Anyone making their cat food? My vet does not support raw.

[Ellen and Woody]

Hi all,
I want to make my own cat food at home and I have read Dr. Pierson's recipe and others that recommend raw (or part raw). I have two issues: 1) my vet approves of homemade food but NOT raw due to e-coli and salmonella risk. I do not want to go against her recommendations right now; 2) I currently free feed Woody low carb (3-6%) CANNED food but I'm concerned about having RAW food sitting out for hours.

I would like to find a delicious recipe that I lightly cook but lets me control ingredients and is nutritionally balanced. I plan to use organic, non-GMO ground chicken or turkey, but my source will not grind in the bones so I need to supplement. I can probably get hearts and livers if needed and grind them in.

Ideas? Years ago for my sugar cat Tucker, I would use Innova canned as base and add cooked turkey and other things but cannot find the recipe.

Thanks!
Ellen

 

[BJM]

Dr Pierson also states you may add 20-25% plain meat or poultry to the canned you are feeding without needing additional supplements. Have you done a web search on it? There are products out there for custom diets. Some must be ordered by a vet. Here are 2 I found.

Cat Nutrition Foodmaking

Pet Diets

 

[Critter Mom]

There's a product called Felini Complete available in Europe which contains all necessary supplements. Not sure if it's available in the States.

 

[dsmithkma]

We tried the raw and our furries weren't too keen on it.

We make our own using baked chicken thighs and some chicken breast meat and adding a supplement slurry we get from https://www.knowbetterpetfood.com/cat_food_u-stew and just follow the directions.

 

[Ellen and Woody]

Thanks everyone! I will look into everything you said. BTW, here is a note from the Stella and Chewy's brand of raw:

Thank you for your interest in Stella & Chewy’s. I would be happy to answer your questions. The frozen morsels are simply frozen—they’ve not been through the freeze-drying process. All of our dinners for cats are complete and balanced—they meet AAFCO standards for complete nutrition across all life stages—they do not need to be supplemented. Our dinners for cats, as fed, have less than 1% carbohydrates—this is for both frozen and rehydrated freeze-dried.
Our products are not designed to be free-fed. As fed, the products should only sit out for up to 2 hours—anything left after that should be discarded. Many diabetic cats actually do better when they are fed at specific mealtimes rather than free-fed. This helps to regulate their glucose levels. You should be able to use either freeze-dried or frozen. If you use the freeze-dried, you would want to rehydrate it with cool or warm water prior to feeding.
Please feel free to let me know if you have any further questions.

 

[Wendy&Neko]

I feed manufactured raw - it's just easier for me. I have the Petsafe 5 feeder. It has a compartment below the tray where I can fit a small gel pack that keeps the raw food cool. Or you can add an ice cube to the raw food and it will just add water to the food as it melts.

If you want to make your own raw, another additive available in North America is TC Feline Premix. We have a few folks making their own raw following Dr. Pierson's formula. Neko's regular vet doesn't support raw either, so we agree to disagree. Her acupuncture vet encourages feeding raw.