Anyone make homemade cat food?

[boogie&sams mom]

I've been feeding my cats Nutromax. I WAS feeding them the pouches that are on the recall list. Luckily there were no problems before I found out and ditched them. Now I'm a little worried about their dry food too.

I have a couple of bags of Nutromax dry left, but I've also bought some Castor & Pollux organix which is wheat gluten free. Of course (sigh) they don't seem to care for it very much and seem stuck on their Nutromax.

So my question is, has anyone switched to homemade food until this is all figured out? I am dreading the idea of trying to do that, but I will do whatever I have to in order to keep my kids healthy.

What really sucks is I'm a vegetarian and the thought of having to handle or cook meat makes me want to hurl. I can see me spending a fortune at the Whole Foods salad bar buying cooked organic chicken

Either way the whole situation is making me completely rethink the pet food industry. I really want to go organic from now on. I've just got to convince the kids

Kelle

 

[sharky]

I do make homemade and raw as wet food ... FYI Organic meats turn up with MORE bacteria ... reason the fertilizers used... I am using grass feed no antibiotic meats NOT organic

try this link to Nutro s site it may put your mind at ease.... I am STILL feeding TWO nutro dry formulas... and some canned that I can verifiy NOT menu made
http://www.nutroproducts.com/mfrecall.asp

 

[boogie&sams mom]

Would you be willing to share your recipes for the homemade wet food? I mean is it as simple as getting cooked chicken and maybe adding gravy to it or something like that? I think I could handle that, just not cooking it myself.

I've thought about switching them to a raw diet as well....it seems very labor intensive with only being able to leave it out for 30 minutes at a time and having to wash all dishes afterwards with hot water. I may seem lazy but I work full time and go to colllege as well. Wouldn't be so bad if I was 18 but at 34, I get worn out

 

[sharky]

hold on I will pm it too you... Homemade I find harder than raw since it entails alot more supplements and time for prep... TALK WITH your VET prior to homemade food

 

[hareting]

Originally Posted by sharky

hold on I will pm it too you... Homemade I find harder than raw since it entails alot more supplements and time for prep... TALK WITH your VET prior to homemade food

hi sharky, please pm me too for both homemade and raw recipe. thanks in advance!!

 

[jcat]

Have you checked out cat food recipe books? http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=sr_pg_1/...recipes&page=1 I have a book (Muffins Meow) that is out of print, so I won't make any recommendations, but a home-cooked diet for a short period, or supplemented by a good commercial dry food, probably wouldn't do any harm. I've had many dogs on home-cooked diets, but am sceptical about doing it properly with cats.

 

[catsarebetter]

If you have a butcher in your area, you might find one willing to actually do the grinding for you. *If* you find a butcher that's willing to do this, and you can talk to them and know that they're using a clean machine.. you might be able to trust that they will be sanitary. The machinary has to be sanitary because if it's not, then you have risk of salmonella, e-coli, etc. So, that's why people generally tend to suggest not buying ground meats from a grocery store.

You might also consider free-range meats instead of organic. I don't know if there is a higher potential for bacteria in those or not, but it's still a potentially ethical choice.

I hear ya.. I'm 34 as well, and doing this whole preparation thing every couple of weeks is a serious pain, however... I'm working on getting them to eat from the carcass.. and once they take to that, there will be much less preparation involved.

I'd suggest using plastic baggies, disposable, and paper plates, also disposable. I think it's fine for an hour or so..there's a bit of a debate on that. I have to tell you, though, once you figure out exactly how much they'll eat.. it doesn't take them long to finish it off. My kitten can devour two to three ounces in less than five minutes. They don't mess around, lol.

I'm lucky... I was feeding mine raw (and the other two dry).. but if I hadn't started feeding raw, our F3 Bengal would be in trouble right now because he was eating packet food, sort of.. (he was a seriously picky eater.. but.. he was eating some packet) and I just know that we'd be having an issue now.

There are a couple of really good websites on raw diets if you're interested. PM me and I'll get them to you, or I know Sharky's got them.. I remember her saying something about a PM, but not sure if that was about recipes or about raw sites.