So a raw food diet was once the answer to everyone’s question “What is the best diet to feed my cat?” And why wouldn’t it be? Cats by nature eat raw meat, whether it's from mice, birds, or other small animals. So a raw food diet isn’t foreign to a cat’s instincts or digestive system. Another significant feature was the fact that compared to commercial cat food, the raw diet provided the essential nutrients needed to maintain a healthy cat. So why hasn’t the homemade raw food diet gained popularity?

Strictness

The number one aspect, I feel, that contributes to the raw food diet not gaining popularity is due to the strictness that is associated with it. People who swear by raw food cat diets have a methodical approach, and that makes sense. Raw foods HAVE to be prepared under a hygienic environment in order to ensure no contamination. Any sort of bacterial contamination and the cat can become quite ill. This turns a lot of people off on the raw food diet. In a fast-paced world where people work 9-5 jobs, it’s just not possible to keep up on making a hygienic raw food diet. People would rather spend that extra dollar or two purchasing a higher quality brand of cat food, rather than make it themselves.

‘Grossness Factor’

The second aspect is what I like to call the ‘grossness factor.’ When reading recipes about making homemade raw food diets, it’s easy to not realize what you actually have to do to create it. I personally feel the ‘grossness factor’ turns a lot of people off on making their own cat food. What is the ‘grossness factor’ you ask? It’s the handling of raw pounds of meat and preparing it to be cat friendly. These pounds of meat can include the animal’s (chicken, what have you) liver, kidney, heart and other icky parts. It’s the separating of the muscle meat from the bones of the animal. It’s the grinding of the bones in a grinder to ensure the bones become cat friendly. Some of you may be reading this and be thinking ‘so what?’ But for the average cat owner who casually reads upon cat nutritional requirements, this is gross.

There are many pros to feeding your cat a raw diet. However, for many the cons of preparing it at home far outweigh the pros. This is why cat food companies are getting into the market of commercially prepared raw food diets. They know a market when they see one. They realize that cat owners simply do not have the time or stomach to prepare the diets themselves. This is why the art of preparing a healthy, homemade raw food diet for cats has declined.