Is there a way to create 'gravy' in wet cat food?

[Persiankittens]

So I have more cats than I'd care to admit.

I own a cattery and I go through 6-8 5oz things of wet food minimum a night to give everyone a couple spoonfuls but man is it expensive!

All my cats are on Orijen Cat and Kitten plus Stella and Chewys freeze dried morsels as a topper. Sometimes I just throw a bunch of morsels on the floor and they conglomerate like a flock of ducks. I also feed them freeze dried beef or lamb tripe as a topper as well. Especially for recovering queens.

That said, they are definitely not missing out on nutrition, the wet food's only purpose is to make sure all of them are getting at least some moisture intake for the day as I would never know who drank how much out of which water bowl!


I'm spending over $250 on wet food a month and that's just crazy. That's not including two 12lb bags of Orijen and 4 bags of stella&chewy


Does anyone know how to create a gravy type of cat food? They aren't fans of pate unless it's a mousse (tips on making that would be awesome too!!!)

But they all looove gravy. Can't blame em. The stella and chewys wet food is a big hit.

Again... $$$$! Eat me out of house and home!

Please share your gravy wet food recipe ideas if you have any!

Also, I'm very interested in technique.

Do you pulverize the meat or just chop it before cooking? Or do you start with ground meat? Or do you cook everything whole and then throw it in a food processor after?

All I can come up with is maybe using pulverized chicken and organs in rice flour slurry or something?

I don't know, but I need to stop this bleeding lol


I'm happy with any and all recipes, suggestions and such!

I'll be honest, I skimmed over the threads but didn't really look too deep into them as none seem to be gravy based and I don't need a full balanced meal, so eggshells, bone meal, veggies, raw diet, etc aren't necessary.

Just wanna give my furry family a moisture rich midnight snack! (Plus all pregnant and nursing queens get a full can every day+extra, so there's that too! )

 

[crystal dawn]

As far as I know, there's no way to really make a cat food gravy. Someone else might know how. Though there is now meow mix layers which when warm water is added, and it's allowed to sit breaks down a bit to make gravy. From my small experiments with mix it with my usual cat food, you don't need very much to get an okay gravy or broth that my picky eater seems to like.

 

[di and bob]

When I had LOTS of outside cats a few years ago, I started buying 10 lb. sacks of Chicken Hindquarters at Walmart for 5.99 a sack. Boiled them until the meat about fell off the bone, shredded it with a knife and my fingers, deboning it, then put it all in plastic bags and froze some to keep it fresh. I kept some of the broth in containers too and poured it over the chicken pieces. you can mix it in the pate and pour some broth over it too, that is how I got them to eat some food they didn't care for. It's work, but only for about an hour and you get a LOT of food that the cats absolutely go nuts for.
My outside cats get Friskies canned, I get it at Walmart for around .53 a can. With 6 cans a day going out, the hard and my inside cats, I spend about 200/month too!

 

[LTS3]

Try homemade bone broth. Here are some TCS threads with info:

Question Re: Making Bone Broth In Crock Pot For Sick Kitties
i Need instructions on how to make broth for cats...very simple instructions

Just adding water to canned food makes a sort of broth and many cats are happy with that.

 

[klunick]

When I had LOTS of outside cats a few years ago, I started buying 10 lb. sacks of Chicken Hindquarters at Walmart for 5.99 a sack. Boiled them until the meat about fell off the bone, shredded it with a knife and my fingers, deboning it, then put it all in plastic bags and froze some to keep it fresh. I kept some of the broth in containers too and poured it over the chicken pieces. you can mix it in the pate and pour some broth over it too, that is how I got them to eat some food they didn't care for. It's work, but only for about an hour and you get a LOT of food that the cats absolutely go nuts for.
My outside cats get Friskies canned, I get it at Walmart for around .53 a can. With 6 cans a day going out, the hard and my inside cats, I spend about 200/month too!

So I have more cats than I'd care to admit.

I own a cattery and I go through 6-8 5oz things of wet food minimum a night to give everyone a couple spoonfuls but man is it expensive!

All my cats are on Orijen Cat and Kitten plus Stella and Chewys freeze dried morsels as a topper. Sometimes I just throw a bunch of morsels on the floor and they conglomerate like a flock of ducks. I also feed them freeze dried beef or lamb tripe as a topper as well. Especially for recovering queens.

That said, they are definitely not missing out on nutrition, the wet food's only purpose is to make sure all of them are getting at least some moisture intake for the day as I would never know who drank how much out of which water bowl!


I'm spending over $250 on wet food a month and that's just crazy. That's not including two 12lb bags of Orijen and 4 bags of stella&chewy


Does anyone know how to create a gravy type of cat food? They aren't fans of pate unless it's a mousse (tips on making that would be awesome too!!!)

But they all looove gravy. Can't blame em. The stella and chewys wet food is a big hit.

Again... $$$$! Eat me out of house and home!

Please share your gravy wet food recipe ideas if you have any!

Also, I'm very interested in technique.

Do you pulverize the meat or just chop it before cooking? Or do you start with ground meat? Or do you cook everything whole and then throw it in a food processor after?

All I can come up with is maybe using pulverized chicken and organs in rice flour slurry or something?

I don't know, but I need to stop this bleeding lol


I'm happy with any and all recipes, suggestions and such!

I'll be honest, I skimmed over the threads but didn't really look too deep into them as none seem to be gravy based and I don't need a full balanced meal, so eggshells, bone meal, veggies, raw diet, etc aren't necessary.

Just wanna give my furry family a moisture rich midnight snack! (Plus all pregnant and nursing queens get a full can every day+extra, so there's that too! )

Wow! Now I don't feel so bad about spending $250 every two months if that is what y'all spend in one month.

As far as making gravy, I don't have any suggestions as my two will only eat pate. Adding water seems like a logical method so hopefully that works.

 

[lisahe]

Try homemade bone broth. Here are some TCS threads with info:

Question Re: Making Bone Broth In Crock Pot For Sick Kitties
i Need instructions on how to make broth for cats...very simple instructions

Just adding water to canned food makes a sort of broth and many cats are happy with that.

These are good ideas. I add extra water to most of the canned food I feed. Broth from poaching plain, boneless chicken is great to add to food, too.

I make cooked homemade food with an Alnutrin supplement. It doesn't make a thick gravy but there's good liquid that the cats always lap up. I add extra water to it as well as fish oil, pumpkin, and egg yolk. The cooked meat can be chopped, minced, shredded/pulled, pureed...

 

[FeebysOwner]

Does anyone know how to create a gravy type of cat food? They aren't fans of pate unless it's a mousse (tips on making that would be awesome too!!!)

In experimenting for Feeby, I found that any chunky (shreds, morsels, etc.) canned foods put into a blender (I used a magic bullet blender) will mostly turn out like mousse.
As far as gravy, you could try to use bone broth and blend it with a bit of unflavored gelatin. It will solidify to the consistency of soup if you ensure you don't use too much gelatin. If you get a mousse like texture, just add some more bone broth and blend again.

 

[lisahe]

In experimenting for Feeby, I found that any chunky (shreds, morsels, etc.) canned foods put into a blender (I used a magic bullet blender) will mostly turn out like mousse.
As far as gravy, you could try to use bone broth and blend it with a bit of unflavored gelatin. It will solidify to the consistency of soup if you ensure you don't use too much gelatin. If you get a mousse like texture, just add some more bone broth and blend again.

That's such a good point about gelatin!

 

[Catmom1234567890]

These are good ideas. I add extra water to most of the canned food I feed. Broth from poaching plain, boneless chicken is great to add to food, too.

I make cooked homemade food with an Alnutrin supplement. It doesn't make a thick gravy but there's good liquid that the cats always lap up. I add extra water to it as well as fish oil, pumpkin, and egg yolk. The cooked meat can be chopped, minced, shredded/pulled, pureed...

Does Alnutrin supplement change the texture of cooked food? Food supplement from this company says, Food Fur Life - EZ Homemade raw food for pets! s, it changes the texture of cooked meat due to added digestive enzyme.

I used to use Alnutrin supplement when I made raw which I stopped feeding raw because my cat got bacterial infection from uncooked meat. I recalll adding liver along with meat. Do you add cooked liver?

If you don't want to make your own bone broth, you can try this Beyond Mixers Immune Support Chicken Bone Broth Cat Food Topper | Purina.

 

[lisahe]

Does Alnutrin supplement change the texture of cooked food? Food supplement from this company says, Food Fur Life - EZ Homemade raw food for pets! s, it changes the texture of cooked meat due to added digestive enzyme.

I used to use Alnutrin supplement when I made raw which I stopped feeding raw because my cat got bacterial infection from uncooked meat. I recalll adding liver along with meat. Do you add cooked liver?

I don't think Alnutrin changes the texture of cooked meat since it doesn't have the digestive enzymes. (I can't say for 100% sure since I freeze it in meal-sized amounts so it never sits very long before feeding.) Food made with EZ really changes textures, doesn't it! I remember when I used it and left food in the refrigerator for a few days: it basically turned to mush!

I mostly use freeze-dried liver in Alnutrin. Before the pandemic I cooked liver along with the meat but (for lots of reasons) early in the pandemic I bought a big tub of freeze-dried liver from Chewy. It's much easier to deal with! I really don't like handling raw liver, plus even pre-pandemic, I wasn't always able to find containers of chicken livers. I do occasionally buy chickens to roast so whatever liver comes with those gets frozen for cat food.

 

[Catmom1234567890]

I don't think Alnutrin changes the texture of cooked meat since it doesn't have the digestive enzymes. (I can't say for 100% sure since I freeze it in meal-sized amounts so it never sits very long before feeding.) Food made with EZ really changes textures, doesn't it! I remember when I used it and left food in the refrigerator for a few days: it basically turned to mush!

I mostly use freeze-dried liver in Alnutrin. Before the pandemic I cooked liver along with the meat but (for lots of reasons) early in the pandemic I bought a big tub of freeze-dried liver from Chewy. It's much easier to deal with! I really don't like handling raw liver, plus even pre-pandemic, I wasn't always able to find containers of chicken livers. I do occasionally buy chickens to roast so whatever liver comes with those gets frozen for cat food.

I know what you mean by handling raw liver. It's not the most pleasant experience. I remember trimming fats and gristly parts from raw liver, draining the blood and all. Thank you so much, I have IBD kitty so homemade food is so important. She is currently on hills ID per vet recommendation. But, the ingredient is just junk hydrolyzed or not. I will have to check out freeze-dried liver from Chewy. How much do you add freeze-dried liver to your mix? Alnutrin says 24g raw liver to 1lb of meat.

 

[lisahe]

I know what you mean by handling raw liver. It's not the most pleasant experience. I remember trimming fats and gristly parts from raw liver, draining the blood and all. Thank you so much, I have IBD kitty so homemade food is so important. She is currently on hills ID per vet recommendation. But, the ingredient is just junk hydrolyzed or not. I will have to check out freeze-dried liver from Chewy. How much do you add freeze-dried liver to your mix? Alnutrin says 24g raw liver to 1lb of meat.

I calculated using the liver amounts from Alnutrin (there's a range, depending on which place you look, the package I have from Alnutrin says 14g of raw liver) and came up with 5.8-6 grams. (Unfortunately, the page where I got the information for calculations is now gone.) It looks like I used Nutrin's higher amount of liver for my calculation. Our cats seem to like liver! I'm actually glad for the range: my kitchen scale isn't especially sensitive so I use somewhere between five and six grams of liver. Remembering what the (icky) raw liver looked like, that seems about right. (The lower end would be about 3.7 grams, which I definitely exceed.)

Yes, homemade food is really important for an IBD cat! Our cats have so many food issues, I'm also very grateful for Alnutrin, particularly since it's a relatively simple recipe, with nothing extraneous.

 

[Persiankittens]

Just adding water to canned food makes a sort of broth and many cats are happy with that.

I usually do this already, just a couple tbspn to add a little bit of moisture but not enough for them to notice. Because they certainly do!

 

[Lazy Orange House Cat]

I had "foster" cat several years ago. I use quotes, because she was very ill and had a finite amount of time, so she wasn't really my cat, but she wasn't going anywhere. Anyhow, I tried lots of things to get her to eat and one thing that worked well was to put Fancy Feast pate with about a quarter of an inch of hot water into the hand blender. It came out the consistency of baby food and she lapped it right up. You can get larger cans of some good quality wet foods (Performatrin and Wellness come to mind, and I know there are more that do the 13oz cans), which is more economical.

 

[Persiankittens]

Anyhow, I tried lots of things to get her to eat and one thing that worked well was to put Fancy Feast pate with about a quarter of an inch of hot water into the hand blender. It came out the consistency of baby food and she lapped it right up. You can get larger cans of some good quality wet foods

I always water down pates too, but I'm mainly hoping I can get into making my own wet food entirely.

I've actually started the journey and have had a few trial and error runs so far. Bought a pressure canner and everything so I can get chicken, pork, etc on sale and can it the moment I get home!

I've made one batch in a water bath and another batch in the pressure canner. Both batches were inhaled and plates literally were licked clean I've never had to clean up such clean plates lol.

I've also been messing around with it once it's fully cooked; adding water, mashing, etc.

I believe my next trial will be canning the meat precooked but we'll see! I also want to add powdered goat milk since I have it. Might test it on a couple cans and see how it does first.

Long story short, I have picked up a new mission lol.

So far, so good! They are all lapping it up

Attached pic of one of my queens happily licking her lips clean after a nice meal just today!

 

[Lazy Orange House Cat]

I'm no expert on home cooking for cats, but are you adding the necessary vitamins, minerals and amino acids? Consulting Doris Bryant's book Pet Cats: Their Care And Handling...She devotes an entire chapter to making cat food, including variety, organ meat, and supplements to ensure good health, with focus on balance and avoiding creating finicky eaters or cats with appetites for strange things. It might be worth consulting as a jumping off point, though it was written in 1963 and you may want to find a more up-to-date reference.

 

[Zara12345]

So I have more cats than I'd care to admit.

I own a cattery and I go through 6-8 5oz things of wet food minimum a night to give everyone a couple spoonfuls but man is it expensive!

All my cats are on Orijen Cat and Kitten plus Stella and Chewys freeze dried morsels as a topper. Sometimes I just throw a bunch of morsels on the floor and they conglomerate like a flock of ducks. I also feed them freeze dried beef or lamb tripe as a topper as well. Especially for recovering queens.

That said, they are definitely not missing out on nutrition, the wet food's only purpose is to make sure all of them are getting at least some moisture intake for the day as I would never know who drank how much out of which water bowl!


I'm spending over $250 on wet food a month and that's just crazy. That's not including two 12lb bags of Orijen and 4 bags of stella&chewy


Does anyone know how to create a gravy type of cat food? They aren't fans of pate unless it's a mousse (tips on making that would be awesome too!!!)

But they all looove gravy. Can't blame em. The stella and chewys wet food is a big hit.

Again... $$$$! Eat me out of house and home!

Please share your gravy wet food recipe ideas if you have any!

Also, I'm very interested in technique.

Do you pulverize the meat or just chop it before cooking? Or do you start with ground meat? Or do you cook everything whole and then throw it in a food processor after?

All I can come up with is maybe using pulverized chicken and organs in rice flour slurry or something?

I don't know, but I need to stop this bleeding lol


I'm happy with any and all recipes, suggestions and such!

I'll be honest, I skimmed over the threads but didn't really look too deep into them as none seem to be gravy based and I don't need a full balanced meal, so eggshells, bone meal, veggies, raw diet, etc aren't necessary.

Just wanna give my furry family a moisture rich midnight snack! (Plus all pregnant and nursing queens get a full can every day+extra, so there's that too! )

So what I do is I take about a pound of meat, cut it into 4 to 5 portions and boil until very tender but keep the water level low otherwise you won't get the thick broth that all cats love. Don't add any salts or oil coz the meat already has natural oils that make a good broth.

After boiling, I let it cool completely and store it in the fridge (if there's too much, then the freezer for later use). You'll notice that the broth forms into a thick jelly and sets along with the meat when its refrigerated.

For serving, remove from the fridge, add the meat to the food processor (or if its a small portion a small sized blender works fine too), add a spoonful of the jelly like broth and a tiny bit of hot water to warm up the cold meat and grind it up. Don't make it a complete paste; leave some small chunks in there as your cat will absolutely enjoy them (paste:chunk ratio should be 50:50). Sometimes if I have some boiled rice I add in about a teaspoon to tablespoon amount for 1 cat, mix it up with the paste (not using a processor but a spoon) and if you're adding supplements now is a good time, add in a little more hot water (about a tablespoon amount) or the heated up broth to the food until its broth-y enough for your cat and serve.

Also the rice should be cooked thoroughly. This is very important because uncooked rice can cause digestive issues in cats.

My kittens absolutely hate wet food but love dry food! Ikr! Whenever I give them wet food (and I am talking about good quality stuff) they don't even give it a taste and it turns them off of all other foods for the rest of the day so this is the wet food recipe that I use for my kitties. If I am lazy to do the whole meat processing thing I shred the meat up with my hand, heat it up with some broth, add a little bit of dry food biscuits on top or mix it with a tiny bit of rice and serve. All methods work best for me. If you are uncomfortable using rice then you can always substitute it with dry food biscuits; just see what works best for your cats.

 

[LTS3]

TC Feline has a recipe for home cooked food that is sort of similar to canned pate food: Cooked Meat

There's also instructions on how to home can food, either raw or cooke diets: Home-canning meat

 

[Persiankittens]

So what I do is I take about a pound of meat, cut it into 4 to 5 portions and boil until very tender but keep the water level low otherwise you won't get the thick broth that all cats love. Don't add any salts or oil coz the meat already has natural oils that make a good broth.

After boiling, I let it cool completely and store it in the fridge (if there's too much, then the freezer for later use). You'll notice that the broth forms into a thick jelly and sets along with the meat when its refrigerated.

For serving, remove from the fridge, add the meat to the food processor (or if its a small portion a small sized blender works fine too), add a spoonful of the jelly like broth and a tiny bit of hot water to warm up the cold meat and grind it up. Don't make it a complete paste; leave some small chunks in there as your cat will absolutely enjoy them (paste:chunk ratio should be 50:50). Sometimes if I have some boiled rice I add in about a teaspoon to tablespoon amount for 1 cat, mix it up with the paste (not using a processor but a spoon) and if you're adding supplements now is a good time, add in a little more hot water (about a tablespoon amount) or the heated up broth to the food until its broth-y enough for your cat and serve.

Also the rice should be cooked thoroughly. This is very important because uncooked rice can cause digestive issues in cats.

My kittens absolutely hate wet food but love dry food! Ikr! Whenever I give them wet food (and I am talking about good quality stuff) they don't even give it a taste and it turns them off of all other foods for the rest of the day so this is the wet food recipe that I use for my kitties. If I am lazy to do the whole meat processing thing I shred the meat up with my hand, heat it up with some broth, add a little bit of dry food biscuits on top or mix it with a tiny bit of rice and serve. All methods work best for me. If you are uncomfortable using rice then you can always substitute it with dry food biscuits; just see what works best for your cats.

I love ALL of this, thank you!

Do you usually cook chicken with or without the bones for the jelly broth? I'm assuming with then removed later?

Not worried about rice, I've actually been trying to experiential with rice flour for the gravy base.

I'm liking your methods and have been doing mostly that as well, cook, then procces with hot water. I will try stove top cooking as you're suggesting with a bit of good ol rice for some starchy thickener, process 50/50 then see if there a visible difference before/after pressure canning it so i can store it all in the garage!

I use about 1.5 pints every day after adding hot water and processing it into a soupy thick consistency.

I'm excited to try your method with my next batch!

 

[Persiankittens]

TC Feline has a recipe for home cooked food that is sort of similar to canned pate food: Cooked Meat

There's also instructions on how to home can food, either raw or cooke diets: Home-canning meat

I did just about exactly this for the home canning, I raw packed then after taking it out, I have been processing it in my food processor with warm water and it's almost doubled in amount and turns into a super thick soupy consistency that my cats went crazy for.

I was actually trying to figure out of I wanted to try cooking the meat on the stove top or the oven because I was interested in skipping the first raw pack canning step, cook the meat, then process it with water, THEN pressure can it so it's all ready to go with no extra steps involved.

I was worried it wouldn't turn out as a meat leaf of I did it on the stove but looks like it turns out fine on your article! Maybe have to try this on my next round!

I am thoroughly enjoying myself and all these helpful suggestions, thank you!