improvement. (It’s a bit difficult for my wife and I to embrace any meat approach because we’re both vegetarians.)

HOWEVER, as a last ditch attempt to resolve this 8-year plus problem, we tried your raw food dietStumpy’s problems were COMPLETELY resolved within two weeks. We KNOW he feels so much better and we are so happy for him (and us). He really deserves good health… he’s such a sweet guy, always purring and snuggling the minute you touch him.

I CAN’T THANK YOU ENOUGH for your insights. This has been a complete miracle and we’re going to try to incorporate it with the rest of our brood (which may be a bit of a challenge because of the number of rescue cats we have). However, you are SO RIGHT and we have the indisputable proof.

On behalf of Stumpy, 
THANK YOU!!!!

Michigan U.S.A.
June 2014

Jen

I found your website two years ago and have used your recipe to feed my cat since that time. In addition to the amazing improvements in his health, he used to be obese and have elevated liver enzymes, I have discovered a surprising side benefit. This past week I was stuck out of state with car trouble. Both my brother and a good friend came by to feed my cat in my absence. Both of them are extremely allergic to cats. However, neither of them had a reaction to my cat this time. Both of them used to have reactions to my cat when he was on commercial food. My friend was here today and he said that he felt the way he does he visits the house of someone who used to have a cat – even though my cat was right there rubbing up against his leg.

The only difference is my cat’s diet. This has made me wonder how many people suffer allergies to pets needlessly. I really believe now that how the cat’s body reacts to being out of balance (dandruff and his own allergic reactions to the food) is what many people may be allergic to.

J.M.

I just wanted to write a thank you and tell you the news: Nino had a followup ultrasound yesterday. The first (3 months ago) was when he had severe diarrhea and they found inflamed lymph nodes between the small and large intestines and the digestive tract walls were thickening. All gone. ALL of it!! Apart from the massive diet change (and learning how to make a good lamb recipe for these guys), I had given him 4 weeks of Vitamin B injections and a few other ideas that the holistic vet I saw had recommended. So, it isn’t just diet, but diet must be 95% of it. I’m thrilled! I know you know the feeling with your own kitty and I swear it is just the best Christmas present I could’ve asked for 🙂

The diagnosis had been IBD and the treatment prescribed was a course of steroids. Nothing that could cure it, just something that would keep it at bay. But it was also something challenging to get the cat out of. I did my research and I knew that could not be anything but a last resort for me and that raw food was really worth another shot. What I realize now, having tried introducing Nino to raw food slowly (twice!) in the past is that he really does have allergies to a few foods. I had tried the wrong raw food! I wish I hadn’t given up, but he was vomiting at the point that he was 75% transitioned. The raw food was very high quality food and the manufacturers couldn’t figure out why he was throwing up and traditional veterinarians are not really prepared to help hone-in on the perfect diet. So, I gave up and went back to canned food.

When I chose lamb it was in desperation—I had been told he couldn’t eat any of the proteins he’s had in his past (that’s probably everything through me for 5 years and his former owner, since he was a 4yr old shelter kitty when he came into my life). It turns out that was the right choice. Since he has a few other proteins to try, I’ll do that, too, in a few months time so he and my other kitty can have some variety. I truly believe that if I do this right, he’ll have options and continue to have a great diet and a well-functioning digestive tract, unlike he’s ever had in the past.

The bonus to me (never had occurred to me this was a fact) is that the cat box only ever has tiny, dry, non-smelly poops. Just as described—the cats are truly only getting the food they need and not a bunch of “crap” they need to eliminate. Really amazing. I dig that change (as would anyone who deals with a litter box daily!).

Thank you again for a VERY helpful website and for many kind and helpful emails. It’d be really great if readers would contribute enough for you to do it as a full time consulting business! I hope my contributions helped in return for the time you’ve given me.

Jamila

Once again I must write to say this is SUCH a wonderful website! Whenever I meet people who feed their cats kibble I tell them to PLEASE go to catnutrition.org! I am thinking of making up wallet-sized “no kibble” cards with resources listed, and hand them out to people who say “oh, that sounds interesting.” I am starting to fantasize about a “no kibble” ad campaign – TV commercials, billboards, anybody got any connections for this?!

I meet a lot of people who say they feed canned food, but they also leave kibble out during the day “just in case the cat gets hungry.” I think these folks are deluding themselves about how much kibble their cats are really eating! That’s why I tell people, get the kibble OUT of the house.

We have been kibble-free for six years now. All my cats are rescues with unknown histories. Every one of them loves their raw meat diet, made using Anne’s recipe. Now and then I get a rescue kitty who is reluctant to try the raw. If that happens, I will feed them canned and gradually introduce the raw. Then one day I catch them scarfing down the raw off another cat’s plate – ahah! That’s it, you’re going raw now!

I recently discovered Elizabeth Hodgkin’s wonderful book “Your Cat – Simple New Secrets to a Longer, Stronger Life.” A good gift for anyone who is sitting on the fence about what to feed their cat!

Just one last thing – when I think back to two kitties I had before I found this website, it breaks my heart to think how I could have healed them if I’d only understood. Miel had IBD for years although it seemed to come and go. My life was hectic and crazy. The vets I took her to – and there were quite a few – NEVER made the suggestions you find on this website. I tried various “limited source protein” diets but they were all kibble.

​By the time I found this website, she was quite elderly and frail. She never got to enjoy the benefits of a consistently appropriate diet. Her adopted brother, Roux, became obese by the time he was about three. He stayed obese. I tried various “weight loss” commercial diets but of course they don’t work. Thankfully, he never became diabetic, we were lucky! Both cats were constantly drinking water from drippy faucets – I had to keep them dripping! They were both chronically dehydrated, even though they got some canned food and not just kibble. EVEN JUST “A LITTLE” KIBBLE WILL DEHYDRATE A CAT!

Miel and Roux taught me, just as Anne’s cats taught her. I will never go back!

February 2016

Janice Schafer

Since switching to raw seven months ago, we’ve had a litter of seven Maine Coon kittens. I am thrilled that, except in one case, the folks adopting our kittens have made a commitment to feed raw and even seem pleased to learn the truth about dry food.

When we take our cats to cat shows, we often tell people about the benefits of a raw food diet, and if they seem interested, I give them the address to your website . . . there was a cat show today, and I printed off raw food information from the Internet, mostly from your website, and put it in a binder to show people who stopped to talk to us. Several people were interested. So, you have no idea how many cats’ lives you may have improved.

Poseycoon Maine Coons

Kathy S.

I want to thank you for your website and recipe. I believe it saved my cat, Denali’s, life. She had been sick for nearly two years–throwing up on an almost daily basis, and licking all of the hair off her stomach — and I had taken her to the vet repeatedly. Initially the vet said it must be hairballs, but after treating that with Laxatone with no results the vet did a lot of repeated blood tests. Finally, after a few months Denali was put on thyroid medicine. Initially it seemed to help, but before long she was again throwing up daily. When I took her in the vet said it must be a reaction to her thyroid medicine and prescribed additional medicine to prevent acid in her stomach, etc. It went on and on and nothing helped. Over time she had become so sick that she slept on her bed virtually 24 hours a day, lost weight, and looked very unhealthy. I was at the point of considering putting Denali down because she was so miserable.

I started checking on the internet and came across your site. I immediately tried a raw chicken diet (I didn’t have any of the other ingredients so I just cut up raw chicken) and she IMMEDIATELY stopped throwing up. I then spent several days tracking down all the ingredients and have been feeding her the raw diet ever since. (I even got the electric grinder you recommended!) All of the fur on her stomach has grown back, she is now lively and playful and back to her old self, her coat is shiny and thick, and she NEVER throws up anymore. And she’s not taking any medicine anymore. It’s been about 3 months now that I’ve had her on the diet.

I am so grateful to you for making this information available to the public.

Update: She is turning into a little chub–and six months ago she was skin and bones!

Evansville, WI USA

Kimi Thomas

I am so grateful for this website! It is the most comprehensive education I’ve found on feeding cats appropriately.  The pictures of making the food and the recipe have been very, very helpful.  If you are reading this and are new to the idea of feeding cats naturally, please keep studying and reading so you, too, will know and trust that it’s the only way to properly feed a cat.  Now my story of coming out of my ignorance…

In June 2004 my best friend, White, was diagnosed with squamous cell carcinoma of the lower left mandible (jaw bone), aggressive and poorly differentiated.  I immediately went online to find out what this was and what to expect.  What I learned was heart-wrenching.  My cat had 30-60 days to live before the cancer would make it necessary to euthanize her.  What was worse, she got this problem from long-term gum inflammation due to bad teeth.  I had always done what I’d heard was best and given my cats dry kibble.  At this time I had 8 indoor-only cats ranging in age from 5 to 12 years.

I also have a cat, Darling (11), with inflammatory bowel disease.  The vet told me she was allergic to chicken and to try various prescription formulas.  One gave her a bladder condition, and the others were an improvement for a week or two and that was all.  One vet suggested canned food, but by then I didn’t trust him.  It was probably the only good suggestion he made.

Darling had some behavioral problems, too.  She always hid even though I’d had her since she was 5 weeks old.  She went through a phase of licking all the hair off her tummy.  She didn’t play much and was very skinny and lethargic and she hid from anyone but me.  I thought she was traumatized from the events of her first 5 weeks before I got her.  As a side note, I need to mention that Darling and her sister, Pooch, always had “toxic” smelling poop and large amounts of it when compared to my other cats.

So, in the course of trying to help Darling, I came across Dr. Pitcairn’s book . . . I didn’t think his recipes had ingredients that cats could hunt and eat if in the wild.  But the seed for raw food was planted and made perfect sense.  As I searched online for ways to help White, I came across Anne’s site and a few others.  My new vet also told me about a premade raw meat-based food (that also contained fruits and vegetables) that I could buy frozen.  I purchased it immediately, fully intending to make my own as soon as circumstances allowed.

Some of my cats liked it immediately, a couple took a week or so to get used to it and I had to mix it with commercial canned food, and Pooch was my hold-out kitty, not fully on the premade raw food for four months.  No more toxic poops with the raw food and a lot less waste and odor overall.

Along with the raw food, special natural supplements and a medication called Piroxicam, White lived 9 months with good quality of life.  When she was unable to eat, I had her euthanized at home.  She was purring on my chest as the tranquilizer took effect.  Darling, meanwhile, after only four days on the raw food, became a real cat for the first time in her life!  She left her hiding place, raced to the top of the cat tree, scratched it a bit, then raced down and around the house.  I was so happy for her!  I realized that my poor Darling had been suffering from malnutrition for 10 years!

Over the course of the 1.5 years that I fed my cats the premade raw food, my fat ones got thinner and Darling improved, but did not get entirely well. She still didn’t gain weight well and still had episodes of severe IBD.  I also noticed that all my cats still had bad teeth and gums despite having their teeth cleaned at the vet.

Come November 2005, I adopted my two foster kittens, Sammy and Velvet.  I had Sammy since he was newborn, only 2.6 ounces, and Velvet from about 5 weeks.  With nine cats under my roof and limited income, I had to make some changes… I had to make my own food!

A friend gave me a hand grinder belonging to her grandmother-in-law and off I went to my butcher.  He showed me how to use the grinder and we experimented and it did grind bone.  That night I made my first batch of raw food according to Anne’s recipe, but I still added a little produce because I saw these ingredients in the premade raw food I had been buying. I know better now and don’t add produce. I felt like Mother Nature, chopping the chicken and grinding the bones and my cats were going wild with anticipation.  Their excitement told me right away that this was what a cat is supposed to eat.  I don’t think it was any coincidence that Bianca was the most enthusiastic. She was my only cat I acquired as an adult that had lived on the streets, most likely hunting for herself between doorstep handouts of dry food.

Well, the hand grinder was fine, but it was old and the handle nut broke off, the threads were just gone so I ordered the electric grinder from Northern Tool after making the promise to send me the real Tasin TS 108.  I was running out of food so I made a small batch by hand and then bought more of the premade raw food.  When the grinder came, it was the wrong one.  Back it went and I ordered the real Tasin on eBay from One Stop Jerky Shop.  I couldn’t make myself buy more of the premade raw food so I made a 10-pound batch by hand.

By hand, you might say?  Yes!  I chunked up ALL the meat and put the heart and liver in my food processor.  I diced all the bones with a cleaver and then put them into the food processor.  This batch lasted until I got my Tasin.

With nine cats, two of them being four month-old kittens, I go through a lot of food, up to about three pounds a day!  So, what did I do once I got my grinder?  I made a deal with my butcher on organic free-range chicken thighs.  He gets them in a forty-pound box. If he doesn’t have to open the box, he’s not providing time and labor and I get a great price. I got forty pounds of thighs and then the work began.

I de-skinned, de-boned and chunked on a Friday.  I had almost 2 gallons of chunked meat by the end of a few hours. I felt like the sorcerer’s apprentice.  I kept taking chicken out of the box, but it seemed bottomless.  Finally, I had a two-gallon bucket almost filled with chunked chicken, a huge plastic container full of meaty bones and a small plastic container full of meat I just couldn’t chunk any more.  On Saturday, I washed and ground 7 pounds of hearts and 5 pounds of liver.

Okay, now the eggs.  At this amount, 36 eggs are needed.  According to Dr. Pierson’s site, recommended by Anne, I cooked the egg whites since I can’t abide wasting that much and it makes a difference in the budget to be able to add that much more to the recipe.

I had various bowls and buckets full of each thing and needed to mix it all.  I pulled out my Ropak bucket and started filling it in layers, only to immediately realize it wasn’t large enough.  I finally concluded that the only thing large enough was my baby bathtub and the only thing to stir with was a small frying pan.  You might be wondering how I can do this without my cats wanting to take a bath in it so you should know that I locked them in a bedroom at this stage.

Late Saturday I finally got it all measured into Ziploc bags and stacked in the freezer.  Not easy since they kept having an avalanche.  I ended up holding them in place by wrapping a paper sack around them.  Now all I have to do is put a few bags in the fridge to defrost and then drop them into hot water at mealtimes.  I have a one-ounce scoop so I know who is getting what when I dish out.  My cats are fed three times a day.

Was it a lot of work?  Absolutely!  Was it worth it?  Absolutely!  And now that I’ve done it once, I know how to make it easier and faster in the future.  Anne had a great suggestion of using a plastic storage container for mixing and this is perfect since I’m about to have a large one empty.  It also solves where I’ll store the grinder! I’m going to a restaurant supply store to get a large paddle for stirring and I’m going to look into poultry shears to help the chunking.  I admit I tried using a pizza cutter, what a laugh, but when I saw my rotary cutter on the sewing table, I just had to try.  I might even by a rotary cutter just for chunking.  That would be so fast!  You can see in the picture just how tiny my kitchen is, too, but nothing will stop me from making my cats the food they need to have.

As for my cats, they are using their teeth, since they now have chunky food.  I can see their satisfaction at this and the kittens make wonderful satisfied growls as they chew.  Darling has not had a single IBD episode in a month and is gaining weight.  She looks to be actually absorbing the nutrients because her coat is looking glossier, too.  The extra produce in the premade raw food I’d purchased earlier is probably what prevented a full recovery for Darling and the premade food doesn’t have chunks for maintaining good dental health.  My cats also know that when I start chopping, good things are happening and to keep them occupied, I give them a thighbone.  I think of this as dental floss and jaw exercise and they LOVE it!

I know that what I’m doing is right and best for my cats. I wish I had known this from the start; my White would still be with me today.  I am not spoiling my cats; I am feeding them properly, just as I make sure to feed myself properly to maintain excellent health.  I am happy to put forth the effort necessary to make real cat food since I accepted the responsibility of each of my cat’s lives.  I am so sorry that for 10 years I fed my cats junk food.  Just see the video “Super Size Me” to know what it’s like in a human and imagine how much worse it is for animals since they aren’t offered a bit of variety.  I will save money because my cats will be healthy and not suffer the severe ailments that more and more cats are suffering in the U.S.

I am thankful to Anne for all she is doing to help cats and cat owners all over the world.  My Sammy and Velvet kittens thank you, too, Anne, because one of the main factors in my decision to adopt them had to do with the fact that I couldn’t bear the thought of them being fed dry food by another family.

Alameda, California

Liz

I wanted to thank you for your website. I found it while I was doing a search to see if it were safe to feed my cat cashews. (Don’t ask. The cat eats absolutely everything, and I find it very difficult to say “no” to her. She was begging for them most vociferously. She’s eaten orange. And durian. She’s very strange.) While I never found the definitive answer to my question (I never gave her the nuts…I was too nervous that she would choke), I did stumble across your website. I read about the horrors of dry cat food and was sickened with the idea that not only was I pretty much feeding my cats a steady diet of what,  basically, was the human equivalent of candy corn, I was potentially feeding my precious babies other kitties and dogs. I immediately started giving them rest of the small bag of cat food I had in the pantry and transitioned them to a canned food diet with high-quality canned food. (Wellness and Nature’s Balance. Both are the no-grain varieties.) We’d like to make the move to a raw food diet as soon as finances and time permit.

In just a few weeks, the difference in my three cats is astounding. Their eyes are brighter, they’re more active, their coats are softer, they barely drink any water, they shed less, their breath is better and it seems that this weird lump the vet said was benign on my eleven-year-old baby has been getting smaller. Even their poop doesn’t smell as bad. I can’t wait to see how much better they fare on your raw diet! Thank you so much for all your information. Once we make the switch, we plan on using your recipe exclusively.

On behalf of Sasami, Kibitz, and Bats

Liza

I adopted my Exotic Shorthair little feline “soul-partner and heart’s delight” a few years ago. And how I love this little 11 year old “madame” named Candy. She came from a situation of neglect (from an irresponsible breeder). Her temperament was not pleasant initially when I first received her. She suffered from mild depression, slept 95 % of the time, rarely indulged in play, and very rarely responded positively to my attention and touch. Her good eye had a raging ulcer – said ulceration kept cyclically coming and going. We weren’t able to save her bad eye (alas! – it had to be removed). She had been on a well-known veterinary dry food diet specially formulated for ‘Persian Cats’ all her life.

At first she got cat-flu on at least a two-month basis, with her sniffles and sneezes in most cases being followed by ulcers in one or both of the eyes. In this time I changed vets, and my new vet prescribed a L-Lysine supplement, which curbed the severity of the attacks (but did not cure it). About two months after the curbing of the cat-flu episodes, Candy jumped off my 30 cm high futon-bed one morning. I was absolutely disturbed to see her hind-legs spread out like a frog-swimming position, and drag her hind legs behind her all the way to her food bowl – where the deliciously addictive dry pellets were awaiting her.

Off to the vet very promptly again. A set of kidney-function tests and an x-ray later (diabetes / leukemia and feline AIDS test thrown in as anxious mama-of-the-feline wanted to be doubly sure all is okay in those departments) and the vet diagnoses her with hip-displacement. Obviously I was gobsmacked.

Candy was prescribed a daily dose of Mobiflex, which is a mixture of glucosamine, chondroitin, MSM and lip-mussel (has strong anti-inflammatory properties). So here I am – juggling four sets of eye-drops per day, 1 dose of L-lysine and 1 dose of Mobiflex with some immune-strengthening supplements thrown in for good measure.

Candy’s mobility improved greatly on Mobiflex. Unfortunately I was absolutely perplexed to see her drag her hind legs some months later. Another set of x-rays and the prognosis was a crack in her pelvic bone (probably due to her placing her weight wrong on her legs from the hip-displacement). More treatment and anti-inflammatory medication followed. I must add at this point that Candy was at this point permanently sort of semi-walking on her hocks. She improved again, just to sustain another crack in another part of her body, and once again would have to endure the stressful visit to the vet, more anti-inflammatory injections, medications and the like. 

About six months later Candy’s gait took a turn for the worse. She could not walk without falling from side-to-side – her mobility in the hind-region of her body was severely compromised. I decided to not waste money with the never-ending visits to my local vets, and went directly to a specialist dealing in these matters. Candy was sent in for a MRI. The diagnosis was a non-specific degeneration of her spinal cord. Basically her spinal cord was slowly degenerating which caused some of the signals to her hind legs to disappear. The specialist could not give me a reason for this spinal degeneration. He also told me that there was nothing they or I could do for her – as they could not operate to stop the degeneration, and as the nervous system is not a great healer of itself, I could not hope for her to heal herself either. When asked about her diet – he reaffirmed to me that “my specific brand of cat food is the best balanced food from a nutritional perspective, and that I would do best not to experiment with wet or (lord forbid) raw food”.

At this point I sat down and started doing intensive research on the internet in order to find a cause or a product that would aid and support her. And then I started reading about the atrocities committed in the cat food industry, and found your website and that of Dr. Lisa Pierson’s. And what a God-send it was! I wrote about my full experience on another forum – Candy was insanely difficult to convert to the raw diet. But it has made a huge huge huge INSANE difference to her quality of life! Most people would accuse me of exaggeration. She is now running, exploring, charging at bees and butterflies and falling leaves, jumping and playing with the ease of a 5 month old kitten. She is walking with completely straightened legs. Her gait and speed is 95% near-normal. In fact – many people have a hard time believing that she has been diagnosed with all of her conditions when they see her today, as she behaves and appears completely normal and contented. She is now my one-eye pirate cat 🙂

I have taken her now completely of L-Lysine, and she has not had a cat-flu episode since she has been placed on raw food. I only instill one drop of artificial tears in her eye twice daily now (more a cautionary measure). She also used to suffer from chronic constipation and had two episodes of cystitis – no such issues at all anymore! Every time she ‘drops a hot one in the litter box’ she feels so good afterwards that she charges at full speed away from the litter box, down the staircase and skids across the floor where she then proceeds to bounce over the furniture. My imagination conjures up James Brown singing ‘I FEEL GOOD!’ every time she does this 🙂 Many thanks to you for your superb work. My angel has now been with me since the age of 7, and I am looking forward to at least another decade with her. Her life was saved with raw food.

October 2015

Lori

As for the other seven cats, so far you have 24 paws up for the diet and four still undecided. The change in them is so obvious too, the litter box is no longer running over and clean up is a breeze. They are all playing like kittens. I feel like a dark cloud has been lifted away and everyone is at peace again.

I have read a lot of the articles on your website and I am convinced that dry food is nothing but poison. I am going educate everyone I can with the hope that more kitties with get the benefit of eating what they naturally would.

Lucy

I am writing this testimonial to not only thank you for saving my cat Boot’s life but  also in hopes that it can save another cat’s life and bring peace to the adopter dealing with this terrible disease.

It all began in 2006 with my cat Kikito.  He was a stray cat that I had rescued from the streets along with his mom and sister. At this time I only had 2 other cats.  Kikito begun urinating outside the litter box after he was introduced.  Everyone said that it was a behavior problem. Kikito was kept in my spare room to reduce stress and he was let out whenever he wanted to as long as he felt comfortable. The problem then escalated; he was now urinating all over the house. I took him to my vet and he was given a urinalysis test which came back negative. The vet told me the problem was behavior due to other cats in the house.  Months went by and Kikito continued this behavior. Then one night I saw him squatting all over the place; like he was trying to urinate but nothing was coming out. I rushed him to another vet and there I was told that he was blocked. A test confirmed that Kikito had FLUTD (feline lower urinary tract disease). I was sent home with a prescription diet from Hills. At this time I was already following Dr. Pitcairn’s and Anitra Frazier’s suggestion on diet. I was giving them a high-quality canned cat food called Pet Guard. Kikito wouldn’t have any of the new prescription diet. He refused to eat for days so I removed all dry food from my cats diet. I also tried to lessen his stress. Months passed by and Kikito seemed fine.

Then in 2006 we moved and the stress of moving brought back the problem. He begun by urinating in the sink of the bathroom. I made the switch from high quality canned food to raw food. I was following Dr. Pitcairn’s raw food recipes. I was also following Anitra Frazier’s guidelines for FLUTD. He seemed healthy with occasional urinating in the bathroom sink.

Then at the end of 2006, his problem went from okay to really bad. Someone who had adopted 2 kittens from me several years ago was returning them. I tried finding them a home but eventually had no choice and I ended up adopting them. Unfortunately one of them was an alpha cat. This made Kikito very stressed and he began urinating outside the litter box more often and now all over the house. At this time I also noticed a streak of blood in his urine.  I began trying different homeopathic remedies as per Dr. Pitcairn’s book. They helped temporarily but then the problem returned; I figured that I wasn’t doing something right so I decided to contact a homeopathic vet. He referred me to Anitra Frazier who would help me with the right diet for this particular problem. At the same time the homeopathic vet was booked and told me that this wasn’t an emergency so it was ok to wait.

Anitra Frazier suggested I follow her diet which consisted of chicken (breast), vitamins and water. There was no recipe for it so I did what I could. I began feeding everyone this new diet but Kikito got worse. Then one day Kikito got blocked; I took him to the vet immediately; Kikito was anesthetized and a catheter was placed in his urethra to unblock him. At this point Kikito’s kidneys were being damaged. The next night we got a call from the vet saying that Kikito had fluids in his lungs and that he was having trouble breathing. He died that night. We were devastated. We had been told by many professionals and others that this was not a life-threatening problem but it had become one. We didn’t know that this was just the start of our problem with FLUTD.

Soon after, our cat Boots begun having the same problem. She began urinating outside the litter box; usually in the corner of my walk-in closet. I thought it was related to the new cats in the house so I began to keep them away from her. I lessened the stress by keeping her in the master bedroom with only the cats that she liked. I didn’t realized that the damage had already been done. Her problem was more serious than Kikito; she had more symptoms and she kept getting worse fast.

She kept making many trips to the litter box.  She was also restless and had became very impatient. She didn’t want to be touched; she was so uncomfortable and in pain that she wasn’t sleeping and that was keeping me up. She would scratch the bedroom door trying to get out and when I  would get up to open it she would run back inside then she would do this over and over again. She would also cry. She wanted to be nurtured and when I tried doing that she would become aggressive.

After losing Kikito, I was really scared because nothing had helped him. I went ahead and placed her under the care of the homeopathic vet. He begun giving her remedies. I also continued Anita’s Frazier’s diet. Nothing was helping. She was getting worse and worse. Each day there would be more blood and less urine to the point when there were only a few drops of blood and no urine. Months went by.  I kept contacting the homeopathic vet. He kept telling me to give the remedy time to work but Boots didn’t have time.  We had tried so many remedies and nothing seemed to help her. Too much time had passed and I was concerned about the damage in her kidneys. I couldn’t stand to see her suffer. We didn’t want to lose her. I kept reading anything I could get my hands on and navigated the web. The homeopathy vet suggested that I change to another diet.  It was still raw but a different brand that you could buy frozen. I did but she wasn’t eating it. Her appetite seemed to be decreasing and she finally just stopped eating one day.

I was so devastated; I was so sure that she was going to die. She just seemed so depressed and miserable and in pain.  I began to force feed her but that wasn’t working so I contacted the vet. He told me that Boots might have something wrong with her stomach because during the initial physical examination he had noticed a pot belly. He recommended that  Boots get an ultrasound of the stomach done. Since my homeopathy vet was 2 hours away he suggested I find a regular vet near me to perform the ultrasound. That was another challenge; since most vets that I worked with were not open to homeopathy.

I got lucky. Through a friend I found a regular vet who seemed open minded about working with my homeopathic vet.  When Boots went for the stomach ultrasound I told her about Boot’s FLUTD. I also told her that I had been told that Boots had been born with a kidney smaller than the other and also had a heart problem related to the kidney.  Nothing was found in Boot’s stomach. She also did an x-ray of the bladder which showed that her bladder was full of crystals. She immediately recommended that Boots have surgery to remove all the crystals. My homeopathy vet agreed with her. The only problem was Boots’ heart. She had a heart murmur. The vet was concerned about her heart so she recommended that Boots had a heart ultrasound to make sure she was ok to go through with the surgery. Boot’s heart medication was changed and we were told that we needed to wait at least six weeks to see the effect of the new medication.  I knew Boots didn’t have that much time; she needed relief soon or she would die.

Even though the waiting was hard I didn’t know it at the time but it was what saved her life. I was so torn. On one hand Boots could die while waiting for this surgery. On the other hand if she had the surgery right away there was the chance that she would die on the operating table. I continued reading and navigating the internet, trying desperately to find Boots some comfort.  It was the same thing everywhere.  I had given up already when I came across www.catnutrition.org.  I contacted Anne immediately and told her about Boots’ condition. She was very sympathetic and honest. She told me that if this was her cat, she’d try the grain- free, vegetable-free raw meat diet. I told myself at this point I had nothing to lose by trying. So that same day I went out and got everything I needed to make the raw chicken food.

I followed the recipe and by evening I was feeding it to Boots. My cats had already been eating raw food so the transition was easy. At this point Boots was not eating and was not interested in anything. So I began force feeding her 4 times a day with small portions. I also begun giving her Pet Tinic which is a liquid vitamin that is supposed to help with appetite.  I begun giving this to Boots twice a day and I continued force feeding her.  At first she wasn’t happy and would complain about it. As days went by I noticed that she was waiting for food. She began eating on her own. A few days later, I noticed that although Boots was still urinating outside the litter box, but her urine was now not only blood but a mix of blood and mostly urine.

I didn’t think much of it at the time because I wasn’t expecting this diet or anything to work. I had given up.  When we took Boots for a check up of her heart I mentioned to the vet that Boots was now urinating a lot more and there was less blood. She told us that it was probably the way the bladder was positioned and where the crystals were sitting.  I said ok; but I was a little disappointed. I told myself that I was just seeing what I wanted to see and that the vet was right.  So I continued giving her the Pet Tinic twice a day and feeding her the new diet. I also kept praying for the heart medication to be work so that she could have the surgery.

I think three weeks went by and I noticed that not only was I a finding normal urine outside the litter box but that Boots seemed relaxed and happy. I noticed that a lot of the Symptoms were gone. She had stopped making all those trips to the litter box. She had also stopped licking. She was very playful and seemed very happy to be around me. She was more affectionate. She was herself now. My biggest shock came one day when I walked into my walk-in closet and saw this puddle of urine. There was no blood! At first I thought another cat had done it but then I realized that it was Boots. I was so happy. The next time that I took Boots to the vet I told her about this and actually the vet got to see it for herself because Boots had peed on the pad that I had placed inside her carrier. The vet saw all the urine and said that she still thought that there was blood in the urine even though I couldn’t see it. She recommended we still go through with the surgery.

Now 6 to 7 weeks had gone by and Boots had stopped urinating outside the litter box. She was happy, healthy and had her healthy appetite back. I also reduced her feeding from 4 times a day to three. My husband and I decided not to go through the surgery because Boots was fine. The diet had dissolved all the crystals. Her urine was normal. She was happy. She doesn’t have any Symptoms of FLUTD so why risk it? Our vet said it was our decision.  I also stopped the expensive consultations with the homeopathy vet. I was so relieved that a simple raw diet had resolved all her problems.

I even do a turkey version which she loves. She eats twice a day like the rest of my cats and has stopped urinating outside the litter box.  Today Boots is a happy and healthy cat. She loves the food. Now I see Boots and think about everything we went through together and how she survived this; it makes me sad because I wish I had  found this information sooner so that my Kikito would still be with us.

Kiki’s death took me through this journey which helped me find a solution not only for Boots’ FLUTD but hopefully for the many cats and their adopters who are dealing with this problem. A few days later after Boots had recovered; another one of my cats begun exhibiting the symptoms of FLUTD.  This time I didn’t contact any vets instead I changed his diet. It cleared the problem in two days.  Now all my cats are on this diet.

I am very grateful to Anne for all the time and effort that she has spent putting up this website and sharing this lifesaving information with us. Every time that I look at Boots and see her all healthy again I think of Anne. Thank god for Anne!  Thank you!  And Boots also thanks you.  After this miraculous recovery I contacted everyone I know who has cats and gave them the link to the website. Everyone I know changed their cats’ diet.

This diet did not only save Boots’ life, it saved my cat Angel from his daily vomiting due to IBS.  I am still working on the ones with cat allergies so when I get it right I will let you all know.

Lynette

I want to thank you, from the bottom of my heart for a wonderful informative website – putting the TRUTH out there about cat food.

In December 2004, I adopted a little 9-year old cat named Ralph from the shelter. They were planning on putting him down for “quality of life” reasons, but let me take him home – saying “oh, if he lives a week in a home, that will be so nice…”. Ralph had been at the shelter since 1998. In 2001, he was “diagnosed” with IBD and put on Flagyl and prednisone. Over the next 7 years, he was chronically anemic and suffered ringworm and infection almost constantly (he was in the ringworm isolation ward almost constantly his last 3 years at the shelter). The Flagyl threw his liver out of whack – at one point he became jaundiced. The prednisone induced diabetes. Poor little guy was a mess. The anemia caused a severe cardiac murmur.

I took him home, determined to find out if a good diet would help. I remember taking him to a vet the first week, and was told he was probably going to die and I had to keep him on the drugs. I told if those drugs were going to help – why was he still so sick after 4 years of them? We stopped the Flagyl and started weaning him off the Pred. He was determined to eat kibble, but I was more determined. He did lose some weight and the vet wanted to put him back on Prednisone, but I resisted. I eventually got him on an all-canned diet, and even got the vet to (finally) give me some injectable cobalamin (vitamin B12) for him. Once I felt he was strong enough I started transitioning to a homemade raw diet based on your recipe.

He just had a “senior check-up” on Friday. He has no heart murmur and an EKG showed no abnormalities. His liver values are normal. He’s no longer anemic. He’s happy and healthy and spends his days sunbathing, wrestling my larger male, climbing cat trees, and killing toy mice. My regret is that my poor boy suffered for all those years while eating that blankety-blank dry food.

I thought you might like to see the “before” and “after” pictures. I use them to try and get people to see what a terrible disservice we are doing to our cats by feeding them an inappropriate diet. Of course, there are some people out there that will refuse to listen, unfortunately, or just say “oh, look what a loving home can do.” Cats need love, it’s true – but they need a decent food as well.

I’ve also loved seeing what a better diet will do for my other, more healthy cats. My cats are no longer overweight. Their fur is soft and sleek. They have muscle tone and resemble more closely their “big cat” relatives.

Margaret

First, a disclaimer: Anne is one of my very best, best friends in the world. In fact, I’ve never had a kitty before and have one now because of Anne (and friends who found the kitty for me). A second slight disclaimer is that my kitty has never eaten anything but raw, and has refused to even try canned/dry food. She first ate store bought raw food, but once she tasted Anne’s recipe, delivered after an unpleasant incident requiring a visit to the vet, she turned her nose up at store bought and we now make Anne’s recipe.

Now for the actual testimonial: my kitty, Kitty W(h)insey LOVES/LOVES/LOVES this food. She has been free of hairballs since we started on the Anne diet, and her other food-related bodily functions work perfectly. Kitty W(h)insey’s vet, who initially was not wild about our raw diet, examined Kitty W(h)insey, and noted that Kitty W(h)insey was in very good shape. So, the kitty is super happy, the vet is pleased, and there’s not much else I could ask for…or so I thought…..

My parents live in an apartment in the house, and are great admirers of Anne’s and quite fond of Kitty W(h)insey. We make ten pounds of food about every six weeks and they always help. (like Shake and Bake!) We each have a specific job, and can grind and mix ten pounds in 45 minutes….not including clean up. Today, Kitty W(h)insey got involved.

During today’s grinding, Kitty W(h)insey was sitting (sleeping) in the kitchen in a cardboard box, luxuriously outfitted with a good skritchy towel. When I noticed her there, it occurred to me that when I bake brownies, chocolate chip cookies or anything else, SOMEONE always wants to lick the bowl and the beaters….SOOOOO, after we finished, I gave her the two spoons, two grinder parts (not the sharp parts), AFTER cleaning off the bone fragments, AND the gigantic bowl in which we mixed everything. No one on earth has ever been happier than Kitty W(h)insey was. Ever. And unlike when I eat raw cookie dough, no one commented on the potential of illness from the raw eggs. Better still, clean up was pretty straight forward since there was not one micron of food left on anything that I gave her. (The floor had a few chickeny paw prints, but that’s why there’s vinegar.)

So, now we have good food for the kitty and an activity in which she can participate that does not involve chewing my shoes, the fringe on the carpets, the edges of the sofa cushions, etc. etc.

What more could I possibly want?

July 2012 Update:

An addition: We now have two kitties: Kitty W(h)insey, about whom I previously wrote, and Mikey, a three plus year old beautiful black kitty. KW still loves the recipe for raw chicken and Mikey adapted, although he had to be weaned from canned. At any rate, we, like probably 99% of this site’s readers, have just endured several days of no power, blistering heat, and jaw-dropping incompetence on the part of local utility management. It was hard on all five members of the house. We moved the 22 pounds of just-made chicken to a friend’s freezer, but couldn’t keep enough for daily use, so I turned to canned. Mikey loved the canned, KW wouldn’t eat it, not until the second day, when she was clearly starving. Power finally came back, and I rushed down to get their food. I was concerned that I’d have to wean Mikey back, and had no idea what KW would decide. When I put it out for them, they pounced! Mikey ate his entire portion, slowly and with grace, KW just inhaled. Then, for the first time in days, there was feline jubilation! running, chirping, chasing balls and toys. We’re going to learn to can the food, so we do not have to endure any more days without!

Molly

I see that you’ve updated your website with a nice new look. I visit often. In February of 2004 you and your cat Duke captured my interest as I was researching IBD in an attempt to save my 12 year old kitty, Daisy. I poured over your website and read every word — many times. Duke’s story gave me such hope. I committed myself to the raw diet for Daisy and my other cats as well. Daisy had all-diarrhea- all-the-time … HORRIBLE stuff!! … for five long years. We’d tried several drugs and all the prescription diets to no avail. I don’t think she would have lived out the year. It took me about six weeks to gear up for the raw diet and get the cats all transitioned from a life of dry food to 100% raw. I also weaned Daisy off of the prednisone. Two weeks after Daisy was on an all raw diet, her diarrhea suddenly stopped. The miracle of this just can’t be described. Our problems were not over, however… she continued to have intestinal problems that showed themselves in a frantic, hiding behavior as well as non-litter box compliance (much as it had been with the diarrhea).

We pressed on, and slowly she began to improve in that area as well. Our last out of litter box experience was months ago, and I can no longer tell her stool from the other cats’! Over a year later, I’m nearly ready to declare Daisy cured. I think it’s important for people to realize that sometimes it takes time. Also, it can vary a lot between cats. Some of her symptoms come back when I feed canned, so Daisy has to be ALL RAW. All of my other cats have benefited as well. Vomiting is almost a thing of the past, their energy is fantastic, and everyone has wonderful fur coats.

To my discouragement, I have not convinced my veterinarians of the value of this diet. Despite Daisy’s obvious miracle, they continue to be skeptical … I got the salmonella lecture only last week! However, I’m convinced, and so is Daisy.

I’ve referred countless people to your wonderful website over the past year, and will continue to do so.

Nancy Wagner

Your website has been the greatest thing EVER for my cats. They have been on dry for many years and love it, but I knew it couldn’t be good for them. Last summer I got my dog onto raw food and I’ve been researching about doing the same for my cats. I found your site and swapped them over to some very good canned food. They HATED it, so I took your advice and smashed up some dry and sprinkled it on top to get them to eat. They did a lot of complaining, but finally got into it. Then I bought a grinder (and with your help learned how to put the blade in so that it grinds and not purees) and made a big batch of your recipe . . . they LOVE it. They are off the “crack” (affectionate nickname for dry food) and 100 percent on to their new, raw diet. They look great, my fat boy is losing weight, and my female no longer has the dirty, waxy ears or goop in the corners of her eyes.

My sister is following suit and is now to the canned stage, and she says her cats are now sleeping (and shutting up) through the night if she gives them a little bit before bed. A coworker who is now feeding his dogs raw reports his Lab’s mouth sores (thanks to good ol’ Iams) are all gone.

I get such a kick out of preparing real food for my animals and I am so well-educated at this point, I have a hard time putting up with the big pet food companies who advertise their “well-balanced, nutritious” food, and with people who think they’re feeding such great stuff to their animals and I’m the crazy one for feeding raw. I have been playing with some of the big companies, in fact, emailing them (Purina, Pedigree, etc.) and asking them if they use anything from rendering plants in their food. I haven’t heard back from any of them, but it’s kind of fun.

So again, THANK YOU! You and your website ROCK!

Mount Wolf, PA USA

Paula Davis

I just wanted to send you a quick note to thank you . . . Bowie’s diarrhea she has had for the last 2 1/2 yrs. stopped in about 3 days. It turns out that the prescription food that her veterinarian had her on must have been causing her problems. I now have a grinder and have her off all but the homemade raw food. I am also transitioning the ferals as well. I am trying to spread the word of the raw feeding since I have seen such a change in Bowie.

Rocko the F3 Bengal Kitten

Rocko, the F3 Bengal kitten says:

Thanks a million! Before my new humans discovered your raw diet, I spent six weeks with constant diarrhea. They put me through unspeakable indignities at the vet’s office (nice enough people, but I prefer running free at home). They spent good money trying “natural” commercial foods and forcing yucky antibiotics down my throat. The WORST thing of all?? They spent valuable PLAYING time cleaning their carpeting and floors!!

Fortunately, they smartened up and tried your raw diet. It was a *little* time/trouble getting the supplies and making up the first batch….but, me-ow! It smelled so good – I couldn’t wait to have some! I danced all the way to the feeding place, even giving little snarling sounds to show how I enjoyed it!

I decided to reward them with a solid stool the next day. Dadcat talked about having it bronzed (but I think he was joking).

Anyhow, I really love this raw food. I’m gaining weight and my marble, glittered coat is most handsome. My parent cats whipped up the second batch in half the time (once they were smart enough to get organized). Momcat says the expense/time involved is EASILY balanced out by the expense/time spent in commercial cat foods, vet visits, cleaning supplies, etc.

I guess I’ll keep them.

Love,
Rocko

Ros Clayton

When Sophie was just over a year old, she started having bouts of vomiting. Over a period of a few months, she became more ill and after several visits to our vet we took her to a specialist. She was diagnosed with IBD (by a scan) and secondary pancreatitis and we were given a sensitivity diet and sent on our way. It seemed to do the trick at first, but after 3 months she was vomiting again. We changed her food twice after that due to repeated illness, and two months ago ended up admitting Sophie to hospital after a severe period of vomiting and refusing to eat. She was put on 4 weeks of prednisone and a new kibble diet was recommended, but this time I wasn’t satisfied.

My sister knew someone who’d tried her cats on raw, and I got in touch. I started doing more research and eventually I made my way to this website. Anne’s convincing and rational writing reassured me and gave me the confidence that I needed to embark on what seemed a crazy endeavour.

After several false starts with the grinder (I ended up having to import the Tasin to South Africa) I finally made a batch. Sophie loved it from the get go, and her energy levels increased noticeably. It just seemed like she had embraced her wild side! Our other cat Matches also got used to it, and they both stopped drinking from our water glasses all the time.

Sophie has just had her check up scan today – the specialist has given her the all clear! I am so relieved and happy. This is the longest Sophie has gone without a spell of vomiting and pain – and I hope that it will continue into the future. I was so nervous that the vet was going to tell me I was being a negligent owner by feeding raw, but it was the complete opposite – she was so impressed with the diet and with the results. Hopefully the specialist will encourage future IBD cases to try raw and help even more kitties!

It means so much to me to have Sophie well and this website gave me the knowledge and the courage to do the right thing for my kitties. 

Thank you so much, Anne, for everything that you do for cats all over the world. I’ve made a small donation which is just a token of how much I appreciate this website and your response to my email. Please keep doing what you are doing!

Cape Town, South Africa
September 2014

Rudolph and Anne

I want to thank you, Anne, from my heart for what you have done for me by offering such amazing information on this site. 

Me and my wife had always had cats and we treated them with lots of love and care…like our little children. In 2017, a friend of ours sadly passed away and we took her cat into our home since we already knew him (his name is Tommy or ‘Tomster’) quite well and we didn’t want him to end up in a shelter.

We began feeding him the same food we fed our other 3 cats back then (dry food from various brands) and didn’t think about it at all. How could it be wrong, our cats were all healthy and happy…

We were wrong…

I have to say that Tommy was an indoor cat when he was with our friend and even though we were completely okay with him going out, he just wouldn’t go. He was already accustomed to the inside I guess.

Anyways, while our other cats were out, running and hunting around, Tommy was a bit more….relaxed. He never really moved much, slept a lot and was very cuddly (which we loved!). After a while or so, we realized he was getting a bit ‘fluffy’. No worries right? Our little Tomster was happy and it was Winter anyways, so he probably needs it…we thought.

Fast forward another few months and we realized he was getting more and more ‘lazy’ and ‘fluffy’. He just wasn’t doing anything! I still work part time but my wife is at home all the time and she noticed it first: Tommy began sleeping a lot. More than usual and more than our cats.

We realized there must be something wrong with him. I began reading about the subject. First, in a relaxed way, just scrolling through the internet, reading about cat behaviour etc. 

Later, I must say that I was stupid not to realize that Tommy was getting obese from the food we gave him, but at that time, I never considered him fat even. After a while though, I found an article on a site we sometimes buy from and it said that a LOT of cats are actually obese and that these cats need way more sleep. That rang a bell. (I searched for the article again and I found it.

We panicked. We realized that we mistreated Tommy…in a bad way. We hurt him by the food we gave him! He was a different cat and he needed to be treated in a different way. We were so stupid! Our first stop was the vet.

She (a nice lady) said that it’s ok, just play more with him and reduce the food intake. We did that and honestly…nothing changed. We had a lazy, fat, moody cat on our hands that needed drastic change!

So I searched and found this site! Me and my wife have a lot time so we are absolutely willing to take time to cook for our cuties. It was the first time I saw the information on cat obesity and diet suggestions so well laid out, backed up with information and experience! 

Me and my wife sat together and told ourselves: We will use Anne’s informations cook the best possible food for Tommy (and our other cats even though they seemed fine) to get him back to health!

As it turned out, Anne is spot on in her description about obese cats. Tommy didn’t like the food at first (we spent so much time to get the first recipe done at the beginning…) and just neglected it. He wanted the good ol’ unhealthy stuff, but we were persistent! 

We slowly mixed in the good food and it worked! We also used the ‘dipping in’ tip (thanks!) and Tommy slowly got used to the healthy food we prepared for him. 

Along with more exercise that he ‘has’ to do, Tommy’s health and situation got SO much better with the new diet it’s incredible. He is a different cat! He stopped sleeping up to 20 hours a day and is more around ~15 now (hard to say though) and he is in tremendous shape compared to 5 months ago! He is active, happier and really likes to play with us!

I always loved Tommy equally compared to our other cats, but now I have to say the whole situation is so much better and Tommy is such a fun, playful and happy cat to be around…it brings us so much more joy!

Anne, I want to thank you for giving us such a clear information on obesity and why we were so wrong in our assumption that we could just feed him the normal dry food. You really helped our whole family a lot and Tommy is so healthy and he would come and sit on your lap meowing gently if he knew that you are responsible for his happiness! 

Thank you wholeheartedly for all your efforts! 

Warm regards from,

Me (Rudolph), my wife (Anne), and our 4 cats: Tommy, Long, Hildy and Robby. 
January 2019

Shirley McCarthy

Congratulations on a great website. I came to it through WholeFoods4Pets, which I accessed through Dr. Pierson’s website. (Unfortunately, I live in Canada and can’t order food from the U.S.)

I switched my 10 year male cat from Hills Prescription Diet dry kibble to a raw food diet (I’m currently buying Nature’s Variety until I can afford a grinder) a little more than a month ago. He took to it like a house on fire and has had absolutely no intestinal issues since he started. His diarrhea was being “controlled” by the dry kibble he was eating (Hill’s Prescription Diet) but he still had occasional blood or mucus and the size of his stools were something to behold (and the smell enough to want to leave the house).

While at a local pet supply store, looking for an alternative to visiting the vet to purchase his food, another client suggested his problem might be gluten intolerance. I purchased a bag of dry grain-free kibble and started checking out some websites I’d bookmarked a couple of years ago. It was then that I read Dr. Pierson’s website and it was obvious that a real-meat diet was the way to go. Curiously, he seems to dislike and is unable to tolerate the lamb version of Instinct, even vomiting it. Chicken is his preference, and I guess it makes sense, since it’s not likely too many cats eat lamb! (Unless they’re cougars or bobcats.)

Unfortunately, so far my second cat doesn’t share the gusto with which the other one attacks his raw food, so in the meantime I’m feeding him the cooked grain-free canned food from Nature’s Variety (“Instinct”) and hope to wean him away to raw eventually. It’s better than the kibble anyway.

I look forward to educating my vet about my experience and encouraging him to offer a natural diet to other clients whose cats are suffering.

Thanks and keep up the good work – it’s important to get the word out and I will refer as many people as I can.

Smokey's Staff

Smokey was diagnosed about 4 months old with cystitis. The vet said it was very unusual for a kitten this young to have the problem, and he may outgrow it. I knew at the time that Smokey would much rather play in water than drink it, so his fluid intake was poor. The vet put him on an antibiotic and prescribed renal diet – which I had to buy from a vet.

After about 6 months I weaned him off the food and back to canned food. In a few months he developed cystitis again. So back we had to go to the vet for the same treatment. Since my other 2 cats are also indoors, they all eat the same, so the dry food and wet food prescription diet was what they all were now eating. When I found your website, I tried Smokey with a chicken leg, and he seemed to be in heaven with it!! I borrowed a meat grinder from a friend, made the raw diet, and 2 of my cats LOVED it!! I had to introduce my other cat over a month for him to be totally on the raw diet. I am amazed how all of them are doing.

They have lost all the fat that had been accumulating from being on the prescription diet, are urinating in amounts that are huge compared to their previous state. Smokey has NOT had any more renal issues since being on the diet, which now is about a year. I have purchased a grinder and make their food every week. I am committed now to this more healthy diet for my indoor boys.

Thanks so much for sharing all your knowledge and have such an outstanding website. Attached is a picture of Smokey enjoying a bone.

Susan

I hope I’m not being too optimistic when I say, it took ONE feeding of a raw/grainfree food to turn “Joey’s” tummy troubles by 180 degrees. Since I adopted him 10 days ago, he has had chronic diarrhea with occasional blood. He would eat (dry kibble) and scamper off to his litter box within an hour because the food was going through him so fast. Thanks to emails from you and Dr. Pierson and the information provided on your websites, I decided to put “Joey” on Nature’s Variety Raw food (with 1/4 teaspoon of yogurt mixed in for probiotics). His first meal was yesterday at 2 pm and he took to the raw meat like it was a mouse at a 5 star restaurant. Five hours later I noted that he hadn’t felt the need to scamper off to his litterbox. The food was sticking to his ribs ! I gave him a second feeding at 8:30 p.m Finally, at 11pm, Joey had his first formed bowel movement in the 10 days that I’ve been his caregiver (and quite likely the first one he’s had in a long time).

Many thanks to Anne and Dr. Pierson for taking the time to put together wonderful websites and for their willingness to personally respond to emails like mine.

Des Moines, IA USA

Susanne

Maxi has been on this wonderful food for about 8 months now. She’s one year old.

Maxi was on kibble as a kitten and had horrible diarrhea. I tried all kinds of kibble, cheap to very expensive, to no avail. Maxi was miserable and it was a disgusting mess! Then, my friend suggested trying raw food as she had switched her 10-year-old cat and seen such dramatic results. I switched Maxi and within 24 hours, the diarrhea was gone and her stool resembles coyote scat (dry, small and no odor!!).

Her coat is wonderfully soft and she is very muscular, although she’s mostly an indoor cat (exercised by our border collie and our kids 🙂 ). She looks great!

Maxi absolutely loves it! To get an idea: Maxi is a 10-lb cat, we feed her twice a day, about 1/4 cup per feeding. The recipe lasts approx. 3 weeks and it takes about 45 min to make it (including set up and clean up).

Tina

I wanted to write you, nearly a year now after my fiance and I switched our cats to a raw diet, to thank you for your website and the logical, reassuring information I found there. Changing to raw food saved my cat Tristan’s life, he was wasting away from IBD.

The switch to raw of course also benefited our other 2 cats immensely. Before I found your website and the links to Dr. Pierson’s site, I was afraid to make my own cat food, afraid I’d do something wrong or poison my cats. It turns out that quite the opposite was true, because we made the switch only a couple months before all the pet food recalls started happening, and in the past we had fed some of the brands that were later recalled!

I have written up the story of our cats on a web page.

Please reach out if you have your own testimonial to share.