Making your own catfood

Hey people

As you might know, I'm the proud new, second hand, owner of a ± 5 months old kitty http://www.hipforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=62913
(At least.. there is still no word from the previous owner and it has been 2,5 weeks already so..)

Anyways.. I'm wondering about food. I'm a vegetarian myself and have a rabbit (veggie also) so our new carnivorous roomie is quite a new phenomenon for us. I completely endorse her meat-eatingness and I personally think that people who are trying to raise their cats veggie should seriously think of getting psych. help (with dogs it's a bit more nuanced, but still a shrink would do wonders )..

I am however, in favour of high quality food. She's gonna be an indoor cat (for now) so chasing mice and birds etc isn't an option.. the catfood I have (dry & 'wet') is of a top brand but still... the stuff I read about that on the internet doesn't make me too happy. The percentage of actual meat is pretttty low.. and the meat that is in it is of the most poor quality (like left-overs from our meatindustry and animals that aren't allowed for human consumption because they died of diseases etc.).. so.. I was thinking.. how about buying some (freerange) meat and feeding it to her? Like straight from the butcher?

How does something like that work? What would I have to buy and how do I prepare it to make sure she gets everything she needs? I'm thinking white meat (chicken) and red meat (cow).. making a large batch at once and storing it in the freezer etc. But raw? Cooked? Baked?

This is a bit weird, because I've never cooked meat or anything so I'm not sure how to do that.. hehe.. does anyone have any experience with giving the kitty home-made food or maybe know some websites about that?

ps: since she has a rabbit-roommate no tips on rabbit recipes please Don't want to get her in that habbit.. hehe

 

Kitty cats NEED the enzymes found in raw meat or commercial catfood, or they'll go blind. Your girly cat would primarily be chowing on red meat if she were wild (mice and rats and squirrels) and a little fish, so I would say a little yummy dolphin free tuna packed in water and some good LEAN cuts of beef ground up and served raw for the enzymes would work. I would use fresh though and just get tiny amounts every few days. Then again, I have a horrible, spoiled cat, so perhaps it's a bit like getting parenting advice from Red Chief's parents.

 

I am a vegan myself and an obsessed owner of a cat myself and I went through your similar dilema. There are some really good websites on the web that will tell you how to make homemade cat food but I didn't really want to cook meat and don't really have any room in the freezer but I researched until I found Nutro Products. All of their products are all natural, and no byproducts, high quality meat, and no ground corn which is just a filler and not digestible if she is going to be an indoor cat I recommend teh Indoor Adult formula for after she is a year old but for now I recommend the Natural Choice Kitten. email me if you have any questions I work for them and could send you coupons and tell you more or you can check it out their website but there is all kinds of awesome stuff in there that will make your kitty beautiful, energetic, and happy like my baby girl. good luck and email me or pm if you want more specific info

 

NEW ZEALAND
IMPORTS FOR PETS, LTD.
UNIT 13, 5-7 LOWER TYERS ROAD
NGAURANGA
6001 WELLINGTON
NEW ZEALAND
TEL 64-4-499-7812
FAX 64-4-499-5697
nutro@xtra.co.nz
MR. JAMES BROW

 

You can buy heart in the meat dept. of any grocery store, it can be fed raw or cooked.
A friend of mine often buys frozen cod and serves her cat a piece of it, mine don't like it though.
I've always fed my cats catfood (and occasionally a bit of heart) but a warning about tuna: never feed a cat tuna in oil, it can cause a vitamin deficiency. Even a single treat is really bad. Also, tuna has such a strong flavor that cats may become 'tuna junkies', only wanting to eat food with tuna in it. Stick to other fish & meat if you can...

 

Thanks people!

Odessawest, that sounds awesome.. but 'my part of the world' isn't New Zealand I'm afraid, more like Europe, Holland (officially: The Netherlands) to be exact

I read somewhere that cats aren't natural fisheaters, because the first cats used to live in a more (cold) desert like environment where they caught rodents and lizzards and stuff. Not untill the second world war, when meat became rare, people started giving their cats bits of fish and the pet industry after that picked that up, since fish is a cheap way of enzymes.

Also, I read somewhere that the main reason for cats not being able to become vegetarian is the fact that they absolutely need 'taurine', which is only found in meat. The add taurine to kitty milk though, but that's probably not enough, plus I see meat-eating as being an essential part of cat-being so I wouldn't want to raise her veggie.

Oh, just found the url of that website: http://www.nutroproducts.com/

Thanks everyone!

 

Hmm.. I'm now wondering if the website I found is really from the same company OdessaWest says.. check the ingredients list:

Chicken Meal, Corn Gluten Meal, Wheat Flour, Poultry Fat (preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of natural Vitamin E), Ground Rice, Natural Flavors, Beet Pulp, Lamb Meal, Rice Bran, Brewers Dried Yeast, Dried Egg Product, Potassium Chloride, Salt, Choline Chloride, DL-Methionine, Taurine, Zinc Sulfate, Ferrous Sulfate, Vitamin E Supplement, Inositol, Niacin, Copper Sulfate, Ascorbic Acid (source of Vitamin C), Riboflavin Supplement (source of Vitamin B2), Manganous Oxide, Vitamin A Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (source of Vitamin B6), Vitamin D3 Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate (source of Vitamin B1), Biotin, Calcium Iodate, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (source of Vitamin K activity), Folic Acid. (gourmet, kitten, roasted chicken flavor).

So.. I'm a little disappointed with the amount of actual meat in there.. plus the fact that there is still a lot of stuff like rice, corn and beetpulp in it. Also, it has a (maximum) of 7% ash (http://www.nutroproducts.com/mcgckitten.asp#feeding).. isn't that really bad (causing cancer and all), to eat ash?

Good thing though is that they test their foods for cats & dog DNA, so that's not in there, yeay!

If it's not too expensive I'll probably check it out, at the moment I'm thinking of combining normal catfood (like this) with fresh meat.

 

Check out stuff on the internet about the BARF diet "Bones and Raw Foods" or Raw Feeding. There are tons of sources of info out there, and a raw meat diet is totally healthy for dogs AND cats as long as you feed them the right things, and give them any supplements they might need along with it (varies by animal, some don't need supplements and are fine with just the meat and bones, and yes I said bones).

You can also feed her boneless raw meat but if you do, include some bone meal powder, the kind meant for animal supplementation, along with the meat. The meat itself can also be cooked but lots of people including myself believe it's healthier raw. Cats will decide if they want to eat the bones or not, they may not always need the bone and sometimes they do. If they try to eat the bone and chew it up good, that's fine, more calcium. But there's one VERY important point that you REALLY need to remember above all else when venturing into the meat-based diet: NEVER EVER FEED COOKED BONES!!! ALL BONES MUST BE RAW! This is because when bones are cooked they get very hard and splinter and are dangerous. Uncooked raw bones are actually pretty soft and can be easily chewed by most pets. But when you are first transitioning the cat to the raw diet, you'll want to watch over her carefully for the first few weeks and be ready to act if she has a problem with the bones while she is learning to eat them. You may even have to help her learn how to eat them.

It's a lot of work at first figuring out what meat and body parts is good to feed your cat, as well as what supplements she personally needs, and a holistic vet would be a priceless value in monitoring your cat's blood levels every 3 months or so to make sure she is not lacking in something she needs, and they can usually tell you what to give her if she is. Western vets can also monitor blood levels to make sure she's ok, but most don't advocate raw or meat diets becuase then they lose money from dog food companies, they will tell lies like it's dangerous and shit. But at least you'd know if she was ok or not. Anyway, once you get past the first few months of figuring everything out, it gets pretty easy.

 

Oh, and this should be obvious, but I should state it anyway, all meat should be as fresh as possible, cooked or raw. Never feed your pet meat that you wouldn't eat.

 

Hey Bree! Thanks! I just found these websites:

http://www.catnutrition.org/
and
http://www.catfood.catnutrition.org/
and
http://www.raisingcatsnaturally.com/

Think I might give it a shot.. just having trouble getting everything translated.. especially the 'glandular' stuff.. dictionary doesn't help much, but I have a slight idea, I'll ask in a store tomorrow.

Will be weird buying meat, since I'm a veggie myself.. hehe.. ah well..

 

Those look like pretty good sites, especially the first one. One thing I did forget to mention is that you can buy a good grinder and grind your cats meat and bones if you are uncomfortable with it eating the bones itself, or if you are concerned about it not getting the correct bone to meat ration for calcium issues because it refuses to eat the bone. Just as long as the bone parts are never cooked.

I know what you mean about being uneasy with having to handle dead flesh for the sake of your pet. I am not a big fan of meat myself, but I found out that I got used to handling it for the sake of my dogs, and after seeing how much healthier my dogs were, I decided it was definitely worth it. Even more so the more I learned about what "dogfood" really is. You'll get used to it, and hopefully you'll eventually come to feel that you are only participating in what is really the natural course of things, but you have the advantage of selecting only the best for your cat's diet instead of the cat having to go and hunt it down for itself. All you are really doing is saving some labor on the cat's part. So think of it that way. If she was not a pet, she'd be eating like that anyway, but riskier. You may not like handling meat, but if it's the best thing for your cat, then it's worth it.

 

Yeah.. very true. I was actually considering buying her live mice but since I've had mice as pets in the past I know I wouldn't have the heart to let her practice hunting live prey.. but when you think of it.. why feed a snake live mice and not an indoor cat?

Interesting subjects.. this little kitty has me rethinking a whole lot! And now she's sleeping so peacefully on the sofa.. hehe.. the little witch

 

Oh one more thing, you don't have to go "hardcore" right off the bat either, if a lot of that stuff doesn't make sense to you, you can start out REALLY simple. In fact a lot of times it's best for the pet to just start out as simple as possible to help them adjust easier.

What I mean is, select the meat you wish to feed her, and stick with it, either beef, turkey or chicken. Don't give her new meats for now, until you guys are raw food veterans lol. I know chicken is best as starter meat for dogs but I am not sure what is best as starter meat for cats. But just stick to one meat, and if you want to start out with no bones for a couple of weeks, that is fine too. It will give her digestive system and immune system a chance to build up and get used to raw meat. You can add some form of bone later, let her get used to THAT for a while, then add a supplement you think she might need, see how she does with it for a while, then add another if needed, and so on. This is also really good for noticing any allergies. If she is allergic to something you give her, you will know what it is, that it's the most recent new thing, since you are building her diet so slowly. Some pets can handle some meats but not others. For example, my dogs do great on chicken and can handle beef ok, but fish is very bad and makes them sick. So if one meat doesn't seem to work, you can try another one, but I wouldnt' reccomend switching them too soon or too often if possible.

Oh, and you can expect some detox for the first couple of weeks. So be ready for accidents and some vomiting and generally not feeling well. She should be fine as long as there is no blood and she is not too dehydrated. Detox should be done after about 3 weeks, at least that is how it is with dogs. Might be different for cats. But if she hasn't stopped the detox after what is a normal detox time for cats, it might be time to try another meat because maybe the one you started with wasn't the right one. If she does stop the detox, great... and you will notice she feels better than ever. You may even notice some pleasant behavior changes. (One of my dogs became more affectionate, both became much better behaved and more easily trainable)

Hope that helps!

 

Thanks!

My worry is mostly that once I get her used to raw food, it will be even harder to find a sitter when I want to go on a (short) vacation.. although I could make a batch that would last for 2 or 3 weeks I guess.. always complicated to trust you pets with someone elses care. My mom feeds the dog pie and chocolate and everything and I hardly trust her with the care of my rabbit when I'm away, let alone a cat. *sigh*..

Ah well.. time to ask around among my friend how'd be crazy enough to take care of a pussy and a bunny if needed

 

When I go on vacation, I just grind up my dog's meat and dole out meal sized portions in containers, freeze them, and mark them with the date and time it is to be fed to them, and then leave instructions to take the next day's container out of the freezer and into fridge to let it defrost over night. That way all they have to do is take the daily portion out of the fridge, plop it in the bowl, throw out the container, put the next days food in the fridge, and viola, done. Grinding makes sure that there won't be a problem with the bones when you're not home, and then they don't have to even touch any of the meat that way. You can even put the day's supplements along with the daily meat as well.

 

A homemade diet is awesome. I know someone said that they need something in their food so that they don't go blind -- that is Taurine, and you don't need to supplement it unless you cook your meat. Taurine is found naturally is raw meat. Something you need to make sure to do to always keep variety. If the kitty is fed the same thing everyday, he will become defficient, because its very unlikely that meal will have all of the proper nutrients. That's why variety is important.


As for the ingredients to this food, I've highlighted the bad ones:

Chicken Meal, Corn Gluten Meal, Wheat Flour, Poultry Fat (preserved with mixed Tocopherols, a source of natural Vitamin E), Ground Rice, Natural Flavors, Beet Pulp, Lamb Meal, Rice Bran, Brewers Dried Yeast, Dried Egg Product, Potassium Chloride, Salt, Choline Chloride, DL-Methionine, Taurine, Zinc Sulfate, Ferrous Sulfate, Vitamin E Supplement, Inositol, Niacin, Copper Sulfate, Ascorbic Acid (source of Vitamin C), Riboflavin Supplement (source of Vitamin B2), Manganous Oxide, Vitamin A Supplement, Calcium Pantothenate, Vitamin B12 Supplement, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride (source of Vitamin B6), Vitamin D3 Supplement, Thiamine Mononitrate (source of Vitamin B1), Biotin, Calcium Iodate, Menadione Sodium Bisulfite Complex (source of Vitamin K activity), Folic Acid. (gourmet, kitten, roasted chicken flavor).

If you ever decide to go back to kibble, lok into these brands:
Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul
Innova
Wellness
Eagle Pack Holistic
Pro Pac Holistic
Healthwise
California Natural
Go! Natural

My kitten enjoys his diet of Healthwise kibble in the morning, and raw at night.

 

Hey!

As for now I found a brand of catfood in a store that sells all kinds of nice products (lot of eco stuff).. it's called Yarrah - organic pet food and it's awesome. It's 100% biological, not tested on other animals, allergy free, free from chemical substances and has a LOT of meat in it, compared to other brands. Ofcourse homemade would still be better, but for now this'll do.

Their website:
http://www.yarrah.com/

Ingrediënts of the food I'm giving her:
Hallmark: EKO
Yarrah Cat Chicken Chunks are tender meatballs, made of 100% pure chicken, in a tasty sauce. Because only chicken meat is used the chances for an allergic reaction are virtually negligible. Yarrah Cat Chicken Chunks is a complete and highly nutritious meal, so there is no need for additional feeding. Ingredients:
Meat* and derivatives* (chicken* min.41%), wheat*, minerals.

*= Verified organically produced, Skal 1301

 

Sounds good

I'd give a cat a raw meat* diet too, the closest thing to what they'd naturally eat. Pet food scares me.

Does your kitty have a name yet?
How's the rabbit taken to her (and vice versa)?
*Free range organic stuff of course. I'm a veggie too, but would learn to live with it. After my family ate meat and I still like them

 

well.. we just call her 'Poes' (puss).. at first because we didn't want to name her to avoid attachment in case an owner showed up.. and now because it sorta stuck

The rabbit is a total gentlemen, sometimes Poes jumps him, tries catching him but he's twice her size and has a thick furcoat so he just sits still and let her play.. she's young and eager to learn but it's funny to see her having a rabbit as rolemodel.. she'll follow him back into his cage and tries eating hay as well.. hehe.. plus she doesn't understand what the fuss is about when he gets a carrot or other vegetables.. she'll steal some and play with it tough.. hehe

 

Don't be fooled by a food saying it's "virtually" hypoallergenic. Even the most exotic foods (fish based, venison based, etc), alot of times carry something that certain animals will be allergic to. The food that you have there has wheat in it. That is the #1 allergen for both cats and dogs.

Also, the food says meat. It does say chicken after it, but only 41% of that meat is chicken. When something says meat, it is being very inspecific as to what that meat is. That means the meat is very likely to be raodkill, euthanized pets, and pretty much anything else under the sun. Litterally.

Be careful with canned foods as well. If you want to go with canned, it's best to add in kibble as well. Most canned foods are very low in protien (sometimes as low as 8%). A kitten should be getting 30-32% protien. The caloric density is also usually very low. Also if a cat gets too used to canned, there's a very chance it won't go with any other type of food. That's why my cat gets a variety of things. Sometimes I will add in canned food, yogurt, oils, tripe, etc.

My cat likes to play with my rats. ^^