Week 12: The Cat Owner’s Dilemma

So I know I’m a little late to the dance on this one, but man, The Omnivore’s Dilemma is really good (and fascinating and eye-opening and gross and troubling). I’ve just started Part 2 and I kind of really really want to start a farm…or maybe just shop more at farmer’s markets.

What this has to do with Junie is this: after reading about the nasty health effects on cows of a grain-based feedlot diet, which they are not evolved to digest, I’ve started reconsidering the validity of these websites that I came across while researching cat diet strategies a couple weeks ago. The basic argument is that cats are obligate carnivores — evolved to need meat — and that they are healthiest on the diet they evolved to eat: high in animal protein and fat, low in carbs, high in moisture. According to the authors of these sites, canned food is better than dry (which contains a bunch of grain), and real raw meat is best of all. Initially, I had dismissed all this as a little nuts — only crazy people make their pets’ food from scratch, right? — but on second thought (and considered in the context of ugly truths about the human food industry) I have to admit the argument is compelling.

No Junie, you're a carnivore!

One site singles out Junie’s food, Hill’s Science Diet, specifically (even their canned stuff), and “Light” cat food in general (which contains less fat, and therefore more carbs), as being bad news. My vet recommends (and sells) Hill’s, and the woman who was fostering Junie used it too. I’ve blithely assumed that since it’s even more expensive than the premium grocery store brand I’d been feeding Faith, it had to be good — I mean, it has “Science” right in the name, dammit! Then again, science keeps getting the diet thing wrong for humans. Given how poor a job we do of feeding ourselves – valuing convenience and cost over health and common sense — it’s pretty plausible, even likely, that we’re feeding our pets the wrong thing too, especially when you consider that we’re making pet food out of cheap subsidized grain and animal by-products deemed unfit for human consumption.

But could I really feed Juniper a raw meat diet? Even if I was certain it was the right thing, the work involved (buying/grinding/portioning/freezing/thawing) seems pretty overwhelming. Some nights I can barely feed myself. And then there’s the question of what meat to feed her. If I buy $.99/lb. chicken from Stop & Shop I’ll be disappointing Michael Pollan, but I can’t afford to feed her from my meat CSA. (Of course processed cat food — dry or canned — doesn’t eliminate that issue, just masks it by disguising the industrial meat — or meat by-products —  behind a pretty label.)

The proponents of raw meat don’t always agree among themselves — this vet grinds the meat and adds supplements (check out the awesome photo towards the end of the page), while this woman is staunchly opposed to grinding and feeds her cats whole chunks of raw animal. Both, however, reference the mouse as the platonic ideal of cat food. Mostly to tease Matthew, I briefly (okay for like two minutes) entertained the idea of raising mice (on surplus corn of course), then setting them loose one at a time for Junie’s dinner. The exercise would be built right in! Fortunately for Matthew, the problems with factory farming mice in the guest room became apparent pretty quickly — for one thing, think how much mouse poop that would generate! But you know where mice are a “naturally” occurring part of the food chain? That’s right, a farm. Seriously, would anyone buy a farm with me?

Pastoral fantasies aside, I think I want to take a closer look at what Junie’s eating, and consider switching to some ungodly expensive grain-free canned food. If anyone’s done any research into this topic, I’d love to hear what you learned or concluded.

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