An example of what not to cook for your cat

I’ve been toying with the idea of making my own cat food since “the Incident”, and have been doing research online.  So far I’ve only been able to find recipes for raw food (as opposed to cooked), and they’re a bit intimidating because cats need very specific amounts of things like calcium, phosphorus, and taurine.  I think I could just grind up whole chickens, add some chicken hearts, chicken livers, and egg yolks, and I’d have food (more or less… I’m just hitting the main points).  However, each recipe/cat nutrition site seems to have its own quirks, and it’s confusing.  One site said to add egg yolks, which is obviously self-explanatory, but it didn’t explain what I found on another site: egg whites will prevent the adsorption of certain vitamins and must be avoided.  What if some egg white sticks to the egg yolks?  How much should I worry about that?  Another site said to use a couple of drops of garlic oil - isn’t garlic a no-no?  One site treated tomatoes like toxins, but I thought cats like tomatoes, and I thought the acidity could perhaps be healthy.  If tomatoes are bad, then what is in all those fancy new cat foods with names like “Seafood and Tomato Bisque”?

I guess it’s time for me to dig into my bookshelves to read Dr. Pitcairn’s book, Michelle Bernard’s book, etc.  It’s not like I don’t have resource material, it’s just that there’s no single right answer, and nutrition isn’t an area where I want to make a mistake.  Just because I eat crap doesn’t mean I want my pets to do it too!

One thing I did come across this evening while searching was an opportunistic website offering cat food recipes “in light of the Menu Foods recall”.  I don’t begrudge anyone earning a living, but it seemed wrong to try to profit off what’s happened.  The “e-book” of recipes cost $11 Cdn, and it came with full reseller rights, so here you go.  I bought the files, I own the reseller rights, and I’m giving them away to anyone who’d like to read them.  At first glance I see LOTS of problems - recipes with garlic, dairy, recipes with no instructions to add taurine (they finally mention taurine at recipe #19), one recipe that’s primary cottage cheese and Bisquick, recipes which are fried… I think it’s all pretty horrible.  Regardless, I paid my $10.27 USD so you don’t have to, and please don’t!  Here are the download links if you’re intrigued, but again, I don’t recommend these recipes at all:

I’m still on the look-out for good quality homemade recipes, preferably cooked because my cats are really fussy eaters and I don’t think raw will go over very well.  Today Chelsea ate a bit of “Natural Balance”, the first food she’s ever eaten which costs more than twenty cents a can.  She wasn’t so keen on it the second time I tried to give it to her, though.

By the way, if you want information on homemade raw diets for cats, the website Cat Nutrition is a great place to start.  The entire site is free, and there are no recipes containing bread crumbs or heavy cream.  I also recommend the site Feeding Your Cat, which I know I’ve linked to before.  The site author is a vet and has some excellent pet food reviews.

Posted by Leigh-Ann on 03/24 at 08:14 PM

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  1. I consulted an actual cat about this, and Finnovar says to feed: 2.5 ounces poached salmon in dill sauce for breakfast, prawns in lemon butter accompanied by steamed carrots and leeks for lunch, scallop and mussel mousse with blanched spinach in a sauce aurora for dinner.

    If it weren’t so unthinkable that a cat would be sneaky and self-serving, I’d think he might be lying.

    Posted by Helly  on  03/25  at  09:38 AM

  2. My cats eat the recipe formulated by Dr. Lisa at catinfo.org.  They give it two paws up!

    Posted by Heather  on  03/25  at  04:04 PM

  3. That’s good to know, Heather… CatInfo.org is one of the links I posted, and I was reading it thoroughly last night.

    Helly, you need to make Finnovar get a job so he can buy his own groceries!

    Posted by Leigh-Ann  on  03/26  at  12:37 AM

  4. My 3 cats eat the recipe from Dr Lisa’s catinfo.org site too.  There was some transition time with 1 of them, but the other 2 loved it from day one.  Now all 3 love it!

    Posted by Jenny  on  03/26  at  07:34 AM

  5. My cats eat primarily homemade raw, with some canned and commercial raw food.  I use the recipes at http://www.catinfo.org and http://www.catnutrition.org (they’re very similar).

    As for the egg whites - they need to be cooked because raw egg white binds to biotin, a form of Vitamin B.  A bit of egg white isn’t going to be a problem - but if you were including all the whites (that you are getting from the eggs you’re separating to get raw yolks) - you could long-term cause a biotin deficiency.

    If you want something simpler, I’d suggest the Feline Instincts supplement made by Feline Future.  You simply add the supplement powder to raw meat and liver.  (Or, if you can’t find raw liver, they have a liver powder.) I would highly encourage you to grind the meat yourself of find a reputable butcher that will grind it and freeze it immedately.  Please don’t buy ground turkey or other ground meat that’s been sitting in the grocer’s cooler for hours, breeding bacteria.  Once ground, there’s a lot of surface area exposed.

    Posted by Lynette  on  03/26  at  08:16 AM

  6. Leigh-Ann, I haven’t been by in too long! I’ve been catching up on your blog. Regarding the recall, MadCat Pet Stores of Madison,WI are 3 locally owned stores specializing in cats. I’ve been getting Wellness dry food and bulk kitty litter from them about 1.5 years now. I went in the day after the recall, and they had dutifully removed all recalled food from their shelves - ONE brand and type. EVERYTHING ELSE they sell was “safe” at that point. Why? Because they only sell better quality foods with few fillers (such as gluten). They’ve been updating recall info on their web site, too. Check it out!
    I gave B&V a “treat” before we left for the weekend of Trader Joe’s canned Tuna for Cats, then found out Trader Joe’s has recalled some of their store-brand cans (but not tuna). I’ve decided the best is to keep checking the web site(s) of the food(s) you’ve been feeding. This particular recall was on Trader Joe’s site, NOT Menu Foods. I believe it’s another voluntary, precautionary recall. Damn, this has been scary!

    Posted by Victor Tabbycat's Mom  on  03/28  at  08:08 AM

  7. Thanks for the tip about Feline Instincts, Lynette - I’ll definitely do some research on that.  I pulled my meat grinder out of storage today, and my brand new kitchen scale arrived, so I’m almost ready to start cookin’!

    VTM, we have a pet store similar to the one you mentioned just a couple of miles from our house (but yours has a better name).  The problem with them is that they’re overpriced, unreliable, and they won’t order the foods I request.  They close whenever they feel like it, they don’t offer any “volume” discount, and they just generally tick me off.  I want them to go out of business cheaply so I can take the place over!  In any case, my point was that I can buy Wellness there, and I sometimes do, but I hate to rely on them.  And not to tattle, but, the local Wellness rep promised me freebies for my foster kittens a year ago, and despite numerous follow-up emails, she’s never come through for me.  With Iams, et al, handing out free samples left and right, it would behoove organizations like OMH to try to work more closely with rescue groups. 

    Sorry for that soapbox diversion, which really had nothing to do with the point you were trying to make!  You’re right, it’s annoying that not all recalls are on the Menu Foods site, and I definitely feel there’s some politics involved.  I find it a bit odd that Nutro’s recipes used the contaminated wheat gluten, yet Iams and Science diet didn’t (insert eyeroll).  I think the “voluntary” part of the recall was playing with semantics, too, as in, “We voluntarily recalled our food which was just as contaminated as the products on the Menu Foods page, but we don’t want our name sullied by being on a list with “Pretty Kitty” brand food”. 

    PETA is supposed to be having a news conference today where they’re going to demand the FDA recall some Iams dry food, because of reports pets have died from eating it (as reported by owners to the FDA).  Should be an interesting day.

    And now I’m off to visit the website you linked to, because I can stay on topic if I try.

    Posted by Leigh-Ann  on  03/30  at  03:27 AM
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