Top 5 best ingredients for Homemade cat food

  • Meat and fish: All kinds of red and white meat and fish provides protein, vitamins (only with raw serving) and fat. Liver is a good source of vitamin A (again, only raw) but should not exceede 10% of a cats diet as too much vitamin A can be dangerous for your cat.homemade cat food
  • Eggs: Eggs are very rich in Protein, Carbs, fats and many Vitamins. They are a good and well balanced food, but it is advised to avoid raw eggs, or at least not serve raw eggs more than once a week, as raw eggs contain harmful enzymes.
  • Milk and Cheese: Dairy products are high in Protein as well as fats and calcium. Whole milk should not be given in large quantities and not very frequently because the lactose that it contains may give your cat diarrhea. But please note that cheese does not contain lactose and so can be safely given in small cat bite size pieces.
  • Vegetables: are a good source of vitamins in cat food, it will add some variety to it, and if you know how to mix it well, it will taste very good to your cat.
  • Grains: Barley, wheat germ, oats, and rice are important for many vitamins and minerals. They are safe for cats even if they eat large quantities, unless your cat has an allergy or kidneys problems, then you will have to see your vet, and most likely you will have to cut grains from your cat's diet.

13 comments:

  1. As noted on another thread, I've been using chicken liver (but cooked) as a source of fat, protein, and iron, along with it's higher taurine and lower vitamin A than beef liver. I've been doing this for years, with the liver usually being 1/4 max. (up to 1/3 on occasion) of the recipe by weight, and the rest being mostly ground meat and rice (some eggs and occasionally a bit of grated zucchini too). Seems to be working well.

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  2. One should be careful feeding cats liver. It contains very high levels of vitamin A, which can cause an overdose, so use it in moderation!

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  3. Some of the information here is inaccurate. While it is true that some types of cheese contain no lactose, many different cheeses DO contain lactose in varying amounts. For example, old cheddar contains little to no lactose as compared to medium cheddar or mild cheddar that is not aged. There are also many types of cheese offered that are lactose-free, however, such as some types of Swiss and Gouda. One must be on the lookout specifically for lactose-free cheeses. Be cautious when choosing your cheese!

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  4. I have researched this as my cat is diabetic. They eat 7% or less carbs in the wild...no grain and very little vegetable matter. I took my cat off her prescription diabetic catfood and her blood sugar levels fell from 29 to 4.5. I look for canned food with NO grain or vegetables. I found the information on yourdiabeticcat.com written by a veterinarian researcher for diabetes. Her protocol worked for my cat so I believe her. You want to really think twice about feeding grains to you cat.

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  5. I agree with the comment about liver. Too much vitamin A means that the vitamin becomes a pro-oxidant, which is perfect if you want a cat with cancer, as pro-oxidants damage DNA.

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  6. How about turkey? i feed each of my cats a peice of turkey lunch meat every morning and they eat science diet for the rest of the day. Is this a good idea?

    I have also been wondering if i should go to a butcher and ask for scraps to cook up for them as morning meat- any tips on that one?

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  7. Looking for info on diets for my 11 year old diabetic cat, I found this website. Speaking to veterinarians who are also experts on nutrition, grains and vegetable are very wrong for cats. Cats are carnivores, the most you can do to add something green, it would be to have a fresh potted catnip around as they do love it. Please be careful with the info you share. Cats need animal protein, preferably raw, half cook will do as well. In any case, poultry is best, such as chicken and turkey, livers and hearts, rabbit meat. Avoid beef, milk, as most cats are allergic to lactose. You should do more research before posting advise. Your intentions are very good but harmful to peoples precious pets. Best

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  8. In all due respect, to the comment above, practice what you preach.
    Cats are not allergic to lactose, the can not process it.
    Big difference.
    Vets are not experts on nutrition!
    Where on earth did you get that info from???
    Any vet who claims such a thing with out having actually specifically studied nutrition is full of crap!
    I have been told this by many vets.
    There is a big difference between your OPINION & FACT!

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  9. There does seem to be some misinformation here. Cooking meat/liver does not eliminate the vitamins. SOME may be decreased but not all are affected by cooking. Raw eggs may contain salmonella; harmful enzymes?-not so much. Whole milk has more fat and is likely to cause diarrhea from that unless the cat is sensitive to lactose. Some cats do just fine with milk and some don't. Lactose intolerance is very different from milk allergy, in fact, you can't be allergic to lactose because it is a carbohydrate, not a protein. As noted by another writer above, there is lactose in almost all cheese. I can't figure out what the grains have to do with the kidneys - that is usually the protein/meats.
    Well, be careful out there and good luck!

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  10. I have a 14 year old cat with Kidney disase. I gave her the Vet's canned prescription diet but she would either refuse to eat it or throw it up if she did eat it.
    I am now givig her the same homemade food that the rest of the cats get, consisting of oatmeal sardines,salmon or mackeral,kippers,mixedorganic vegetables. They all love it. Occasionally I switch to beef and liver instead of fish. They are not keen on it but will eat it. I add Vit.'s B,C,D,E,Kelp,and Omega Fish Oil.
    They all seem to be healthy on it for the past year.
    My questions:Am I using the right vitamins? As my cat with kidney disease does not really have that much time left , am I doing her any more harm?

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  11. I have a simple recipe that seems to work well. After reading several site by vets and people who specialize in cat care, I decided to try my hand at homemade cat food. We got several freshly caught mackeral from friends, I used my food processor and added one whole egg, one cup fine bread crumbs and two cooked carrots, mixed it together and put it in the fridge. My cats love it.

    You can feed them chicken thighs with the skin and the bone of the thigh - I bought a Tasin 108 Meat Grinder for this very purpose because it grinds bones well - and they need a little bone for calicum (or used finely ground egg shells - 1 tsp). So with chicken and turkey the dark meat has more Taurine then the white meat and cats seem to perfer the darker meats. Chicken and Turkey giblets and liver is especially good to use as well, I just mix it in and I use fish.

    I don't use beef meat or liver and I don't use pork - cats eat small animals not cows or pigs so I am really trying to keep to the diet they'd eat if they were hunting it. Now and then, and if you can get it, Quail and piegon. If your on a farm, piegon can be easily caught. I have read that many people buy rabbit meat or a whole rabbit and simply grind it up for them.

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  12. Just wanted to thank you very much for the recipes. My cats are feral cats that I adopted when they were teenagers. They love raw meat. I've been thinking about making homemade catfood for a while now and only after I found this site did I do it. I used the recipe that calls for chicken, rice, broccoli and carrots. I confess to leaving out the carrots. I was a worried my kitties would turn their noses up at the broccoli but they seemed to love the mixture. I don't have a meat grinder so I used my food processor, which is such a mess to clean up, but it did a good job. My three kitties were thrilled with me! :)I made about ten lbs and froze all but tomorrows. I'm still going to leave their dry catfood out for them as they do enjoy it, but this will be their morning and evening dinners. Now that I know they like it I'll get them some vitamins.

    This is fantastic!

    Thanks again!

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  13. I've got a 3-month old cat who keeps getting diarrhea. The vet could find nothing in her stool so I'm adjusting her diet. Right now she's getting boiled chicken with brown rice, but I'm worried about vitamins and calcium. I guess eggshells will do for the calcium, but does anyone know of any vitamins I should add?

    So far, all canned foods disagree with her, even making her throw up within an hour of eating. Oh, and I use a regular blender, not a fancy food processor. It's what I've got.

    Thanks.

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