Making Raw Cat Food

Yesterday I made my cat Alfie a batch of raw food using the recipe provided by Dr. Pierson DVM on her cat information web site.
Dr. Pierson has adapted the recipe that is provided by Anne here: making your own cat food.

I understand from reading both of these web sites that many people are reluctant to give their cat raw food. I find this surprising because cats can't cook, so how would they have eaten anything but raw food in their natural state? It is becoming clear that cats do better on their natural diet than on the one we have been giving them. Not only that but we can not trust pet food manufacturers to provide a healthy diet. Lately there have problems with imported foods from China, but its not only the imported foods that have caused recent problems.

Most of us have given cats cooked food because canned cat food is what we are told to feed them on. Canned food is better than dry food as long as the quality is high and it isn't full of animal by-products, wheat and other ingredients that is harmful to cats. I bought some food for Alfie that was very high quality but he refused to eat it. I must admit t he smell wasn't very nice.

Because he wouldn't eat the canned stuff I decided I would make his food. Fortunately he is used to raw food. He is only 6 years old and right from the start I investigated cat foods and discovered that raw is best. I had never put any extra nutrients into it because he was also having some dry food which provided those extras. If he isn't going to get dry food any more then I needed to provide a balanced diet for him. Hence my efforts with the recipe for home made cat food.

I need to buy an electric grinder! Yesterday I used the old hand grinder that I have had for years and it was tough going. I bought a whole rabbit and ground it bones and all, it caused the little grinder some problems. Anyway I battled on and got quite a good upper body workout for an hour pushing the rabbit through! I added egg yolks and some heart from the supermarket and also some beef cut into 1/2 pieces. ( I note that Dr. Pierson says that beef is not recommended for cats, only saw that after I had finished) The chunks are for his teeth- he has to chew to keep them healthy. I didn't add the other supplements given in the recipe because I found an all in one supplement that had all these in it and I decided to use that instead. I will add it to his food at the time of feeding because I am a bit scared it will put him off eating it and I didn't want to have all my hard work thrown away by adding it to the whole batch.

Smelling all this he came and sat in the kitchen and watched, so I gave him him some there and then, just to see if he liked it. He loved it!

Of course he is used to raw food. If your cat isn't it might not be so easy. But it can be done. The trick is to do it gradually, adding it to his current food, a bit more each day. Dr. Pierson has some advice on that if you want to try this with your cat. Its worth it if it gives him a longer and healthier life.

I can't really give the recipe here you need to go to her site as there is a lot of information that goes with the recipe. Here it is again: Making Home Made Raw Cat Food

Her site is a bit hard to read i am afraid, but she has got a printable version which is a little easier.

Do let us know if you feed your cats raw home made cat food. It is all a help to anyone just thinking about making it themselves. Write a comment below.