AAFCO, the ASSOCIATION of AMERICAN FEED CONTROL OFFICIALS is a pet food industry organization set up by the industry to established nutritional guidelines for pet food manufacturers. It is a self-policing and self-regulating organization. These nutritional guidelines have been arrived at by many years of experiments and good science. However, they do not recognize the issue of the quality of nutrients, the source of the nutrients, nor the destruction of the nutrients during processing. Protein is protein, fat is fat.

Sadly, the problem with these guidelines is the amount of food a cat is supposed to eat to obtain the proper nutrition as established by AAFCO. Regular canned cat foods recommend feeding your cat approximately 1 ounce of food per pound of body weight to meet the daily AAFCO nutritional standards for protein, fats, vitamins and minerals. With an average sized 11 to 15 pound male cat this would require the feeding of two and one half 5.5 oz cans (11 to 15 ounces) of commercial cat food per day. Does (or should) any cat of average size gulp down 2.5 cans of food per day?

Carbohydrates are useless empty calories for a cat. They are the cats' version of Junk Food, yet dry and wet cat foods are 20 to 60 percent carbohydrates. Considering the average indoor cat may eat only 6 to 8 ounces of food per day it is a logical assumption that many well-loved cats are not getting the nutrients they need. Many may have serious or common health problems as a result of these deficiencies. Many obese cats may be consuming excess calories in attempt to satisfy their nutritional requirements.

Your cat will require time to adjust to a raw diet, just as humans would need time to adjust to an all raw diet. Please read "Introducing Your Cat to Wild Kitty Cat Food" for suggestions on making this an easy transition.