In our previous article we covered the topics of how to make your own cat food. Now we will continue on that topic with a post full of homemade cat food recipes that you can start making yourself. There are a ton of useful web sites out there full of recipes, so we have posted the best ones we’ve come across. Feel free to leave a comment on your favorite recipes and any others that you may have been using.
To start off our homemade cat food recipes guide, WebMD has a great collection on their site, which breaks down two different recipes; a cooked diet and a raw meat diet. You can see both recipes below.
A Cooked Diet: The Risks and Rewards
There is little scientific evidence of whether or not a cooked or raw diet is more beneficial to cats. Some veterinarians warn against making raw or cooked foods at home simply because you are not guaranteed to have the necessary ingredients and specific portions of each, that well known brands and production facilities can create.
Some people have found that wanted to make the change from in store cat food, to homemade cat food because of the recent recalls and melamine poisoning that has been found in some commercial cat foods. Whether you can planning to create a raw of cooked food plan for your cat, make sure you take the time to make sure all planning, ingredients and portions are correct for your cat.
Raw Meat Diet: A Recipe for Healthy Cats
This raw meat diet was created by Pierson and yields enough food for roughly 10-14 days for the average cat. For more information on this raw meat diet and other cat food plans, be sure to visit www.catinfo.org.
- 3 pounds of whole fowl or rabbit, including bones, organs, and skin
- 1 cup water
- 2 eggs (use raw yolks, and lightly cook the whites)
- 2000 mg wild salmon oil
- 400 IU vitamin E (powdered E in capsule form works)
- 100 mg vitamin B-complex (start with a smaller amount when beginning a raw meat diet; the vitamin has a strong odor)
- 2000 mg taurine, powdered
- ¾ tsp lite salt with iodine (when using chicken parts)
- Liver (add 4 oz if the meat you are using does not include organs)
- Psyllium (add when first introducing the raw meat diet to your cat. See www.catinfo.org for additional information on this ingredient)
Cooked Diet: A Recipe for Healthy Cats
While a cooked diet is usually preferred by owners over dealing with raw food, your cat may have their own preference, so be sure to see what your cat likes to eat first. The cooked diet recipe below is from the MSPCA-Angell Animal Medical Center. The portion in this recipe is for a day’s feeding of an average 12-pound adult cat with no medical problems. This diet is also endorsed by Remillard.
It is recommended that you use a dietary gram scale to weigh out foods until you get accustomed to the correct measurements. It’s also important to make sure all ingredients are well blended before serving. All food must be kept refrigerated or frozen between meals, and for palatability’s sake, warmed before being given to your cat. This can be done through using a microwave or stove, but make sure it’s the right temperature before serving to your cat, and not too hot.
Mix together:
- Protein: cooked dark meat chicken, beef, pork, lamb, salmon, or tuna (83 grams or 3 wt-ounces)
- Carbohydrate: cooked white rice, oatmeal, barley, corn, peas, or pasta (50 grams or 1/3 cup)
- Fiber: cooked sweet potato, without skin (30 grams or 1/5 cup)
- Fat (optional): vegetable, safflower, olive oil or fish oil (1/4 teaspoon)
- Balance IT Feline: 2.7 grams or half a red scoop (in the container). This is a commercial blend of vitamins and minerals.
We hope you’ve enjoy this post on creating your own homemade cat food. In the last follow up post to this series, we will be highlighting some of the top homemade cat food recipe books that are on the market.
