Quick & Easy to Prepare Homemade Cat Food Recipes

Back in the days before pets were fed commercial pet food, companion animals ate whatever scraps were left over in the preparation of human meals. And if you ask people who can remember those days before World War II, they’ll tell you that their pets lived to a ripe old age.

Pet food production is now a mega industry and homemade meals for pets a relative thing of the past; however, the concept of homemade meals is making resurgence, which is apparent in many books and internet sites geared toward pet nutrition.

Concerned with the presence of chemical preservatives, artificial colors and flavors, fillers and the quality of meat and other food, many cat owners feed completely or partially homemade diets to their feline friends.

According to Ann Martin, author of “Food Pets Die For,” New Sage Press, cats require a diet of 2/3 meat and 1/3 grain, vegetables or fruit. She notes that chicken and turkey appear to be consistent favorites among her cats, with an occasional can of salmon. She suggests fish at most once a week because it is low in vitamin E compared with meat.

To make meals, she processes all the ingredients (some meat, carbohydrates and fiber plus a teaspoon of vegetable oil) in a blender. She leaves some larger chunks of meat unprocessed to add to the food for more texture. For fiber, she uses a half teaspoon of natural bran. She also gives her cats 2% milk, contrary to what many experts recommend against.

She also suggests that you can purchase and add to the meal a cat supplement if you are concerned that they are not getting all the nutrients they need.

Though Ms. Martin prepares homemade meals for her cats, she does not advocate raw food preparation. Proponents of raw food maintain that the cooking process destroys many necessary enzymes, amino acids and other nutrients, and raw is the closest to a cat’s most natural diet. However, Ms. Martin explains, freshly killed prey is less likely to have “high levels of drugs, hormones, heavy metals, pesticides…” Though cooking destroys some nutrients, it also destroys bacteria and, to some degree, these other concerns.

Some quick and easy recipes that Ms. Martin makes are:

Feline Hash
1 cup regular ground hamburger
½ cup cooked brown rice
6 tablespoons alfalfa sprouts
¾ cup creamed cottage cheese
Combine all and feed at room temperature

Allergy Diet
2 cups ground lamb
½ cup grated carrots or zucchini
1 cup cooked brown rice
¼ cup yogurt
¼ cup teaspoon garlic powder
Combine all and serve at room temperature

If you decide to begin a homemade meal diet for your cat, do so gradually by mixing a small amount of the new food with the old food and increasing the new one each day until switched over.

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