Questions for those who homecook

[sidneykitty]

I'm thinking about trying homecooking for my cat. She's picky about wet food but seems to like when I cook meat for her. I've requested a sample of EZComplete to try out to start with and see if she will eat it. If successful, I will give homecooking a try and have some questions abut homecooking in general.

1. Do you feed exclusive homecooked or a mix of homecooked and other commercial foods? If you feed other food is it wet or dry?

2. What meat types and cuts do you use?
Being a vegetarian, I don't know a whole lot about the meat section of the grocery store. In the past, I've been comfortable with cooking chicken and ground beef (for my cat occasionally and my partner) and that's about where my experience cooking meat ends.

If cooking chicken or turkey, should you get both legs and breast and mix them in the same meal? Are there are other parts that can be cooked? What kind of pork or beef cuts do you buy? I know ground meat is not recommended, right?
Do you buy fresh or frozen?

3. Do you cook a big batch at once and add the appropriate supplementation to the big batch or do you do cook individual small meal-sized portions?
Can you cook the night before, store in the fridge and serve in the morning?

4. How do you know you're feeding enough calories?
My cat needs approximately 180 per day, I want to know she is getting enough to eat.

5. Can you homecook salmon for your cat?
I've been told by a vet friend that salmon is great for senior cats and I know it does have lots of beneficial components. I would consider cooking occasional salmon for her down the line once I'm more comfortable with the whole homecoming thing, but want to be sure its ok to do so.

6. Not that I'm traveling any time soon, but how do you handle homecooking with pet sitters when you go away?

Thanks so much in advance to all

 

[daftcat75]

I don't cook for Krista. But I do make raw for her on occasion. I can answer some of those questions from that experience.

1. When I feed her raw, I never feed it exclusively. I have always kept canned in the rotation as well. This is to make it easier on pet sitters as well as to weather out supply issues or batches she just didn't like. You probably won't get it right the first batch or three. So I recommend keeping canned food in her rotation for this reason. Even if you knock it out of the park every time, I still recommend keeping canned in her rotation. You never know when something beyond your control makes her food unavailable. Like a global pandemic. I couldn't get gloves to prepare her meat for a few months. I have only just this month been able to find gloves again.

2. Thigh meat is most popular with Krista.

3. EZ Complete can make both batches and single servings. However, for convenience sake, you'll probably cook a batch, mix the supplements, portion it out to your favorite storage method (some like jars, some do ice cube trays, I like plastic baggies with the portion pressed very flat), and then you'll probably freeze it. Unless your cat can go through a batch in however long it takes for cooked food to spoil in the fridge. What I would recommend is portioning out, however you prefer to store it, about one or two day's worth of portions. Then the night before, move that vessel from the freezer to the fridge to thaw it. Then just before serving, bring it up to "mouse temperature" by running it under very warm water or letting it rest in very warm water for a minute or two. I wouldn't use the microwave because microwaves destroy nutrients. I weigh and freeze either individual or daily portions pressed very flat into snack baggies. This makes it a snap to thaw to serve even if I forgot to take it from freezer to fridge the night before.

4. If you were feeding exclusively raw or homecooked, they recommend to serve 3-5% body weight daily. For a 10 lbs cat, that's approximately 4.5 kg * 0.03 = 135 grams (approx 4.75 oz) to * 0.05 = 225 grams (approx 8 oz.) But as I don't recommend feeding this exclusively, pick your number between that range and divide by the number of meals she would normally get in a day. That's what I would feed in a serving. An ounce and a half (42 grams) is a good starting meal size as that's what the EZ Complete single serving scoop is. Adjust the numbers for your actual cat's weight if she's not 10 lbs.

5. Everything I've read says fish shouldn't be a regular part of a cat's diet. I don't know if EZ Complete is formulated to balance out fish. I'd say stick to poultry, pork, or rabbit. If you want to offer her a fish treat, Pure Bites has salmon or tuna in water that you can serve occasionally as a treat. It's not a balanced food but that's okay if you keep it to a treat (less than 10% of her diet.)

6. Keep canned in her rotation. This takes the pressure off you to get your homecooking right every time and it makes it easier for pet sitters too. If she's fed twice a day, I'd add a meal time. Start with two canned and one homecooked. If she likes the homecooked (and it treats her well all the way through), you could try to invert that to two homecooked and one canned. Meal times don't have to be evenly spaced. You can feed one breakfast, one dinner, and a just-before-bedtime meal. If you have flexibility in the mornings (up early/leave for work/school later), I'm sure your cat wouldn't mind a second breakfast. You can use timed feeders for a lunch meal if you wanted to shore up that time between breakfast(s) and dinner(s). There are a number of timed feeders that would work well with canned food. And since you're already cooking the meat, you can probably also get away with putting homecooked in the feeders too.

(I can't recommend keeping dry food at all so I won't discuss it.)

 

[Feste]

I'm thinking about trying homecooking for my cat. She's picky about wet food but seems to like when I cook meat for her. I've requested a sample of EZComplete to try out to start with and see if she will eat it. If successful, I will give homecooking a try and have some questions abut homecooking in general.

1. Do you feed exclusive homecooked or a mix of homecooked and other commercial foods? If you feed other food is it wet or dry?

2. What meat types and cuts do you use?
Being a vegetarian, I don't know a whole lot about the meat section of the grocery store. In the past, I've been comfortable with cooking chicken and ground beef (for my cat occasionally and my partner) and that's about where my experience cooking meat ends.

If cooking chicken or turkey, should you get both legs and breast and mix them in the same meal? Are there are other parts that can be cooked? What kind of pork or beef cuts do you buy? I know ground meat is not recommended, right?
Do you buy fresh or frozen?

3. Do you cook a big batch at once and add the appropriate supplementation to the big batch or do you do cook individual small meal-sized portions?
Can you cook the night before, store in the fridge and serve in the morning?

4. How do you know you're feeding enough calories?
My cat needs approximately 180 per day, I want to know she is getting enough to eat.

5. Can you homecook salmon for your cat?
I've been told by a vet friend that salmon is great for senior cats and I know it does have lots of beneficial components. I would consider cooking occasional salmon for her down the line once I'm more comfortable with the whole homecoming thing, but want to be sure its ok to do so.

6. Not that I'm traveling any time soon, but how do you handle homecooking with pet sitters when you go away?

Thanks so much in advance to all

1. I feed raw and home cooked (especially if it is fish or pork). But I do keep a bag of freeze-dried or canned food for traveling/backpacking. I normally bring Feste with me, but for extended period of time without a fridge freeze dried works best, and pet sitters usually are fine with it.

2. I usually buy chicken thighs, livers and hearts and rotate it with turkey. Sometimes, I add sardines or beef stew meat to it. Feste has never had an issue with different meats being mixed, but she is not picky.

3. I make it in 3 pound batches, mix in the supplement and freeze it, which lasts about 3ish weeks. It is easier for me as a PhD student, and that way, if I am going to have a long day or have just a brief window between teaching and attending a lecture, I don’t have to worry about making her food and cleaning up the kitchen. Just keep in mind, to unthaw it the night before.

4. I keep an eye on her weight and adjust how much I feed according to it.

5. I am not sure about salmon. I do giver her canned sardines, and she has stolen a whole raw tilapia filet off the counter. Sigh.

6. It depends on your pet sitters. My friends are generally happy to feed her home cooked food. But if it is a new pet sitter or someone who may not feel comfortable with raw food, then I have them feed

 

[Feste]

1. I feed raw and home cooked (especially if it is fish or pork). But I do keep a bag of freeze-dried or canned food for traveling/backpacking. I normally bring Feste with me, but for extended period of time without a fridge freeze dried works best, and pet sitters usually are fine with it.

2. I usually buy chicken thighs, livers and hearts and rotate it with turkey. Sometimes, I add sardines or beef stew meat to it. Feste has never had an issue with different meats being mixed, but she is not picky.

3. I make it in 3 pound batches, mix in the supplement and freeze it, which lasts about 3ish weeks. It is easier for me as a PhD student, and that way, if I am going to have a long day or have just a brief window between teaching and attending a lecture, I don’t have to worry about making her food and cleaning up the kitchen. Just keep in mind, to unthaw it the night before.

4. I keep an eye on her weight and adjust how much I feed according to it.

5. I am not sure about salmon. I do give her canned sardines, and she has stolen a whole raw tilapia filet off the counter. Sigh.

6. It depends on your pet sitters. My friends are generally happy to feed her home cooked food. But if it is a new pet sitter or someone who may not feel comfortable with raw food, then I have them feed

 

[Tobermory]

Let me start out by saying that I don't cook the meat; I feed it completely raw. But I do use EZ Complete. They have a page on their site about raw or cooked: Raw or Cooked? Which Should I Feed and Why? But they also give instructions for how to use EZ if you're cooking the meat.

daftcat75 has given you a lot of good info and has lots of experience. Here are my thoughts about your questions:

1. Do you feed exclusive homecooked or a mix of homecooked and other commercial foods? If you feed other food is it wet or dry?

I feed mostly homemade but occasionally feed canned. I've increased the amount of canned lately--and ordered quite a bit--because it's getting more difficult to find meat. I can live on potato chips for awhile, but my girls need their cat food! I don't feed dry, but I keep some on hand and use it as treats (Dr. Elsey's CleanProtein chicken). I also wanted it on hand, again, because of my concern about shortages. If I have to choose between them starving and eating dry, they're gonna get dry. But, of course, I hope it doesn't come to that.​

2. What meat types and cuts do you use?

I buy boneless chicken thighs, pork loin, and turkey breasts. I grind it myself. I bought an electric grinder when I started making my own food. I don't use beef; mine don't like it. Again, the EZ Complete website can give you some ideas of what meat to buy. https://www.foodfurlife.com/how-to-shop-for-meat.html#/ Be sure whatever meat you buy doesn't have any additives! And sodium should be less than 100mg per serving. ​

​

Yes, don't buy ground meat . You don't know how long it's been sitting in the case and you don't know how often the grinder has been cleaned. Grinding creates more surface exposure and thus, more bacteria growth.​

3. Do you cook a big batch at once and add the appropriate supplementation to the big batch or do you do cook individual small meal-sized portions?

Here's how I do it. I buy several pounds of meat and grind it all as quickly as I can so it's not sitting in the fridge very long. I bought nine pounds of chicken thighs yesterday, and I ground it all today. I have silicone freezer bags and it all fit into four bags which I then put into the freezer. As needed, I pull out a bag, let it thaw in the fridge for a couple of days, mix in the EZ per instructions, portion it into storage containers (one container feeds three cats one meal each), then re-freeze. One of my silicone bags makes about eight containers of food (or four days' worth for my three cats). Then I have a rotating strategy where I always have three containers in the fridge in various stages of thawing.​

Can you cook the night before, store in the fridge and serve in the morning? Yes.

4. How do you know you're feeding enough calories?
My cat needs approximately 180 per day, I want to know she is getting enough to eat.

For me, it's been trial and error. And it depends on the cat. Mine need different amounts, but they're all getting between 4.5 to 5 ounces total a day. One needs more, one needs less, the other is somewhere in the middle. And it also depends on how much fat the meat has on it. I weigh them every week or so.​

5. Can you homecook salmon for your cat?
I've been told by a vet friend that salmon is great for senior cats and I know it does have lots of beneficial components. I would consider cooking occasional salmon for her down the line once I'm more comfortable with the whole homecoming thing, but want to be sure its ok to do so.

I don't use fish. If I want to feed fish, I give them canned. I do add fish oil to the seniors' meals. Two of mine will be 16 on Friday and the fish oil helps in a number of ways.​

6. Not that I'm traveling any time soon, but how do you handle homecooking with pet sitters when you go away?

I'd have the pet sitter give canned. Easier and safer.​

 

[LTS3]

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Yes, don't buy ground meat . You don't know how long it's been sitting in the case and you don't know how often the grinder has been cleaned. Grinding creates more surface exposure and thus, more bacteria growth.​

If the OP is doing a home cooked food, then fresh packaged ground meat is fine to use since it's going to be fully cooked first before the supplements get added. If you want to err on the side of caution, then use raw whole cuts of meat, cut the meat up into easy to eat pieces for the cat, and then cook. I'm not sure if lisahe uses ground meat or whole cuts for her cats' cooked meals.

 

[Tobermory]

If the OP is doing a home cooked food, then fresh packaged ground meat is fine to use since it's going to be fully cooked first before the supplements get added. If you want to err on the side of caution, then use raw whole cuts of meat, cut the meat up into easy to eat pieces for the cat, and then cook. I'm not sure if lisahe uses ground meat or whole cuts for her cats' cooked meals.

Yes, true. Good catch. My comment was for raw feeding. And you should buy from a highly reputable and immaculately clean store.

 

[lisahe]

If the OP is doing a home cooked food, then fresh packaged ground meat is fine to use since it's going to be fully cooked first before the supplements get added. If you want to err on the side of caution, then use raw whole cuts of meat, cut the meat up into easy to eat pieces for the cat, and then cook. I'm not sure if lisahe uses ground meat or whole cuts for her cats' cooked meals.

I don't use ground meat but that's only because our cats don't seem to like it as much as whole cuts that I either grind myself (because they like me to make the extra effort!) or slice, dice, or mince. One cat actually seems to like hand pulled meat best but it's a bit of effort!

One thing to watch if you use ground meat: much/most of the prepackaged ground poultry includes additives of various sorts. When I tried the cats on ground meat, I bought ground turkey from Whole Foods. It was just plain meat.

Also, quickly looking at the questions, which others have already answered, I'll just add that I cook up meat in one-pound batches and use pre-packaged Alnutrin with egg shell calcium as a supplement, adding hard-boiled egg yolk and fish oil to each batch. I portion each batch out into little containers and freeze them. Our cats eat a combination of foods: freeze-dried raw, homemade, and canned. Back when I was going to stores to actually buy food (only a couple months ago!) I also fed them each one medallion of frozen raw food a day.

One other thing, since you asked about meat: these days, I buy pretty much whatever's boneless and available. Selections are really weird now... so I ended up with bone-in pork and just used the bones for soup stock. Sometimes I use one cut of meat per batch, sometimes I mix pork and chicken or two different cuts of one protein. I try to vary things for the cats since they appreciate variety!

Good luck!

 

[sidneykitty]

Oh my gosh wow this is incredible! Thanks everyone for your immensely helpful and informative responses! I truly appreciate it. I know this is not the best time to be trying this with meat shortages on, but I'm hoping to just try a little bit to start with and see how it goes before making the commitment. I'm taking notes on all your responses!

daftcat75 - thank you so much! This is so helpful, especially the steps and advice you've given. You touched on a lot of things I've been wondering and little steps I might not think of until I am in the act of actually doing it.
Right now, Amber gets 3 meals a day. Thank you so much for this formula in #4 - so helpful!

So you add the EZcomplete, then freeze the raw meat. One thing I've been wondering is if I plan to freeze, do I add the EZComplete to the cooked meat and then freeze it? Or do I thaw the cooked meat and then add the EZComplete? Does the act of freezing change the supplement in any way?

Feste - first of all, how exciting you take your cat on trips and backpacking with you! That's awesome! You also make in batches which does seem to make more sense.
Well she is very smart to eat the tilapia, isn't she?! on the bright side... gosh if me or my partner ate/cooked fish, I can only imagine the way Amber would try to pounce on it. She already hounds us every time we have milk and I always have to say sorry, no milks for kitties.

Tobermory - thanks for the link! Starting out, I am more comfortable feeding cooked than raw for now.
Wow! That is amazing you're grinding their meat! I don't expect to be grinding meat any time soon, just cooking slices/chunks, or pureeing the cooked meat in a food processor.

lisahe - thanks for your helpful comments! I probably won't feed much ground meat, but wanted to know just in case.
Are there certain types or cuts of meat you would buy under normal circumstances?

From everything that's been said, ideally I hope to get her on a homecooked + wet food diet.

My main takeaways are...
Err away from ground meat (very important if feeding raw!), but if cooking ground meat, buy it fresh.
Ensure meat is preservative-free and <100 mg sodium.
Chicken, turkey, and pork and beef seem to be main meat types with some rabbit as well. Seems like chicken thigh is preferable to the leg/drumstick. I will prefer to buy her organic meat, if possible. (keeping in mind meat shortages atm)
Weigh the food and weigh your cat regularly. (Excellent as I have a kitty scale already just need to get a kitchen scale to weigh meat!)
Seems like most of you make in batches, freeze and then thaw and feed.
If feeding fish as a treat, feed canned fish as I normally would.

 

[daftcat75]

Mix then freeze. Making cat food is labor-intensive enough without having extra steps from the freezer (fridge if you can remember it) to the plate. This is why I like to freeze individual or daily portions in snack baggies pressed very flat. Because at 5am when Krista wants her breakfast, I want to be able to just dunk the baggie in a hot water bath, plate a portion, and go back to sleep until her next meal.

I do something very similar for her canned portions too. I weigh and bag her canned portion and run it under warm water until it's mouse temp. Whether it's first portion from a new can or last portion from refrigerated remainders, she always gets a warm mouse temperature meal.

 

[lisahe]

lisahe lisahe - thanks for your helpful comments! I probably won't feed much ground meat, but wanted to know just in case.
Are there certain types or cuts of meat you would buy under normal circumstances?

The cats seem to particularly like low-fat cuts like pork tenderloin and chicken breasts. Their least favorite cut of all is turkey thighs and they're not fond of chicken thighs, either, though I do sometimes combine those with other cuts. I also buy turkey tenderloin and pretty much any kind of pork. The biggest thing is to be sure to check labels for added salt and even flavorings.

 

[daftcat75]

The cats seem to particularly like low-fat cuts like pork tenderloin and chicken breasts. Their least favorite cut of all is turkey thighs and they're not fond of chicken thighs, either, though I do sometimes combine those with other cuts. I also buy turkey tenderloin and pretty much any kind of pork. The biggest thing is to be sure to check labels for added salt and even flavorings.

Just goes to show that every cat is different. Krista loves thigh meat and can't be bothered with other cuts. Breast and loin is a surefire way of getting her to regurgitate it. I don't know enough about meat cuts to posit a theory about this. I looked on the Rad Cat label and saw thigh meat and that's been the winning ticket with her.

 

[lisahe]

Just goes to show that every cat is different. Krista loves thigh meat and can't be bothered with other cuts. Breast and loin is a surefire way of getting her to regurgitate it. I don't know enough about meat cuts to posit a theory about this. I looked on the Rad Cat label and saw thigh meat and that's been the winning ticket with her.

Yes, I think there's someone else on the site whose cat particularly loves thigh meat!

Our cats are especially mysterious because they loved Rad Cat best of all, it was the very very favorite food. (We all miss it!)

 

[sidneykitty]

I started gathering some meat at the store to try. My EZComplete sample should be arriving soon. I'm going to do super small batches at first just to try it on her and if she doesn't like it, then my partner can eat the meat. (Not the meat with EZComplete, but the remaining frozen meat if that makes sense...) The meat section of the grocery store is always mystifying and intimidating to me!

I had a one other question...
If you add supplements to your cat's food, can you add them to the homecooked food or would you just give it in canned food instead?
For instance, I give Amber glucosamine joint supplement, egg yolk powder, etc. just wondering if it can be mixed in with homecooked food.

 

[Tobermory]

I add Cosequin (glucosamine, chondroitin, manganese supplement) to both Iris and Lily’s meals, whether homemade or canned. Lily gets two capsules daily, one with the morning meal and one with the evening meal. Iris gets one capsule every other day. I also add a probiotic capsule once a day to Iris’s food for her sensitive tummy. And they both get a squirt of fish oil with each meal. The joys of being arthritic 16-year-olds! Mocha is only six and doesn’t get any supplements.

 

[sidneykitty]

Thank you Tobermory ! After a month of covid delays, I just received my EZComplete sample to try. However, so far, no luck with her eating it. We'll see what happens if I keep trying.

 

[Feste]

You can try adding a pinch of cheese or some sardines to tempt her to try it and overlook the texture.