Healthy Homemade Diet Needed

[PuffnLloyd]

I rescued a cat from the shelter a few weeks ago and now my 10 yr. old cat has been diagnosed with Calicivirus. The new cat is fine now but I would like a recipe for homemade food to puree for my 10 yr. old.

 

[LTS3]

Maybe try plain cooked meat with a pre-mix such as EZComplete You can put the food into a blender to mush up if needed. That would be the easiest way and also ensure that your cat is getting all the essential vitamins and minerals.

You can look here for home cooked resources: Home-Cooked Cat Food Resources

 

[Tobermory]

The big two for homemade recipes seem to be catinfo.org and feline-nutrition.org. I use the recipe at catinfo.org by a vet specializing in feline nutrition. I just find it a bit simpler, and my holistic vet also is a fan of what I’m making. Both sites’ recipes require that you add your own supplements. Very cost effective. And both sites are full of information about nutrition for cats.

Another, easier way to get into homemade is to use a pre-made supplement. There are several, and a lot of people use them. EZComplete is extremely palatable to cats. Even my picky one likes it. All you need is the meat; no liver required. Alnutrin is another choice; you can get it with or without calcium, depending on whether you’re going to grind bones. With Alnutrin, regardless of which one, you need meat and liver. I’ve also used Alnutrin (with eggshell calcium), and again, my picky eater will eat it. There’s also TC Feline which I’ve never used, as well as others.

As I understand calicivirus, the challenge is that the congestion will affect their sense of smell, and thus, their desire to eat. If you decide not to make your own—and even if you do—you’ll need something soft, palatable...and smelly. You can try topping your kitty’s food with Fortiflora, which is kind of mediocre as probiotic but great at the smelly part. You don’t need to use the whole packet for this purpose, just sprinkle some on top.

Tuna juice (make sure it’s in water with no salt or other additives) mixed into the food might help.

Also, Dr. Pierson at catinfo.org has this suggestion using bacon fat to entice cats to eat:

One suggestion for very picky cats is to add a bit of bacon fat to individual meals to see if that helps them eat it.​

I baked 18 ounces of the fattiest nitrite-free bacon I could find and it yielded 16 TBS of fat. I used a broiling pan to catch the drippings. Cook it slowly until the bacon is dry and crispy. That way, you will collect the most fat from the bacon. The dried bacon makes nice bacon bits for non-vegetarians. Or you can feed them to your cats as treats. Nitrites in cured meats is a controversial subject so I opted to purchase nitrite-free bacon from Whole Foods Market.​

1 teaspoon of bacon fat is 38 calories. I would not feed more than 1 tsp/day and you may be able to use less since a little bit will go a long way to adding a bit of flavor to the food for a picky cat.​

I hope this info helps. Check out the raw feeding sub forum, though. Lots of knowledgeable people hang out there!

Good luck with your boy!

 

[KappyShortsleeve]

Hi! I use the recipe from CatInfo.org. I find it to be the easiest to make. One of my cats has digestive issues, so I only use chicken.
I spent a long time preparing my cats for a homemade diet. I started by giving them boiled chicken breasts as a treat (something I still do). Then, started mixing the boiled chicken breast in with their wet food. The first versions of the food I made was fully cooked with no supplements, and I just mixed it in with the wet food. I eventually made it fully cooked with supplements, and slowly reduced the amount of wet food I gave them. Each batch I cooked a little less, until I was following the recipe, and eventually cut the wet food out completely.

 

[Gauntylgrym]

I just made my first batch and I followed the recipe on catinfo.org. Easy to make, easy to scale. I'm mixing in small amounts with the wet canned food I've been using, and will transition her to full homemade over the course of the next two weeks or so.

My math puts my costs at about $25-30/mo compared to $90/mo I have been spending on wet. And with us about to add a second siberian to the family the cost savings will be even more important and beneficial...not to mention I know what's going into her diet and avoiding trash like fruits/veg/carbs/carrageenan/etc.

 

[Gauntylgrym]

Also, I did the chicken thigh recipe, not the rabbit. Chicken thighs are cheap at Wal-Mart/Sam's Club, and I got the supplements at a local Vitamin Shoppe. All ingredients cost about $80 or so for the 30 lb batch I made, plus I still have plenty of supplements left for future batches.