Food for Thought - Cat food recipe (chicken)

Last post, we got ready for the mental toughness you may need to covert your cat to a homemade food. Remember, you'll need patience, tricks and the homemade food on hand.

Below is a homemade chicken recipe. Give it a shot, it's super SUPER easy and the cool thing about cats is they're a lot smaller so less food goes a long way.

I chopped up all of the ingredients in this recipe because I know it's what Calico likes. If you have a grinder handy, you can grind too..or just purchase ground meats.

Cat Food Recipe #1 - Chicken

1.5 kg fresh boneless skinless chicken thighs, drumsticks or breast meat

150g chicken liver

300g chicken heart

150g chicken gizzards (stomachs)

2 eggs

Calcium supplement or eggshells from the eggs

1-2 cups Water

cold water fish oil

6 tsp psyllium husks (optional)

 

Muscle meat - Muscle meat makes up most of the meal. Cats are true carnivores; they require and thrive on meat.

Liver - If you can't find liver, you can substitute with 40,000 IU of Vitamin A and 1600 IU of Vitamin D but chicken liver is usually available and a much better source of vitamins. Vitamin A is required for vision and growth and well as the immune system. Vitamin D helps keeps the other minerals in check as well as used in muscles, blood and the nervous system.

Gizzards - or chicken stomachs are another source of muscle meat like the thighs and the heart but they contain high amounts of selenium which has antioxidant properties.

Heart - Heart contains higher amounts of taurine than muscle or other organ meat. Taurine is an amino acid (a protein building block) required by all cats because the cannot manufacture it themselves, which make is an essential amino acid.  The eyes, heart, digestion and reproduction systems all rely on taurine. If you cannot find chicken heart, you can substitute with 3000g of powered taurine (you can find this at the health food store).

Eggs - A great source of calcium if you use the shells but also contains good fats and additional proteins.

Calcium - in this recipe, the calcium comes from the egg shells like in the dog food recipes. You need 800mg - 1000mg of Calcium per pound of food cooked. This is approximately a 4.5 pound recipe, therefore you need 3600 - 4500mg of calcium. Large egg shells have approximately 2000mg of calcium. You can either add 2 large dried and ground eggshells, which equal to 2 tsps of dried ground eggshells. OR you can purchase bone meal or calcium supplements, crush and add to the mix. If you are purchasing calcium supplements, avoid those with Vitamin D.

Water - Water is the single most important necessary for sustaining life functions. Cats will consume more water from eating a moist diet vs. eating a dry kibble and drinking water.

Cold water fish oil - Wanna see your cats coat sparkle? You're off to a great start with this food but fish oil will take it over the top. Fish oil contains fatty acids which will make your cats coat be-u-tiful! Fatty acids also help pump up the immune system and are good for the heart.

Psyllium husks - If you cat has been fed a low quality commercial dry diet it's whole life, it may require extra fibre until it adapts to a grain free diet.

Chop all meat ingredients into small bite sized pieces (cat bite, not your bite) and place into a casserole dish. Add eggs, calcium, psyllium, water and mix.

***DO NOT ADD THE FISH OIL YET. Follow the directions on the package and add the fish oil to each meal when served. The fatty acids in fish oil are very fragile and are best kept cold until use on each meal.

Bake at 350 for 90 minutes. Cool and mix well so no fat is pooling. When cooled package into 5 small tupperware containers if feeding one cat. Store more food in less containers if you are feeding more than one cat. Put one container in the fridge and the rest in the freezer.

Feeding - Vets will recommend that when switching foods to blend them over 3-4 days, increasing the amount of new food and decreasing the amount of the old food as the days go on. This may be necessary for cats that have always been on the same kibble or type of food for years. You'll likely find in the future that you'll be able to switch up your cat's food without incidence but for now, blend the foods for 3-4 days. You may be doing this anyway if your cat has trouble transitioning to wet food.

Cats require 2-3 oz of food per day. Here is a picture 1.5 oz of food just to give you an idea of how much to feed if you're feeding your cat twice a day.

So there you have it...good good food for your cat.

Enjoy!

Bonnie

Comments

[misti]

Hi, here via Kal's blog. I was wondering how this would work if I switched from dry food to moist food? Are there any digestion problems to forsee? My cats are on Science Diet and this recipe looks interesting. They get a treat of salmon or tuna when we cook it but otherwise, it stays the same. Thanks for helping!

[Kristen]

Hey there. Also here via Kal's blog. Oh that Kal. Anywho, I'm pumped about this recipe! My cat eats anything and will have no problem switching (although I will still introduce it slowly). How many days will that recipe be good for 1 cat? (He's 12-15 lbs. Yup. A fatty. But don't tell him that, he's got a complex.)

[Kal Barteski]

Bonnie - this was an awesome post. I LOVED your pictures. I LOVE that you're camera is totally working for you and you are using it. NICE.

Can you tell me if there is anything dangerous or special about BEETS? We put beets in Crash's dogfood and his coat was the softest it has ever been (and his bright pink poop was easy to find!). Until out beets ran out. Was it okay to add beets? What's the magic relationship with beets and coats?

[Jodi]

Is it okay to buy chicken with the bone in, for my cats, and grind it into the food, for calcium?

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