Healthy Homemade Cat Food
Your cat's diet must contain all the necessary vitamins and minerals for his health. While most commercial cat foods do contain the required ingredients, they often also contain cereals, hormones, preservatives and chemicals. The solution may be to make your own healthy, homemade cat food. To ensure that your kitty gets all the necessary nutrition in his diet, check with your veterinarian before feeding him homemade cat food.
Taurine
Your cat needs taurine in order to metabolize bile acid. Her body does not produce it, so she must get it from her food. Most meats contain taurine, or you can purchase taurine powder to add to her homemade cat food. Heat from cooking, however, destroys taurine in meats.
Raw Food Diet
According to veterinarian Lisa A. Pierson, although raw meats may risk contamination from bacteria, there are ways to prepare the food and make it safer than most commercial foods.
Freezing will destroy many parasites that may be present. Freeze the meat for at least a week, then thaw and rinse with clean water before feeding it to your cat. Thaw naturally, as a microwave will destroy the taurine in the meat.
Vary the meats you give to your cat. Follow chicken one day with beef or lamb the next. You can also use venison and turkey. Raw beef heart added to the homemade cat food every other day will provide the necessary taurine. To satisfy calcium requirements, give your cat a raw chicken wing, meat and bone, twice a week.
Cooked Food Diet
Many cats will not eat raw food. In this case, homemade cat food may be cooked. Grind or chop the meat together with beef heart. Add egg to hold it together. Rinse eggshells, grind them and add to the cooked food to meet your cat's calcium requirements.
You also will need to add a carbohydrate source, often rice, oatmeal, barley, peas or pasta. Provide fiber with cooked sweet potato and extra fat with vegetable oil, olive oil or fish oil. In "Preparing Homemade Cat Food Recipe," Jason Ladock recommends adding nutritional supplements to your homemade food. Your veterinarian can recommend a commercial blend of nutritional supplements. Taurine must be included in the additives.
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