Pottenger’s Diet

I recently have been reading articles about Dr. Pottenger's experiment that he performed on domestic cats during the 30s and 40s. I am thinking about slowly changing my cat's diet to adopt raw meats, raw food and raw milk (when it’s available) just like what Pottenger gave to the cats that resulted in good health.

So my question is; has anyone tried this diet for their cat(s) or pet(s)? If so please discuss your recommendations or changes you have noticed. Or if you haven’t and wouldn’t mind, please discuss why you choose not to.

Thanks.

I have done raw ... one of the two is RB now and the other is a canine with liver issues ... thus she is now on homemade...

raw with some canned worked great for my CRF RB girl

Raw done correctly IMHO is the best ... But doing it right is easier said than done...

There could be flaws in that study. And many cats are lactose intolerant. I am a strong believer in feeding raw diets to cats but like Sharky said, do it correctly and provide the right supplements. I'm going to give you a list of resources. You can make the raw diet yourself or buy from a company that will make the recipe for you.

www.felinefuture.com
www.felineinstincts.com
www.felinespride.com
www.catinfo.org
www.catnutrition.org

I use Felines Pride because I like the convenience of having the food made for me instead of having to do it myself. Also they have great quality control practices. Their meat is even tested to be 100% negative of salmonella. It is more expensive though, not everyone can fit this in their budget, but I don't care about the price. I make it affordable for me by also feeding canned food.

I think Sharky could also give you a recipe.

Awesome, thanks for the links!
I never knew that cat food can be so sophisticated after viewing felinespride.com. Currently I am feeding my cat Hill's Science Diet Oral Care Feline Adult, I am not sure if that is considered decent.

You mentioned; “…many cats are lactose intolerantâ€. I would think that many cats are lactose intolerant to milk that is pasteurized, just as a lot of humans are. And homogenized milk doesnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t help either. Raw milk has many health benefits if the physiology of the mammal that is milking is in good health. I am an advocate for Weston A. Priceâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s studies and also one that practices it.

Thanks again.

Originally Posted by marc_____

Awesome, thanks for the links!
I never knew that cat food can be so sophisticated after viewing felinespride.com. Currently I am feeding my cat Hill's Science Diet Oral Care Feline Adult, I am not sure if that is considered decent.

You mentioned; “…many cats are lactose intolerantâ€. I would think that many cats are lactose intolerant to milk that is pasteurized, just as a lot of humans are. And homogenized milk doesnâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]t help either. Raw milk has many health benefits if the physiology of the mammal that is milking is in good health. I am an advocate for Weston A. Priceâ€[emoji]8482[/emoji]s studies and also one that practices it.

Thanks again.

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TECHNICALLY ONLY a calf should be drinking any milk RAW of course... Humans for some reason find it okay to give and take in another species baby formula

NO SD is $$$ grocery food IMHO ... If you are wanting solid commercial food just ask,... There are many ...

Ps Salmonella negative would make me warry as beef and chn NATURALLY have some

Originally Posted by sharky

Ps Salmonella negative would make me wary as beef and chn NATURALLY have some

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That is not necessarily true. Salmonella is introduced into meat though improperly handling which frequently happens with our large meat processing facilities.

According to U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates, nearly 40 percent of the American poultry supply, 12 percent of the pork and 5 percent of the beef are contaminated with salmonella.

It is possible with proper processing to not have contaminated meat.

Originally Posted by katachtig

That is not necessarily true. Salmonella is introduced into meat though improperly handling which frequently happens with our large meat processing facilities.

According to U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates, nearly 40 percent of the American poultry supply, 12 percent of the pork and 5 percent of the beef are contaminated with salmonella.

It is possible with proper processing to not have contaminated meat.

Click to expand...

IT may be but if you test stool samples even you and I shed salmonella ...

Cats generally aren't lactose intolerant to REAL milk, ie raw milk in it's natural state. Just make sure you get it from a farmer you trust. go to www.realmilk.org for more information. We use raw milk for everyone with great success. The composition of raw milk is similar to that of blood and thus it's highly nutritious to our obligate carnivore kitties.

My cats ignore me if i have a glass of pasteurized milk but i come home with a gallon of raw and they circle and call for it. Their coats get sleek and anyone having any allergy or other issues has them clear up in weeks.

I also advocate a healthy raw diet, preferably ungulates (hooved animals) that are grassfed. We buy ours from Texasgrassfedbeef.com but i also really love the mOrigins brand.

Catnutrition.org has a great recipe with the exception that you should use a quality probiotic instead of the psyllium husk. I have an article as to why but the fiber isn't very good for the cats except for maybe an initial clean up after being on grain based commercial foods.

If you can't/won't do raw then opt for a grain free canned product which at least prevents the chronic dehydration dry foods cause (and eventually renal failure or diabetes).

And if not that then grain free dry food which will at least help prevent diabetes. Cats are obligate carnivores and grains are very bad for them.

IMHO i worry more about all the TOXIC pet foods, per the recalls with salmonella and poisons. I know raw meat and raw milk from my farmer are safe.

More info on nutrition (human but great stuff to apply to cats too!)

www.WestonAPrice.org


Dawn
Pendraig Siberians

"...But doing it right is easier said than done..." -sharky

I totally agree with you. Since I posted this thread, I am now convinced that a raw diet is the only true diet my cat should be eating. Which begs the question; how can I introduce this diet to my cat from conventional food to raw food? What methods if any are successful and recommended?

I have given my cat raw milk, a few months ago, and instantly he threw it up. But he consumed it immediately, so he must have knew it was good for him. Now I am trying to give him raw meat in very small portions and he seems to sporadically eat it.

are you feeding canned currently??? I found increaseing wet and then mixing in raw was the easiest trans

no, its not wet. I am using 'Hill's Science Diet Oral Care Feline Adult' and that is dry. I suppose I will start mixing small portions in to his dry food.

Okay ... DRY and RAW dont mix they are digested at VER VERY different rates...

You may want to schedule dry feedings and in between try to give some raw ... i started with hamburger and chn breast

Now that I have caught your attention...thanks for the link, and I have one for you. http://www.ninaplanck.com/

Her book - Real Food was an eye opener for us, and thanks to her, we searched for and found sources for raw milk and raw milk cheeses...for the first time in years, a glass of milk tasted like it had in my childhood - when my gram milked the cow, brought it up to the house, strained it through a tea towel and served it.

It made me realize that milk hadn't tasted like milk to me, in years. What a difference!

Okay, I return this thread back to its scheduled topic

get the kitty off the hills food, it's one of the most god awful concoctions ever. The vets all push it so don't feel bad that you thought it was good. The company gives great kick backs to encourage vets to use it, sell it, push it etc.

If you kitty is addicted to dry food i'd first mix grain free dry food with the science diet and get him/her off of it first by slowly increasing the grain free food in the mix and lowering the amount of the science diet.

If he/she isn't addicted then i'd just go straight to a quality grain free canned product. Always opt for beef, venison, goat or even rabbit over poultry. Poultry just isn't nearly as nutritionally dense but occasional feeding is fine.

once eating the canned is well established start mixing in the raw with it. Slowly increase the raw and decrease the canned until the cat is eating raw just fine.

I still use grain-free canned in a pinch and with my kittens going to pet homes who may refuse to do raw.

Add probiotics (Primal Defense powder being ideal www.iherb.com) and CLO (i like to buy the cod liver oil/butter oil mix from www.greenpasture.org) to the canned to help the body deal with the transitions and healing while it removes all the toxins from the hills food.

I occasionally give my cats a chicken wing to gnaw on to keep gums stimulated and jaws exercised

I also add a pinch of real celtic sea salt or himalayan red mountain salt to their food. I get celtic salt from www.azurestandard.com and himalayan red salt from www.guardianofeden. You can opt instead to provide two types of water, in glass bowls, one with the good salt mixed in and the other just plain (both filtered!).

Also raw egg yolks from pastured hens (www.eatwild.com to find a farmer near you) is an excellent food too!

Dawn

Pendraig Siberians
www.Pendraig.com

Sharky thanks again for your comment.
Pat & Alix, yeah I love raw milk, mostly for its health benefits. I’m in the state of Florida so it’s legally ok to buy it for pets but not human consumption. Which makes the supply pretty low, so low in fact I can buy a gun or even purchase drugs off the streets easier then purchasing raw milk! And that is a crazy fact!

Pendraig, I must thank you for your thorough post. Ok, I think I will go out and buy some grain-free products today if it’s available locally. You mentioned about CLO from greenpasture.com, I was going to purchase some of their, ‘X-FACTOR GOLD High Vitamin Butter Oil’ a few weeks ago. Have you personally tried this or given it to your pets?

For salt; sea or Mediterranean salt is that comparable to the salt you listed?

FYI everyone, you might have heard of Jerry Brunetti, very knowledgeable guy about agriculture and nutrition, has products (for humans and pets) now available thru his company Argi-dynamic;
http://www.agri-dynamics.com/

Reading Jerry’s bio at that link is amazing. There are also some videos of him on Google Video and YouTube, he is an amazing speaker also.

Hi,

That salt is safer than your typical table salt but it doesn't have nearly the depth of minerals in it the celtic salt and the Himalayan Red Mountain salt have.

I have personally used the Fermented High Vitamin CLO for myself, as well as the gold therapuetics (butter oil/CLO mix) for both me and the pets. Before he came out with those products i bought the high vitamin CLO and the butter oil seperately for myself.

I give the cats aprox 1/4 tsp per day for two weeks to start then only give it 3 days a week. If you are feeding a good amount of raw beef liver i'd probably give the CLO only 4 days a week.

In Florida there are cow-sharing programs I believe, where you become part owner in the cow and are thus legally entitled to do whatever you want with the milk from *YOUR* cow. Try contacting the Weston A Price Foundation Chapter leader in your area or the organization itself for help.

Here in Texas it isn't illegal, thank God, but the health department will still harass our farmers so we have to buy our milk very quietly. it's really stupid. I can buy toxic medications over the counter at the super-market but I have to go through so much fuss to get real milk. And my farmer does regular testing, going so far as to do random testing on milk off the shelf at the super market for comparison and his milk ALWAYS tests MUCH lower in dangerous contaminents and bacteria.

Grain-free foods that i have as ok for my kitten buyers are:

Wellness Core - canned and dry ( i really prefer they don't feed dry much at all). They don't have beef though so I usually buy Raw Instincts for Cats or Innova Evo for Dogs.

Raw Instincts - canned and dry - this product has Rabbit, Beef, Venison, Lamb and I think some fish as well as chicken. This is a good canned product.

Innova Evo Canned - All ic an find is a chicken product so i don't buy this much but it's good in a pinch. The dog foods are much better but i give those to cats on a limited basis and always add taurine.

Innova Evo Dry- i used to use this one but the formula was changed and since then the cats don't do as well on it. I get reports of refusing to eat, or gas or digestive upset. Of course i can't be sure the cats are getting their supplements.

I hope this helps! It's great to meet more people who know what WAPF is!

Dawn
Pendraig Siberians

Here Raw milk is LABELLED ... I kid you not .. FERTILIZER and non USDA meat dog food... YUP I live in the sticks..lmao..

I am fortunate that my state does allow the sale of raw milk and raw milk cheeses, finding a source that is near enough and that I can afford for naturally raised meat is a goal of mine not yet met (that and getting a freezer for storage).

Originally Posted by Pat & Alix

I am fortunate that my state does allow the sale of raw milk and raw milk cheeses, finding a source that is near enough and that I can afford for naturally raised meat is a goal of mine not yet met (that and getting a freezer for storage).

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The meat is covered two local butchers use local meat naturally or organically raised... USDA checked ...

Originally Posted by sharky

The meat is covered two local butchers use local meat naturally or organically raised... USDA checked ...

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Lucky you!