Hi everyone and welcome to the raw pets forum! This is a place to chat about the lovely animals who share your home - you can talk about what they eat, the cute things they do, ask any questions you have... really anything you can think of! This is just a little bit of a disclaimer first though.

Just the way each and every person eats a unique diet, every non-human animal does too - and what you think is the best thing to feed your animal friends is likely to not be the same as what I think or someone else on this board thinks. I personally choose to feed the animals who share my home the diet that I consider most appropriate for them, aka their personal BARF (Biologically Accurate Raw Food) Diet - for my cat and dog, this is raw meat and bones with some fruit and veggies included. My rat is a raw vegan just like me. I, and I'm sure every one else on this forum, respects that we all have a different opinion - I am a passionate animal rights activist and animal lover and I have been a vegetarian/vegan for years, since long before discovering raw. I researched and experimented with a (cooked) vegetarian diet for my dog but I personally feel that the BARF diet is the way to go. I understand that many people feel that it is wrong to kill animals to feed to their domesticated companions, and I understand why - I know a lot about the meat industry and the cruelty involved. No one is judging you for feeding your animals a vegan diet, cooked or raw. Anything to get them away from canned and dried food is, in my book, excellent - but then if you have animals thriving on canned food then that is great!

I hope you managed to make sense of that! There is one other point I would like to make - I am currently studying a Bachelor of Veterinary Medicine and Surgery at university, but I am not qualified. If you have any health related questions about your animals I am more than happy to answer them to the best of my ability but if you are seriously concerned about an animal's health, please take it to a qualified veterinarian. There are a number of homeopathic/naturopathic vets practicing in Australia (and I assume the same is true in other countries) and if you are interested I can help you get in touch with one.

Happy reading and posting, animal lovers!