Homemade Food - Overwhelmed With Info!

[ObeseChess]

Hi all,

Sassy, my 13 year old domestic longhair, currently gets a half can a day of Tiki Cat After Dark in the morning and the evening, and then free feeds on Orijen dry food during the day, maybe 1/4 to 1/3 of a cup at the most. Her weight is normal and she is in very good health for a cat her age (she has slightly high blood pressure and slightly elevated thyroid levels, both managed with a daily small dose of amlodipine and felimazole). Kidney function, bladder function, coat, hearing, vision, and joints are all very good and my vet expects she has a long and happy life ahead of her yet.

TKAD has gotten harder to find and more expensive, and she absolutely goes crazy for homemade food anyway - whenever I am cooking for myself, if she behaves, I give her unseasoned cooked pieces of chicken, lean beef, tuna, etc, and she loves it all.

Given these two factors, I am thinking about transitioning her to a homemade diet, but I am totally overwhelmed by all the information out there.

My understanding is that I can get chicken, beef, pork, fish, whatever, cook it up, throw in some micronutrient pre-mix (Know Better, etc) and then just feed that to her according to her caloric needs. Is it that simple? Do I need to be looking for livers, gizzards, or other organs, or are chicken breasts/thighs, pork chops, etc fine after the addition of said pre-mix?

Given that she will no longer have access to kibble after I transition her to such a diet, do I put the food in some sort of a timed feeder so she can eat while I am at work? Does anyone have any recommendations for such a device?

Anything else I need to know?

Thank you!

 

[WMM201]

I would really recommend booking an appointment with a veterinary nutritionist who can create an appropriate recipe for your cat. Throwing in supplements without making sure you have the right amounts or whether the supplements degrade if heated or over time could end up harming your healthy cat. The vet bills for tests and getting her back on a cat food diet will probably negate any money you save by making your own food that wasn't carefully planned out. If there isn't a reason to put your cat on a homemade diet other than this one type of Tiki After Dark cat food being harder to find and getting more expensive, why don't you try switching her over to another good quality food that's easier for you to get instead? If you really want to do homemade, be prepared to spend the additional time and effort vs. theoretical cost saving.

 

[ObeseChess]

Good points, W WMM201 - it's more a matter of "she likes the people food better anyway, so I might as well" but that is a great bit of insight re the veterinary nutritionist! Thank you!

 

[Furballsmom]

TKAD has gotten harder to find and more expensive, and she absolutely goes crazy for homemade food anyway - whenever I am cooking for myself, if she behaves, I give her unseasoned cooked pieces of chicken, lean beef, tuna, etc, and she loves it all.

How about this approach, not that there's anything wrong with a nutritionist.

I don't make my own although quite frankly I really wish I had the motivation, big grinder, containers and freezer space because commercial cat food sometimes seems like it can cause more harm than good (thyroid, liver etal).

Addins such as EZComplete, Alnutrin and TCFeline etc do make things easier.

Food Fur Life - EZ Homemade raw food for pets!.

My Natural Cat Raw Meat Premix - Feline Instincts

Homemade & Raw Food For Cats – A Collection of Guides – TheCatSite Articles

 

[ObeseChess]

I am hesitant to shift her to raw after 13+ years of eating cooked, for whatever reason, nor do I have the big grinder and freezer space in my tiny apartment. Cooking it for her once a week seems like a happy medium since I batch cook for myself on the weekends anyway. I appreciate the links, though!

 

[Maurey]

EZComplete can be used with cooked muscle meat. I’d use it over alternatives, personally.

 

[LTS3]

My understanding is that I can get chicken, beef, pork, fish, whatever, cook it up, throw in some micronutrient pre-mix (Know Better, etc) and then just feed that to her according to her caloric needs. Is it that simple?

Pretty much

Pre-mixes are designed for chicken, beef, etc. Not so much for fish / seafood.

Where do you plan on sourcing meat from? The supermarket is fine but only buy whole cuts of meat (like a whole chicken you break down yourself) and not already ground meat (bacteria concerns). And read the label as some brands may treat the meat with preservatives, flavorings, broth, etc. A butcher shop is another option and would have novel proteins. Hare-Today.com is a popular web site to buy raw meat for pet food use.

Do I need to be looking for livers, gizzards, or other organs, or are chicken breasts/thighs, pork chops, etc fine after the addition of said pre-mix?

Read the package directions. For some pre-mixes like EZComplete and Know Better, you do not add anything else to the mixture. You can give organs, etc as a treat though.

One of the TC Feline premixes requires the addition of liver. There is a TC Feline pre-mix that does not require it.

Alnutrin requires the addition of organs and / or bone, depending on which supplement you use.

Given that she will no longer have access to kibble after I transition her to such a diet, do I put the food in some sort of a timed feeder so she can eat while I am at work? Does anyone have any recommendations for such a device?

Raw definitely can't be left in a timed feeder all day. Cooked meat.... possibly. I'm not sure if anyone has tried that. You can leave canned food in a timed feeder for meals throughout the day and just feed home cooked when you are at home. Canned food is basically pressure cooked right inside the sealed can so it's fine to leave out all day.

I like this feeder: 5 Meal Pet Feeder

 

[ObeseChess]

Great, yeah. I imagine she's used to an afternoon snack (currently in the form of dry food) and I am at work from 8-6 every day so I'd want to find a solution to that.

I get my meat at the farmer's market when it's in season (farmers market runs from May to November), at a natural grocery store (Portland equivalent to Whole Foods) when it's not.

EDIT: my local pet store also has a LOT of raw food available, I may talk to them and my vet as well.

 

[LTS3]

Many vets discourage feeding raw and home cooked diets so don't expect much support from your vet.

Do you have a grinder to grind up your meat purchases? You can chop meat up into bite sized pieces. It just takes longer than a grinder.

Nothing wrong with commercially available brands of raw food in any form. Some are veggie-heavy. If freezer space is limited,shelf stable freeze dried raw, air dried raw, and dehydrated raw are good options. Some pet stores sell chubs of raw meat which you can use in your raw recipe. I'm not sure if anyone has ever tried cooking the chub of meat for a home cooked diet.

 

[Box of Rain]

Hi ObeseChess (and hello to all, this is my first post on TCS).

I've come out of lurking to ask you how things are going?

I feed Prey Model Raw myself, but I'm not one to make the perfect the enemy of the good.

I've been thinking what I would do if I were in your shoes and wanted to make cooked meals?

And after some thought I've concluded that I would bring as much of the "prey model" to cooked food as I practically could. Then I looked up Tiki Cat and that is precisely their aim as well. May be part of why your 13 year old is thriving?

What you aim to with making cooked meals once a week seems reasonable and eminently doable to me.

Let me know if you'd like to bounce some thoughts around.

Bill

 

[Beckett12]

I have been using the Know Better supplement for about two years now and could not be more happier with it. I have used chicken, pork and sometimes fish, chicken livers or gizzards. I usually put the meat in the crockpot the night before and the next morning remove the bones etc and drain in the colander. I also keep the water/juice remaining in the crockpot to use as the moisture when I go to mix the supplement in with the meat that I ground up in the food processor. I use these silicone trays that I have and freeze it then take out a cube at a time to thaw ahead for meals. This has worked out well for me and my cats. I only wished I had known about it sooner. Also my cats are not free fed I have 2 grazers and a piggie who will eat all of his and theirs if I don't catch him first and he is already fat.

 

[daftcat75]

EZ Complete will be the easiest. But it has green lipped mussels which does not agree with every cat. Order a sample and mix up a small batch and see how it goes.

Know Better or Alnutrin require some amount of organ meats. Look on their websites to see their recipes.

Please keep a canned food in her diet (TKAD is fine) as an insurance policy. If you are making a mistake in the prep (like tossing away the cooking water or not adding organ meat to a recipe that calls for it), the canned food will be your backstop. But also, if there's any supply issues (or general fussiness), the canned food is an easy fallback until the issues have resolved.

Pro tip: If you are going to grind or use a food processor to get a pate consistency, freeze it before the grinder or food processor. Grinding cooked or room temperature food will produce an unappetizing grind/consistency.

And yes, using ice cube trays to portion the food is an amazingly convenient way to do it. The other way I did it was to weigh individual meals into snack or sandwich baggies and press them flat as I could before sealing them up and freezing a stack of them. Pressing the food flat in the baggie means more food surface area to come into contact (through the baggie) with a hot water bath. You can either pull a few meals out from freezer to fridge. Or you can go from freezer to plate via a hot water bath in just a couple of minutes. The flatter the portion in the baggie, the faster it warms up.