Human foods that's great for cats?

[ldg]

Can you help me. I cooked boiled chicken and carrots without any salt or seasonings for my cats but they don't like chicken at all. There are also no good canned food in my area, only whiskas and fancy feast are available which I know is not good to feed to my cats. What other meat should I buy that I can cook that is ok for cats?

Have you tried giving her chopped up raw chicken? She make like that better than cooked (my cats aren't huge fans of chicken, but love rabbit, and a lot of cats love turkey). You can basically feed her ANY raw meat. Cats are carnivores, and their digestive systems is built to get the nutrition they need from raw food. Unlike dogs, they don't have the ability to convert a number of vitamins and amino acids into a usable format for their bodies. Carrots, for instance. They get NO vitamin A from carrots, they lack the digestive enzymes necessary to convert beta carotene into Vitamin A. They can't synthesize taurine or arginine from their amino acid building blocks the way dogs and humans can, the MUST get it either from animal flesh or as a supplement.

If you look at canned foods or kibble, you'll see that there is a long list of supplements. This is because when you cook meat, many of the nutrients are rendered either unusable or are reduced greatly in quantity. So the vitamins and amino acids have to be added back in. But if you give your cats raw meat, they get all those nutrients they need. :nod:

Of course, to feed them ONLY raw food (which you CAN), you do have to do it correctly. It needs to be done with the proper balance of muscle meats, bone and organs, and it is very important to rotate proteins (chicken, turkey, lamb, rabbit, etc.). If you're going to treat it like a "treat," it's safe to give up to 15% of their food as "unbalanced" (not nutritionally complete) stuff.

Here are some resources if you're interested: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/240809/raw-feeding-resource-thread

 

[ldg]

BTW - raw meat is even better if it's not chopped up. It's just that cats used to eating canned food usually won't eat chunks just because they're not used to the chewing. You have to work up to that. :lol3:

 

[meuzettesmom]

How come they don't can mouse meat or bird? Or make it easier for us lazy types to feed raw food?

Lol, should I put that in someones suggestion box?

 

[ldg]

Actually, they do make commercial raw - it's just frozen, not canned. It's very easy to feed nutritionally balanced raw meals these days (in the US and Canada, anyway), without having to figure out the right proportion of meat/bone/organs if making homemade. The proteins are still based on food that's available for human consumption (chicken, turkey, lamb, venison, rabbit, etc). The difference is that it's made from human food-grade, and typically in at least close-to-proportions (of meat/bone/organ) that you would find in a mouse or bird. Some of the raw foods are made from whole prey (if rabbit), and some people do feed whole prey diets, as things like mice or other small rodents are available for feeding snakes.

Here's a resource thread: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/240809/raw-feeding-resource-thread

And here's a discussion on commercial raw food options: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/239950/questions-about-commercial-raw

 

[carolina]

Actually, they do make commercial raw - it's just frozen, not canned. It's very easy to feed nutritionally balanced raw meals these days (in the US and Canada, anyway), without having to figure out the right proportion of meat/bone/organs if making homemade. The proteins are still based on food that's available for human consumption (chicken, turkey, lamb, venison, rabbit, etc). The difference is that it's made from human food-grade, and typically in at least close-to-proportions (of meat/bone/organ) that you would find in a mouse or bird. Some of the raw foods are made from whole prey (if rabbit), and some people do feed whole prey diets, as things like mice or other small rodents are available for feeding snakes.
Here's a resource thread: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/240809/raw-feeding-resource-thread
And here's a discussion on commercial raw food options: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/239950/questions-about-commercial-raw

quite easy to feed commercial raw, actually :nod: the food comes ready.... just frozen.... all you do is defrost and serve. You just need to be careful with safe handling, of course - same way you handle raw meat :nod:
The consistency is similar to canned food, so easy to kitties to take to it....
Awesome food, really - I am loving it, and my kitties are having outstanding results from it. Best thing I have done for them :bigthumb:

 

[silverleica]

Hi, Aristotle! What an interesting discussion! Peanut butter? Toast? I never thought you guys give such a treat for your cats there?? :lol3:

A little advice, take them off. Don't give them p/b & toast. It do no good for cats

A canned tuna w/out salt is okay for treat sometimes. Sardines too. But not too much, since fishes are high in magnesium, which could lead to urinary problem, you might only want to give it just a little bit every weeks. (cats are associate with fishes just because fishes are smelly & they love the smell. While actually, lions don't eat fiahes, no? )

Take off the olive oil too. It's definitely no good for cats. I've read it somewhere that it even is poisonous for cats. If you want to give oils for extra treats/smells/supplement, agree with LDG, give them fish oil/salmon oil, or raw virgin coconut oil. I don't know if you could find the last one easily there, but in my country, it's common in most drugstore. It's made from coconut meat, the color is like water, white transparent, & smells coconut-y. Not the typical coconut oil for cooking (which is yellow in color). This raw virgin coconut oil is good for hairball remedy, good for coats & could treat scabies (just put it on the affected areas). You could give them straight or mix it with their wetfood the raw coconut oil just need 1 teaspoon each day, if still Can you help me. I cooked boiled chicken and carrots without any salt or seasonings for my cats but they don't like chicken at all. There are also no good canned food in my area, only whiskas and fancy feast are available which I know is not good to feed to my cats. What other meat should I buy that I can cook that is ok for cats?[/quote]

Have you tried to torn them up? I usually torn the boiled chicken meat for my kitty. & mixed them up with a spoonfull of cheap-wetfood for cats to wake their appetite up. (usually cheaper brands like Whiskas have a great smell) you might also want to take off the carrots. They don't eat carrots in the wild especially if the carrot still high in vit A. Too much vit A can be bad for them oh & don't served the cooked bone, okay?

 

[ldg]

Have you tried to torn them up? I usually torn the boiled chicken meat for my kitty. & mixed them up with a spoonfull of cheap-wetfood for cats to wake their appetite up. (usually cheaper brands like Whiskas have a great smell) you might also want to take off the carrots. They don't eat carrots in the wild especially if the carrot still high in vit A. Too much vit A can be bad for them oh & don't served the cooked bone, okay?

Actually, cats don't have the digestive enzymes necessary to convert beta carotene in carrots into Vitamin A. :lol3: Carrots are simply a filler/fiber in cat food.

 

[silverleica]

Actually, cats don't have the digestive enzymes necessary to convert beta carotene in carrots into Vitamin A. :lol3: Carrots are simply a filler/fiber in cat food.

I see! I thought they could convert it to vit A.. Thanks for the correction!

 

[ldg]

If you want to learn more about cat nutrition, there are a number of excellent resources in this thread: http://www.thecatsite.com/t/240809/raw-feeding-resource-thread

 

[turks rule!]

Apologies - but "canned chicken"????

I have never heard of such a thing. Am amazed any cat would want to go anywhere near it. Yuk.

Again, apologies - must be a cultural thing. Chicken in a can.... in a salad.....

 

[turks rule!]

To go back to the orginal question, cats do not need anything "extra" in their diets apart from meat. I can say in all honesty that my cat has no interest in any form of "human" food.

He does not beg or even sniff at anything that i leave out - unless its raw meat.

Maybe other cats that have expressed an interest in human meat based products are trying to tell you something????

In regards to the salomella question that keeps cropping up . What is this fear? Yes, my cat is fed a raw diet, BUT i handle raw meat to feed my family a few times a week. For human or cat, the meat is treated the same way when i prepare it. Clean hands and lots of very hot soapy water to clean up afterwards.

My point has nothing to do with feeding raw to cats, but this odd fear of handling raw meat full stop.  Do people not cook anymore? ie not from a can?????

 

[werra]

Ok thanks I will try to do that. My cats will not vomit or something? because I did that to my dogs before and they had stomach upset. I will try to give them liver, but What kind of liver is it chicken or pork? Can I also feed them beef?

 

[jagw1re]

I foster cats so buying wet cat food is much more expensive than making it for me. I haven't ventured out on the raw side yet though.

I use rabbit that I order offline with bone finely preground, chicken with skin on, chicken livers, hearts, and gizzards, pumpkin, scrambled eggs 1-2 cups of rice, finely ground egg shells for calcium, probiotics, taurine, lysine, vitamin e and mix it together freeze it in a meal size container and off we go for a month or two. It costs me MUCH less than the cans, I know the cooking process and what went into it plus there are no names I can't pronounce or artificial ingredients.

For treats I grind up liver, rice powder coconut oil and Brewers yeast and use a squeeze bottle to make balls to dry in the dehydrator. These also keep the fleas away.