Cat food - prep yourself

We've had several requests since this blog started to post information on making a homemade cat food. Homemade cat food may take a lot of work but if you're willing to take the time, it's very rewarding and piece of mind.

I'm not a fan of cat food kibble. Cats are strict carnivores which means they require meat to survive. All meat contains a high percent moisture where kibble has a very low moisture content, often less than 10%. Cats will drink water if fed a dry diet but it is less water than would be consumed if they were fed a wet diet. When you look at how common kidney and bladder conditions are in cats, wet food is good consideration to help prevent these heath issues.

There are excellent wet cat foods on the market, ones you can be sure do not contain any crazy plastic ingredients. Talk to your local holistic pet food store and have them review your options. Canned food is still fairly heat treated to be canned so making own food is also a good choice.

We were feeding Calico, our little domesticated lion, a diet of mixed canned foods until recently when we started to make her food at home. We initially transitioned her from canned to home cooked and in the next few months will transition her again to raw.

Making food for cats is a bit of a tricky proposition. In fact, there are cats that won't touch moist food with a 10 foot paw. Sounds crazy but when you've been eating the equivelent of deep fried food soaked in animal digest for your whole life, switching to a healthy moist alternative would be hard for anycat. There is a very good possibility you could create this fantastic quisine for your beloved cat to have them turn their nose up and walk away. To reduce the risk of a bad start, you have to do a little homework.

First, determine the following with some sampling..

1. Does your cat have a preference for dark or light meat if your cooking chicken?
2. Does your cat like salmon? Rabbit? Any other meats?
   
3. Does your cat need to have the meat ground or will he eat it if it's cut into small chunks?
4. Will your cat eat a semi moist food or does it have to be very moist?
5. Will your cat eat moist food at all?
6. Will your cat eat cooked or raw or both?

Cats are finicky about everything; who they spend time with, where they pee, where they sleep, and most of all, they're CRAZY finicky about their food. It could be the moisture, the aroma, temperature, meat type, you watching them eat..you get the picture.

Because of this you may have to try different gimmicks to get your cat to try a new, home made moist food. See below if you cat is having issues transitioning to a new food. Keep in mind this could take a very VERY long time but it's worth getting your cat off a diet of exclusively crack kibble and add real foods (Again, not all kibbles are horrendous but there is plenty of literature supporting the theory that cats far benefit from a wet diet vs a dry kibble diet.) You'll need a batch of homemade food on hand and a whole lotta patience!

Second, try some tricks..

1. Stop free feeding kibble and establish a twice a day feeding time to get hunger on your side.
2. Try warming the homemade food
3. Mix a teeny weeny bit of homemade food with the dry food. Be persistent. Even if they eat around it, put it there for every meal, slowly increasing the amount.

Tomorrow I'll post the recipe and why we add what we add and why we don't add what we don't add.

Good Luck!
Bonnie

Comments

[Michelle (Tiber River Naturals)]

THANK YOU for the recipe for kitty food!!

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