Homemade Kitty Food?

Sunny has always been a fan of Beef, Chicken, Turkey, and the Beef/Chicken mixture. I have spent an arm and a leg on canned foods for him. He has stopped eating his wet food and now just wants to eat the gravy

He's an "anything goes" kinda cat and has always been eager to try anything that I bring into the house (so long as it's not a pate ) I went to Petsmart and bought everything that looked nutritious and was not a pate - we had no hits on any of that nor on his past choice brand (Fancy Feast - I started this because his vet told me to (he was very ill), he liked it so much, I kept feeding it to him). He wont eat anything with fish or tuna in it. I make salmon at home and he will eat that if I cook it - but only eats the fresh variety - not canned. He also eats fresh chicken, beef and some pork. - He likes them all.

Since this week, I have had to throw away the $30 of food, I thought I'd try to fix his food myself. He likes to eat fresh chicken, beef, pork, salmon. That way I know exactly what he's eating and I can save some money. I'd, of course have to make a gravy for him as he's a gravy fanatic - I also want to make sure he's getting more fluids. He drinks his water good and loves to hang out by the dripping faucet in the bathroom. I simply can not afford to spend so much on his food to have to throw it away. I feed a colony of 9 ferals as well and this is far to expensive.

Is this a safe and healthy option for him?

I would suggest investing in a cat cookbook (my vet recommended the one by Dr. Pitcairn when I was considering cooking for my cats). Homemade food is definitely an option, but you have to be sure you get the balance of nutrients correct. If you want to look at other foods with gravy that may be a step up from Fancy Feast, you might consider Nutro pouches. My friend's two cats will only eat gravy-based foods, and they will eat the chunks if I give them enough time.

I'd definitely talk to your vet about it first. I have a recipe for cat food around here somewhere that my vet gave me a while ago. I'll see if I can find it for you. I wanted to switch to raw or homemade when the whole pet food scare was going on. I'll warn you, though...mine wouldn't touch it. Not even Forest, and he'll eat, literally, ANYthing.

I found some recipes here:

http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.ph...=show&item=014

written by a vet. There's also a list of recommended books.

I have Dr. Pitcairn's book, but his recipes seem to be heavy in grains.

"I have also seen Dr. Pitcairn's Fatty Feline Fare recipe recommended, with the following changes: omit the grains and add a very small amount of cooked mashed veggies and/or raw food processed greens. Include the taurine that he says is optional, and give fish oil instead of cod liver oil. Use calcium lactate powder or other forum of pure calcium instead of bone meal to reduce the amount of phosphorus fed."
Source: http://www.dogaware.com/dogfeeding.html#Balance

Either way, I would definitely talk to a holistic vet first, if possible, about going this route.

My vet is going to give me a couple of balanced home-cooked recipes, so if you're still interested, PM me in about a week or two and I'll type it out for you.

Originally Posted by KatGoddess

I found some recipes here:

http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.ph...=show&item=014

written by a vet. There's also a list of recommended books.

I have Dr. Pitcairn's book, but his recipes seem to be heavy in grains.

"I have also seen Dr. Pitcairn's Fatty Feline Fare recipe recommended, with the following changes: omit the grains and add a very small amount of cooked mashed veggies and/or raw food processed greens. Include the taurine that he says is optional, and give fish oil instead of cod liver oil. Use calcium lactate powder or other forum of pure calcium instead of bone meal to reduce the amount of phosphorus fed."
Source: http://www.dogaware.com/dogfeeding.html#Balance

Either way, I would definitely talk to a holistic vet first, if possible, about going this route.

My vet is going to give me a couple of balanced home-cooked recipes, so if you're still interested, PM me in about a week or two and I'll type it out for you.

Click to expand...

if possible can i pm you for the recipes your vet is giving you?

Originally Posted by BBDOLL22

if possible can i pm you for the recipes your vet is giving you?

Click to expand...

I thought it was something different, but it's basically the recipes found in Dr. Pitcairn's book.

I have 2 gravy eaters. All of my cats hate pate wont touch it. They don't care for the chunky foods and will lick the gravy and leave the pieces.

I have 2 who will only eat Wholesome Goodness grilled chicken will not touch anything else and will not eat any other flavor of Wholesome Goodness only chicken. I have tried other brands of foods and they actually started to lose weight so vet told me to give it to them if that is all they will eat.

The 2 gravy eaters will not eat Wholesome Goodness (sigh) so I buy them Nutro.

None of my cats will eat anything chunky or with big pieces. The Wholesome Goodness is small shreds but sometimes balls into a big chunk.

What I do every morning is when I go to feed I have a special cutting board for the cats. I take the can of food dump it on the cutting board and chop up the food into tiny pieces and they will eat it. I have really good luck getting them to eat food they would normally lick the gravy and let the pieces sit by doing this. It does take an extra minute or 2 to do but as I said I have had really good luck with it. I just make sure to wash the cutting board real good between cans of cat food as I am feed 2 different brands.

Our cats don't like pate nor the large chunks in gravy. The only 2 they will eat are Merricks Thanksgiving Day Dinner and Granny's Pot Pie. They seem to be a nice in between the pate and large chunks. They are also very gravyish. (I know that's not a word. ) You could try those two flavours if they like chicken and beef. I tried at least a dozen different canned foods before I found they would eat Merricks.

Y, my cats LOOOOOOOVED the Merrick's foods and ate them all the time before we went to raw food.