Raw Food Diet vs Dry / Canned Diet - Life Expectancy

[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?

[mimitabby]

I don't think too many of us have been feeding raw food long enough for an entire cat's life span, but I have already seen the damage and early demise of my cats who were raised on dry cat food. Because of their premature deaths I decided to investigate and then change them to a mostly raw food diet. I still have dry cat food (but they only get about a tablespoon of it a day per cat) and canned cat food (again, about a tablespoon a day) the rest of their diet is raw meat, including organs and bones and some table scraps..

[bluegoo06]

Can I ask what your cats passed from? and how premature?

I have had 2 childhood / family cats in the last 5 - 10 years die at 7, and 11 years old. All from kidney failure. They all ate Iams food. Not genetically related. They both grew up in the same house hold, and same environment. We have been trying to figure out if it was a fluke or what could have caused it. They were in good health, then had kidney failure erally quick.

[mimitabby]

i had healthy indoor pets, two died of Kidney failure at about the age of 13, one after battling obesity for years, dropped down to skinny and died about a year later.
The other's weight was more stable, but the same story.

[mimitabby]

I also had a cat die at the tender age of 4 or 5 years old from chronic urinary tract infections/blockage. He ate only dry cat food.

[catlady2010]

I've been feeding raw for quite a few months. I used to feed high quality canned before that. I really haven't noticed any difference in behavior, to be honest. I personally like raw better because the litter box has almost no smell and it's cheaper than high quality canned.

No one can say raw is better than canned as far as lifespan goes because there isn't empirical research that supports that claim. Besides, I work at an animal shelter and when I recommend canned food to people, I always get people saying things like "Well, I had a 21 year old cat and he/she was fed raw all his/her life." The lifespan will vary based on the cat's genes and other health related problems that the cat can already be predisposed to regardless of the diet.

But yeah, dry food is bad. Cats were not meant to eat dry food, it was only made for our convenience. HQ canned and raw are the way to go. I wish there was empirical evidence that stated which food was better between canned and raw, but there isn't.

Bottom line is, I've seen cats that have been dry food live up to 20+ and I've seen cats that were fed canned food live up to 20+...I've never seen a cat who has been raw fed or heard any stories whatsoever. even on the internet.

[saitenyo]

My parents fed their cat fairly low quality dry and canned food (this was back before so much info was available about alternate diets) and she lived to be 18, so there are always exceptions to the rule I guess.

I definitely have been swayed by the logic of feeding a cat a more varied, nutritionally complete diet though. I too would love to know if there's a significant difference between quality of life/life expectancy on a quality canned vs. raw food diet specifically, as while I feed my cats a varied high-quality, high-moisture diet, I've yet to make the switch to raw.

I imagine to some degree it probably depends on the cat too, which is probably one of the reasons why there are so many adamant varied owner opinions about the subject.

[catlady2010]

oops. I meant dry not raw "Well, I had a 21 year old cat and he/she was fed raw all his/her life."

[Carmel]

I think it's probably unfair to base liver failure in a somewhat older cat (10+) on dry cat food, when a cat gets older it's the liver that tends to fail anyway from my experience. My mothers cat eats nothing but cheaper end dry food (can tin food maybe once a month if that - as a treat) and the cat hasn't been to the vet once its whole life after being spayed and she's now 15. My aunts two cats, while they had a lot more vet checkups and teeth cleaning type things done in their life, ate nothing but dry food most of their life, one lived to be 16 (almost 17 and she was a runt), the other 17 (almost 18 ). My aunt also previously had a cat that lived to be over 20 that ate nothing but dry food.

I think sometimes food can cause an early death - but it really just depends on your cat. My cat died at 3 from crystals in his bladder - wet food was likely the cause of that - it had too much ash. But who really knows.

[Muzby]

Originally Posted by Carmel

I think it's probably unfair to base liver failure in a somewhat older cat (10+) on dry cat food....

I think the issue here is that 10 years old shouldn't be "old" for a cat. Middle aged, maybe... but our cats are not living as long as they should. Ten is NOT old.