All three of my cats and my dog are on a raw diet. Cats have been on raw for 2 years or more, and the dog for over a year. They are all doing great, the health changes have been amazing. Particularly my older cat: about 14-15 years old when I started switching her. She was arthritic, wouldn't/couldn't jump, glazed over look in her eyes, hard to keep good weight (gained too much weight so put her on a diet then she lost too much weight, constant weight roller coaster), and LOOKED old. Got her switched, and she's a completely different cat. While still arthritic (some calcification around the last couple of her lumbar vertebrae), her movements are a lot easier, she moves a lot more, and actually jumps again! The shine came back to her eyes, no more glazed over look. She holds good weight now, is lean not "doughy" (read: fat). She is now 17 years old, and no one will believe me, the oldest anyone believes she could be is 12 years. She's in good shape, my no-BS blunt vet said she looks *really good* for a 17 year old cat.
My dog is in good shape too. Prior to the switch she had a lot of gassy issues and tummy upset. It was hard to keep weight on her - she was always way too thin and if I fed her more she'd just throw it all up. Her coat was dull and she had dry skin/dandruff issues, plus she smelled. Now, she holds good weight, is all lean muscle, she still has gas every now and then, but the issue is restricted to when she gets extremely nervous as opposed to all the time for no reason. She keeps her food down better (only having throw up issues when she gets overly excited), and her skin and hair are in good shape.
All the animals' energy levels have gone way up. My two younger cats are around 6 years old, and act like kittens. They are both in really good shape, lean muscle with good skin and coats. They all have very nice teeth too, clean, white, and strong.
I feed the "prey model" diet: ratio of organ, bone, and "meat" (read: everything else, mostly muscle but also fat, skin, connective tissue, etc). Their diet is composed mostly of human-grade food, and those non-human grade foods are still of good quality (simply not human grade because they aren't approved for human consumption, like green tripe, but still from reputable, clean sources). I am actually part of a co-op. The co-op purchases in large quantities and get GOOD discounts for it. Once a month we place our orders, and a couple weeks after orders are placed with pick them up. It works out very well. I have an entire freezer (estimated around 21 cu ft) dedicated to pet food, to make sure I have enough variety and quantity to not run out. To feed my three cats and a dog costs an average of about $2-3 a day. That's less than it cost me when I was feeding them kibble, and they are in much better shape for it. I'm never going back!
