Making your own cat food

[TheArmadillo]

I've owned my cat for about 8/9 years but for the past 3 years he lived with my PIL as we couldn't have him in our rented accomodation. Now just moved and have cat back.

He was a rescue cat so don't know exact age but think he is around 15yo. He was always quite a big muscular cat but you had to monitor him closely as he will not stop eating and will steal any food not nailed down (even to the point of going through bins) so he can easily get overweight - but is perfectly healthy weight at the moment.

He went to vets other day as has injured his leg and they said he seems to have muscle wastage in his back legs - maybe related to the growing stiffness in his legs which we thought might be down to age. He can't jump/climb as well as he used to.

He can't have dried food as he doesn't drink enough and has also had a blocked bladder before (came very close to death) so we need to be careful. He is also not that fond of chewing

I have always been fussy with what I feed him and have never found a wet food I am happy with (I am not paying good money for ash and waste products plus I wouldn't feed my kids pot noodles everyday so I won't feed my cat the feline equivilent). When we previously had him he was fed a diet of fish (mostly tinned or prawns, sometimes fresh e.g. sardines or salmon) plus bits of meat. However PIL started feeding him wet food pouches plus dried food on top and have left behind a stash. I did not know this and having read the ingrediants (4% chicken with the rest being animal and plant derivitives i.e. waste products, only 11% protein content) I am not happy to continue with this.

I've done some research as he is getting old and I want to make sure he gets a good diet and as far as I can tell:

1. cats are complete carnivores and can't properly digest plant matter (which was what I thought)
2. need a diet of at least 20% protein
3. the two things you really need to watch out for are taurine and arginine which they can't make themselves but that are present in beef/pork/poultry and seafood/fish.
4. they also need calcium - usually gained through bones (I thought maybe tinned sardines/pilchards etc in oil with the bones left in as I think anything bigger he may choke on)
5. I have got a bottle of cod liver oil for him (because of the stiffness) and have checked dosage online as 1/4 teaspoon twice a week.

Food needs to be relatively soft due to chewing issues. I poached some salmon today for him and he wolfed that down for dinner, even though it had antibiotics/painkillers mixed in.

So far my plan is:
2 meals a day/14 meals a week
Tinned fish with bones (in oil not brine) at least 6 meals a week
Then selection from:
Minced turkey
Slow cooked beef (I can seperate some out from our dinner)
Chicken legs, poached and diced (butcher does them cheap)
Salmon, poached
Slow cooked pork (if I cook some for us)

Any advice or comments?

I would be interested to see if you can perhaps cost his weekly diet. So far my cats would only eat some cooked fish, sardines and tuna from cans, they don't like chicken and I rarely cook pork.

I have 3 young cats and am a bit disappointed with what's on offer for them to eat - so far I decided on dry food only as it is supposed to be better for their teeth.

I only found one brand of dry cat food which is 80% meat, they like it too, it is called Applaws
www.zooplus.co.uk/shop/cats/dry_cat_food/applaws/136604

chicken one being their favourite
I guess you may have this brand dry food as a back up - it has no cereal at all

I wonder if there are any other meat only dry cat brands

I decided against those with cereals on basis that so many cats are suffering from diabetes which I think must be due to too much carbohydrates in their diet (well, I am not a vet, but that is my opinion :) )

I tried sensitive range from the same brand, but poor kitties poo was very smelly, so I thought is perhaps not agreeing with them.

The main problem I can see is that you would be cooking the meat, cooking destroys taurine, as does mincing. There was a study I read about in the states where they fed cats on a diet of minced whole raw animals, rabbit I think and some of the cats died of heart complaints.

You can buy taurine as a supplement for cats.

You can also buy ready prepared raw food for cats. I read abou it on Bengal cat forum, bengals are prone to bad tummys so some owners are very proactive with their diets.

I'm sure cats aren't meant to have some meats, I don't know which I just have that nagging feeling that not all human food is suitable for cats.

I don't see why we can't just buy frozen mice like you would for a snake, I'm sure my cat would be delighted. Then expect me to fillet and de-bone it. I suppose they would throw up the skin a lot so that might put owners off.

Another cheap whole meat would be baby chicks sold for bird if prey food.

As fluffycloud says you are cooking the food so destroying the little taurine that is in meat. I most homecooked diets for cats liver is advised as it is very high in taurine and arginine.
Applaws also do an excellent wet food that has no fillers and would probably fulfill your requirements.

The Applaws wet food isn't a complete cat food, is it? though I could be confusing it with their other one and I haven't any in to check... It is good though, better than the food I feed my children, I'm fairly sure, lol, expensive though - I keep it for after mine have been to the vets, or something equally upsetting. I use their dry food though.

I've been feeding mine nature's menu it looks more like normal catfood, but I understand the ingredients list and they've not complained so far.

Be very careful feeding an elderly cat fish in oil. It tends to produce sudden squits

Liver is quite good for cats. Mine likes it in red wine with onions. But then he's a weird bugger.

Also batch cook in a slow cooker and freeze individual portions if you are going to do mince/chicken legs. My cat also likes scrambled eggs.

Onions poisonous to cats, it's part of the alium family eg lily.

I've still got a nagging feeling pork doesn't suit cats. You can buy frozen raw foods off the Internet. It's not like cats need cooked meat anyway.

My cat backs away from liver like I'm trying to poison him.

thanks for the advice its really useful - I'll look into those links and do some more research

Really fluffycloud? He's been having it for years with no ill effects

Fluffy - I linked dry food, not wet, but am going to research that.

A question please oh wise ones

At what age can I give my kitten tuna fish? She hoovered up a piece I dropped in the kitchen yesterday...and then she started meeowing at me for more! I didn't give her any more though.

She's nearly 4 months...and is on dry food mixed in with kitten pouch food.

TIA

Chocolate, really yes. When I got married we left the bengal in the care of pil, mil said can I have a short list of do's and dont's. It was four pages long, double spaced in the end and do not feed cat onions eg onion gravy on meat was in there.

DH threatened to read the whole thing out at the reception. Git.

Crazy I'm sure she'll be ok with tuna, try the one in spring water or you'll have one thirsty cat.

Onions can cause a type of anaemia. Home cooked diets not recommended as entire diet due to nutritional hyperparathyroidism and taurine deficiency. Applause not complete and if fed as entire diet will cause nutritional hyperparathyroidism.

Thankyou Fluffy...she'll be thrilled!

I think it's all a bit dodgy this making your own cat food, they have such different nutritional needs to us and really ought to live off mice and birds.

The only food I wont give mine is anything with cereals in it, he has a very bad reaction to them and starts throwing up all the time and having diahreoaa (sp??). The first time he got that I thought we were going to lose him, he was on the sofa and I couldnt wake him up, he was going floppy. Terrifying.

My vets dont dare comment on his weight anymore, I always point out yes hes 5.5kg but he has a waist and is pure muscle, and no I dont want to buy cereal based royal bloody canin.

Yep I can confirm that wet Applaws is a complimentary food, even though it's never said nothing nice to me yet...it is however very handy for convincing a cat that's not feeling great that it would be much better all round if she'd deign to eat something (which is how I now have some, lol) complimentary chicken and ostrich (yes, really, lol) is better than the nothing she was eating last night and this morning.

Anyway, reading back over your OP, it's not that soft, it's actual pieces of chicken breast, not huge bits, but fairly chewy...the nature's menu is soft, it's a squidgy pate

Thanks for all this it has been really useful. I have ordered a supplement online for cats fed on pure meat diet that contains taurine/calcium and other vitamins (to make a complete diet). I won't give him the cod liver oil as the supplement so I don't overdose him on vitamin a.

His leg is improving but still swollen - he did fall off a windowsill this morning so I'm hoping he hasn't damaged it further, but as he's been going up and down the stairs unnecessarily then I think its ok. If its still swollen on wednesday I'll take him back to vets as he will have finished the antibiotics by then.