Homemade Diet Guide
Making Cat Food
Dr. Lisa Pierson has a wonderful website where you can find a lot of additional details about making cat food. Another great source of information is Holisticat. Just be aware that Sandy's recipe is a stand alone recipe and should be followed exactly. It is not related to our products.
Always try to add variety to your cat's diet. You can use different meat sources (chicken, turkey, rabbit… ), meat with or without bones, raw or cooked and a good quality commercial canned food.
Making homemade cat food is easy with us. If you buy ground meat & liver, the whole process can take as little as 10 minutes to make two weeks food supply for your cat. All you have to do is to follow our recipes on the Recipe Library pages.
Transition to a New Homemade Diet
1. Find out what meat your cat likes (rabbit, chicken, turkey, beef… ). You don’t need to add any supplements at this point, however make sure that this diet is less than 10% of your cat’s daily food intake. If you start feeding more than that, you have to add supplements.
2. If your cat is not too enthusiastic about the new food, introduce it slowly in small portions by mixing it with the old food. Gradually decrease the old food portion until your cat is eating only the new diet. Most cats dislike eating food straight from the refrigerator. Warming it up will make it more palatable.
3. It is easier to start your cat on ground meat than meat chunks.
4. When your cat is accustomed to the new diet, start introducing bigger chunks of meat to promote teeth cleaning.
When switching to a homemade diet, please do not apply any radical methods like withholding other food for long periods of time. Some cats (especially overweight cats) can get fatally ill with hepatic lipidosis if deprived of food for certain amounts of time (it could be as little as 24 hours). Cats are very stubborn creatures, if they don’t want to eat something – they will not do it no matter how hungry they are. Some of them are very easy to switch, while others may take time and a great deal of patience. If your cat is resistant, switch the diet very slowly.
Digital Scale
If you are serious about making food for your cat, consider getting a good scale. You can get one at Wal-Mart or Target but they are usually expensive and not sensitive enough for this purpose. The appropriate scale for small batches should be in grams (or ounces), have 0.1g (or 0.01oz) graduation, and at least 1kg (or 35oz) capacity. Scale with 1g (or 0.1oz) graduation would be fine for larger batches (2lb of meat or more). For anything heavier you can use your home personal scale.
Grinding Equipment
You can probably get away without grinding equipment if you buy ground meat (with or without bones) from your local store or over the internet (go to Links to get addresses for internet raw meat suppliers).
You also would not need a grinder if you chop the meat with knife. Although meat chunks are beneficial to your cat’s dental health some cats might refuse to eat them (at least at the beginning). Meat chopping is also very time consuming.
If you decide to grind the meat at home you can use any kind of meat grinder or food processor / blender capable of grinding meat without bones. For meat with bones you will need a heavy duty grinder. The grinder we use is the Northern Industrial Electric Meat Grinder. Be aware though that this manufacturer does not recommend using this grinder for grinding bones. Please, do your own research to make sure the grinder you decide to buy is appropriate for this kind of application.
Mixing and Storage Equipment
You can use any clean metal or plastic mixing container and mixing utensils appropriate for your batch size. You might need to get re-sealable storage containers to store the excess food in the freezer. Once thawed keep it refrigerated at all times and use it up within 2-3 days.