My first time making food for my kitten

It's so much fun! And surprisingly, it came out to be cheaper than if I had bought an equivalent amount of high quality canned. 

Here are the ingredients I threw together and Ember loves it.

• 1 lb. Ground Turkey, cooked
• 1 lb. Ground Beef, cooked
• 2 Eggs, no shells
• 0.5 tsp Bacon Fat (to grease the cooking pan)
• 0.5 cup EZcomplete (the amount it told me to add)
• 4 oz. steamed, diced carrots 
• 3 tbs butternut squash

I mixed it with the amount of water it said on the package and of course only added the EZcomplete after the meat had been cooked. I also made a half batch of the same recipe with only turkey, no beef, and a few sardines chopped up in it. Any thoughts on the recipe I made? I tried to add enough vegetables that she would enjoy it (she loves vegetables so much) but not so many that they would take up too much space in her diet. 

I measured the food into 4oz servings and froze them in some cheap little containers I bought off Amazon. It's just as convenient, if not more, than canned food, plus cooking it was so much fun. Ember spent the whole time meowing, purring, and rubbing against my legs. Switching her off canned was beyond easy. 


I've been feeding her the home made food for about a week and she still goes crazy for it. She doesn't get canned at all anymore and never got sick during the transition. Thank you all for being such an inspiration and providing so many good resources! I feel so much better knowing the quality of the ingredients that go into Ember's food, and she loves it too. 

I love your little containers! Are they reusable? I usually freeze my cat food in a muffin tin, but I have to line it with tinfoil which just gets thrown away. Reusable containers would be great!

Hugo is hilarious when I'm making his food. He comes into the kitchen with his tail sticking straight up, sniffing the air, then sits and stares at me until I put his bowl down, then pounces on it like he hasn't eaten in weeks. 

Hugo sounds like a riot. So funny! 

I'm sure you could wash the containers. I'll be honest, I haven't bothered to so far. It was 100 for $10. I don't think you could put them in the dish washer though. 

can you add extra stuff to ez complete? I wasn't sure so I never have. I didn't want to throw something out of balance.

Hmmm I never thought about using bacon grease, I keep a jar in the freezer for when I make scrambled eggs. I bet the kitties would like if I added a smidge to their food!

I found these at the 99 cent store, you get 8 & they are 5oz. I take a sharpie & write what's in it & then freeze them. When I'm done I put in the dishwasher & reuse. I bought like 6 packages!

msserena said:

 
can you add extra stuff to ez complete? I wasn't sure so I never have. I didn't want to throw something out of balance.

Click to expand...

You can't add an extra source of calcium (like eggshells or bones) and you can't add secreting organs (like liver) because those nutrients are already included and adding more will be an overdose. You can add stuff like different types of proteins and vegetables though. 

Those containers you have are a great idea! I wasn't sure about buying rigid/reusable ones because I was worried about the plastic breaking from expansion in the freezer. Glad to know they work fine! 

I've thrown away a couple, one I stuck a knife in it & poked a hole in the side & another one I dropped when it was frozen & it split. The very first time I made raw with EZ I used chicken chunks & so when I mixed the EZ it basically made soup. I filled up a few of the containers too much & the lids popped up, still on but raised. I learned my lesson on that!

Ok so egg is ok. What about fish oil?

Fish oil should be just fine. The website doesn't say anything about ingredients other than bones/eggshells or secreting organs, so you have to use your judgement. For anything not strictly an animal protein, just make sure you aren't using too much. 

Oil has a lot of calories, so the only thing I would worry about is the cats gaining too much weight. If they stay at a healthy weight, then it should be fine. 

My one cat is totally fat. I don't know the fat content of different kinds of meat so I really don't know how much fat she's eating! Well I know fish oil is good for them, I'd probably only use a little bit.

There's a thread that discusses raw food storage: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/284287/how-do-you-pack-and-store-your-raw-food

I use 3 oz Rubbermaid plastic food storage containers.

I will definitely have to get some little containers.

I feed chicken thighs, which have a fair amount of fat, and the last batch I added duck leg and thigh which was REALLY fatty. I don't think the kittens liked it very much because it was too rich. They ate noticeably less of it that of their normal chicken/turkey/pumpkin. I know some cats get fat but I think a lot of them self-regulate so that they don't overeat. Mine certainly seem to.