homemade catfood

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I started using raw with Primal raw food as it is very high quality and recommended by Susan Thixton who does the Truth About Pet Food website. I still use the venison and the turkey because I think it is important for good nutrition to keep a variety of foods in rotation. And it was an easy way for me to glide into using raw.

I love the EZ Complete and so does Tobey. I use it with chicken, lamb, and venison and am about to introduce pork. So Tobey, my civvie, gets one cube of Primal a day, two cubes of raw food with EZ Complete, and one cube of raw with alnutrin. However, I will shortly be dropping the alnutrin because I'm getting a kitten and the alnutrin is not balanced for kittens. And it requires adding liver which is a pain :rolleyes:

If your kitty doesn't seem interested in raw at first, the EZ Complete can be made as a cooked food and there are directions on their website. Then you can transition to raw. It's best to do it all very slowly.

Finally, I am a firm believer in good quality human probiotics for cats (and for humans) no matter how great the diet or healthy the cat/human. The FFL website also discusses these and recommends good ones.
 
This is probably a stupid question but what exactly is "raw". I've seen this a few times but don't know exactly what it is. I'm assuming it's not actually raw meat.
 
Sarah Beers said:
This is probably a stupid question but what exactly is "raw". I've seen this a few times but don't know exactly what it is. I'm assuming it's not actually raw meat.
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That's exactly what it is, raw meat, with either additional ingredients or a pre-mix to ensure that it is nutritionally complete.
 
Cats in the wild eat raw mice and birds all the time. It's what their digestive systems were build for - not dried corn and other junk (dry food). You have to practice good hygene when handling raw meat and get it from safe sources. But there have been dry food recalls due to salmonella poisining, so it's not just a raw food thing. You do have to make sure that you add supplements to the food (either raw or cooked) to make sure it's a balanced diet. Dr. Lisa Pierson has a page on making your own cat food.
 
Yep. I started with boneless chicken thighs. I cooked 2 pounds, mixed it with 1.5 cups water, 1/2 cup of the premix, and blended it in my Ninja blender. It actually came out like the pate canned foods. My cats have never liked chunked or shredded foods. :rolleyes: I also did this with pork chops yesterday, and the cats seem to like that, too. They aren't crazy about the turkey I made, though.
 
I just start with ground raw, add water and premix and mix with a spoon. My local organic/exotic meat butcher will grind the meat for me. A kitchen scale is useful for adding amounts and measuring out dailly portions to freeze.
 
Ok, so is this better for them than FF? I've just always been told foods like FF are like us eating mcdonalds everyday so I feel terrible giving it to her. I want to feed her the healthiest food available but still be reasonably priced.
 
I feed Sheba with a raw diet I do myself. She also has early CRD so I had to change a few ingredients to accommodate that but it is basically the same procedure.

Here is a link to a discussion on a raw diet suitable for cats with CRD. It uses human grade meat and not prepackaged.
To make it suitable for your use, you just do not have to worry about the phosphorus levels of the food if your cat does not have kidney issues. So you do not need to worry about adding the egg white as I do but you could add whole egg....a couple a week to the mix. But I would cook the egg. Egg white needs to be cooked and I find raw egg yoke gives Sheba diarrhoea.
You will need to add the supplements to make it a whole meal either by buying a premix to add to the food or make your own. I can't buy the premix here in Australia so make up my own.
There are very few, if any carbs in raw food.
It is not hard to do and I think it is far superior to FF.
http://www.felinediabetes.com/FDMB/threads/home-prepared-diet-of-crd-cats.150441/
 
Sarah Beers said:
and do you know what % carbs it is?
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That varies based on the protein you choose, and if it's premade or if you make your own with a premix. Some of the premade ones, like Primal, contain a very small amount of vegetables/fruits. Although cats are obligate carnivores and do not need either of those in their diet, it's meant to mimic what their prey would have in their stomach that they would likely devour in the wild as well. The highest percent of carbs I've seen personally is 6.5% with Primal's Chicken/Salmon premade raw, and I've fed that to Carter who is OTJ and it hasn't affected his numbers. But, the rest of the premade raw I feed is around 1-4% carbs. Carter is not carb sensitive but some cats are, ECID.
 
Erica & Carter said:
That varies based on the protein you choose, and if it's premade or if you make your own with a premix. Some of the premade ones, like Primal, contain a very small amount of vegetables/fruits. Although cats are obligate carnivores and do not need either of those in their diet, it's meant to mimic what their prey would have in their stomach that they would likely devour in the wild as well. The highest percent of carbs I've seen personally is 6.5% with Primal's Chicken/Salmon premade raw, and I've fed that to Carter who is OTJ and it hasn't affected his numbers. But, the rest of the premade raw I feed is around 1-4% carbs. Carter is not carb sensitive but some cats are, ECID.
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Ok I'll have to do some research. This is all new to me. Thanks!
 
Sarah Beers said:
Ok, so is this better for them than FF?
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My cats have been eating a combo of FF and Friskies. Rumors regarding formula changes and higher carbs in the Friskies really motivated me to finally try homemade (again). I like that, with homemade, there aren't any bad chemicals like carrageenan. I also like that I know exactly what meat is going into their food....and that I can make sure fish isn't an ingredient. But I still have a lot of learning to do about homemade/raw diets, so I'm sure Fancy Feast will be stocked in our cabinet for the foreseeable future. The information out there regarding feline diets is overwhelming! :eek:
 
I made up the raw a few years ago, before grain free pet food was so easy to find. My Gizmo kitty was having all kinds of digestive problems and the vet couldn't find the cause. I bought the individual supplements and made up enough for a month. It isn't hard to do. We found out that Gizmo was allergic to grains. Now at 15, he is thriving. The vet is impressed and everyone is happy, especially Gizmo.
 
donnalea said:
I made up the raw a few years ago, before grain free pet food was so easy to find. My Gizmo kitty was having all kinds of digestive problems and the vet couldn't find the cause. I bought the individual supplements and made up enough for a month. It isn't hard to do. We found out that Gizmo was allergic to grains. Now at 15, he is thriving. The vet is impressed and everyone is happy, especially Gizmo.
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grain free doesn't mean low carb though does it?
 
Well I can't say I "home cook" much. I did try 2 kinds to see if it's a route I want to go.

I made bone broth using soup bones, chicken necks and backs, except I discard the bone when finished (I don't have a grinder). Smokey loves it. It makes a lot, I froze portions in a foam egg carton. One "egg" lasts about 3 days (I only give him 1 tsp a day).

I also cooked liver, hearts, gizzards but since liver isn't proper ratio and I did not add nutrients I only give him 1 "egg" a week. I puree it in my mini processor and it's pate consistency.

I don't know if I want to go this route, but the more I read about commercial foods, finding low carb, companies changing their formulas, I'm thinking about it more.
 
I sent EZComplete a message to see if they will send a sample. I don't want to spend the $50 on a bag of the mix if my cats don't like it.
 
I've been making my own raw cat food for about 6 months now. I started with Dr Pierson's recipe. I've gotten so good at it I'm thinking of starting my own cat food company! :) Also there is a recipe calculator on feline nutrition.org website so its easy to enter how much meat & bones you have and the calculator will tell you the amount of heart, liver, & supplements to add to the mix. None of my 9 kitties have coughed up a furball since the switch to a raw diet. Bella, my Maine coon, hasn't had any matting of her fur since the switch either. And since they are not eating the crappy grocery or pet store food means less crap in the litter box too!
 
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