It is an argument that could go on forever I'm sure! I don't feed raw at the moment, mainly because my girls haven't been with me that long but it's something I am considering moving them onto in the future.

I think it's really great that people are so passionate about things like this , and also that there are people on this forum that can advise about the correct way of raw feeding (like balooJ).

My concern is about those that go into it blindly without understanding the various components of a cats essential diet, or how the cut of meat affects the quality of the diet. I used the study as an example (and pointed out that it was a flawed study, but hey can anyone truly say a scientific study has absolutely no flaws?)

You are right, cats wouldn't be able to cook their food in the wild (but I suspect many would also suffer illness due to pathogens in the raw food!), and some pet food manufacturers do put all sorts of horrible rubbish in their foods. Again, it's about making informed decisions and choosing a diet you feel is best for your cat and you are comfortable preparing! Being the owner of a domesticated animal leaves many questions to be answered about how far we should go to ensure the animal is happy and still has elements of it's ancestors non-domesticated lifestyle.

Just as a general musing, I wonder how many people only feed organic raw diets? It's a similar argument that many of us may have had about our own diets, can it be healthy to eat meat that is treated (in one way or another, whether it be for commercial/profitable reasons or for the animals health) with chemicals throughout it's lifetime?

Sorry to have taken this thread onto a bit of a tangent! I'm sure we could have a whole sub-forum about raw feeding pro's and con's!! How are your kitties enjoying their samples hayleyb?