How's this for my cat?

[sickmiller]

I am living in a non-western country and don't have access to a lot of ingredients or equipment, so bear that in mind when making any recommendations. Anyhow, I have found that cheap friskies-type cat food is rather expensive here since it is all imported (about $4/kilo (2.2 pounds) and I think i could make better, natural food for my cat for about the same price.

So, here is what i've done for the past two or three weeks

- 1 pound pork liver
- 1/2 pound chicken hearts / giblets
- 1/2 pound sausage
- 1 egg yolk
- a quick pour of vegetable oil
- 1 cup water
- finely chopped vegetable (whatever I have around, except onions or strong type stuff)

prepare by simmering for about 5 minutes over medium heat, which turns the water into a nice gravy and makes me less paranoid about handling the food. i serve him 1/3 cup in the morning and 1/3 cup in the evening. he usually eats it all within about 3 or 4 minutes.

i think i'm going to substitute the sausage for some real meat (pork neck or maybe ground beef or something like that, what's recommended?) and i'm wondering if i should lower the liver content. i don't have a ton of money, so that's why it is liver-heavy.

is there anything else i could add to the food, or am i making any big mistakes? it has to be a readily available raw ingredient or if some sort of supplement, a standard one meant for human consumption.

the cat is loving this stuff, and i supplement it with a friskies-type hard food maybe twice a week for his teeth. the cat is about 7 months old (i found him on the street as a kitten of about 6 weeks)

[Sol]

You'll need to go down on the liver and also add some calcium. The food shouldn't contain more than 10% of liver because of its high vitamin A content (to much vitamin A can cause hypervitaminosis A). Either you simply add less liver or you feed this food a few days and then feed food that doesn't contain liver.

I guess you'll be able to find calcium carbonate since that's a quite common calcium supplement for humans. You need to add about 1 gram of calcium for every 1 pound of meat (including organ meat).

If you heat the meat I suggest that you add some Taurine since it's very heat sensitive. That might be trickier to find though. You should be able to order it from http://www.vitaviva.com/en/Default.aspx and a suitable amount to add would be 60-80 mg/day. It might get expensive to order, but if your cat develops a Taurine deficiency it'll die I'm guessing a can of Taurine will last for a long time. Taurine can't be overdosed.

If you can't buy free Taurine you'll have to feed the meat raw, heart is especially rich in Taurine.

[Bengal Cat]

I agree with Sol proportionally way to much liver. IMO you should also add muscle meats. Also add all of the egg including the shell not just the yolk. If you can get it, add salmon oil and vitamin E. Looks like your making about 2lbs so add around 2 or 3 1000mgs capsuls of salmon oil (do not use any other type of fish oil because its goes rancid very quickly) and 500mg vitamin E but add them after youve cooked everything. I also dont think the vegetable oil is neccesary. For vegetables try using squash, sweet potato, and carrots as much as possible. Remember to keep the vegetable quantity about 10% of total weight.

[sickmiller]

thanks for the advice! i'll cut out a bunch of the liver as you recommended. how do i put in an egg shell? it seems like that would be difficult to eat. i should be able to get vitamin E, not sure about salmon oil, but i'll check. i didn't know veggies could be 10%, i've been using less than that.

I have some Oyster Shell Calcium supplements that maybe i'll powder up and add at 1 gram per pound.

About the Taurine, i could start adding raw chicken hearts. That should help, right?

thanks!

[Sol]

Originally Posted by sickmiller

thanks for the advice! i'll cut out a bunch of the liver as you recommended. how do i put in an egg shell? it seems like that would be difficult to eat. i should be able to get vitamin E, not sure about salmon oil, but i'll check. i didn't know veggies could be 10%, i've been using less than that.

I have some Oyster Shell Calcium supplements that maybe i'll powder up and add at 1 gram per pound.

About the Taurine, i could start adding raw chicken hearts. That should help, right?

thanks!

Raw chicken hearts should do the trick when it comes to the Taurine.

[moggiegirl]

Although I don't know much about homemade cat food, could you find a healthier meat substitute for sausage? All that sodium nitrate is not even good for us and certainly not for a cat.

[Pinkerbelle]

I know this post is really old, but Sickmiller I was wondering if you could post the final recipe that you used? I also live in a country where they charge ridiculous prices for cheap imported cat food. It would be a big help if you could fwd along the recipe and give an update on how it worked out for you!

[Lisa 216]

Originally Posted by Pinkerbelle

I know this post is really old, but Sickmiller I was wondering if you could post the final recipe that you used? I also live in a country where they charge ridiculous prices for cheap imported cat food. It would be a big help if you could fwd along the recipe and give an update on how it worked out for you!

Robin, I don't think this member is active here anymore. But you could try posting in the Health and Nutrition forum to ask about homemade diets. We have quite a few members who make their cats' food, and I'm sure they could offer you some assistance.