cat cuisine

this is what I am currently feeding my cat, partially cooked  chicken thighs with all bones and most skin removed, high quality sardines in water,all mixed together in food processor with a good amount of water.This diet worked well for my previous cat and the current one.My cat has exhibited an improvement in health especially much less water consumption.I know raw is best and am planning on trying it someday.I am under the impression that my cat food is better than any dry food out there, buying top end carnivore food is out of the question since it is too expensive.I do go to a lot of effort preparing dukes food, he is worth it  he also favors eating grass in the back yard.

I know there's some calcium in sardines. But I'm not sure it's enough? I do think that a well-prepared homemade diet is superior to any commercial diet, but an unbalanced diet can cause a lot of problems. I just don't think chicken thighs and sardines make a complete diet for a kitty . But there's a lot of great info in the raw feeding forum on how to balance your cat's diet (raw or cooked! We should call it the homemade diet forum), so check that out even if you're not ready for raw yet.

Are you feeding the bones cooked (not a good idea, but see below)? I guess I'm not sure how those could go through a food processor. Are you feeding the sardines at each meal? Feeding fish often is not a good idea for kitties. Fish body oil you can do salmon or krill oil everyday--a few drops per meal.

For a cooked diet where the bones can be used because they are will be cooked so that they don't splinter and cause major problems, I would suggest checking out this link: Holisticat - Cooked Meat Diets (there are other options for partially cooked, too). The pressure cooker method, IMO, would be the best option to retain a lot of the nutrients into the water that will be mixed in the food, and the bones would become quite mushy. I would still add the supplements suggested because cooking destroys a lot of nutrients.

http://www.livestrong.com/article/465925-are-sardines-a-good-source-of-calcium/      sardines are great source of calcium and many other nutrients, why not for cats? I am not so sure however I need to get over my aversion to making raw food instead of compromising as I have been doing.I think I will plan on going raw and continue with sardines as long as weight gain is not an issue.So many worries about contaminated food sources,seems like good quality sardines spend so little time in the ocean before being harvested and tend not to have mercury contamination,I eat them on a regular basis  the chicken I cook has all bones removed.

MUEZZA said:

http://www.livestrong.com/article/465925-are-sardines-a-good-source-of-calcium/      sardines are great source of calcium and many other nutrients, why not for cats? 

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But sardines are also high in phosphorus, so while you may be adding more calcium to the diet by including sardines, you're also adding more phosphorus. The calcium to phosphorus ratio in the feline diet is crucial. You need to find a way to add enough calcium to balance out the phosphorus in the entire meal at approximately a 1.2 to 1.5 ratio. 

complicated  I have to go raw..its the right thing to do.

Thanks so much for the link Holisticat, I am going to use their info to switch to a raw diet.This is the 1st site that is user friendly with clear concise info

I don't understand why it goes through the food processor, why not just feed the meat? Of course I also don't see the point of cooking it, since I'm a raw feeder. More work, for no benefit. 

Melesine said:

I don't understand why it goes through the food processor, why not just feed the meat? Of course I also don't see the point of cooking it, since I'm a raw feeder. More work, for no benefit. 

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If a cat will eat whole food then no need to process?,I am under the impression some people process the meat to make it more desirable? I had a cat years ago that was a great mouser,occasionally I could see a mouse tail hanging out of her mouth......The feline paleolithic diet? seems whole natural prey food is a good thing.

He will not eat raw....yet

Good luck going raw! hope your kitty likes it!