Like It Raw? A Trending Pet Diet Has Owners Grinding Meat at Home

Vijaya Mitra and her husband Pradeep have been vegetarians for years, but at any given time you’ll find their freezer stocked with raw chicken and turkey. The poultry, Vijaya says, is for the couple’s beloved cats, Natalya, 13, and Little Bear, 11.

"The cats are very healthy," says Vijaya. Both, she says, have beautiful fur and good teeth, and there's another bonus: "The litter box is also not as smelly. Before we fed them this way, the litter box was terribly smelly."

The Mitras, who live in Chevy Chase, Md., and have two adult children, are among a growing number of pet owners who are opting to prepare a raw food, or BARF (Bones and Raw Food), diet for their pets. Many pet stores are even catering to the demand, featuring a freezer section of prepackaged pet food. In fact, the BARF diet has been popular for years among zoos and dog racing facilities, and proponents maintain that animals are biologically suited to eat raw meats, vegetables and fruits without grains, fillers, and preservatives.

Vijaya learned of the raw diet by reading the The New Natural Cat: A Complete Guide for Finicky Owners (Dutton, 1990) and by perusing the Feline Nutrition Education Society Web site. Each week she buys organic poultry from her local Whole Foods, then grinds it up in 5-lb. batches, bone and all, before adding supplements including calcium lactate, fish oil and flax seed meal. She also mixes in cooked, blended carrots.

"I don’t add up how much I spend," she says, laughing, "I take great care not to know."

The cost didn't escape Janice Nicholas and Michael Watkins of St. Petersburg, Florida, who began feeding their pit bulls Michael T, 12, and Blondie, 6, pre-prepared raw dog food after a homeopathic veterinarian recommended it. The couple, who also live with Michael’s 12-year-old daughter Alison, quickly realized the grub, which comes with a price tag that's 50 percent to 100 percent more than regular pet food, was too much for the family budget.

So Janice began making the dogs’ food at home and keeping an eye on supermarket meat sales. "I look for yellow ticket items, or I’ll go to Wal-Mart and buy 10 pounds of chicken leg quarters," she says. "We’d like to feed the dogs all organic food — we’d like to eat all organic food ourselves — but we can’t afford it."

Since starting the diet four years ago, Janice says she's seen a noticeable improvement in her pets' health. "Their skin and teeth look amazing," she points out. "Blondie has no plaque on her teeth whatsoever. Both of them have softer coats. They don’t get dry, flaky patches. They don’t have that 'doggy' smell."

Still, not every pet care professional is on board. Dr. Sarah Bowman, a veterinarian and co-owner of City Paws, an animal hospital in Washington, D.C., is skeptical. "I worry about salmonella, e.coli and other organisms in raw meat that can harm the pet and harm the owner who’s preparing the food," she says. "Cooking the food kills all that."

Dr. Bowman calls the raw diet a "fad" and says she’s concerned that pets might develop deficiencies. "Cats and dogs have very specific nutritional needs. I’m not sure if these pet owners are providing that." (She recommends pet food with an AAFCO, or Association of American Feed Control Officers, seal.)

Fad or not, the raw food diet is catching on with some pet owners. To learn more, check out the Web sites FNES.org, Barfworld.com and Truthaboutpetfood.com.

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Gina Vivinetto