Act 1 - Scene 5:
Water

Mark and Delia Owen, two zoologists who work in Africa noticed that a lion pride in the Kalahari desert went four years without drinking water because of a drought, and yet the lions survived purrfectly.

Why did they survive you ask?

The lion pride survived because they got all the water they needed from their prey. As long as they caught food, they were fine.

What does this tell us?

It tells us that a dog or cat should eat and drink at the same time.

As you will see in part three, the food that we make for our companions will be the consistency of a thick stew. As said earlier in this book, this will simulate the moisture content of prey. This is a more natural way for your animal to drink and in fact, don't be surprised if your dog or cat cuts its water intake back once eating wholesome food.

A possible reason for this decrease in water consumption is that the food will retain the water in the system thus helping to prevent dehydration. This in turn usually decreases the amount of water needed from a bowl. Don’t be surprised if the nose on your companion becomes moist or more moist after eating this way.

When you think about it, in many ways what is mentioned in Dr. Kirk’s manual and above makes purrfect sense because the domestic cat is said to originate from Egypt. Scholars believe that African tribesmen and Egyptians coaxed cats to live with them by feeding them food. In turn, the cats most likely helped keep rats and mice away from their grain storehouses.

This is believable because for about 4,000 years, hieroglyphs have had cat images. The Egyptians carved wooden figures of the cats and even created the Sphinx.

Now in case you didn’t know, Egypt is desert country where water is a scarcity. So it would seem quite possible that the cat’s system evolved to get water from its food.

Now, it is said that at about 900 B.C. (some say this means “Before Cats”), the Phoenician traders brought the Egyptian cats to Europe. It is said that the cross breeding of the Egyptians cats along with European wildcats produced the domestic cat of Europe.

Now, no-one considered the fact that a cat is quite possibly a desert animal by nature. Most people still don’t consider this fact, well, at least until now! However, now that we realize cats (and dogs) need their foods to be moist and that this is a more natural way for pets to drink, let’s prepare their food that way.

Some say that the moisture content of food fed has an effect on maintaining healthy kidneys and bladder in our pets. Now that’s food for thought when you consider how many pets, especially cats, have kidney problems such as feline urilogical syndrome while eating dry food.

What's really interesting is that drinking too much water from the bowl can actually cause dehydration. It's all to common to hear a vet tell someone "Your pet is dehydrated" and with the person's response being... "How can this be? My pet drinks water all day!"

Simulating the natural water content of fresh prey, by adding healthy water to the raw meat, is so very important! Not only will this help keep the kidneys healthy, but the water will be more easily retained by the body thus helping to prevent dehydration.

Editor's Paw Note:

Since pets eating a natural, homemade diet will usually drink less water from their water bowl, it is a good idea to put less water in the bowl. Pets eating a natural, raw meat diet will still drink from their water bowl, but chances are you will find they will drink less and drink less often. As a result, the water will most likely get dirty before it is all gone. Adding less water to the bowl will simply help ensure your pet is drinking cleaner water and that less water is wasted when you have to toss the dirty water.

=^.^=

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