Lucky Dog Blog

Cat food - Follow up

How's the cat food going? Calico LOVES IT. After she eats, she stretches out and licks her paws like she's just dined 5 star.

A few questions came up and here's what I think:

Kal - "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!)."

Beats me! (Sorry, had to). Beets are high in fibre and according to the whfoods.org, beets contain powerful nutrient compounds that help protect against heart disease, birth defects and certain cancers, especially colon cancer. Beets are perfectly safe for adding to Crash's food..but I'm not sure about the relation to improving Crash's coat. Did you change anything else in the food? More eggs?

Kristen - "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.)"

That was about a 4.5lb recipe soooo if you feed 3oz of food a day, it should last around 24 days. Not bad huh?! However, how much you feed any animal is a pretty personal thing..these are just recommendations so you know the ballpark. You have to watch your cat's form to see if they need more or less food. Cats that...are more..."fluffy" than others can't have their diet reduced to quickly to reduce the "extra fluff". If you feel your cat could benefit from a little less, reduce the amount of food slowly over time. Quick weight loss in cats can result in fatty liver disease, which can be serious trouble. Reducing the food somewhat over time is still a good idea as being an overweight cat also has its health risks.  Calico used to be on the fluffy side when we fed her kibble. In fact, she was really FAT. Switching her over to wet food has made a world of difference in her size, activity and attitude...all for the better.

Misti - "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."

A possible issue would be the lack of fibre in this diet vs the dry Science Diet and that's where the psyllium husks/powder comes in. You could also add some grated vegetables for the fibre. Most people who have switched to a home made wet food add veggies or some other form of fibre for a while but eventually omit it unless the cat really enjoys it. I'm going to be honest with you Misti, I'm not a fan of Science Diet. Flip over the bag and see if you can find the ingredient "Meat by product" or "Meat meal" or "Meat broth" or "Meat ..." anything. If they don't list the protein source like chicken or beef or salmon or whatever, they often don't know what it is. How's that for quality control.

For the most part, keep your eyes on the poops. They'll be smaller but they should still be formed.

Michelle (Tiber River) - "THANK YOU for the recipe for kitty food!!"

Hi Michelle, you're welcome. Let us know how it goes!

Have a great day!
Bonnie

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

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