Evidence surrounding the feeding of natural/raw diets to dogs and cats

There are many arguments surrounding the correct way to feed a balanced healthy diet to dogs and cats. This paper will present the current scientific knowledge from peer-reviewed mainstream journals and peer-reviewed research groups, not views, opinions or anecdotal evidence. It is important when viewing literature that the type (Level) of evidence being written up is identified (Table 1), Level 1 evidence being of the highest value. It is also important to look at whether control groups have been used, study size, methodology and possibly who has funded the study (whether this has had an influence on the study outcome — which ideally it should not). Different countries have different legal requirements surrounding selling of diet, labelling and consumer legislation.

(RCT, randomised controlled trial)

All pet foods are heavily marketed, even those that say they do not like marketing, are marketing to a specific market. The terms ‘natural’ and ‘hypoallergenic’ are not regulated, and therefore can be used to describe anything in the UK market. Hypoallergenic was invented by the cosmetic industry in 1953, (Mesley and Johnson, 2000). Organic however, is a closely regulated industry throughout Europe, North America and Australia. The term holistic foods in itself cannot be holistic since it is only one of a number of factors that contribute to a dog's health. Nevertheless, over the last couple of decades, more and more pet foods have been labelled as ‘holistic’. Nutrition is an important aspect of the total holistic care of the animal, and makes up an important element of the nursing care plan (Figure 1).