Catfood, the pressure-canned version

[hennypenny9]

I just noticed that the livers are not cooked. Any reason, or just your cat's eating habits? My cat's food does not sit in his bowl for more than a few seconds while he OM NOM NOMs it, but I have this ick issue with raw meat.

 

[freemotion]

I pressure can it, I just grind them raw to save a step. I guess I forgot to say I cooked them first back when I froze the food. Good catch!

 

[hennypenny9]

I just spent a while googling homemade cat food. Boy are there some strange recipes! Some are with clams and rice and whole wheat. Some say to NEVER cook the meat, some are cooked. Some say to NEVER give liver, some say always. Some say that it's way too hard to maintain the correct nutrition, and that it's TOO risky to attempt. It's been the most conflicting bit of research I've ever done! Sheesh. I figure, commercial canned cat food has to be cooked, right? So cooking it at home can't be bad.

Anyway, I'm going to try for ingredients tomorrow. I'm also going to ask for chicken hearts from the meat counter. Sounds like they have good stuff in them. And since this is a test run, I'll probably only give it once a day until I see how he does. The general consensus is that commercial food isn't as nutritionally complete as it claims to be, so I hopefully won't give my cat some huge deficiency from this.

 

[freemotion]

It was my vet who got me to start this. Raw is better, but my older cats REFUSED to eat anything raw! I started my dog as a puppy on raw foods, he does great!

Cats are carnivores, and grain plays no role in their natural diet. Some sites say all meat, but I know cats will eat lots of growing greens when given the opportunity. Probably not 20% though. If I was starting a kitten, I'd do raw.

 

[hennypenny9]

It's nice to know that your vet thinks it's okay. My mom has some supplement that she offered to split with me. It's Missing Link, and it seems to have similar ingredients to the one you linked. http://www.1800petmeds.com/The+Missing+Link+For+Cats-prod338155.html

 

[freemotion]

Missing Link is a great supplement for people feeding commercial foods, but most of the goodness in that supplement is already in the recipe. It is a bit redundant. Also, that bag won't last very long. The ones I recommended will last 3-6 months depending on how much you use. So although they might appear more expensive, you are getting a big supply and they are much more concentrated. Save your pennies!

 

[big brown horse]

The people who say it is too risky or too hard to maintain proper nutrition are probably working for cat food companies.

(Free my book on feeding raw to dogs say that a little grain (soaked) is ok because it is what a dog would find in the stomach of say a rodent or squirrel. Would you agree?)

 

[hennypenny9]

Freemotion- Good point! My mom has it to help two elderly cats. She also gives them fish oil, and our dog has to have glucoseamin. We have expensive animals! But out cats are both 13, and our last cat lived to be 21! On only commercial food, with supplements. Our last dog lived to be 12. She was the state dog of Louisiana! (very rare in Washington!)

Anyway, so the supplement your vet recommended is meant for homemade food? If so, do I have to take my cat totally off commercial food? I read that you can end up overdosing on vitamins. Or are they making me paranoid?

What's in my current wet food is criminal. Soy flour, Ash (yay modify inedible things to make them edible!) corn starch, added color, salt. Yucky.

OH, I also meant to ask about taurine. I'm assuming there's enough in the meat? I read something about brewer's yeast. (You must hate me by now, sorry for being so annoying!)

 

[big brown horse]

Henny,

Sometimes I feel like I am annoying too when I ask so many questions. (I have to catch up with the others that I so admire!!) We have to remember we are learning from people who want to share. (I am a voracious learner eating up all the information as soon as it is out!! )

 

[hennypenny9]

Thanks Big Brown Horse. I tend to jump into things before I know what I'm doing, and that ends up with me frustrated, probably spending too much money on something I won't follow up on. I want to avoid that this time!

I just got back from the store. Couldn't find any good deals, so I got a whole chicken for $1.09 per pound. Just for fun, I cut a bite off for Charlie, raw to see if he likes it. He most certainly does. It took him longer to eat it than normal wet food, but I assume that's because he kinda gnaws on it for a while. Whereas with the canned commercial food he just swallows.

Great. Now he's meowing in the kitchen, and I have to decide whether or not to just go for it raw.