We transitioned to the raw food diet very slowly because Mamaw was doing a lot of researches about it. Here I will tell you how we did it. First, when Figaro game home from the pet orphanage, he was really sick - he hadded Rhinotracheitis. He was sneezing a lot, a LOT! We tooked him to the vet but he said just to get a lot of rest. And he made me sick too. So then I had to go see a vet because my eyes got swollened shut. And I had a lot of stuff coming out my eyes and I was sneezing too. But I went to a different vet since that vet we didn't like him, and that vet gave me a prescription of Clavamax (antibiotics.) Then Figaro got more sick with his eye swollened too, and we took him to my new vet and he gave him the Clavamax too. But while I got better, when he got sicker, he infected me AGAIN so I had to go get another prescriptions. Finally we were all better. Thank goodness!
First Mamaw was worried about giving uncooked diet, especially since we were just sick and our immune systems were very weaks. So over Thanksgiving 2007, Mamaw decided we need to start better nutritions. First she went and bought some meat at the store, and used the recipe from Whole Health For Happy Cats, but she cooked it and added some taurine (because when you cook meats you have to add taurine supplements.) She also bought Platinum Performance vitamins because that was recommended in the Your Cat book. And she made us some cooked food. She cooked it like a meatlofs and then cut it in pieces. We liked it. After that she took away all of our kibbles, and let us only have the meatlofs food. Then the next time she bought tons of chickens, and 1-cup size containers, and made a lot of chickens with liver and giblet mix and cooked it and freezed it. So between late November and early Febuary we were eating only the special cooked mix. This was great because Figaro no longer had the smelly #2s, and he had much better paws, not cracked anymore. Plus neither of us have gotten sick since then, because we are eating healthy now.
Here are some good books that my Mamaw read before she transitioned us to raw food diet. We recommend all of them.
Natural Health Bible for Dogs and Cats, by Shawn Messonnier, D.V.M.
This is a good book for checking on various conditions, herbs, vitamins, and supplements. It has information on natural remedies and traditional remedies. Even for a kitty household who is not eating raw diets, it is a great book! It does not really advocate raw diets but does have a section on them.
Whole Health for Happy Cats, by Sandy Arora
This is not by a doctor, and while I usually like to prefer books by qualified individuals, we liked reading this one. I liked looking at the pictures of the kitties which are very colorful and cute, and Mamaw liked the information in it. The "whole prey model" concept prevails in this book and you get an easy look at how to have that diet with some good mix 'n match recipes.
Your Cat: Simple New Secrets to a Longer, Stronger Life, by Elizabeth Hodgkins, D.V.M.
This is a great book that advocates raw diets. There are a lot of case studies that explain about how many health problems were avoided by transitioning to raw diets. However she talks about feeding only ground meats, while we think that feeding whole meats is better since then we chew it and have strong teeths. The recipe in this is not as good.
If you only buy one book, we suggest Natural Health Bible for your reference guide, and subscribing to the Raw Cat Yahoo Group (see left sidebar). If you want to be convinced why raw diets are good, we suggest Your Cat. If you want a nice colorful book which also has useful recipes, we suggest Whole Health for Happy Cats.