recipe for healthy dry food?

I've been feeding my cats homemade wet food just as a treat for the last two years. It's composed of boiled chicken, plus either boiled chicken livers or mackerel or tuna. It's just meant to be a treat, not the main part of their nutrition. Two of the cats don't care for it and don't eat it.

I use Purina's Kit n Kaboodle dry food as their main food. I've just read a bunch of reviews saying how dangerous Purina is. I'd like to find an affordable recipe to make my own. The recipes I've found so far are all heavy on grains. It's my understanding that this is not optimal nutrition.

I thought of just going entirely to the wet food, but they would miss the anytime nibbles provided by dry food. And I would have to start adding nutrients to the wet food, which I likely can't afford. I also think the dry food helps keep teeth healthy.

Any recommendations to healthy recipes would be appreciated.

tbh i'm not sure you'll get much support on this idea.  dry foods and kibble generally rely on grains and cooking at high  heats, two things not really popular in the 'raw and home cooked' category.

it's not hard to stop free feeding your cats.  i used to free feed three times a day and it took me about 5 weeks to fully transition four cats to three meals a day.  after 20 minutes, i pick up anything that's not eaten.  they get the hint pretty quick.  i started removing the food after 20 minutes with one meal a day, then two, then three.  even with kibble.  

whether you're making your own wet or dry food to feed cats, you'll have to add nutrients.  when i was home cooking for my cats, i laid out about $40 to buy all the supplements and they'll last me a really long time.  cats require certain nutrients that may not be found in the food we're cooking for them, so it's important to add some (i add taurine, vitamin e, vitamin b complex, lite salt, and fish oil).

and finally, there is no real evidence that kibble helps keep cat's teeth clean.  if you watch your cat eat kibble, you might notice that they don't chew the way we do, or even the way dogs do.  a cat might bite down on a piece of kibble once - they don't chew kibble like we would chew a pretzel.  they chew meat like that - and chewing hunks of meat is more likely to help keep a cat's teeth clean than anything else (except regular brushing).  

check out http://www.catinfo.org  for more info.  there's also a recipe for homemade food and ideas for raw feeding if you're into that idea.  

if you're sold on dry food, i would recommend nature's variety instinct or wellness core.  when i was still feeding kibble, my cats liked those.  if you're on a very tight budget, iams is the only grocery store brand i'd bother with (the orange bag).

RafiCat said:

 
I thought of just going entirely to the wet food, but they would miss the anytime nibbles provided by dry food. And I would have to start adding nutrients to the wet food, which I likely can't afford. I also think the dry food helps keep teeth healthy.

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You can just give your cat a few pieces of dry food or hard cat treats as an occasional treat. Most cats really don't miss having something crunchy to eat. You could also leave a very small amount of a good quality dry food in a bowl or treat feeder for the cats during the day.

Dry food doesn't keep a cat's teeth healthy. Only manual scrubbing of teeth (ie tooth brushing) will remove any plaque and food particles from the teeth. Here's some info: http://catinfo.org/#Dental_Disease Short of tooth brushing, you can try dental chews and liquid rinses.

Most commercial canned cat food are complete diets so no additional supplementation is needed. I'm not sure why you think supplementation is needed?

I didn't mean commercial wet food, I meant homemade. For  a couple years now I've been boiling up chicken , and pureeing it with a can of mackerel and plenty of water, to make wet food. Since it's really just a treat, not their main source of nutrition, I haven't ever added supplements to it. But I think I will look into that, as I really don't want to keep feeding them commercial dry food. The good brands are too expensive for me.

okay, well I just thought there might be a healthy homemade dry food recipe... when I'm gone all day I like to leave food out for them. just in case I am gone longer than I expect. thank you for all the info