What the beef?

We often received question on whether Beef is healthy for cats? Or Why should I not feed beef? How about Mutton and Lamb? To answer this we first need to understand the concept of BARF.

BARF is the food closest to nature that we could provide for our beloved cats. It is not just about feeding RAW diet, but much much more. So what is BARF? BARF stands for: BIOLOGICALLY APPROPRIATE RAW FOODS. It is basically a species oriented diet that is closest to nature in terms of it nutrition composition.

There are 2-ways to achieve such nutrition composition:

1. What we see cat eat in the wild, we feed them the same. Such as rodents, small birds and etc. A.K.A the Frankenprey Diet
2. From understanding what our cat eat in the wild, we try to mimic the same nutrition values

Getting back to the question, is it healthy for a cat to eat Beef, Mutton or Lamb? By understanding the concept of BARF, it is not advisable. The question we need to ask ourselves is, does cat hunt cows, goats or sheep in the wild? The answer is NO. Cats is a small predator, hence it hunts prey that is around or smaller than it's own size. Also the nutrition composition in big prey is way different compared to small prey. Take Beef bones for example. Bones in beef is denser. Hence most grinders are unable to grind it. Losing the content of its bone marrow, calcium and much more. 

So What meat is good for cats?
As BARF tries to replicate the nutrition composition of a cat diet in the wild, there are meat that are well suited for cats. Such as chicken, duck, pheasant, turkey, rabbit/hare, quail, just to name some.