Article Regarding Digestibility Of Raw V Commercial Canned Diet

yeva2292

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Came across this interesting study today, published last year, which compares commercial raw, commercial canned, and homemade raw diets in digestibility of protein, fat, and other organic matter.
The study found improved digestibility when fed a commercial or homemade raw diet compared to commercial canned.

Hamper BA, Kirk CA, Bartges JW. Apparent nutrient digestibility of two raw diets in domestic kittens. J Feline Med Surg 2016. 18(12)991-996

Apparent nutrient digestibility of two raw diets in domestic kittens. - PubMed - NCBI

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orange&white

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Thank you for posting the article. It's nice that a few people are doing some actual studies on a raw diet to counter the veterinarians'-at-large argument that "There are no studies proving that a raw diet is healthier than a processed 'pet food' diet."

Raw feeders know that a raw diet is ultra-digestible and so far can only "prove it" by personal observation, not by scientific evidence.

Last weekend I was reading a feline-nutrition.org article about constipation, which wrote that raw-fed cats' poop is mostly cat fur (protein fiber). I broke open a poop from my kitten and one from my senior cat and sure enough...looked like a poop tootsie roll on the outside, but inside was mostly non-digestible fiber (cat fur). That says that most of the food is being absorbed as nutrients.
 

sophie1

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Yes, thanks for posting! The article demonstrates what we've all known already for a long time, but it's nice that it's now in pub med.

A friend of mine gave me a can of Sheba to try, which she swears by for her cat. They loved it, but that one little 3 oz can resulted in more than twice the usual poop volume, and smelly to boot. I did some calculations and showed my friend that Sheba costs almost as much per day as freeze dried raw. Especially now that there's getting to be some competition in the freeze dried market for cats, so prices are coming down a bit.
 
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