Cooked Recipes Thread

[nekolove]

Sorry about your kitty, I can relate, I have a cat that was recently diagnosed with severe IBD.

I used U-Stew several months ago for a few weeks, as LTS3 mentioned, it's very easy. Mainly just remember to let the meat cool after cooking before adding US otherwise the heat cooks away the premix.
You can portion and freeze individual servings and thaw daily portions. Since cats generally don't like the food cold (it can also make them vomit), you can either add a bit of warm water to the food or, if you've stored it in a ZipLock type of bag, run it under warm water.
My Molly really liked the food initially, I used ground turkey, but my last batch didn't turn out so well and she refused it. I think it had more to do with the meat I was using rather than US, just opening the packet of US she was very attracted to it.
I will probably revisit US again since I have enough for about one pound although maybe with a higher grade of turkey meat.
Good luck, give it a try. What's nice about home cooked, especially for IBD cats, is that you can avoid all those thickeners found in even the premium brands of cat food, e.g., carrageenan, guar and xanathan gums, locust bean, cassia gum, etc. These types of gums can make things worse for some IBD cats, especially carrageenan, which can cause or exacerbate inflammation, and guar gum, which can have a laxative effect.

US also uses food based supplements vs synthetic, another nice feature.

Thanks, Lisa Marie. I need to read and learn more about this and the ingredients that can exacerbate it. Did your kitty improve while she was on your cooked food, or was it too soon to tell?

I've been feeding my kitty Weruva Cats in the Kitchen, but she vomits that up, too. I just looked and it does have guar and xanthan gum in it. Could that cause vomiting?? She does have asthma, too, so I wonder of that sets off the vomiting or vice versa. Yes, that's my concern, too...will she even eat the food I make for her. I hope so! 

 

[lisamarie12]

Thanks, Lisa Marie. I need to read and learn more about this and the ingredients that can exacerbate it. Did your kitty improve while she was on your cooked food, or was it too soon to tell?

I've been feeding my kitty Weruva Cats in the Kitchen, but she vomits that up, too. I just looked and it does have guar and xanthan gum in it. Could that cause vomiting?? She does have asthma, too, so I wonder of that sets off the vomiting or vice versa. Yes, that's my concern, too...will she even eat the food I make for her. I hope so! 

When I was feeding home cooked with US, Molly had not yet been diagnosed with IBD, although she had some weight loss, she did not have any other IBD symptoms. I was trying home cooked primarily because I wanted more control of the ingredients.
I have been avoiding, or trying to minimize canned foods with gums for the last couple of years, independent of any health issues.
Weruva is a good food, however, did your vet mention anything about possibly starting with a novel protein for your IBD cat? IBD, from what I've read, is an intestinal inflammatory response to a possible allergen. There are different theories but usually there is a recommendation to start kitty on a novel protein for a month, possibly longer, so as to encourage healing.
Are you using Weruva chicken or fish? Maybe your cats' nausea is related to a food intolerance to chicken or fish and may not have anything to do with the gums.
I would discuss the vomitting with your vet as vomitting can really stress kittys' stomach even more. Vomitting can also be very dehydrating.
Ideally IBD cats do better on low fat and low carb / starch diets, single protein foods, however, some may be able to tolerate higher fat, carbs, etc.
My cat is managing well on turkey and rabbit, occasionally we may do a little beef.
It's going to be a process of trial and error, also, what may work for a while may not in the future. There is no cure for IBD but you can help minimize and control the symptoms.
I would also consider a good probiotic, I use Wholistic Feline Digest, this will help kitty absorb more of the nutrients from her food, help with digestion as well.

 

[nekolove]

When I was feeding home cooked with US, Molly had not yet been diagnosed with IBD, although she had some weight loss, she did not have any other IBD symptoms. I was trying home cooked primarily because I wanted more control of the ingredients.
I have been avoiding, or trying to minimize canned foods with gums for the last couple of years, independent of any health issues.
Weruva is a good food, however, did your vet mention anything about possibly starting with a novel protein for your IBD cat? IBD, from what I've read, is an intestinal inflammatory response to a possible allergen. There are different theories but usually there is a recommendation to start kitty on a novel protein for a month, possibly longer, so as to encourage healing.
Are you using Weruva chicken or fish? Maybe your cats' nausea is related to a food intolerance to chicken or fish and may not have anything to do with the gums.
I would discuss the vomitting with your vet as vomitting can really stress kittys' stomach even more. Vomitting can also be very dehydrating.
Ideally IBD cats do better on low fat and low carb / starch diets, single protein foods, however, some may be able to tolerate higher fat, carbs, etc.
My cat is managing well on turkey and rabbit, occasionally we may do a little beef.
It's going to be a process of trial and error, also, what may work for a while may not in the future. There is no cure for IBD but you can help minimize and control the symptoms.
I would also consider a good probiotic, I use Wholistic Feline Digest, this will help kitty absorb more of the nutrients from her food, help with digestion as well.

Hmmm. I tried novel proteins over the past year and couldn't get her to eat them. She's incredibly picky, but in her defense, I didn't do any special transitioning. It was blunt trial and error as I was trying to get her to eat anything. I can't tell if it's the protein that sets off the vomiting. She used to only eat the more fish-based recipes. Then, if I tried to feed her chicken, she'd vomit. Now it's the other way around! Right now, she's doing okay on Halo Chicken and Beef combo. For a while, when I thought chicken might be the culprit, but not too long ago we had to give her system a rest and fed her home cooked chicken only (per vet) and she didn't vomit that. This is what has slowly led me to wanting to try cooking food for her in hopes this will help. Also, maybe she didn't vomit it because they gave her an anti-nausea shot.

I can try a novel protein again...am a little unsure if I should just give it to her or transition by mixing in the potential trigger food with it so she'll be more amenable to the new food? I'm going to also try the Slippery Elm, as she's on Pepcid right now (1/4 pill/day) and I'd prefer not to keep her on that indefinitely. I'm thinking about making an appointment with a holistic vet just to help manage these solutions. Her regular western vet is great, but trends towards more allopathic solutions.

Thanks for the tip on the Feline Digest. I was giving her Fortiflora for a while, but stopped thinking that maybe that was causing vomiting. I need to see what's in the ingredients...if there are any common triggers in the mix. 

 

[lisamarie12]

 
Hmmm. I tried novel proteins over the past year and couldn't get her to eat them. She's incredibly picky, but in her defense, I didn't do any special transitioning. It was blunt trial and error as I was trying to get her to eat anything. I can't tell if it's the protein that sets off the vomiting. She used to only eat the more fish-based recipes. Then, if I tried to feed her chicken, she'd vomit. Now it's the other way around! Right now, she's doing okay on Halo Chicken and Beef combo. For a while, when I thought chicken might be the culprit, but not too long ago we had to give her system a rest and fed her home cooked chicken only (per vet) and she didn't vomit that. This is what has slowly led me to wanting to try cooking food for her in hopes this will help. Also, maybe she didn't vomit it because they gave her an anti-nausea shot.

I can try a novel protein again...am a little unsure if I should just give it to her or transition by mixing in the potential trigger food with it so she'll be more amenable to the new food? I'm going to also try the Slippery Elm, as she's on Pepcid right now (1/4 pill/day) and I'd prefer not to keep her on that indefinitely. I'm thinking about making an appointment with a holistic vet just to help manage these solutions. Her regular western vet is great, but trends towards more allopathic solutions.

Thanks for the tip on the Feline Digest. I was giving her Fortiflora for a while, but stopped thinking that maybe that was causing vomiting. I need to see what's in the ingredients...if there are any common triggers in the mix. 

If you can work with a holistic vet, that would be great.

I will send you a PM to respond to this as I don't want to digress from the original poster's topic re: home-cooked recipes.

 

[mschauer]

Just a note to let you guys know I've updated my recipes to use more standard measures, like '3 large eggs' rather than 150 g egg'. The images in this thread show the updated measures as do the PDFs in the linked directory.

 

[ginny]

I'm running out of ideas for feeding my kitties canned food and I'm right now looking at U Stew because it looks affordable and simple.  Anyone use this?  Any tips?  

 They all like the Friskies mixed grill and the Fancy Feast Chicken with liver.  Ned turns up his little nose at Friskies Turkey and giblets, and they ALL don't care for the NVI Duck and Rabbit.  They will eat the NVI low carb high protein dry Duck and Turkey though!  Some of them are real carb addicts and love that crunch.  

But I would like to look into MAKING their food because I'm concerned about what kinds of ingredients and preservatives are in their food that might not be on the label.  For human grade food, it's been said, and I believe it's true, that the FDA does not closely regulate list of ingredients nor the nutrient breakdown.  So manufacturers can pretty much put whatever they want on the label.  And if they do this with human food, how much more do they do this with pet food?  

Sigh.  I have a kitty, Nat, on phenobarb and read that it lowers Vitamin D.  Does the U Stew have Vitamin D in it?  I'm putting out a text to my vet to ask about drawing Vit D at his next blood draw.  

 

[missmimz]

 
I'm running out of ideas for feeding my kitties canned food and I'm right now looking at U Stew because it looks affordable and simple.  Anyone use this?  Any tips?  

 They all like the Friskies mixed grill and the Fancy Feast Chicken with liver.  Ned turns up his little nose at Friskies Turkey and giblets, and they ALL don't care for the NVI Duck and Rabbit.  They will eat the NVI low carb high protein dry Duck and Turkey though!  Some of them are real carb addicts and love that crunch.  

But I would like to look into MAKING their food because I'm concerned about what kinds of ingredients and preservatives are in their food that might not be on the label.  For human grade food, it's been said, and I believe it's true, that the FDA does not closely regulate list of ingredients nor the nutrient breakdown.  So manufacturers can pretty much put whatever they want on the label.  And if they do this with human food, how much more do they do this with pet food?  

Sigh.  I have a kitty, Nat, on phenobarb and read that it lowers Vitamin D.  Does the U Stew have Vitamin D in it?  I'm putting out a text to my vet to ask about drawing Vit D at his next blood draw.  

My cats did not like U-stew. I personally think the better option is EZcomplete because you can used it with cooked or raw, and its way more palatable than U-stew. 

There are a lot of canned foods on the market, you just mentioned a few that are on the lower quality end (other than NV), so yeah, with those the quality of the ingredients is an issue. You might look at this list for some good quality canned foods. And here's the link for EZcomplete

http://www.foodfurlife.com/

http://www.naturalcatcareblog.com/2010/12/the-7-best-natural-commercial-cat-foods-so-far/

 

[ginny]

 
My cats did not like U-stew. I personally think the better option is EZcomplete because you can used it with cooked or raw, and its way more palatable than U-stew. 

There are a lot of canned foods on the market, you just mentioned a few that are on the lower quality end (other than NV), so yeah, with those the quality of the ingredients is an issue. You might look at this list for some good quality canned foods. And here's the link for EZcomplete

http://www.foodfurlife.com/

http://www.naturalcatcareblog.com/2010/12/the-7-best-natural-commercial-cat-foods-so-far/

Thank you!  I'll look into that now.  I hope theres a trial bag.  There's no telling how my group will react.  I expect it will be different for each one.  

 

[nela]

Just a note to let you guys know I've updated my recipes to use more standard measures, like '3 large eggs' rather than 150 g egg'. The images in this thread show the updated measures as do the PDFs in the linked directory.

Thanks! Your recipes are really helpful for me since I have to cook my kitty's food. I have one question. On this forum I read that I can pressure cook chicken bones till they're pureed and use that instead of added calcium.

I cooked my chicken bone in the pressure cooker, then removed the meat and let the bones cook again till they're soft. Then I put them in the food processor. Would that provide adequate calcium? If so, what parts of you chicken recipe can I omit? I'm guessing just the eggshell and keep everything else the same?

 

[EmmiTemmi]

I cooked my chicken bone in the pressure cooker, then removed the meat and let the bones cook again till they're soft. Then I put them in the food processor. Would that provide adequate calcium? If so, what parts of you chicken recipe can I omit? I'm guessing just the eggshell and keep everything else the same?

Cooking the bones to mush would destroy any heat-labile vitamins and make it equivalent to bone meal. That being said, no it wouldn't reduce calcium content. But also, you'd need to make sure the bones were completely mush, because cooked bones fragments are very dangerous for cats and the splinters can puncture their insides.

Most people would recommend raw bones, maybe smashed with a hammer or meat mallet if they're too big for kitty. Raw bones would maintain all of their nutrients. Plus if they're meaty bones, like a chicken wing, the cat can get a good tooth and jaw workout chewing it up. Eggshell powder is also considered a good option if you don't want to use bone. You can make your own eggshell powder fairly easily at home too!

Also, this is a very old thread, so you might consider starting a new one and propose your question there for more answers

 

[mschauer]

Thanks! Your recipes are really helpful for me since I have to cook my kitty's food. I have one question. On this forum I read that I can pressure cook chicken bones till they're pureed and use that instead of added calcium.

I cooked my chicken bone in the pressure cooker, then removed the meat and let the bones cook again till they're soft. Then I put them in the food processor. Would that provide adequate calcium? If so, what parts of you chicken recipe can I omit? I'm guessing just the eggshell and keep everything else the same?

There is no way of knowing whether the bones you include will provide the needed calcium. It would depend entirely on how much bone was used and how much calcium is contained in the particular bones you use. The only way to know for sure if there is enough calcium is to use a supplement that provides a known quantity of calcium.

 

[nela]

There is no way of knowing whether the bones you include will provide the needed calcium. It would depend entirely on how much bone was used and how much calcium is contained in the particular bones you use. The only way to know for sure if there is enough calcium is to use a supplement that provides a known quantity of calcium.

Thank you mschauer! I realized that you use a process to get the nutritional value of foods and compare to AAFCO. I found the USDA calculator, I was wondering if you can share how you create those reports with comparisons to AAFCO requirements. Thanks!

 

[mschauer]

The reports you see are the output of a computer program I wrote.

 

[nela]

The reports you see are the output of a computer program I wrote.

would you mind sharing your code with me? thanks!

 

[donnae]

So I've been watching the docu series The Truth About Pet Cancer and am more determined to get my cat and dog off the prescription pet food for bladder crystals. Vet says that would be taking a big risk, but I think staying on it is more dangerous in the long run. Any advice on using the recipes here when there is a history of bladder crystals? Also, my youngest (without crystals) is a big-time fruit & veggie thief. Reccommendations on adding these for antioxidants?

 

[EmmiTemmi]

So I've been watching the docu series The Truth About Pet Cancer and am more determined to get my cat and dog off the prescription pet food for bladder crystals.

That docuseries was such a fear-mongering lie that I stopped watching after episode 4. Please do not take anything they said seriously without researching very thoroughly and looking into the facts on the other side. Prescription urinary formula can help in some cases, since it contains certain ingredients that help dissolve crystals quickly, although usually I think people use it short term and then switch to just an all wet, no kibble diet.

If your vet knows you will absolutely not use the prescription formula anymore, they should be willing to help you decide which diet would best work for you pets, or point you to a nutritionist that can help. Please, don't use that docuseries as truth though, because for the most part it wasn't. They were using 'experts' that didn't even have any academic education in the field they were claiming to be 'experts' in, which is the main reason I stopped watching. They were showing charts and graphs that didn't have any scientific backing (You can't just send samples to a lab then use the results as scientific fact without using a statistically significant sample size, running experiments in duplicate or triplicate, and running statistical analysis. That's not how it works). Yes, there was some interesting info every once in a while, but the fear-mongering side of things really got to me. Work with your vet or an animal nutritionist to talk about the best course of action for your pets.

"It's easier to sell fear than science" - Food Evolution 2017

 

[donnae]

That docuseries was such a fear-mongering lie that I stopped watching after episode 4. Please do not take anything they said seriously without researching very thoroughly and looking into the facts on the other side. Prescription urinary formula can help in some cases, since it contains certain ingredients that help dissolve crystals quickly, although usually I think people use it short term and then switch to just an all wet, no kibble diet.

If your vet knows you will absolutely not use the prescription formula anymore, they should be willing to help you decide which diet would best work for you pets, or point you to a nutritionist that can help. Please, don't use that docuseries as truth though, because for the most part it wasn't. They were using 'experts' that didn't even have any academic education in the field they were claiming to be 'experts' in, which is the main reason I stopped watching. They were showing charts and graphs that didn't have any scientific backing (You can't just send samples to a lab then use the results as scientific fact without using a statistically significant sample size, running experiments in duplicate or triplicate, and running statistical analysis. That's not how it works). Yes, there was some interesting info every once in a while, but the fear-mongering side of things really got to me. Work with your vet or an animal nutritionist to talk about the best course of action for your pets.

"It's easier to sell fear than science" - Food Evolution 2017

Thanks for your input. They have been on the Rx diet a long time and the vet said to keep it forever. I actually liked the docu-series and that it had interviews with 33 DVM's in addition to other "experts". What exactly did you feel was lied about? I have talked to my vet about some if it and have another appt with her next week to go over more.

 

[EmmiTemmi]

Thanks for your input. They have been on the Rx diet a long time and the vet said to keep it forever. I actually liked the docu-series and that it had interviews with 33 DVM's in addition to other "experts". What exactly did you feel was lied about? I have talked to my vet about some if it and have another appt with her next week to go over more.

Okay, first off, this is going to go way off topic from the original thread, so I won't be surprised if it gets moved/deleted. Please message me directly if you want to reply or comment, since I don't want to detract too much from the initial intent of the thread!

Yes, I did like some of their experts, and I suppose my main problem was with Jeffrey Smith, who has no academic education in anything remotely science related, and is in fact the owner of a dance studio. But they hold him up as this all-knowing expert on GMOs. He's a very well known anti-GMO activist, and his books are self-published (because who on earth would actually publish him?) and not scientifically peer-reviewed. His logic and reasoning had a lot of holes and fallacies. Actually, remember that Food Evolution movie I quoted before? He's in that movie, and the scientists in it go over all his comments and complaints in a very even manner, disproving many of his issues. Highly suggest watching it.

And that's another thing. The docuseries was so clearly biased, it didn't even give the other side of science a chance to state their argument. In any good persuasive essay (or show) you should give the other side a chance to make their claims in a level and well-explained manner with their own evidence, and then equally as levelly and scientifically explain why they are wrong and provide proper evidence for your own side. This docuseries never did that. It was all "They're wrong, they're trying to make your pet sick, they want your pets dead, buy this series in full so you always have this knowledge with you." My highschool teachers would have given them a failing grade if they submitted that docuseries as a persuasive essay for an English class.

As mentioned in my earlier comment, the charts used were not always from peer-reviewed scientific studies. You can't send viewer samples in to a lab and use the results as fact. Their sample size was low (I think one had just a single man represent a whole bar in their graph?) and they didn't give any p-values to test for significance, so they could easily make it seem like there's a huge difference in something, when there might be no statistical difference. They didn't run the stats (that I remember) so we don't know.

And then the last thing I can remember off the top of my head is the '20% fresh foods will lower inflammation and something else' claim from a "Helsinki Study". I couldn't find the study they referenced, although I'm sure it's out there somewhere. But the only studies I did find that were even moderately related were ones comparing 'fresh foods' like fruit and veg consumption in humans, and these studies can't be extrapolated to the carnivorous diet. I didn't find any on carnivore consumption of fresh meat at a 20% level being related to lower inflammation (although I would love to find such a study!).

Anyway, like I said, this whole post is probably going really off-topic, so please feel free to message me directly with any questions or comments!

 

[mschauer]

So I've been watching the docu series The Truth About Pet Cancer and am more determined to get my cat and dog off the prescription pet food for bladder crystals. Vet says that would be taking a big risk, but I think staying on it is more dangerous in the long run. Any advice on using the recipes here when there is a history of bladder crystals? Also, my youngest (without crystals) is a big-time fruit & veggie thief. Reccommendations on adding these for antioxidants?

The goal in treating bladder crystals (and I'm assuming your kitties are struvite crystals) is two fold: increase water intake to help flush the crystals, and decrease (make more acidic) urine pH to prevent the formation of crystals.

The prescription foods are great because they address both issues. They are formulated to promote thirst and to lower urine pH.

The reason some people turn to a home-made raw diet when they want to get away from the prescription foods is because a raw diet is known to create more acidic urine and so prevents struvite crystals from forming.

When my cat had struvite crystals I put her on the prescription foods until the crystals were gone then switched her from a part wet, part dry diet to an all raw, all animal products, diet to prevent them. That worked for several years. Then all my cats refused to eat raw and I put them all, including my struvite kitty, on an all wet (canned) diet. That was about 3 years ago. It has been at last 10 years since she had the crystals problem and the crystals never reappeared through both the raw diet and the wet diet.

I frankly don't know if a cooked, all animal product, diet would produce urine acidic enough to prevent struvite crystals the way that a raw diet will. Maybe, but I just don't know. I would be wary of letting a cat with a history of crystals consume vegetables, raw or cooked. They can raise urine pH.