Post by SAR01 on Aug 28, 2019 20:01:55 GMT -5
This is Night Wolf on homemade cat food:
Cats are obligate carnivores. A cat who does not hunt, fed on a diet of raw hamburger, will pine and die of malnutrition...eventually. A cat who goes without meat for more than a day or so is quite likely to be a cat suffering from acute liver damage. If you have nothing else available, feed Puss whatever meat you have (as long as it's not saturated with onions or garlic, which can cause coagulation problems and other foul omens), just to keep her alive and in at least reasonable health until you can get her something more complete. Cats can also be fed on eggs and lactose-free milk; they can get protein value out of regular milk, and some cats learn to tolerate it, but if your cat is not already a regular milk-drinker, expect a particularly nasty catbox.
The preferred meats are chicken, turkey, and rabbit, usually the thighs, which are cheap. If you can grind the bones to mix in, do so. Add a good proportion - a third at least if you can, more if you can - of organ meats, particularly liver and . These are where cats naturally get a lot of nutrition in the wild, and they eat these bits preferentially (when not making Hannibal Lecter homage art with them on the kitchen floor). Many breeders, particularly of large robust recently-feral breeds such as the Skogskatt, Maine Coon, and Pixie Bob, order bags of frozen day-old chicks. These are very cheap, being the culled unwanted males from large hatcheries, and are usually sold to feed reptiles and birds of prey.
Brown rice is the most commonly used grain because of the nutrients in the hull. However, cats can digest smallish portions of any grain, as long as they're getting loads of good animal protein.
No matter what you make the cat food out of, unless it actually is ground-up wild birds and rodents in their entirety, you will need to add these supplements:
Taurine (amino acid, sold in health stores, pharmacies, and some sports stores as a supplement)
Vitamin B complex (health stores, pharmacies, and most supermarkets
Vitamin E (ditto)
The B complex and Taurine may come in pill form and need to be ground (I use a mortar and pestle, but I'm kinda old-fashioned that way). The E is likeliest to be an oil sealed in little gel capsules, which can just be pierced and the oil squeezed out)
Adding dried catmint may well improve the cat's view of their new culinary adventure, especially if the cat is elderly or particularly picky about their foodies.
For further information and some actual recipes, I *strongly* recommend this site: www.catological.com/homemade-cat-food/
Cats are obligate carnivores. A cat who does not hunt, fed on a diet of raw hamburger, will pine and die of malnutrition...eventually. A cat who goes without meat for more than a day or so is quite likely to be a cat suffering from acute liver damage. If you have nothing else available, feed Puss whatever meat you have (as long as it's not saturated with onions or garlic, which can cause coagulation problems and other foul omens), just to keep her alive and in at least reasonable health until you can get her something more complete. Cats can also be fed on eggs and lactose-free milk; they can get protein value out of regular milk, and some cats learn to tolerate it, but if your cat is not already a regular milk-drinker, expect a particularly nasty catbox.
The preferred meats are chicken, turkey, and rabbit, usually the thighs, which are cheap. If you can grind the bones to mix in, do so. Add a good proportion - a third at least if you can, more if you can - of organ meats, particularly liver and . These are where cats naturally get a lot of nutrition in the wild, and they eat these bits preferentially (when not making Hannibal Lecter homage art with them on the kitchen floor). Many breeders, particularly of large robust recently-feral breeds such as the Skogskatt, Maine Coon, and Pixie Bob, order bags of frozen day-old chicks. These are very cheap, being the culled unwanted males from large hatcheries, and are usually sold to feed reptiles and birds of prey.
Brown rice is the most commonly used grain because of the nutrients in the hull. However, cats can digest smallish portions of any grain, as long as they're getting loads of good animal protein.
No matter what you make the cat food out of, unless it actually is ground-up wild birds and rodents in their entirety, you will need to add these supplements:
Taurine (amino acid, sold in health stores, pharmacies, and some sports stores as a supplement)
Vitamin B complex (health stores, pharmacies, and most supermarkets
Vitamin E (ditto)
The B complex and Taurine may come in pill form and need to be ground (I use a mortar and pestle, but I'm kinda old-fashioned that way). The E is likeliest to be an oil sealed in little gel capsules, which can just be pierced and the oil squeezed out)
Adding dried catmint may well improve the cat's view of their new culinary adventure, especially if the cat is elderly or particularly picky about their foodies.
For further information and some actual recipes, I *strongly* recommend this site: www.catological.com/homemade-cat-food/