About liver

I cook the large portion of my cats' wet food. It's basically boiled chicken, ground beef and liver. Sometimes they have fish. But anyway, I noticed that when it's chicken liver, they leave some uneaten. But if it is pork liver, there's hardly any leftovers. Is there a difference in taste? Or is it just my cats? 

yayi said:

I cook the large portion of my cats' wet food. It's basically boiled chicken, ground beef and liver. Sometimes they have fish. But anyway, I noticed that when it's chicken liver, they leave some uneaten. But if it is pork liver, there's hardly any leftovers. Is there a difference in taste? Or is it just my cats? 

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I am sure there is a difference in taste.....
But.....why are you cooking? Not comfortable in feeding raw? You are almost there with the meat and organs..... :nod:

Carolina said:

I am sure there is a difference in taste.....
But.....why are you cooking? Not comfortable in feeding raw? You are almost there with the meat and organs.....

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Not all cats will eat raw.  Mine won't touch it!!  It has to be cooked or they won't even approach it.

They have raw once a week and it's the day I buy the meat fresh from the market. They love it!   But they seem to dislike the frozen, then thawed raw meat. I would love to give them raw all the time but then I have to go to the butcher everyday which my schedule does not permit. 

I have offered mine fresh, thawed, everything and they just turn their noses up at it.  In order to get them to take it, I have to cook it some.  They're getting better though, they'll take it rare now.  Before it had to be pretty much well done before they'd even sniff it!    I give them chicken and livers and ground up turkey.  They like tuna on occassion, too.  Chicken and turkey seems to be their favorite.  They can't have beef.  For some reason, it doesn't agree with them and they get sick?  I read it has more acid then any other meat, too.  So that could be it.  Oh well, it's not like a cat could tackle a whole cow anyway.  Chickens and turkeys are their best match for reasonable prey the way I figure it.

There's a definite difference in taste between chicken, pork and beef liver. If humans can distinguish between them, just think how animals can.

yayi said:

They have raw once a week and it's the day I buy the meat fresh from the market. They love it!   But they seem to dislike the frozen, then thawed raw meat. I would love to give them raw all the time but then I have to go to the butcher everyday which my schedule does not permit. 

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yayi, have you tried warming the meat up? Putting it in a ziplock bag under warm water and bringing it up to "mouse temperature" (a little warmer then body temperature)? Have you tried that?

yayi said:

I cook the large portion of my cats' wet food. It's basically boiled chicken, ground beef and liver. Sometimes they have fish. But anyway, I noticed that when it's chicken liver, they leave some uneaten. But if it is pork liver, there's hardly any leftovers. Is there a difference in taste? Or is it just my cats? 

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A little off-topic, but are you adding any supplements to the cooked food - at the very least: calcium and taurine? If not, I'm afraid this diet would be terribly unbalanced for long-term feeding.

Carolina said:

yayi, have you tried warming the meat up? Putting it in a ziplock bag under warm water and bringing it up to "mouse temperature" (a little warmer then body temperature)? Have you tried that?

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Never done it but will try it. Sure it won't taste "cooked"?   Thanks! 

Sugarcatmom said:

A little off-topic, but are you adding any supplements to the cooked food - at the very least: calcium and taurine? If not, I'm afraid this diet would be terribly unbalanced for long-term feeding.

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Well, they also have dry food which is given twice a day and one fourth of canned on the side with the cooked food. I have asked my veterinarian and he said it was fine. 

yayi said:

Never done it but will try it. Sure it won't taste "cooked"? :lol3:  Thanks! 

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LOL - no, it will not taste coked, but it will make all the difference in the World for them :nod:
I always warm the food up for mine - the water is quite warm, but not burning hot - think the temperature you'd take a hot bath, or a hot shower.... Good enough to put your hands on and leave it for a while :nod:
I leave the meat in a baggie in there until it is slightly warmer than my body temperature - test on my wrist.... then serve.
They love it!

yayi said:

Well, they also have dry food which is given twice a day and one fourth of canned on the side with the cooked food. I have asked my veterinarian and he said it was fine. 

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The portion of unbalanced food shouldn't consist of more than about 15-20% of a cat's total diet. So say if a cat eats a total of 250 calories a day, at least 200 calories need to be nutritionally complete. Or alternatively, only 1 in every 5 meals should be unbalanced. 

Unfortunately vets are often a poor source of nutritional advice.