Friday, September 21, 2012

Homemade cat food

I make my cat's own cat food.  The store bought stuff is so bad for them, with all the corn product and meat by-products, etc. All the cat food from China that kills your pets also.   Not to mention how expensive it can get with six cats and I can't afford the organic, healthy stuff.  The best diet for them is raw meat, but that is not convenient at all, and I only have two cats who will eat raw meat.
Squeeky is my loner, but Pippi is the only one allowed to sleep by her.
Pippi loves everyone and thinks everyone should love her too.
So for the cat food, I don't do any measurements.  I boil a whole chicken on low for about 1 1/2 hours, take it out and let it cool so I can de-bone it.  (A crock pot would probably work too.)
While it is cooling I throw 1-2 pounds of hamburger meat in the boiling water. I would also recommend some livers too, if you are using frozen fish, add it now too, just remember that all fish to be cooked has to be de-boned because cooked bones will choke them.
It takes between 15-20 minutes for the hamburger to cook.  I use a potato masher to separate the meat.  I throw in 2-4 cups of oatmeal as a binding agent, depends on how much water is in there.  You don't want too much oatmeal, but just enough to hold it together.  Do NOT use rice, they poop it out without digesting it.  (sorry kind of gross)  Cook for about another 5-10 minutes.  It will thicken in the fridge too.  De-bone chicken and cut it up and add to the food.
After letting it cool down at room temp., I add canned fish instead of frozen.  Sardines and salmon are both full of nutrients a cat needs.  Sometimes I add canned mackerel if money is tight.  I wait for it to cool down so the bones don't cook and become brittle.
Sometimes I add yogurt for the probiotics, and finely chopped broccoli will give an indoor cat needed nutrients, sometimes I will also add half a can of pumpkin which is a super food.
Tiger, Pippi and Muffin
Some of them would not eat it at first, but now they all eat it.  I try to have poultry, red meat, and fish in each batch.  Just use whatever is the cheapest meat you can find.  This will last my 6 cats 1-2 weeks.
Disclaimer - I do keep cans of cat food in stock in case I run out, and dry food for days I will be gone all day.  Since this is fresh food, you can't leave it out all day.  If you have less cats, go ahead and put some in the freezer.  Muffin and Pippi love to eat salad, weird I know!
See, everyone loves Pippi!


Precious, Muffin and Pippi
Pippi does not like to share her basket, so if she can't get Muffin to move to the almost too small for him purple bed, she will just lay on top of him.  It's a hoot to watch!
If you make your own cat food, please share!
I am linking up at Sarah Did It, Feline Friday.  Be sure to stop by and link up your favorite cat post!
The crazy cat lady,
Missy!

9 comments:

  1. Beautiful cats! I don't make my own cat food but it sounds interesting, I will have to look into it.

    Carolyn

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  2. I adore the pictures of the cats piled on each other. I wish my current crew would cuddle. I do not currently make my cats food but I do have to buy special UR food for Pepper. It is more expensive (twice the $ for half the food) but it keeps him healthy.

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  3. I forgot to add that I am going to steal your basket idea. 2 cat beds and 3 cats doesn't always work to someone's advantage since they refuse to cuddle and the smallest cat takes the bigget bed.

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  4. Love your gang! I feed my two raw meat and vegetables. And yogourt. I used to put more effort into it years ago when I had a different group of cats, and added supplements to their food. Now I just chop up a variety of meat and fish, and add their veggies (which they'll steal out of the fridge if I leave the door open too long!)

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  5. Oh! I'm going to send a link to your post to my daughter. I was just thinking about wholefood catfood today, when I was looking in her pantry for something. Great job!! And if you ever get the chance, a video of the one cat getting in the basket on top of the other one would be quite entertaining!!! :)

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  6. Well that's very good info to have - I have to try it sometime soon! Thanks for sharing =^..^=

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  7. Your kitties sure look comfortable! The recipe sounds interesting, how much do you know to feed them a day and how often? I feed my cats Iams dry and leave it out all the time. Thanks for sharing.
    Freemotion at the River Linky Party Tuesday

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  8. Nice post. Love all the pics of your fur-babies. Especially the one cat flopped on top of the other in a basket... too cute! I'd like to make my kittie's food, but not sure she would get all the nutrients she needs. I tried cooking some chicken a few times, but the little princess just stuck her nose up in the air and avoided the food until I finally picked it up. My kitty is super finiky. Thanks for writing out what you do. I might give it another shot.

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  9. That's really interesting. I had looked into making cat food myself years ago but never ended up doing it. One of my concerns was supplements and I just barely recall reading that cats need taurine and they get that in the commercial brands. Is the need for this (and any other supplement) negated since you are feeding them a more natural diet? Anyway, I really enjoyed this post. You are right 99% of commercial cat foods are horrible.

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