Looking For Easy, Economical Cooked Recipe

[davimee]

I've looked all through these threads, and it's overwhelming how many posts are here for feeding cooked, homemade recipes! Our cat, Cocoa, has started throwing up after his meals. (We have 2 cats, they share a can of cat food, three times a day.) For a while he would throw up once or twice a month, then more recently he's starting to throw up after every meal. I tried feeding them raw years ago, but he always threw that up, so we went with canned. I still give his brother, Oreo, a bit of raw chicken now and then as a treat. Yesterday I decided to try feeding Cocoa cooked chicken, so I just boiled a chicken breast. He loved it! And he didn't throw it up. I gave that to him for his afternoon meal, but since I know it's not complete, I tried giving him his 1/2 can of food for his before bed meal. And within 5 minutes, he threw up everything he'd eaten. This morning I gave him just the cooked chicken, and so far that has stayed down. So all this to say, I have two questions.

1. How long can he eat just plain cooked chicken breast, without worrying about losing important nutrients? Since his tummy seems to be so unsettled, I just want him to eat something, and the cooked chicken seems to stay down. He's losing weight, so I just want him to eat. (He's around 8.6 pounds, I think he should be around 10 pounds.) Also, he seems very happy and active, running around and playing just as normal. He seems completely fine, other than the vomiting. (I think they are 7 or 8 years old.)

2. Once I'm sure he will be able to keep down the cooked chicken, what is the easiest, most economical recipe I can try to give him a complete balanced meal? I've seen posts about Alnutrin and EZ Complete, as well as Balance IT. Cocoa is a very picky eater, and I hesitate to purchase supplements only to have him refuse to eat. When we were starting on canned it took a while to find what he'd eat - he would rather not eat anything than eat something he didn't find perfect for his palate. Crazy cat - his brother will eat anything... But we settled on Frisky's canned. Not the best, but he'll eat it, and it's cheap, so my husband likes that.

Regarding expense - my husband is hesitant to try anything new, because he's sure this will cost way too much. I told him I think we can get the cost for around what we're feeding them canned - we spend about $50 a month on canned food between the two of them. For now I will continue giving Oreo the canned food, and just make food for Cocoa. I'm hoping to do this for less than $30/month for one cat. Is that possible?

Thank you for any insight you may have.

 

[lisahe]

I've seen posts about Alnutrin and EZ Complete, as well as Balance IT.

I'm terrible with cost calculations (particularly since meat prices can vary so much depending on cuts and geography!) but can say that Alnutrin is considerably cheaper than EZ Complete. We use both to make cooked food for our cats and they like both. Alnutrin's recipe is also a bit simpler, I think, so might be more likely to work for Cocoa. You do need to add liver but chicken liver (what I buy) is very cheap! (Best of all, you can get it free if you buy a roast chicken! )

Both Alnutrin and EZ will send a free sample. (Alnutrin asks for a SASE; I'm not sure about EZ.) Either of those (if they work!) would be a cheaper start than purchasing a bunch of individual supplements (like taurine, vitamins, etc.) to see if Cocoa could keep the food down.

No matter what food you might make, you'll need a digital kitchen scale (unless you have a butcher weigh meat out for you) but those aren't expensive and they come in handy for lots of other things.

Also, looking at Cocoa's vomiting from another angle, what had he been eating? If, for example, it was just Friskies, maybe it's the carrageenan that was making him throw up? Or maybe he has hair accumulating in and irritating his stomach? (Does he vomit out hairballs?) Also, does he vomit immediately after his meal, regurgitating everything, undigested? Or does he throw up later? And has he been to the vet?

I ask all those questions because so many things can cause cats to barf! We had problems with one of our cats this summer: after finding patterns in her eating and barfing, it finally turned out that taking the foods with agar-agar out of her diet and adding more cooked egg yolk and a little more fish oil to her homemade meals seems to have (!) resolved the problem. Some cats react to thickeners -- like carrageenan and agar-agar in foods -- so taking that out of their diets can really help. We're not sure if it was getting rid of the agar-agar or adding the egg and fish oil to meals (or both!) that helped Edwina but whatever it was, I'm glad she's feeling better. And hope Cocoa's problem can be fixed as easily!

 

[davimee]

lisahe, thank you for your reply! I have a digital kitchen scale, so measuring things out won't be a problem.

I am starting to think that maybe Cocoa is throwing up because of hairballs. He does get them frequently, although it had been a few weeks since his last one. But yesterday after his afternoon meal of chicken he ran around the house like a crazy creature, then threw up. And there was a hairball in that one. I've noticed as soon as he's finished with a meal he gets a sudden burst of energy and runs all over the house. And he's been throwing up within 10 minutes of eating, and it's completely undigested. So I'm beginning to think that maybe hairballs are making him nauseous, and then when he runs around he makes himself throw up. So for his feeding last night before bed, as well as all of his meals today, I have kept him still for 10 minutes after his food. He complains rather loudly, letting me know he wants to run around, but I'm being mean and won't let him. I either sit with him or shut him up in my bedroom for 10 minutes, then I let him run. And that seems to help! I also started him on hairball medicine yesterday. Tomorrow I will try to give him the canned food again, and see if keeping him quiet after his meals will continue to help.

Cocoa hasn't been to the vet since he was fixed before we adopted him, he's always been healthy. So we don't have a vet for them. But if we can't figure this out on our own, we'll have to find one.

I'm glad Edwina's tummy issues were solved so easily! If the cat food we have seems to still cause problems, I'll look more in to the other ingredients. I'll also send away for a sample of alnutrin. Looking at the recipes on their website, along with some other sites I've been reading regarding how much food to feed him, I think it would be between $20 and $30 per month, for one cat. Which I think is very reasonable! So I'll look more in to that.

Thank you again for your reply and encouragement!

 

[lisahe]

Hmm, does Cocoa eat quickly? Barfing up food shortly after a meal can be from swallowing too much air. If he's running around after doing that, it could double the problem.

Not sure if anything here might help but here goes: Edwina is a "scarf and barf" cat, too, and she has also been known to eat, run, and barf. We have to feed her separately from her sister, in a shut room; that slows down her eating because she can't just pop over to Ireland's dish for seconds. We also feed Edwina on a little platform, which prevents her from ingesting too much air. Spreading the food on her plate helps, too, because if it's piled up, it's so much easier to eat quickly.

If it's hairballs that are bothering Cocoa, you might want to try adding extra egg yolk to homemade food. We know for sure that Edwina had been collecting fur in her stomach and then barfing it up... she's now gone two weeks with just one small early-morning puddle barf (hunger!) and no barfs with hair. (I know it's coming out in the litter box.) I do think the egg is responsible for that. This page, from EZ Complete, was very helpful. I gave Edwina Vaseline (the 1 cc dose) to clear her out, starting with increased egg yolk at the same time. I'm now feeding the cats about 1.75 egg yolks per cat per week, plus the small amounts that are in their premixes. And I'm crossing my fingers that Edwina will continue to do better!

You didn't say how long it's been since Cocoa went to see the vet but even if you do resolve his barfing, it would be great to get a vet's opinion, particularly since hairball problems can be indicative of motility issues as a cat ages. As the EZ site mentions, hairballs happen all the time but they are not normal! Our vet suggested motility drugs for Edwina and I didn't want to have to resort to that so I was very glad to resolve her problem without them. If Edwina continues to hold off on the throwups, I'll send the vet a file note with information on what we did. IMHO, what's most important in a case like Edwina's is that the vet knows her history (the egg may be a temporary fix, given that the cats are 6.5 years old and have sensitive guts) and is there to help if there's a more serious problem. If you can find a cat specialist, all the better!

 

[nwc]

I think any homecooked/raw program will have a high start-up cost. Quality meat grinders are expensive, and so are supplements. But if you don't mind doing extra chopping, you can save money on a grinder by using a food processor instead, which you probably already own. The supplements are a one time buy.

After this initial investment (~$200?), it is as expensive as finding deals on meats and organs near you. I am using Karen Becker's program, and mostly feed chicken, so about $25 worth of meat, organs, eggs, sardines, and trace amount of fruits/veggies ends up at about a month worth of food for my kitten.

Just my $.02; hope it helps.

 

[mschauer]

He's losing weight, so I just want him to eat.

If he is losing weight I wouldn't think the problem is just hairballs. Weight loss is a serious symptom and needs to be resolved quickly. I really think a vet visit is your best course of action given that. If the cause is a food sensitivity, a diet change may well help but in the mean time a vet might be able to do something to give him some relief while you figure out how or if to change his diet.

But yesterday after his afternoon meal of chicken he ran around the house like a crazy creature, then threw up. And there was a hairball in that one.

Cats groom so frequently that when they throw up, regardless of the reason why, there is a good chance there will be fur in the throw up.

 

[di and bob]

I buy those 10 pound economy packs of thighs and legs at Walmart and boil the whole thing up for an hour or two until it about falls off the bone. 10lbs was only 5.99. I let it cool a bit, shred it into little pieces with my fingers, and put it into sandwhich bags which i then freeze to keep it preserved. I would think adding some kind of supplement would make it fine!