DIY Cat Food Recipe
I know this isn’t skin related, however I refuse to limit these posts to only skin!
My story with going homemade raw: My cat Bruce was chronically ill for years, with symptoms of IBD (irritable bowel disease). This led to chronic inflammation, leading him to lose weight, lose energy, and turn him into a shell of who he used to be. Not only was this hard on him, but hard on me too. I did everything that I thought was ‘right’. I went to different vets, and listened to what they told me. “He can ONLY eat this prescription kibble! Anything else will put him into another flare! No treats, no anything! On top of that, here are 3 different medications with contraindications that he has to take daily!”
Inherently, I am always skeptical of overloading any system with prescription medications before looking internally at why these are needed in the first place, but for some reason, when it came to my cat I thought that holistic approaches were so far out of my realm that I didn’t even broach it. So I did what they told me, and at first it did help. His inflammation seemed to go down, until the side effects started creeping in resulting in chronic uti’s and muscle wasting. So I stopped those, and tried to be super diligent about giving him his prescription food only, until that stopped working as well. He stopped eating, started losing weight, and I was left tearing my hair out.
Then I found a facebook group all about feeding animals a diet suited to their species, for cats with IBD. https://www.facebook.com/groups/RawFedIBD/ and my eyes were opened. I posted on there if anyone had success with making a raw diet for their cats, and that I was nervous to do it. This lovely person dm’d me and shared her story. I was shocked, and honestly moved to tears. All the same symptoms, the same trips to the vet, the same uti’s. Everything was the same. I can’t begin to tell you how much of a relief it was to feel like I had someone who understood what I was going through, and who came out of it for the better. (I know this sounds dramatic, but if you know, you know, I love my cats like my own children). She told me that she had finally found a holistic vet, who told her that dry food is killing our cats. Why do so many cats get sick? Get dental disease? Die young? All these dry foods promise to prevent these things, to mitigate all these diseases..why don’t they work? We spend thousands on vet bills, we try new foods out, but it seems like nothing works. Enter…the obligate carnivore.
Cats are obligate carnivores, meaning they can ONLY eat meat. Not rice, not fillers and gums, not vegetables and who knows what else they throw in dry food to make it cost effective. Dry food is filled with so much stuff, it sits for who knows how long letting the fats go rancid, and it’s so drying that it can cause cats to pee outside their box because it burns them when they pee:( A lot of cats are also allergic to the gums that bind the food together (like my cat Bruce). Those gums are in everything, even most wet foods. Cats also get their moisture from their food, they are notoriously bad at drinking water because of this. Lack of moisture in their diet can cause kidney disease. Finally, the high amount of carbohydrates in dry food cause cats to overeat because they aren’t getting what they actually need (like if you ate donuts all day, your body would crave nutrients but all you had was donuts, so you would eat more donuts to try to fulfill that need). This causes cats to get diabetes.
Here’s a bit of conspiracy that opened my eyes: the founding family of the first dry kibble (Hill’s) funds the nutritional schools and provides the source material on nutrition to vets. I don’t know about you, but that sounds like a conflict of interest to me! Now when you go into the vet, look and see what food they have there. 9/10 it’s Hills. Research Hills nutrition and you will see what I mean.
So, I started making both my cats food. I was desperate, and although it’s scary territory because there is a LOT of propaganda out there, I think the tides are shifting. Here are some resources so you can do your own research! There are also lots of higher end fresh/frozen foods you can buy, but making it is just so much more cost effective!
https://www.knowwhatyoufeed.com/index.html
https://www.knowwhatyoufeed.com/our_story.html
https://www.rawfeedingforibdcats.org/
Benefits of eating raw:
Cats are built to consume raw meat, after all the independent country cats I grew up with never seemed to have the problems our indoor kibble fed friends do. Cats have more stomach acid than humans, so they don’t have the same risk of getting bacterial infections as we do, such as salmonella. Raw meat also has digestive enzymes in it, making it easy for them to digest.
Finally, making your own is so much cheaper than any dry food, even ‘top tier’ dry food. It takes a little effort, but it’s nothing compared to having a cat with health issues. The effort it takes to care for an ill cat is so much more. Trust me, preventative care is the best care!
Okay, rant over!
Ingredients:
You will need 3 ingredients to make this recipe. Supplementation is necessary to fullfill their nutritional needs. It is also suggested that you rotate meats every month, to fullfill their macro-nutrients need naturally. Cats don’t eat only one kind of meat in the wild!
Supplementation Options
Alnutrin with Eggshell Calcium- this is cheaper but you will need to add chicken liver and omega 3’s yourself.
https://www.knowwhatyoufeed.com/shop_online.html $24
2. EZ Complete - This is more expensive but even easier. It already has omega 3’s added, and chicken liver. All you need to do is mix it with meat!
Amazon Link $70
If you go with Alnutrin, you need to add chicken liver to it (or any liver).
Chicken Livers can be found easily at most grocery stores. I know hyvee and russ’s have it! It’s about $7 for a lot of them.
Raw Meat. This you can change up, however chicken is not recommended. I do turkey, and my cats loved it right away. Make sure and get turkey without rosemary extract! It can be a little hard to find, but Natural Grocers and Open Harvest have it! I special ordered mine last time because they do run out. I get the Diesel brand from the freezer section. There is one with muscle meat and one with white meat, I get 6 of each and mix them up. This costs about $115 total.
When I make the cat's food I do 12 lbs at a time and freeze it.
How to make:
Combine supplement, liver, and whatever ground meat you want.
The back of the alnutrin tells you how much supplement and liver to use. Follow this and change the ratio for how much meat you are using. I also put the liver in the blender so it’s super evenly spread out in the recipe. I don’t know if this is necessary, and honestly it’s pretty gross. But just to be safe!
Make sure and take the next portion out of the freezer before you run out. Your furry friends will turn their nose up at crappy cat food after eating this delicacy, and you don’t want to run out!
Optional additional supplements:
Salmon Oil (High Quality). A few drops is great for their omega 3’s, which can also help with arthritis in older kitties. This is necessary if you use alnturin.
Green Lipped Mussels- I am actually going to try these out, as they have more building blocks for their joints. EZ compelte already has these included, but if you do alnutrin you will need to buy seperate and add!
Sardines in water with no salt are cheap, and also an easy way to get omega 3’s in your cat!
CBD- I bought the Nuleaf brand for my cat who I know is in pain after dealing with health issues for years. He also suffers from nausea due to this. I think the cbd is helping quite a bit, and he has been eating more since taking it!
Hearts- Open Harvest has these. They are full of taurine, a super important nutrient for cats. I know it’s gross, but cats love them!
Other things that have helped:
These are amazing bowls that help as you can cover them if your cat doesn’t finish to put the food back in the fridge.
I have heard amazing things about these electric feeders. They actually keep the raw food at the right temp, and make it so you don’t have to do as much. Don’t buy the cheaper ones on amazon, they actually end up warming the raw food making it unsafe!
Final Thoughts: This is kind of gross, but cats on raw poop much, much less. This food is so highly digestible, that they use most of it. So going poop once every 2-3 days is normal. However, constipation can happen as well. So keep an eye on your furry friends as you transition them, to make sure they aren’t constipated! I would highly recommend joining some facebook groups to ask questions to if you have any.
I will say though, my cats coats are shinier, they have more energy, and most importantly, my cat Bruce is finally HEALING! So I am a total raw food advocate for life now!
To healthy cats!
