Can raw chicken kill a cat?

Answer 1

Providing the meat is clean and fresh, and the cat is healthy, it is incredibly rare for a cat to die from eating raw chicken.

Contrary to popular belief, feeding a cat a diet of raw meat, organs and bones is incredibly beneficial to the cat, and with limited risk. However, creating a nutritionally complete diet takes a lot of research in order to get the balance right, but giving a cat raw meat once a week is a very nutritious treat.

Cats have evolved to digest raw meat. Even our furry friends are not all that different from lions and leopards; they are all perfectly adapted to eat raw meat, organs and even bone and to digest it all quickly and efficiently. Raw meat is also one of the only foods that will help keep a cat's teeth and gums clean and healthy as the meat rubs off any plaque and encourages blood-flow in the gums.

What about bacteria? Cats are carnivores. They are made just the same as their wild cousins and ancestors; even pet cats will often kill and eat mice and other small animals they catch, all with no ill-effects. A cat's digestive system is not like ours; a cat's stomach and intestines quickly break down the meat, organ and bone to the molecular level and absorb them, and the leftover parts are expelled as waste. Meat does not stay in the cat's intestines long enough to allow harmful bacteria to grow and harm the cat. In comparison, a human's digestive system is much, much slower and food spends most of its time in the gut where the food is processed. This allows harmful bacteria to multiply which makes us vulnerable to salmonella and ecoli.

Harmful bacteria such as salmonella can and has been found in processed pet foods - causing brands to recall their products. While raw has a small risk (as with feeding all foods), you can control where the meat you feed your pet comes from and greatly limit the chance of buying contaminated food.

Many commercially-processed meats are full of bacteria due to the animals kept in cramped and unsanitary conditions which is never a good idea to feed raw. If you wish to feed raw to your cat, Organic or Free Range meat is the safest choice as the meat would have come from hormone-free animals kept in sanitary conditions. Freezing the meat for several weeks will help kill off any bacteria.

Always practice safe food handling techniques when handling ANY raw meat - whether it is for you or your pet. It might be advisable to take extra care with very young, very old or cats with compromised immune systems.