this post was submitted on 04 Mar 2024
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I think the main danger with raw meat is harmful bacteria (salmonela, listeria, e coli, etc). Basically the same things that make people sick if they're present and we don't cook the meat properly. They aren't always present, but it's kind of a gamble to keep feeding a cat raw meat.
But how do animals without homes learn to cook their meat?
People that have been found in peat bogs are almost always heavily infested with intestinal parasites, and fecal material found at archeological sites show significant signs of parasitic infections as well, because even once we cooked food we often didn't have acceptable food safety (or, y'know, refrigeration). Truth is that cats in the wild just constantly have tons of parasites and get sick a lot, and sometimes die from it.
Yeah I'll definitely keep that in mind as something to watch out for in what my cat eats. You know, once he finally gets done eating 1,000 mice and comes inside for some extra food...
You do you. But just so you know, cats that are allowed to free range outside have a life expectancy, on average, about 1/3rd that of an indoor-only cat. Killing and eating wildlife is one of the reasons.