Escaping the Advertising Trap

Recently, I was talking with one of my clients, and she said something that genuinely surprised me.We were discussing cat nutrition, and she mentioned that feeding cats is becoming more and more expensive. The prices of commercial cat food keep going up, and feeding several cats now costs a small fortune. I couldn't disagree with her.

I told her that my cats and kittens eat natural food every single day. Their diet includes boiled chicken as well as raw chicken with bones that I grind and prepare in advance. It's much healthier for the cats and much easier on my wallet.

Then she looked at me and asked,

"Really? You can do that? I only feed my cats boiled chicken twice a week. I never even imagined you could feed natural food every day."

Honestly, that question shocked me.

Then I started thinking and realized something very interesting.

We no longer live in the real world. We live in a presentation of the world, in a brochure, in one endless commercial.

From the moment we wake up until we go to bed, we're surrounded by a constant stream of information shaping our ideas about what's right and what's wrong.

We're constantly told which cat food is the healthiest, which canned food is the best, which kibble contains the perfect vitamins, which supplements we should buy, and what other products our pets supposedly need to stay healthy.

One advertisement follows another. One recommendation replaces the previous one. New products appear. New "essential" supplements arrive.

And all of it is reinforced by fear.

We're told that without another product, another supplement, or another special food, we might be harming our pets.

Eventually, people begin accepting this as reality itself. So much so that the simple idea of feeding a cat natural food every day starts sounding unusual—or even wrong.

Don't you ever feel like we're being manipulated?

Let's talk about something important.

Very rarely do we think completely for ourselves. Almost everything we believe today is something we once heard, read, or saw somewhere else. Then, like parrots, we repeat it until those borrowed ideas become our own.

I was caught in exactly the same trap.

During the eight years I've been breeding Maine Coons, I've changed my feeding program many times. I've tried different methods, listened to recommendations, read articles, talked with breeders and veterinarians, and studied new research.

And I can honestly say one thing.

Commercial food—both dry and canned—is incredibly convenient.

Open the bag, pour it into the bowl, and you're done.

That's where its greatest advantage ends.

Natural feeding takes time. You have to prepare it.

But eventually I realized that it's simply a matter of organization.

For example, I prepare raw food for several weeks at a time. I spend one day buying farm-raised chicken, grind it together with the bones using a commercial meat grinder, divide it into freezer bags, and freeze it.

That's why our family even bought a separate large freezer.

Boiled chicken is even easier. I cook enough for several days, keep it in the refrigerator, and simply cut it into pieces before feeding.

The pieces don't even have to be small. Cats have wonderful teeth and have no problem eating larger chunks of meat.

It's also easy to cook for yourself and your pets at the same time. If you're making soup or cooking meat for dinner, simply prepare a little extra and save some for your cats.

From my own experience...

Every time natural food became the foundation of my cats' diet, especially raw meat, my cats became incredibly healthy and beautiful. Excellent digestion, thick shiny coats that hardly needed grooming, clean eyes, clean ears, kittens that grew beautifully and gained weight quickly, no parasites.

Whenever I allowed advertising—or other breeders sharing frightening stories and questionable advice—to influence me again, problems slowly returned. Coat problems, digestive issues, and other health concerns began appearing.

The greatest fear I struggled with was raw meat. I listened to endless warnings about parasites and the dangers of raw feeding.

But the facts I observed in my own cattery told a completely different story.

Again and again, I found that the lack of natural meat—raw or cooked—was what most often led to health problems.

Recently I cleaned out my medicine cabinet and ended up throwing almost everything away because it had expired. Nearly every package was still full. I had bought those medications "just in case," but I never needed them.

Back when my cats ate only commercial foods—even expensive premium brands—that medicine cabinet was constantly in use.

That made me stop and think.

In his book on vaccination, which I recommend every cat owner read, Dr. Don Hamilton shares a very important idea.

The best alternative to many health problems is a strong immune system. And he believes that the best way to build that immune system is through natural nutrition.

Cats need real meat. Cooked or raw. In my experience, raw gives the best results. But even simple boiled chicken is a huge step forward compared with a diet based entirely on dry food and canned food.

Almost every potential kitten owner asks me the same question:

"Will my kitten grow to be really big?"

My answer is always very simple: "That depends on how you feed your kitten."

Those aren't just words. A large, healthy Maine Coon with a magnificent coat cannot be raised on commercial food alone. Natural food is essential. And so are fresh air and sunshine.