All of the cats and kittens at Wildgold Bengals are raised on a species appropriate diet of raw foods and some canned foods. These kittens have never eaten dry food. We have found that the vet bills are much lower and your kitten will lead a much healthier life.

What do we mean by a species appropriate diet? Cats are obligate carnivores. This means that they need animal protien. They don't need carbohydrates at all. Carbohydrates cause obesity, gum disease and diabetes. All dry foods are required to be made with carbohydrates. Dry food, while being very convinient, is a slow killer for cats. Please refer to this article, by Elizabeth Hodgkins, DVM and nutritional speicialist for a full explanation on cats and diet: Feline Diabetes and Obesity: The Preventable Epidemics

They also need more than just animal protein, they need bones to maintain a healthy skeletal structure. An appropriate diet consists or animal protein (muscle and organ meats), bone, vitamins and taurine.

Kittens needs to eat more often than adults. Initially, they need to eat 3 or 4 times a day, eventually, as adults, they will need to eat twice a day. Once in the morning, and once in the evening. An adult cat will eat approximately 4 ounces per meal, or 8 ounces a day. You will find that there is very little cost difference between a proper raw diet and a canned food diet and the raw diet is better nutritionally.

Primarily we feed Whole Ground Rabbit. We also feed chicken, venison, beef or turkey hearts as a treat. Our sources for the meats are:

Oma's Pride: see: www.omaspride.com - click on their Retailers button. There is one retailer in Northern California, The K9's Choice who ships.

Bravo: see: www.bravorawdiet.com

For West Coast, another source of good rabbit is Wholefoods 4 Pets: wholefoods4pets.com. They ship and are priced well.

I get raw beef heart from the local grovery store. The butcher orders it. I chop this up into small cubes and add it to their dinner.

You also need Viatamins and Taurine. It has been found that the Asian leopard Cat, from which bengals all descend, have a higher Taurine requirement than other cats. Taurine can be sprinkled onto the top of the food. an excellent source for Taurine powder is at Revival Animal Supply. www.revivalanimal.com They are also an excellent source for vitamins we like to give the cats: Felovite II w/Taurine.

Another vitamin we sprinkle on their food is Platinum Performance. It can also be ordered online at: platinumperformance.com/animal/feline/

We also feed canned foods. Some of the kittens will eat canned foods. We recommend Fancy Feast, Innova Evo, Natural Balance and other foods that do not have carbohydrate fillers in them. Read the labels. Stay away from corn flour, rice flour, and other fillers.

The only downside to feeding this diet is it may prove to be inconvinient. You will need a pet sitter to feed your cats if you want to take a vacation. The payoff though, are beautiful healthy felines.