Things I Learned Tonight

[amysuen]

After making my first batch of homemade cat food, I've learned the following things:

1. Making cat food is not for the faint-hearted.
1a. Raw liver, ew. Cooked liver, ew.
1b. Punctured fish oil capsules smell so strong you can taste them.
1c. Liver, skin, egg, water and supplements come out of the Ninja looking like the worst baby diaper ever.

2. An automatic pressure cooker is much less scary to use than the old-fashioned ones.
2a. It's supposed to make those ominous noises when it's cooking.
2b. It does work well for bones, even if it doesn't look like it when you first open the lid.

3. Some cats don't appreciate the amount of time, labor and love put into homemade cat food.
3a. Even when you sprinkle it with Parmesan cheese.
3b. And Ninja'd kibble. And un-Ninja'd kibble.
3c. And their favorite Chicken Purrcata.

Final results: Toothless dove right in (as expected). Laelia and Cinder were enticed by the special "toppings." Snickers sniffed but wouldn't touch it. We'll see what they think tomorrow morning when they're hungrier.

 

[Columbine]

All in all, it sounds like your first batch of homemade food went pretty well

As with any new type of food, it's normal to have a readjustment phase as they get used to their yummy home cooked meals. Try mixing it in with their old food, for now, gradually increasing the newld food ratio. Also, crumbled freeze dried treats (Purebites style) make some of the best toppers ever in my experience A lot of members swear by Purina FortiFlora and bonito flakes too.
Transitioning your cat to from kibble to a new type of food - canned, raw or homemade.
(I know this focuses on kibble, but the tips and tricks hold good for any new food type )

 

[amysuen]

Thanks Columbine, I think it went fairly well too. I read that article, and the one about transitioning to mealtimes instead of 24/7 kibble and have a game plan.

Snickers wouldn't eat anything at breakfast (13 hours after last meal) so at lunch I gave him kibble next to the homemade. He ate all the kibble that didn't touch the homemade - just like my kids! Tonight I'm going to see if bacon fat will tempt him, but I'm not going to rush him.

 

[Columbine]

Just be patient, and keep offering the new food alongside the kibble. Eventually he'll get curious and try some, I'm sure.

One tip that I found when trying to transition Asha to raw (something I later gave up on for other reasons) was to put some kibble in a plastic baggie and go to town on it with a rolling pin (great for stress relief too ). Use the resulting crumbs as a topper, or even as a coating for pea sized balls of the home cooked food. It can be just the trick you need for kibble addicts As he loves his kibble so much, my 'bought' topper of choice would be the FortiFlora. It's basically animal digest (in this case as a carrier for the probiotic), which is the same stuff that kibble is coated in to make it appealing to kitties.

Hope that helps, and that Snickers gets more adventurous soon

 

[lavishsqualor]

All in all, it sounds like your first batch of homemade food went pretty well

As with any new type of food, it's normal to have a readjustment phase as they get used to their yummy home cooked meals. Try mixing it in with their old food, for now, gradually increasing the newld food ratio. Also, crumbled freeze dried treats (Purebites style) make some of the best toppers ever in my experience A lot of members swear by Purina FortiFlora and bonito flakes too.
Transitioning your cat to from kibble to a new type of food - canned, raw or homemade.
(I know this focuses on kibble, but the tips and tricks hold good for any new food type )

That's exactly what I do for Thirteen, my UBER picky female tuxedo cat who eats like a bird. I mix some of the crumbs in with her rabbit and then sprinkle a few on top. Never fails.

Good luck, Amy! I have a feeling your cats will come around.

 

[orange&white]

It does sound like your first batch went pretty well! Your post was funny...especially the "baby diaper" mix. lol

Hopefully Snickers will come around sooner than later. There always seems to be one "problem child" in a food transition.

 

[amysuen]

Thanks everyone! I found We made a second batch over the weekend (I promise not to post about every. single. batch!) - fully cooking the chicken and turkey then shredding it in the food processor instead of hand cutting into chunks. I plan to slowly transition to cooking less and bigger chunks.

We looked for FortiFlora but the only thing we found was too pricey since I wasn't 100% sure it was the right thing, so we got some freeze dried treats and that did the trick! The "good" three took to the new food right away but Snickers stared at me like "You really don't expect me to eat this, do you?" until I crumbled a piece of freeze dried salmon on it. Then he dug in like nobody's business! Now I think he's playing me because every time I put down his plate he gives me the evil eye until I put the dried salmon on top.

Thanks again everyone - I probably would've given up without your advice and encouragement.

 

[orange&white]

Yay! Snickers is coming around.

If you want to post every batch, I'll read them all! Switching from the processed mystery diet called "Cat Food" to feeding your cats identifiable whole foods can be intimidating, and rewarding. Posting your experiences can really help others, as well as providing yourself with something of a historical journal you can look back over.

Carry on!

 

[amysuen]

Thanks so much! It makes me feel really good to know what's in their food, and that everything in it is safe for human consumption. Not that we would eat it, but we could.

The next challenge is to figure out how much to make to last a week. I thought we had, but forgot I was doing half Rachael Ray and half homemade. And making sure the kittens are eating enough. Some days they eat the same amount as the adult cats so I don't know if they're not eating enough or if the adult cats are overeating.

 

[orange&white]

I weigh every meal the cats eat and keep a chart ('cause I'm kind of geeky). My kitten is definitely eating more food than my senior and a much higher amount as a % of her body weight. Senior is on a diet or he would definitely eat more food.

Are you using a food scale? It's not really necessary to obsessively track their food like I do, but if you tracked for a week or two, then you can better figure out how much food to make.

 

[amysuen]

Should I weigh the cats to make sure they aren't losing weight?

Right now I'm eye-balling it. The first time I made food I weighed my containers so I know some hold 10oz and some 2oz. The cats eat about 1/2 a 10oz container or 2-3 2oz containers at each meal. I warm the food, add water to make it turkey-and-gravy consistency then spoon it onto 4 plates. I try to give the kittens more but they end up switching plates so it's hard to tell who ate how much. I'm letting them eat as much as they want, although if they lose interest halfway through I put more "topper" on, then they usually finish it.

Do you watch your cats eat, or put it down and walk away? Right now I'm watching to make sure Snickers eats a decent amount and that Toothless doesn't eat half his then push another cat away from theirs - I'm afraid if he does they'll walk away before they're done.

 

[orange&white]

I don't think it hurts to weigh pets once a month regardless of diet. We do a Sunday weigh-in at my house, but that is the "numbers junkie" in me.

The first five years I fed raw diet, I had 3 healthy-weight adult cats eating off one large "community plate", so I was less aware of what each cat ate as long as they all looked good and stayed weight-consistent. I think that is ok.

I just started back on raw in January with one overweight cat and one growing kitten, so I'm being more particular with them. The senior eats in the kitchen and finishes in 1-2 minutes before I can even dish up the kitten's meal and walk it back to the bathroom where she eats. She eats slowly, so I don't watch her eat. If she doesn't finish a meal, I pick it up after 30 minutes to an hour and offer her another meal later. She eats 3-4 meals a day, sometimes 5 if she didn't eat much the previous day. Her appetite is more variable.

You can predict how much food to make in a week just by counting how many 10oz (or 2oz) containers they are eating per day over the course of a few days to get an average. I'd make a little extra over the weekly average, because you never know when kittens are going to decide to eat more. Your food should freeze well, so making more is probably better than running short at the end of the week.

 

[amysuen]

We'll see if the girls let us hold them long enough to weigh them - neither is very cuddly.

I figure once I determine how much they're eating a day it'll be easier to know how much to make for a week. The biggest issue this last time is I'd forgotten that I'd been doing 50/50 homemade/Rachael Ray so I overestimated how long the homemade would last. I'm keeping the RR for emergencies because I'm afraid once I feed it I'll have to start all over convincing them to eat the homemade.

Thanks again for all the info and support!

 

[orange&white]

We'll see if the girls let us hold them long enough to weigh them - neither is very cuddly.

I figure once I determine how much they're eating a day it'll be easier to know how much to make for a week. The biggest issue this last time is I'd forgotten that I'd been doing 50/50 homemade/Rachael Ray so I overestimated how long the homemade would last. I'm keeping the RR for emergencies because I'm afraid once I feed it I'll have to start all over convincing them to eat the homemade.

Thanks again for all the info and support!

I weigh the cats in a cat carrier....don't think the kitten would hold still otherwise. lol

I have a bag of grain free kitten food on hand. Farrell was born feral and the manager of the colony was feeding them piles of Meow Mix, so I wasn't sure how she would take to a healthy diet. Once in a while if she's fussy, I put 2-3 little pieces of "kitty crack" on top of her raw food. The bag is still going to expire well before I use it.

 

[amysuen]

Ah, smart!

I made another batch last night and Snickers dug into it without any kitty crack on top. Then this morning he stared at me until I added the salmon. Outsmarted by a cat...

 

[orange&white]

I made another batch last night and Snickers dug into it without any kitty crack on top. Then this morning he stared at me until I added the salmon. Outsmarted by a cat...

LOL...I know what you mean. The cats rule; we obey. Sounds like Snickers is coming along great with the new diet!

 

[amysuen]

He's such a brat! I had to add the salmon to his breakfast so he'd eat it, then later on he came back and finished Laelia's, which didn't have any salmon on it. I'm just glad they're all eating it.

 

[orange&white]

I'm happy for your success, too! I've noticed Farrell is not much of a "breakfast cat", but she eats well from mid-afternoon to midnight. She always leaves the chicken hearts on her plate. I just cut up her two half chicken heart chunks into smaller pieces and added one piece of kitty crack for her to finish breakfast. I am her slave.