How to prepare Fresh Cat Food

How to prepare fresh cat food

© by Christine M. Ruessheim

last updated: October 2004

Convenient Tools

First a list of convenient tools to prepare fresh cat food:

Blender Scale

Meat Cleaver pshears.jpg (3012 Byte) Poultry Shears

Also glass containers for storage, plastic zip-lock bags for freezing, measuring spoons etc., big bowl to mix food, glass or ceramic plates to serve food.

Important general notes

The most important philosophy when feeding cats is VARIETY, VARIETY, VERIETY, just as it is with human beings! And, it doesn't matter whether you are feeding mainly fresh or commercial diets! So, rotate food components (or brands) as often as you can! Never feed fixed recipes when feeding fresh! Use supplements sparingly and with caution! When feeding predominantly a meat diet, calcium, taurine, salt and a multimineral/vitamin designed for cats are must ingredients, but be aware about correct amounts being used! Too much is as detrimental as too less! Check with a professional nutritionist if in doubt! For those, that decide to feed home made diets exclusively be aware that your cats can be subject to nutritional imbalances over time, so the consultation of a professional veterinary nutritionist first should be paramount! In addition, bring your cats to a veterinary clinic about once per year for a general check-up even if in apparent good health! More often if you see unexplained changes! Cats that already have health problems should not be given home made diets without accompanying professional guidance! Be aware that growing kittens, pregnant and nursing queens and cats with health problems are the most critical to feed! If you feel insecure, rely on a variety of commercial brands as a basis and supplement with fresh meat! Depending the percentage of commercial food being used you need little or no additional supplements! Good nutrition is the corner stone of good health, but also not the exclusive contributing factor either! Nutrition is only part of a big puzzle as is genetics, life style and other environmental components! Finally, if you want to understand more about the basics of feline nutrition don't rely on information you can find on the web nor in books written by laymen persons or by radicalists and fanatics but better invest your money in a good academic book explaining the anatomy, physiology, metabolism etc, of felines; give you an understanding of what nutrients are and what common feedstuff is composed of; tell you what sort of nutritional deficiencies/excesses are linked to certain ailments.

Supplements

Calcium product, e.g.. Calcium Carbonate or Kitty Bloom Kalac M34
(Homepage: http://www.kittybloom.com/)
Taurine (eg. from Twinlab, Jarrow Formulas, Sigma Chemicals or Fluka): Be sure to include supplemental taurine, approx. 500-1000mg per 500gr of meat. Studies have shown, that cats on unsupplemented raw home made diets may have dangerously low blood taurine levels!
Multivitamin/Multimineral for cats: e.g. Nekton-Cat-M (this product is available throughout the world! Ask manufacturer for distribution address at http://www.nekton.de/) or Kitty Bloom VM-900+3 (see homepage above)
Unrefined sea salt (or iodated table salt) A must ingredient of a raw meat diet if not entire small prey is being fed. Amount to be added: 2,5-5 g per kilo of meat (2.2 pounds)
Vitamin E (this is particularly important if you supplement with highly unsaturated fats/oils like cod liver oil, other fish oils, vegetable oils)
Pork fat (pork fat is rich in arachidonic acid which is essential to cats, but it also contains the other essential fatty acids known as linoleic acid and alpha-linolenic acid in an almost perfect ratio!)
Essential Fatty Acids (occasionally and in rotation): Sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, flax seeds, pumpkin seeds, or vegetable oils:: Sunflower seeds oil (rich in linoleic acid), Corn oil, Wheat germ oil (naturally high in Vit. E and source of linoleic acid), Hemp oil (also contains small amount of gamma-linolenic acid), Flax seeds oil (particularly rich in alpha-linolenic acid). Be sure to buy only unrefined and cold pressed oil! Buy small amounts at one time, store at a cool dark place in the fridge, once opened, use it up quickly within 4-6 weeks!!
Nutritional Yeast or Anima-Strath (occasionally) (Homepage: http://www.anima-strath.com/index.html): High in B-Vitamins
Wheat germs (occasionally): They are a rich source of natural Vit. E, water soluble vitamins and manganese. Due to their high EFA content they however deteriorate rapidly!
Cottage cheese and hard Swiss Cheese (use as a treat)
Clams: They are a rich source of taurine. Be sure to include the juice!
Eggs (preferably free range)
Wheat bran as a source of fiber if no vegetable is used. Approx. 1 Tablespoon per kilo meat.
Vegetables, fresh (optional): carrots, zucchini, raw (both can be finely ground and afterwards thoroughly be blend with innards, a little bit of meat and other supplements. Other vegetables you can use (but I prefer to slightly steam them): Broccoli, sweet potatoes, pumpkin, asparagus, tomatoes, etc. I also use some leafy greens or sprouts, just put them in the blender as described above.
Herbs, fresh (optional): Parsley, Rosemary, Sage, Thyme, Dandelion (to be used at small amounts and very occasionally only)

Speciality Products & Supplements (not necessarily needed)

Probiotics: For Example: TH-1 Probiotics from Jarrow Formulas (http://www.jarrow.com/)
Enzymes:. Prozyme for example from http://www.revivalanimal.com/
Fish Oil Capsules (longchain omega-3 fatty acids): e.g. Biosym Salmon Oil Plus capsules
Hokosan Multi (http://www.hokovit.ch/): high concentrated multi-vitamin in a water dispersible form.
(Vit. A, D and B-complex). Not to be used on a regular basis because of its high content of Vit. A and D!
Immustart (http://www.hokovit.ch/) Colostrum
Pankreatin: Bezugsquelle: Tierspital Zürich, Winterthurerstrasse 260, 8057 Zürich.
Tel. 01-635 81 11

Meat, Meat-by-products & Fish

Chicken, preferably with skin (essential fatty acids and Vit. D), turkey, quails either grind whole or cut into smaller pieces including bones, rabbit (eventually ground including bones), duck, emu, lamb, beef, pork (should be slightly cooked for safety reasons) etc. Important: Meat does contain much more phosphorus than calcium so you need to add a calcium supplement if no bones are used! (approx. 5g per kilo or 500mg/100 gr if you use calcium carbonate. Other calcium salts or bone meal require different amounts! Also check the following link for more information about different calcium sources: http://www.serve.com/BatonRouge/nutrition/calcium_suppl.htm )! In addition to calcium you will also need to supplement with salt, preferably unrefined sea salt (meat without blood and bones is sodium deficient). Do rotate between different meats as often as possible! You can also mix meats of different animals in the same batch.

Be sure to also include innards, they provide important vitamins and minerals, mainly trace minerals. Include liver ca. 2-5% of the meat mix 1-4 days a week (for example 2-5 g liver to 100 gr of meat). Don’t go overboard with liver because of potential vitamin A toxicity. Vitamin A content in livers varies greatly, some may contain extremely high levels (beef, calves, pork and lamb). Heart can be given at greater amounts because although it is an organ, nutrient wise it can be considered a muscle. Heart is normally particularly rich in taurine, which is essential for the cat! If you want to know more about taurine, you can check the following site: http://www.serve.com/BatonRouge/taurine_chmr ). Kidneys and chicken stomachs should also be included about 1-2 times a week, ca. 5% of meat mix. They are normally a rich source of trace elements. Kidneys also contain little amounts of Vit. A. Any additional fresh glands or brains if they can be sourced are a benefit to the diet as well. Use them at small amounts, just as they would appear in entire animals (example:
Break Down of Tissues in 3-week-old chickens).

Fatty deep water fish, ca. once per week (or every second week) one meal. They are a good source of essential fatty acids, particularly from the omega-3 family and also provide decent amount of natural Vit. D. You can slightly steam fresh salmon, but be careful to not use high temperature because they contain highly fragile fatty acids that can be destroyed easily by doing so! Sardines and mackerels packed in water or olive oil (don’t use the ones packed in vegetable oil because of trans fatty acids) or fresh or frozen sardines.

Bones: Instead of using a mineral supplement with calcium, you can also feed fresh bones occasionally to balance the meat meal of your cat. They are preferably ground with a meat grinder, unless very small bones like from entire quails, one-day chicks, mice, rats, etc. are being fed. Meat grinders like the Moulinex HV6 handle bones from even mature chickens and rabbits with ease. Don't try turkey, though and of course any bones like from pork, calf, lamb etc. Be careful, to not oversupply with bones, however, as many popular readings suggest at the moment. 25-50 gr of bones suffice, to balance the phosphorus content of 1 kilo of meat. This would be approx. the equivalent of two larger chicken wings (ca. 220 gr) for example. Also read: Bone content in various chicken parts. For certain ailments (like pancreatic disease e.g.) I would not include any bones in the diet.

Planning and preparing ahead, storage of food

You can do some preparation ahead, so you won’t have to spend so much time each day. What I however do not recommend is, to mix entire meals and freeze them in portions afterwards. Vitamins will get diminished or destroyed, fats & oils do oxidize and get rancid. But you can freeze meat, innards and vegetables separately in portions that you plan to feed your cats in one day. What is very comfortable is to juice a larger amount of vegetables and freeze them afterwards in ice cube trays (do include pulp!!). I do put ground meat into zip lock freezer bags sized not bigger than to hold 500 gr (approx. 1 pound) and press them flat for storage. This way, the meat is thawed quite quickly under cold running water should you have forgotten to thaw in the fridge for approx. 24 hours. Do pack innards (liver, kidneys, stomach) in a size that you commonly would use with a one-day-batch. What I also find useful is to make ready at least two boxes that hold your additional supplements at one place. You will need different boxes for supplements that have to be kept in the fridge (oils, seeds, wheat germs for example) and those that do not (like calcium product, salt, vitamin-mineral-supplement etc.). So, at time of preparation, you only have to take out the meat & innards packages thawed in the fridge, add one or more "vegetable-cube" (if you do) and take the two boxes and prepare everything like described below! This process really doesn’t take more than 10-15 minutes a day including cleaning the dishes and machines afterwards!

And, it will take you about 1-2 hours per month to prepare storage stuff, depending how much you prepare ahead and your freezer capacity of course. If you find a butcher who is doing the correct packaging of meat products already, so you will safe that time, tooJ but you will be likely to pay more.

Important: Try to include as many fresh food items as often as you can! Freezing, while being considered one of the better storage methods, still affect nutrients: Vitamins can get diminished, but lipids and proteins are those nutrients that propably suffer most depending freezing method, temperature, storage time and handling during frozen storage! Never refreeze a once thawed product! Always add supplements before feeding and do not include in portions for frozen storage.

Making meals ready

Put ground meat (or meat cut into small pieces) into a big bowl. Put Innards , vegetables (about 1 tablespoon per 500 gr of meat), calcium supplement, taurine (500-1000mg per 500 gr meat), salt (1/2 teaspoon per 500 gr), eventual other supplements (however without oils) along with a bit of meat into the blender and blend thoroughly (add a bit of water if mix gets too sticky). Vary supplements with every other batch (except for calcium and salt): 1 whole egg once a week or egg yolk 2-3 times a week. Seeds: 1-3 times a week, 1 teaspoon per 500 g meat. Vegetables: 4-5 times a week, ca. 1 tablespoon per 500 gr meat. Herbs: Just a pinch every now and then. Rotate between different kind of vegetables and herbs. Nutritional yeast: 1-2 teaspoon, 3-4 times a week. You can use a vitamin/mineral supplement when you don’t add innards to the mix. Amount according guidelines. Add the entire blend to the meat and mix thoroughly. If you haven’t used seeds: you may add 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil as described above or pork fat, if lean meat has been used. Rotate between different fat/oil sources.

This mix can be stored in glass containers and kept in the fridge for about 24 hours (don’t freeze entire mix). Serve 1- 3 meals per day, ca. 100-200 gr per day per cat depending the cat’s size and composition of meal. Kittens and nursing queens more frequently. Throw away served food that has not been eaten within 30 minutes or so.

Serve some chicken necks or wings 2-3 times a week instead of a meal. Cut them into small pieces or let them run through the grinder. You can also replace a meal by entire quails or one-day-chicks eventually cut to smaller pieces. I also offer hearts whole (chicken hearts) or cut into cubes or pork fat pieces (with some skin and meat attached from pork tails) as is without any supplements 2-3 times a week.

Fish, if given only once per week or less, can be served without supplements. Small fish like sardines do contain enough calcium as they have bones included. If fish without bones are fed, just serve necks or wings the next meal.

Foodstuff description: In process

Sources:-In process

Literature: In process

Recipes for occasional use:
(Tbsp = Tablespoon, tsp = Teaspoon)

Ground pork, slightly cooked

1/2 cup of water
500 gr raw pork freshly ground (little part of it can be liver, heart & kidney) ***
1 Tbsp vegetables, finely ground
1 whole egg
½ tsp. Sea Salt or iodated salt
2,5 g Calcium carbonate (or ½ tsp. of Kitty Bloom Kalac)
evtl. vit/min-mix (amount according manufacturer)

First, I put the water into a frying pan and let it boil. Then, I put in the ground meat in and let it cook shortly by moving it all the time (maybe 1-2 minute). Put everything into a large bowl (including liquids), add the raw egg and stir thoroughly. Finally, add vegetables, salt, calcium and vitamins when meat has cooled down a bit, mix well and serve. Cats relish with gusto:-)

*** Instead of pork, you can use beef or any other meat of course.

Total recipe provides approximative (without vit/min-mix):
1600 kcal, 135 g protein, 100 g fat, 10 g carbohydrates, 3 g fiber, 1400 mg calcium, 1260 mg phosphorus, 1550 mg sodium, 2190 mg potassium.

Healthy Chicken Stock

One whole broiler or roaster chicken or
One pound of chicken necks and backs each
Several chicken feet and heads if available (or substitute with calves/pork feet)
1 Tbsp Vinegar
1 Tbsp Sea Salt or iodated table salt
Bunch of Parsley

Put several heads and feet together with some backs or necks or an entire broiler Chicken cut into pieces into a big pot. Fill it with cold water and add about 1 Tbsp each of unrefined seasalt and vinegar. Let it stand for half an hour. Then bring it to boil. Once it starts to boil, immediately turn heat off so much that it is only very slightly simmering. Skim off the stuff that comes up after bringing to boil. After an hour or so you can „peal-off" the meat and either use it yourself for a chicken salad or it may be served to the cats. Let the whole rest (bones) simmer for many hours, the longer the better (I let it normally simmer for about 8-12 hours), this is very important since it will take out more of the nutrients and in the end you will have a nutritious gelatin (this will not compare to commercially availabe gelatine) The salt and vinegar are needed to help extracting the minerals out of the bones, feet etc. Add the parsley approx. 15 minutes before you want to finish. After it's finished, throw away the bones or what is left from it and fill the liquid into glass containers. The stock will keep for one week in the fridge, but you can also freeze portions for later use. The liquid will become very gelatinous in the fridge and you can use it with any meat mix. It often helps as a bribery food and it is indeed very nutritious so normally welcome by reconvalescents. Actually, you can use it yourself as a base for a very nutritious and tasty sauce. Any bones and heads can be used, not just Chicken, but always add some feet (also pork or calves feet) as they will give a good gelatinous texture.