Balanced Homemade Cat Food

Because of the increase in diet-related illnesses such as diabetes and Inflammatory bowel disease, many cat owners are investigating the advantages of feeding their pets homemade foods. Homemade cat food offers a number of advantages over commercially prepared foods:
The entire list of ingredients is known
No synthetic additives included
No low-quality by-products or fillers
Homemade food is often lower cost and higher quality

  1. What Makes A 'Balanced' Diet For Cats

    • Cats are genetically evolved to get their nutrition from what they catch and eat in the wild. They are built to exist on the muscle, bone, and organs of small animals like mice, birds, and rabbits, and all the nutrients their catches would provide. They would eat few carbohydrates in the wild, and little vegetable matter or fruit. Choose a protein source your cat enjoys, such as chicken, turkey, rabbit, or beef. Though many cats love fish, it is not recommended because of its allergic properties. Including organ meat is important to the diet. Kelp and dulse are often added for additional calcium and vitamins. Taurine, an amino acid, has also been found to be a crucial component of a cat's diet and a sufficient amount should be added in any homemade recipe.

    Raw Or Cooked Diet?

    • There is some controversy over whether a cat's diet should be cooked or raw. Of course, in the natural state, your cat's diet would be completely raw, but some cats do not favor raw foods, and for them, an adapted diet with cooked protein is best.

    What You Will Need To Make Homemade Cat Food

    • You'll need the following equipment to prepare a well-balanced, homemade food for your cat: a scale to measure ingredients, a grinder to grind bones and raw meat, a food processor to finely-cut cooked meat, measuring equipment, storage containers to keep food fresh.

    Special Care For Homemade Food

    • Because you are using only fresh ingredients, take special care to make sure your homemade food is not contaminated or kept around too long. Careful cleaning of grinders and processors is required, best meat refrigeration practices are needed, and labeling to know how long food has been stored will also be important.

    Recipes

    • Balanced recipes are available online for your homemade cat food diet. You may wish to consult with your own veterinarian first to see if a recipe has worked well for his or her patients. A balanced homemade diet for your cat can be easily composed with a few ingredients and a good supplement mixture made especially for cats.