Feed Your Cat the Natural Way : The Platform Upon Which to Build Health
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About this ebook
Manufactured pet foods are, in the author's opinion, not a healthy way to feed cats and many of the pitfalls are highlighted in this book.
This relaxed approach to feeding domestic pets has brought health and welfare benefits to so many of the author's feline patients.
2nd Edition
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Feed Your Cat the Natural Way - Christopher Day
Feed Your Cat the Natural Way
The Platform Upon Which to Build Health
Christopher Day
Copyright
Feed Your Cat the Natural Way
The Platform Upon Which to Build Health
Christopher Day
Second Edition
Copyright © 2012 Christopher Day
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording or any other information technology without prior permission in writing from the publisher. Similarly, no part of this book may be translated into another language without the prior written permission of the publisher. It is sold on the condition that it shall not be resold, lent or hired without the publisher’s prior consent.
ISBN: 978-1-300-34367-7
www.alternativevet.org
wwwnaturalfeeding.uk
Christopher Day MA VetMB VetFFHom CertIAVH MRCVS
Alternative Veterinary Medicine Centre
Chinham House
Stanford in the Vale
Oxfordshire SN7 8NQ
Acknowledgements
This book is the product of stimulus from clients, who have suffered listening to me banging on about natural feeding without actually giving the full explanation of ‘how’. It also owes a great deal to all the lovely feline patients whom it has been my privilege to meet and treat, over the last forty years. Making their acquaintance has been a delight and honour.
About the Author
Christopher Day qualified from Cambridge University and Veterinary School in 1972. He is Principal of The Alternative Veterinary Medicine Centre, in Oxfordshire - website: www.alternativevet.org.
Introduced to homeopathy at about the age of ten or eleven, he used this type of medicine on himself through school and college, for all the usual colds, flu, rugby injuries etc., to great effect. He started using it on some of his patients from the outset of his veterinary career. His use of homeopathy increased rapidly, taking up an increasing proportion of his practice time. His interest in natural medicine led him to take up acupuncture, having studied abroad, and he now uses these two medical systems, in conjunction with other ‘alternatives’, including chiropractic manipulation, herbs, tissue salts, flower essences, aromatherapy etc., in his holistic medicine practice. In 1987, he founded the Alternative Veterinary Medicine Centre (AVMC), the first dedicated holistic practice in the UK. Healthy nutrition is a mainstay of all his daily holistic work, in which he discusses a species-suitable fresh diet for each and every patient.
He is Veterinary Dean to the Faculty of Homeopathy. He was, for more than twenty-five years, Honorary Secretary of the British Association of Homeopathic Veterinary Surgeons, of which he was a founder-member. He has served two terms as President of the International Association for Veterinary Homeopathy, of which he was also a founder-member. He is actively involved in clinical research and treats all species with natural medicine. He has written several books on homeopathy, herbs and natural medicine. He lectures around the UK on many aspects of natural medicine and holistic medicine to a wide variety of audiences and teaches vets on post-graduate courses both in the UK and around the world.
Preface
In this early part of the 21st Century, those who care for cats are becoming more aware that there is a need to question the current ‘norm’, since so much that we have been led to believe about cat management and care is the product of commercial self-interest, driven by the need to sell volumes of mass-produced ‘products’, rather than the wish to disseminate a positive health message. This trend is driving a number of cat-keeping folk to look into the logic and biological basis for feeding, rather than the convincingly presented, oft-repeated and widely disseminated self-serving emanations from the commercial concerns in the pharmaceutical industry and in the pet food industry.
While a great many people are questioning the ‘norm’, a large proportion of these are unsure how to break out of the mould, for lack of information or for lack of accessible alternatives to the commercial, processed diets that are offered in pet stores and which adorn the modern-day vet’s waiting room (does anyone else get the feeling that veterinary practices are in danger of looking more like shops than professional establishments?).
The author of this ebook has long agreed with and supported those who would seek to feed cats more naturally. The general idea makes obvious sense, after all, cats have been eating a natural diet for millennia! In doing so, he tries to avoid strict rules and constraints, which can make it all a little difficult, daunting and demanding for the average person in our modern urbanized society, who just wants to move away from processed food into feeding fresh food that is species-suitable. It is hoped that this book, in advocating a fairly relaxed approach to feeding cats, will help that significant sector of the community to follow their wish to create a simple, fresh and healthy diet for their cat companions.
We all want to do the best we can for our cats, including giving them a wholesome diet. It is absolutely clear that the food which a cat eats, just as in people, forms the basic components of tissue and organ building, tissue repair and biochemistry. Food gives us energy to carry out daily activity and to drive our metabolism. It is also about renewal of tissues. Can we expect healthy tissues and organs if we do not select the best raw materials? The old adage ‘we are what we eat’ is a meaningful and valid cliché, despite being oft-quoted. Build a house of suspect materials and the house will be sub-standard both in structure and function. So it is with the body.
While introducing dogs to a more natural, home-prepared diet of ‘proper’ food is relatively easy, it is not necessarily so easy to do likewise with cats. Cats can be very fastidious feeders and, having once become apparently ‘hooked’ on certain foods, they can steadfastly refuse change. This is particularly the case when they become accustomed to manufactured, processed food. The feedback from families who have ‘converted’ their dogs is so positive and the demand for guidance on feeding cats without the intervention of manufacturers so strong, however, that this text had to emerge eventually. It has capitalised on the development of the ‘Feeding Dogs’ book, through four editions, thus harnessing much of the know-how that has built up in those years, with special reference, however, to the particular needs and lifestyles of our cats.
In the author's daily holistic veterinary practice, dietary improvement is a major part of his medicine. He firmly believes that there is no such thing as good medicine without good diet. Any medical or management initiative that is put in place to help fight illness or to prevent disease, however good, will fall short of its intended target if the patient's nutrition is sub-optimal. The more ill a patient is, the more a fresh and wholesome diet is essential. However, even healthy young animals will benefit hugely from such a diet and be better able to resist illness, premature ageing and degenerative disease. Senior cats will flourish better and stay active longer on a healthy diet.
Having written ‘Feeding Dogs the Natural Way’, a booklet which ran to four editions, the author has embraced new technology and generated this ebook, to carry on the good work, this time for cats. It is the direct descendant of the booklet ‘Feeding Cats the Natural Way’, which never fully surfaced for lack of available time to publish in printed form when it was written. This version has more information, updated content, clearer and more logical layout and more accessible detail, thanks to its electronic format and thanks to the opportunity to take a fresh look at it. It has been decided, for the sake of convenience to the reader, not to use Digital Rights Management systems (DRM) in presenting this book. In turn, the reader is trusted and expected to respect author copyright.
The purpose of this ebook is to consider the options available, to air the practical, philosophical and scientific questions which arise, to question some of the current paradigms and, by clarifying the issues surrounding cat food, to make decisions easier for those who wish to feed their feline companions ‘their own way’. Armed with all this insight, readers may even change their own eating habits!
The following paragraphs outline the theory and philosophy, which the author considers to be wholesome and healthy, along with providing the logic for that approach, in each case. The ebook constitutes the opinion of the author and not that of any group or body of authority to which he belongs or with which he sympathises. It summarises the author's own views of a practical and varied way to feed cats. It is realised that, with the pressures of modern life, the ideal may not be attainable in every family but any steps taken towards this goal will be of health benefit. It is important to note, however, that if a holistic view is not taken (i.e. picking and choosing ‘easy’ bits), holistic advice may be needed about balancing the diet