How to make it more appealing..

[SpecterOhPossum]

Specter likes turkey and so I swapped the proteins to turkey, but it's just not as interesting to her as tiki cat. obviously they have more added stuff.. but I'm just wondering if you guys have any ideas on how to add appeal to it, make it interesting. last night i had to add tuna juice and I don't like doing that for obvious reasons..

for reference the food is home cooked using U-STEW by knowbetterpetfood and ground turkey; sometimes with chicken, sometimes without..she likes beef but idk if that should be a staple in her diet

chicken is boring to her but she enjoys when i boil down the skin and fat to a gross thick goo, but I don't want her getting fat.

here's her kissing the camera for compensation

when i cook it less it's more interesting but I'm bad at timing food. i was thinking of adding animal blood but idk how that would affect the nutrition so i haven't made that move yet..the only meats available are turkey, beef, and chicken around here..i dont have freezer space to order meat, i dont think..because they have minimums

 

[darg]

You can try adding a little freeze dried as a topper or mix a little in. I still do this. Freeze dried generally has bone but it doesn't take much freeze dried to add some "seasoning" so the bone isn't necessarily an issue. It hasn't been for my cat.

 

[Tobermory]

I do the same as darg ... add raw freeze-dried, specifically Northwest Naturals turkey in my case. Mine aren’t enthusiastic about their homemade turkey meals, but they love the freeze dried so they’ll eat the homemade if I put a little freeze dried on top. I’ve also made the homemade turkey more appealing by adding some crushed Dr. Elsey’s dry (to which they’re addicted but rarely get) or some bonito flakes. And as darg says, it doesn’t take much.

 

[SpecterOhPossum]

thanks both of you, not sure about freeze dried raw yet but I could add just maybe split on of her 2oz cans of tiki and use it as a topper...hmm...Sometimes it baffles me how picky an animal picked up off the dirty streets can be.

 

[Tobermory]

Sometimes it baffles me how picky an animal picked up off the dirty streets can be.

I know! Sometimes Mocha, my former feral, will look at her meal and then look at me as if to say, “This? This is what you expect me to eat?”

 

[SpecterOhPossum]

I know! Sometimes Mocha, my former feral, will look at her meal and then look at me as if to say, “This? This is what you expect me to eat?”

DIVA! I once knew a feral who would just kill animals for the sport, then eat catfood left out. I swear cats are from mars!

 

[SpecterOhPossum]

UPDATE I made a new batch and she is eating it without toppers! (well, for now at least.. knock on wood) got me thinking of what was done differently.. realized I rinsed the meat last time and threw out the initial boiled water because i didn't like the sodium content, and only used ground turkey meat and deboned chicken..

This batch, I didn't rinse anything, deboned and deskined the chicken but tied all those bits together (bones & skin) and put it in the pot while I cooked the meat that's actually going in the batch on top, removed the meat and left the throwaway parts boiling for another hour, cooled, and used that as the "water" in the recipe rather than using tap water. also cooked the meat less.

She also ate her first "raw" piece of chicken yesterday and liked it

So i think the bones make for an actual broth and the skin makes it thick..Also on another hand thinking of making 3OZ batches of different meats since she eats 6oz of food, and mix and matching two of those throughout a day to spice it up..?

What do you guys think about beef by the way? turkey, at least where I find it, is very expensive but beef isn't really

 

[Tobermory]

UPDATE I made a new batch and she is eating it without toppers!

Yay, Specter!

What do you guys think about beef by the way?

I don’t feed beef because one of mine won’t eat it. But I’d use it occasionally in my rotation if it weren’t for Iris. I do feed pork, though, which all three like. At least they did when I gave it to them last night.

 

[SpecterOhPossum]

Yay, Specter!


I don’t feed beef because one of mine won’t eat it. But I’d use it occasionally in my rotation if it weren’t for Iris. I do feed pork, though, which all three like. At least they did when I gave it to them last night.

I've never worked with pork but I'm sure it's not hard to find..Didn't know you could use it with cats..Thank you I'll look into it, that; beef; turkey and chicken should be a good rotation

 

[Tobermory]

I've never worked with pork but I'm sure it's not hard to find..Didn't know you could use it with cats..Thank you I'll look into it, that; beef; turkey and chicken should be a good rotation

Here’s a helpful page about feeding pork from Food Fur Life, the people who make the EZ Complete supplement.
Can Our Pets Eat Raw Pork?