The controlled feeding experiment took place over ten years, between 1932 and 1942, and over 900 cats were eventually included. The optimum diet consisted of 1/3 raw milk, cod liver oil, and 2/3 raw meat, with one group receiving cooked food instead of raw. The findings were astounding. Within a few generations, the cats receiving cooked food exhibited:
- facial deformities: narrowed faces, crowded jaws, frail bones and weakened ligaments
- an excess of parasites
- all manners of disease
- female cats became more aggressive while males became docile
- difficulty with pregnancy and after three generations, pregnancy failed
- kittens born of these pregnancies often did not survive to adulthood
- kittens showed skeletal deformities and organ malfunctions
Clearly, there was a direct link between the cooking of meat and the resultant evidence of malnutrition in Pottenger's cats.
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