Homemade cat food question and what is the best store bought brand and is all dry food a no no?

Hi,

1. A while back I came across a website that sold a powder that could be combined with either cooked or raw meat to make homemade cat food.  I cannot seem to find this site now.  Could someone please help with this? 

2. I read that store bought dry food is a no no for cats.  I heard from some crazy cat people that even the high-end stuff should be avoided - is this true?  If not, which dry food is best?  I use to use Innova Evo, but I'm curious to know if Royal Canin or another is better.  Price is not an issue.  

2. What about canned food.  Which is the very best?  Halo?  


Should I make homemade food instead of store-bought? 


Thank you!

Hi and welcome to TCS! And congrats on wanting to find the best food for your kitty that works for you too.

And, well, there are a lot of opinions in answer to your questions. :lol3:

We're discussing the ingredients of some cat foods right now, in fact: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/245614/...by-products-meal-or-rather-not-think-about-it

And if you want more reasons to make home made, the thread that convinced me to switch my cats to home made raw food is this one: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/239691/nutritionally-complete-assurances-for-our-pet-food

I don't like Halo, because it uses a lot of veggies. Vegetables aren't a species-appropriate food for cats. Cats are obligate carnivores. In the wild, domestic cats eat small rodents, lizards, bugs and birds. They don't eat beans, peas, potatoes, corn, tomatoes, carrots, and all that other stuff that costs less than meat so it's in cat food. :dk: In fact, their digestion is so specialized for meat, there's a number of things they can't properly digest/utilize. Carrots are a good example. They're in so many cat foods. But cat's cannot convert the beta carotene into Vitamin A - they lack the digestive enzymes necessary to do this. So carrots in cat food are filler. Beta carotene in cat food is for color. :lol3:

Evo, IMO is one of the best kibbles you can feed, next to Epigen90 by Wysong (which is very expensive). But feeding only kibble to a cat is like you eating cereal at every meal for the rest of your life (with no milk). And cats are descended from desert animals (the African Wild Cat). They don't have a thirst drive like you and I (or dogs) do: their bodies are genetically designed to get all of their moisture from the food they eat. Kibble provides almost no moisture, and cats eating kibble are basically chronically mildly dehydrated. This isn't good for their organs, just like it isn't good for us.

If you want to read further on the thinking about why you shouldn't feed kibble, this site is by a vet, Lisa Pierson, D.V.M.: http://www.catinfo.org

I don't know of a supplement that works for cooked OR raw food. :dk: Cooking damages too many amino acids/nutrients in meat, so I can't see how there's one supplement that would work for cooked meat or raw meat. Wysong makes a supplement meant to be used with just raw meat - don't feed bones, don't feed organs, or they'll get too much calcium and potentially too much vitamin A - ONLY raw meat with this supplement. It's Call of the Wild. http://www.wysong.net/products/cotw-dog-cat-supplement.php

The best canned foods are those that are mostly meat with very simple ingredient lists. That's Before Grain, Nature's Variety, EVO 95% stuff, By Nature 95% stuff, and some of the Weruva varieties. I'm probably missing some. When I fed my cats canned, I liked to feed a rotation of not only proteins, but different manufacturers.

IMO, ingredients to be avoided at all costs are grains, soy, and I'd feed canned foods with carageenan only in rotation.

Here are the issues with soy: http://www.optimumchoices.com/Silent_epidemic.htm Scroll down to the section called "Hidden poison in pet food."

Here are the issues with carageenan: http://www.notmilk.com/carageenan.html

I make home made raw for my cats, but it's definitely not for everyone. There are plenty of commercial raw foods you can buy, and they're just as easy as feeding canned food. Some are all meat and organs, some have veggies and fruits and stuff. When I was using commercial raw, I only fed the ones that were 95% meat/bones/organs and 5% other stuff.

Wow, thank you for such a thorough reply.  Last night I found a product online called "Better in the Raw" by a company called "Know Better Pet Food".  I've ordered this product and will give it a try. I will probably use a combination of dark and white meat chicken with this mix, ground up in a food processor.  

Should I leave the skin in the food or omit the skin?

http://www.knowbetterpetfood.com/cat_food_better_in_the_raw

 

Looks fine to me. In fact, it looks pretty much like Dr. Pierson's recipe: http://www.catinfo.org/?link=makingcatfood Only the one you ordered uses kelp for iodine rather than lite iodized salt.

Just use a variety of meats. Rotation when feeding raw is just as important as rotation when feeding other cat foods. I feed my cats chicken breast, chicken thigh, turkey breast, turkey thigh, lamb, pork, goat, rabbit, venison, gizzards, duck & chicken hearts.... Many feed beef (one of mine can't tolerate it, so it's not in rotation).

Because the omega 6s in our meats are high (cow, chicken, pig have higher omega 6 than small rodents, rabbits or birds, the natural diet of a cat), and the omega 3s are so low, I trim the meat of all fat and feed no skin. :nod: I supplement with salmon oil, but that supplement appears to have something in it to boost omega 3s.