Raw Food Diet vs Dry / Canned Diet - Life Expectancy

[bluegoo06]

thanks for all your replies. This topic sparked some good conversation and provided some good insight.

[Mimosa]

Originally Posted by bluegoo06

I was discussing diet and life expectancy with some friends and was curious what everyone here thought with thier knowledge of various cat diets. With having no experience in the raw diet, I wanted some perspective on diet verse life epectancy of a cat.

With comparing tigers and lions whom eat a whole protien diet, they obviously dont live as long as house cats. Granted with house cats they have access to vet care and less dangers than in the jungle. So comparing zoo kept "wild" cats vs. house cats, wild cats live less than house cats.

What are others experience with cats who ate raw diet verse the dry / canned food diets? Has anyone been able to notice a difference? Is there any significant health benefits to either diet?

Comparing house cats to tigers and lions would be misleading as they are different species. I am not going there.

I have four cats, 5.5 and 6.5 years old, the eldest two ate kibble (RC kitten and later RC Indoor 27) for their first 1.5 years of life, we switched to an all raw diet after we adopted the youngest two five years ago.
Because they are my first cats I have no material for comparison as to longevity. I hope they live very, very long lives but I would like it to be very healthy lives first and foremost.

When I switched Ernesto and Mimosa over from kibble to raw I saw so many changes I was convinced.
- They shed less, which solved other problems like Mimosa's excessive hairball problem and Ernesto's tendency to mat like crazy.
It was also nice to have less shedded fur from four cats than before with two.
- Before the switch the vet said they needed a teeth cleaning next time, but they are almost seven now and Ernesto's teeth look better than back then. Mimosa did need to get her teeth cleaned for the first time this year because she will only eat ground meat which does not clean the teeth.
- the litterbox smells a lot better and they have firm stools (a very big plus with longhaired cats)
- I was feeding them only 45 grams of kibble a day but Ernesto kept gaining weight and was always begging for food. He loves the raw food but will not overeat, he stopped gaining weight and got more muscular.

dEUS and Flynn already got raw at the breeder so I only know them as raw fed. Flynn's brother went to live with my best friend who fed kibble and Flynn grew out much bigger, he was an entire head taller at six months.

I swear by feeding raw to kittens. When I compare "my" kittens to the other kittens at the shelter they are much bigger and more filled out.
Here I have a spreadsheet with the weight of three of our fosters, column A/horizontal axis is their estimated age in days, vertical axis is their weight in grams. All three came in with worms and external parasites. The kitten with the yellow line also had cat flu.
https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?...thkey=CNra-_8P

[mimitabby]

What I have noticed is the beautiful glossy fur all of my cats now have. I have one 15 year old cat, who until recently resisted eating the raw food. To my surprise, she is now eating more and more of it, and her oily dry coat is changing !! at the age of 15.