cat food

[rodeogirl]

So my boyfriend got my son a cat and I was looking at the ingredients on his cat food which just scares me. I'm the kind of person that if I wont feed my family that quality of food why would I feed my animals it. So I'm thinking of making food for the cat. I've made cat food before for my cat that I had growing up but I cant use the same recipe just because I don't have axes to the same ingredients. But the recipe was approx.
1 lb salmon cooked
1 lb tilapia cooked
1 lb elk cooked
1 lb beef cooked
2 cups cooked rice
2 cups frozen peas
1 cup grated carrots
mix all ingredients and freeze in 1/4 cup pucks heat until warm and serve to your deserving kitty
Edited to fix recipe

 

[Hinotori]

My cats eat a lot of rodents. Well a lot of rodent heads. Our voles are big and make more than a meal for a cat.

The cats and dogs also get scrambled eggs regularly because I have them. Never just egg whites because of the issue with eating just whites causing a biotin deficiency in mammals. The yolk is full of biotin to more than counter that.

On a note. If I ever have to hunt down something to eat here with my bare hands it will be voles. Even my fat butt can chase them down and catch them. I do it for fun sometimes when I scare them out of the marsh grass.

 

[tortoise]

I hate to be a habitual naysayer, but I feel obligated to say the above recipe is not safe nor balanced for long term feeding. If your cat is also hunting, particularly eating mice, then s/he is likely to be okay (but then also monitor for parasites like tapeworms).

I prefer homemade pet foods, but haven't had the time or energy to calculate complete safe diets for my dog in several years. I have seem dogs die from incorrectly formulated homemade food, so I have a particular passion on the topic.

 

[NH Homesteader]

I tried making my own dog food. For a very brief period of time. My lazy couch potato mutt was fine. My energetic Alano just dropped weight no matter how much I fed her, and how hard I tried. I love the idea, but didn't work for me at all. Not to mention finding as much meat as I needed was going to get pricey and hugely time consuming!

 

[Hinotori]

Cats are obligate carnivores unlike dogs. They really can't digest vegetation of any sort very well. They also need organ meat.

Ground up whole animals or birds would probably be perfect for them. There can actually be some issues with fish.

According to my cats and dogs, rats don't taste good. Field mice, jumping mice, and shrews are ok. Head is the best. Townsend voles are the absolute best. They fight over them if someone catches one and can't eat it quick enough. The dogs will steal them from the cats.

Even the chickens only like really young and small rats.

 

[frustratedearthmother]

@sumi - funny that you mention the raw diet for dogs. I have done it before with a dog that had skin issues. Maybe mine was a modified version....but it involved lot of raw chicken - bones and all. Raw chicken bones aren't the threat that cooked bones are. Raw bones are soft and pliable where cooked bones splinter and create very sharp shards. I also cooked some vegetables and brown rice together and would add bits of raw organ meats to that mixture. For whatever reason my dogs weren't that fond of liver so I had to hide it in their rice/veg mixture. I would give the rice/veggie/organ mix in the morning and the raw chicken at night.

At the time I was feeding two little Westies - total weight 35 -40 lbs for the two of them. I also ordered raw tripe from somewhere (need to see if I can find that website again) that they LOVED and is really recommended as being very nutritious. Seems like I added a fish oil capsule, and a multi-min tablet to their mixture. (been quite a few years ago and my memory isn't what it used to be, lol)

DISCLAIMER - I got all my info from the internet - so not an expert at all. However, the Westie with the skin problem cleared up and had the most luxurious coat after just a few months and the other Westie thrived on it also.

Now I'm considering switching my 2 LGD's and Gracie (the farm dog) to raw - however the total weight of those three dogs would be 250+. That's gonna take a LOT of raw meat. But, I feed them a premium dry food now and it's very pricey. I think for about the same money I can feed them raw. Great sale on Chicken legs and thighs right now so I'm on a mission today to get as much in the freezer as I can and will work up the rest of the menu when I can. (29 cents a pound) If I like how they do I will start raising quail again and that will be the main protein in their diet. They will be skinned and fed whole which will contain all the organ meats also.

 

[tortoise]

FEM - cats need taurine, which mice happen to be particularly rich in. Taurine deficiency causes cardiomyopathy, among other things. Dogs do not require taurine. http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/vmth/small_animal/cardio_kittleson/cases/case32/text.htm

The diet above is also deficient in calcium. A cat who is mousing and eating the mice would be ingesting bone, which is about 30% calcium, so the effects would be less devastating.

A more appropriate recipe would be ground up chicken backs and necks which have a better ratio of meat to bone, plus mice and a variety of rotated "supplements" to aim for micronutrients and micro minerals.

Interestingly, a more appropriate diet costs a heck of a lot less money! . Chicken necks and backs run about $0.60/pound if you buy in cases, and, of course, you can raise your own!

 

[baymule]

When we butchered roosters this past summer, I canned the back pieces and feet scalded, skinned and toenails cut off) with rice and squash for the dogs. They love it.

 

[Annabellam]

I feed my dog home made food and also my cat sometimes. It's a lot of work and learning but i think it's worth a try keep at it if the food is affordable and available.

 

[Britesea]

Up until the 20th century, there was no such thing as "pet food". Dogs and cats ate what their owners ate. As a matter of fact, that is why dogs are no longer obligate carnivores as wolves are. Cats still are, because they still go out and hunt (almost impossible to stop them as a matter of fact)

I believe that the primary source of calcium for hunting carnivores is the blood of the prey, not the bones. That may be one of the reasons the typical "raw diet" is incomplete.