Homemade cat food

[Abe]

Hello, I have a picky cat with chicken allergies who loves kibble. The only way I’ve gotten him away from it a little bit is by making my own concoction at home. I’ve done a little research on nutrition but it’s still way over my head. He still eats a little kibble every day, but is now eating this mixed with pate. It’s been a long road. I'm worried he likes the cooking too much and I might never get him off of it. Can you tell me how to make it more nutritious. I’m slowly adding more pate but he can tell. It’s crazy. Is there something I can add like a multivitamin? I don’t mind to make the food, I just know I’m not an animal nutritionist

if I remember correctly, I've read cats diet should be mostly protein, some fat, minimal carbs, plus a tricky list of vitamins and minerals.

heres what I’ve been making:
pound of lean ground turkey
one egg
a tiny almost undetectable amount of kale- maybe a teaspoon full.
enough pumpkin that once mixed together you can’t even tell it’s in there- maybe a tablespoon
i also add a little bit of water

i also add fortaflora and a splash of fish oil.

i cook it slowly, refrigerate some and freeze some.
i

 

[Jabzilla]

Hey there,
A super easy way to make homemade cat food would be to use a completer. Since your cat has a chicken allergy, I'd recommend Alnutrin instead of EZ Complete, since the latter uses chicken liver and eggs. For Alnutrin, all you need is meat and liver. It can be used in homecooked food or raw. A Guide To A Balanced, Homemade Cat Food - Alnutrin Supplements (knowwhatyoufeed.com)

 

[Abe]

ok Really silly question now. How come I’ve seen some improvement in his fur and less licking/scratching even though i have added egg. I guess I should not use the egg

all I need is meat and liver? I have to have the liver? would the ground turkey still work?

 

[Jabzilla]

ok Really silly question now. How come I’ve seen some improvement in his fur and less licking/scratching even though i have added egg. I guess I should not use the egg

all I need is meat and liver? I have to have the liver? would the ground turkey still work?

Some cats with chicken allergies can tolerate chicken eggs. I didn't want to assume, so thats why I recommended Alnutrin. Quail, duck, turkey, and/or goose eggs also work. As for fur improvements, I'd say its due to your cat getting quality food instead of a bunch of fillers, gums, carbs, etc. The fact that he liked homemade food is great!

For the Alnutrin, yes, you have to provide the liver. Liver is a mandatory ingredient as it's their source of vitamin A and some vitamin D, among other vitamins and minerals. If you want to learn about nutrition, Raw Fed and Nerdy has a free course that I highly recommend. Free Raw and Cooked Canine Diet Nutrition Course - Raw Fed & Nerdy (rawfedandnerdy.com) The title says canine, but it has information for cats as well. I feed my cats a homemade raw diet and I use their formulation sheet which is extremely helpful and ensure all of their nutritional needs are met. I didn't mention those things at first since you said you felt nutrition was way over your head and I didn't want to overwhelm you.

If you want to learn more about nutrition and formulate your own recopies, then the course is a must. If you dont have time or don't want to do all of that work, using a completer like Alnutrin is valuable and valid. It will ensure your cat gets their nutritional needs met while requiring minimal work on your part. Just mix it with meat and liver. Using turkey is perfectly fine too. You can use whatever meat you like with completers, which is another nice benefit of them. Since you're cooking your cats food, you would have to use their completer without bone since bones must not be cooked. A Guide To A Balanced, Homemade Cat Food - Alnutrin Supplements (knowwhatyoufeed.com) Adding fish oil is a great addition and one I would continue too. If you decide to go with Alnutrin, you dont need to add any other supplements, as the completer has all f the vitamins and minerals in it already. That's how you're able to use it with just meat ad liver. With EZ Complete, you dont even need to provide the liver yourself as chicken liver in included in the powder. But again if your cat can't have chicken liver, then I wouldn't recommend using EZ Complete. In case you want to look at it though, here's the site for EZ Complete. EZComplete Premix Information (foodfurlife.com)

 

[Abe]

Really helpful information, thank you!

 

[lisahe]

I also recommend Alnutrin; I use the version with egg shell calcium for our cats. I add fish oil. Yes, the liver is mandatory. I usually use chicken liver. Alnutrin does include a small amount of powdered egg.

EZ Complete is a very good supplement, too, though one of our cats can't eat it. (I'm pretty certain the problem must be the green-lipped mussels.)

One other thing to watch out for: lots of meat these days has added salt and other ingredients. You should only use pure meat. Meat naturally has some sodium in it, which is okay, but you still need to check the label. Here's some great advice about sodium from EZ Complete:

How to Shop for Meat

Guidelines for shopping for meat for your new food made with the EZcomplete premix - have fun shopping!

www.foodfurlife.com

 

[sophie1]

If the chicken allergy is definite and severe, you'll want to use Alnutrin egg-free with calcium, plus of course fish oil (I buy the Iceland unscented salmon or anchovy oil). Probably a good idea to start with that as a way to test whether the turkey diet will resolve whatever symptoms you're trying to avoid. Buy beef or pork liver and chop/cook it along with the turkey meat, should be 9 parts turkey to 1 part liver. Tip, if you partially freeze the liver it'll be much easier to handle. An alternative is to buy freeze-dried beef liver, but you have to be careful not to end up with a rancid product that your cat won't touch, plus you'll have to work out what the equivalent amount of freeze dried is to fresh liver, it'll vary by product.

If your cat does well on this you can always try egg & chicken liver containing mixes like EZ Complete, which will make your life a lot easier. Ask for a sample package and follow transitioning instructions.

Don't worry about trying to transition to homemade AND raw food at the same time....suggest doing the former first, waiting a month or two to let your cat completely adjust, then start reducing cooking time on the turkey. However, you'll need to find a different source other than the supermarket, I would not feed pre-purchased ground poultry raw because chances of bacterial contamination are high. There are plenty of threads in this forum about good online sources that many of us use.

 

[sophie1]

By the way....I've been wondering why is that so many cats are developing food allergies. I can't believe it's caused solely by the meat itself...more likely it's due to other ingredients in commercial dry or canned foods, which cats definitely never evolved to eat. Ultraprocessed foods are uncommonly bad for humans, and I imagine there's a strong chance that the same is true for cats. I wonder if it wouldn't be better to first try a cat on homemade cooked chicken, to see if the chicken really is the problem. I remember seeing some posts here from people who tried that and found that their cats' problems went away simply by switching to homemade food.

So maybe that's something you could try, once you have your cat on the home cooked turkey diet - try substituting first chicken liver, then chicken meat, and see if the symptoms return.

 

[lisahe]

By the way....I've been wondering why is that so many cats are developing food allergies. I can't believe it's caused solely by the meat itself...more likely it's due to other ingredients in commercial dry or canned foods, which cats definitely never evolved to eat. Ultraprocessed foods are uncommonly bad for humans, and I imagine there's a strong chance that the same is true for cats. I wonder if it wouldn't be better to first try a cat on homemade cooked chicken, to see if the chicken really is the problem. I remember seeing some posts here from people who tried that and found that their cats' problems went away simply by switching to homemade food.
<snip!>

It's different for every cat, of course, but we've found with ours that it's mostly thickeners and other enhancers and chemicals that seem to cause problems. We know for certain that agar-agar makes both cats barf, potato terrible for one, green-lipped mussels are almost certainly terrible for her, too... and then there's a handful of other stuff (xanthan gum and maltodextrin in particular) that we strongly suspect of being trouble. We have strong suspicions about fish, too, though if fish is a problem, it took much longer to develop than the chemically stuff. I also think Edwina may have a problem with egg if she gets too much of it but the small amounts in Alnutrin seem to be okay.

Fortunately, both cats will eat the simple food made with Alnutrin for two large meals a day!

 

[Jabzilla]

I also feel like its all of the processing and extra crap that's added into cat food that's causing food allergies among other health issues. Cats evolved to eat meat, not just one kind of meat either, as seen from the variety of prey in feral cats diets. It doesn't make sense that an animal that exists to eat prey animals would suddenly become allergic to said prey. If that's the case, then cats would have gone extinct. Plus all of the garbage that animals farmed for their meat are fed and their atrocious living conditions doesn't help either. One of my cats gets a weird red spot on his gums if he eats bison, and beef and lamb randomly give him digestive issues. I blame the fact that he was eating kibble and canned food with trash like carageen in it as a kitten since I hadn't learned about raw food and feline nutrition back then. His gastrointestinal issues started right after being placed on """""""hypoallergenic"""""" Royal Canin kibble that his vet at the time insisted he and his sister eat despite them not having any problems.

Its ridiculous, sad, and awful that pet food companies are able to create food using harmful ingredients. But now that we know better, we are doing better.

 

[lisahe]

I also feel like its all of the processing and extra crap that's added into cat food that's causing food allergies among other health issues. Cats evolved to eat meat, not just one kind of meat either, as seen from the variety of prey in feral cats diets. It doesn't make sense that an animal that exists to eat prey animals would suddenly become allergic to said prey. If that's the case, then cats would have gone extinct. Plus all of the garbage that animals farmed for their meat are fed and their atrocious living conditions doesn't help either. One of my cats gets a weird red spot on his gums if he eats bison, and beef and lamb randomly give him digestive issues. I blame the fact that he was eating kibble and canned food with trash like carageen in it as a kitten since I hadn't learned about raw food and feline nutrition back then. His gastrointestinal issues started right after being placed on """""""hypoallergenic"""""" Royal Canin kibble that his vet at the time insisted he and his sister eat despite them not having any problems.

Its ridiculous, sad, and awful that pet food companies are able to create food using harmful ingredients. But now that we know better, we are doing better.

I so agree with you about both the processing and the "extra crap" -- though especially the "extra crap" since that's what seems to get our cats the most.

That Royal Canin food sounds especially sad. (I looked at the ingredients of the one that has literally no meat, just hydrolized soy protein...)

In the end, though, you're so right about doing better after knowing better. Thank goodness it's not too difficult to make cat food!

 

[gabicards]

By the way....I've been wondering why is that so many cats are developing food allergies. I can't believe it's caused solely by the meat itself...more likely it's due to other ingredients in commercial dry or canned foods, which cats definitely never evolved to eat. Ultraprocessed foods are uncommonly bad for humans, and I imagine there's a strong chance that the same is true for cats. I wonder if it wouldn't be better to first try a cat on homemade cooked chicken, to see if the chicken really is the problem. I remember seeing some posts here from people who tried that and found that their cats' problems went away simply by switching to homemade food.

So maybe that's something you could try, once you have your cat on the home cooked turkey diet - try substituting first chicken liver, then chicken meat, and see if the symptoms return.

I'm on the same boat. We often read/hear about how processed foods cause inflammation in humans. Cats are also mammals, they have similar organs to ours - why is it so absurd for some people to imagine that a similar type of food isn't great for them either? I'd imagine kibble is comparable to some types of chips. It's mostly carbs! And, just like some humans are in good health despite poor eating habits, some cats will be fine too. Some won't, so, just like us, they need "cleaner" food.

I wanted to avoid disagreements with vets that are otherwise very capable, but know nothing about nutrition, so I originally tried to go the hydrolized kibble way. Tried 3 brands, he had diarrhea through the trial periods, never stopped. Tried novel protein kibble, same thing. Diarrhea immediately went away when I gave up and switched him to regular wet food. I don't think he's allergic to protein, which is why hydrolized makes no difference - I think there's a common ingredient in kibble that he doesn't tolerate. This concept, for whatever reason, is entirely unacceptable to the vets we've seen lol. He's been eating homemade food (recipes bought from cuisine-a-crocs.com and thelittlecarnivore.com) and not once has he ever had diarrhea on them, not even during the transition periods. I no longer think he even has IBD, I think he has a food intolerance that was completely taken care of once we ditched kibble.

The concern about getting the recipe right is legitimate, you don't want to have any important nutrients missing in there. If you're not confident, you can look for people online that will formulate it for you. The 1st link I shared is of a french website created by a vet that specializes in nutrition, so vets in France are a little more amenable when it comes to using her recipes, but the recipe is created using a calculator, which I'm a bit "meh" about. The 2nd one is owned by a feline nutritionist, which vets generally frown upon, but I no longer care (my human nutritionist is also not a doctor, would you look at that?). She has multiple certifications in animal nutrition and is now completing a Masters on it. She certainly knows much, much more about the topic than any of the vets I've seen. There are more people like this out there, you might find them in Facebook groups for natural feeding.

 

[Umerwhat]

In case anyone is still looking for a good cat food recipe, this is the one I've followed for years(though I haven't made much of it recently due to time).

Making Cat Food

A veterinarian discusses making a homemade diet for your cat with a balance between cooked and raw homemade cat/kitten food, safety, and detailed directions.

catinfo.org

I had my vet look over the recipe too and she said it looked good. There is a lot of info on that site, so expect to scroll a lot. This recipe will also require a meat grinder of some sort. If grinding bones is intimidating, you can use bone meal powder instead, which the vet does specify somewhere on the site for the amounts.

 

[lisahe]

In case anyone is still looking for a good cat food recipe, this is the one I've followed for years(though I haven't made much of it recently due to time).

Making Cat Food

A veterinarian discusses making a homemade diet for your cat with a balance between cooked and raw homemade cat/kitten food, safety, and detailed directions.

catinfo.org

I had my vet look over the recipe too and she said it looked good. There is a lot of info on that site, so expect to scroll a lot. This recipe will also require a meat grinder of some sort. If grinding bones is intimidating, you can use bone meal powder instead, which the vet does specify somewhere on the site for the amounts.

Yes, this is a very good recipe! I say that though I only made it once. I chopped up the meat in a food processor and used bone meal powder instead of bone.

(I only made this recipe once because it was for a very, very sick cat who only had a chance to eat it once. I froze the rest for her successors, who absolutely loved it. But somehow I just didn't want to make that recipe again so now I use Alnutrin!)