What's up, Team Cat Mojo?
We have a special episode of Cat Mojo today.
I field a lot of questions about cat nutrition.
And I'm glad.
It makes me happy to be able to talk about that body mind
connection with cats.
I've been doing that for many, many, many years.
And for quite awhile now, one of the tools in my toolbox
has been felinenutrition.org, and felinenutrition.org really
gets into the nitty gritty about what cats need to eat
and what keeps them vital.
And I'm really happy to welcome Margaret Gates her today.
Margaret Gates is the founder and director of the Feline
Nutrition Education Society, and welcome Margaret.
Hi.
It's so good to see you.
Tell me a little bit, tell the world
a little bit about felinenutrition.org
and how you started it.
Well, I started in 2008 after I had attended a lecture
given by a v about nutrition.
And one of the things she did was
she brought in all her equipment and made a batch of raw food
right there.
And I realized how easy it was.
And also how she explained what cats evolved to eat
and what they really should be eating,
which is a raw meat diet.
That's what their whole systems are geared up to do.
And I switched all of my cats, who were then about a year old,
on to a raw meat diet.
And I was just blown away by the results.
Even with cats that we're young and healthy,
they had more energy, their coats got soft and silky,
and best of all, the poop doesn't smell at all.
It's been an uphill battle in terms
of advocating a bio-appropriate diet for cats.
Since you started in '08, are you finding that there is
a measure of acceptance around raw diet?
Acceptance is growing.
Yes, the vets are slowly coming around
and one of the things we have found
is a lot of people start feeding their cats the raw meat
diet after visiting our site or deciding on their own to do it.
And they end up taking their cats to the vet, the vets ooh
and aah over how healthy their cats are
and we've had people it took an 18-year-old cats that
have been on a raw meet diet and the vet just
couldn't believe the cat was 18 years old.
Then they reveal what they're feeding
the cat and a lot of vets take a step back and start really
thinking about it at that point, because, they're
getting educated by their clients.
Most vets don't get a lot of education in nutrition,
and that's part of the problem.
What education they do get is often
taught by the pet food company.
Exactly, right.
I've had vets describe this to me.
It was mostly a course in how to prescribe
the veterinary prescription diet.
It wasn't about what was best for the cat.
So a lot of vets just don't know very much about it,
and because a vet, they're reluctant.
Vets that are a little bit more open minded
are willing to learn from what their clients are showing them.
And willing to see the results, because a raw meat diet
can be very effective in helping cats with IVD,
and diabetes, and other diseases, urinary tract
problems.
And because of that, a lot of people are turning to it
and trying raw meat diets.
Tell me about your light bulb moment.
I suddenly realized that, of course, a cat is a cat.
They evolved to eat raw meat.
And the fact that we're feeding them other things
is leading to a lot of health problems.
We're feeding cats foods that they did not evolve
and it is causing them a lot of health problems.
Especially dry food, because cats are obligate carnivores,
they don't have any requirement for carbohydrates.
That's one of the things that this vet pointed out.
And once you point that out to people,
and they suddenly realize what they
had been feeding their cat, because we had fed our cats
dry food.
And once you realize that you're feeding your cat something
that they have no business eating,
they have no requirement for carbohydrate, and all dry food,
no matter what the ingredients, even if it's grain free,
is filled carbohydrates.
And that was something I realized,
that I'd been contributing to my cat's health problems
by what I was feeding him.
I had assumed that because this food is in the stores
and it's available, that it was OK for my cat.
It's not.
Everyone talks about the fact that-- my grandma
fed her cat blank blank.
I'd feed-- my mom fed her cats the dry blank blank,
and I feed it.
And our cats are living to be 20 years old.
So their lifespan is just fine.
What do you say to people who say that?
Yes, some cats do survive into old age on dry food.
But it's still not a healthy food for them.
They never tell you whether that cat was having kidney problems,
whether it was having any other medical problems, whether it
was probably overweight.
Cats are a lot healthier when they're
eating bio appropriate diets.
Not every cat is going to have a problem on a dry food diet.
A lot of cats well.
And you don't know when you're starting out
whether your cat's going to have a problem.
And I always think why risk it?
The myth that you can feed a grain free dry.
And it's great for then.
The whole packaging of grain free, talk to me
about that real quick.
Because people started to avoid grains
with cats, which are very dangerous to give cats,
manufacturers caught onto that and started eliminating grains.
All they do is substitute another carbohydrate,
some sort of vegetable usually.
It's still carbohydrates, it's still dry.
Cats don't need carbohydrates and they
need to get most of their liquid in their food, which
is why canned or raw diet is most important.
Tell folks how they get this information
on feline nutrition.
If you go to feline-nutrition.org,
we have lots of different sections.
We have sections on nutrition that
would talk about these prepared diets,
we also have a recipe if you want to make homemade,
you need to follow a recipe, because cats need meat, bone,
and organ in their diet.
Can't just be plain meat.
That's very deficient.
And we have lots of different articles
on how to do a proper raw meat diet whichever
method you're using.
Thank you so much, Margaret.
You're welcome.
Me and you could sit here and talk for six hours, I'm sure.
We could.
And hopefully we will sometime.
But in the meantime folks, you know
how I feel about a bio appropriate diet.
Now you're starting to see that it's not such a strange thing.
Feline-nutrition.org, please go to it,
you'll see the links down below.
And do what's best for your cat.
Start thinking.
Is that kibble in that bowl really
the right thing for your cat?
You know I talk to you guys all the time about structuring
meal time, structure meal time, with at the very least,
a grain free wet diet, but start taking a look
at the kind of things you'll find with the Feline Nutrition
Education Society.
Please do it.
Do what's best for your cat and avoid the learning curve
that a lot of us including me and Margaret
have gone through before.
We're trying to make it so you don't
have to make those tough decisions once your cat is not
well.
All right, folks, if you want to get in touch with me,
and I'm sure you do at this point.
This is really interesting stuff.
You can find me on Twitter and on Facebook and on YouTube.
And you can also find Margaret wherever you need
to on feline-nutrition.org.
Until the next time we meet, all light, all love,
all mojo to you, love you.
Goodbye.
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