Seems strange, most cats I know love any real meat. If you cook it without any tomatoes, do you get the same result? Maybe he doesn't like the smell of tomatoes... cats work largely on smell. I wouldn't add any vitamins, because I wouldn't know what I'm doing and don't really like self-medication when it's a different species that may require different vitamin amounts than humans.

 

Ya, I found it strange too. I have heard cats will eat cooked chicken breast plain. Will try to cook without tomatoe next time. Its just 3 very small cherry tomatoe, really make that much of a difference? anyway, will try without it the next round. Do you add salt at all, so its tastier?

 

I do it plain if I'm boiling although they still eat it if I add a few herbs.

 

i cook the chicken to make cat food, and i don't add anything because i don't know what kind of herbs make it taste better to cats. two of my cats love it, and one won't go near it unless i mix it with some fishy cat food (i give him some mideast feast mixed with it) or sprinkle bonito flakes on it.

my middle cat loves it no matter what. the first time i made it, he wanted me to burn my fingers getting it off the bone lol. i just bought a family pack of thighs still attached to the drumsticks. i've heard that cats like dark meat better than white because it has more fat.

adding salt probably won't make any difference. most cat food is really bland. i know they add some salt to it but honestly, i don't think that cats' sense of taste is the same as ours.

try leaving out everything and see what happens. just steam it (or broil it--i steam it, blanche it, whatever you call it, then debone and skin it but i use all the juice left in the pot. i added gelatin before, but last time i made it, i left it out just to see. they might even like it more because it's pieces of chicken in soup, kind of.

if he still won't eat it, try some tuna juice or parmesan cheese, i guess. i have flavored some of it with lamb or ham flavored baby food, not a lot, just to change it up some. or you could try turkey. it's said that because it's stronger smelling that some cats prefer it. my cats also love bacon. i made them some bacon and egg cat food with bone meal and taurine and all the vitamins. i have to make that fresh though, i don't think it would taste the same if i froze it like the rest. i can't really tell if the cats love it because they've never had meat before (well cat food, but i've never cooked any meat for myself) (once baci begged for seitan, and then ate some of it like he was embarrassed that he thought it was meat) or if they just like it. the two older ones will eat raw chicken hearts and gizzards, houdini will have none of it.

 

Hi, thanks for input. Look like ET has gotton finicky after boarding. He isn't even eating his usual canned. Now, 1 5.5oz canned will take more than 3days to finish cos I can only give approx 2tsp of wet and top up with 2tbs of kibbles and not 2-6 kibbles like before, before he will even eat. Initially I thought he wasn't feeling well or had hairball problem, but after a test with just kibbles, I realised he was just finicky, he finished all the kibbles I gave. Now, I will have a hard time trying to get him back to eating 100% wet which he was on before boarding.

if he still won't eat it, try some tuna juice or parmesan cheese

How do cheese? shredded and put on top of chicken?

I roast turkey legs and thighs. Why add tomatoes? [/url]

I can't find raw turkey at supermarket here in Sg. I added tomatoes cos, there's this wet food brand without carrageenan that had tomatoe and chicken drumstick and ET was eating it, just that he gets vomitting eating brands from Thailand with chicken. So thought I will cook it instead. I am really keen on home cook, so I can at least stay away from carrageenan and guar gum in canned food, for some days.

 

I roast turkey legs and thighs in some water and grind up the meat with an inexpensive grinder I bought on Amazon. I used to add egg but they won't eat it so I just give them the ground turkey now. Sometimes I will saute chicken tenderloins and they LOVE that! Only 2 of the 4 canned food eaters will eat the turkey while 4 out of 4 love the tenderloins. Why add tomatoes? Just curious.
also, I do not add salt or anything else. Just roast the legs/thighs, grind up, return to broth, mix and serve. I make a huge batch then divide it into freezer containers for future use.

Here is the meat grinder:
[ame]http://www.amazon.com/Norpro-Grinder-Mincer-Pasta-Maker/dp/B0002I5QHW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1362258079&sr=8-1&keywords=food+grinder[/ame]

 

Im feeding raw chicken, mostly grounded breast and gizzards. What i noticed my older wont touch anything from cheap stores like walmart. But he loves the ones I buy at farmers market like trader joes. Maybe chicken smells funny or taste something what cats dont like. Same with fish and cheese. I tried giving cheese packaged and he wouldnt touch but organic eats just fine.

 

I can't feed raw as ET is FIV+, even if everybody says its ok to feed FIV+ kitties raw, I wouldn't try. I might just buy some bonito flakes and cheese to try topping up cooked chicken to see if he will eat, I really hope he eats.

 

yeah i rarely have parmesan cheese in the house. i have gorgonzola more often because i put it in one of my salads but i never tried to give it to my cats. lisa pierson says on that catinfo page that fortiflora tastes like parmesan (how does she know??? lol) but fortiflora has animal digest in it. animal digest is truly repulsive but i think if you smeared it on old shoes, a cat would eat them. but it comes in a really tiny container (here, anyway) so it wouldn't cost much at all.

parmesan cheese by kraft is really stinky, and i think that's why cats like it. gorgonzola, or any of the other blue-veined moldy cheeses are strong smelling as well but in a different way. you never know though, cats have different tastes like people do, i suppose.

if he doesn't like eggs any way period, then bacon and egg cat food wouldn't be a good idea. my cats like scrambled eggs, and it was kind of a natural progession to bacon. i just try different things to see what they'll eat.

anything dairy is usually something cats like. sour cream, cream cheese, plain yogurt, cottage cheese, stuff like that. some cats probably like the taste of mayonnaise. as far as herbs, i honestly have no idea what cats prefer.

i can't remember if you're a vegetarian or not (i am so i have to buy all this stuff specially for the cats) but do you ever have meat loaf? because i'm thinking a cat might like that (without the onions, of course). the only thing is that you wouldn't be able to mix in the additives except for bone meal. taurine is only in raw meat and heat kills some vitamins. i don't know if you could put the nutritional yeast in before you cooked it, either.

i do really stupid things to see what my cats will eat: i bought some sardines, deviled ham, vienna sausages, canned salmon, and some of those tiny shrimp. they liked sardines and deviled ham, not so much on the vienna sausages or shrimp, and they wouldn't eat the canned salmon at all. it was people food but it looked hideous to me. oh and i bought a slim jim and they liked it--but i have no idea what's in one.

 

the only thing is that you wouldn't be able to mix in the additives except for bone meal. taurine is only in raw meat and heat kills some vitamins. i don't know if you could put the nutritional yeast in before you cooked it, either.

If I were to up home cooked meals, I was just wondering if I can just add taurine only? w/o bone meal and yeast or should I just give multi-vit chews for cats with taurine and everything already added? something like this one DOGGYFRIEND.COM.SG: Singapore's #1 Online Pet Shop with Free Delivery and Big Discounts on Dog Food, Cat Food and Pet Supplies: Pet Naturals Daily Bes

 

Thanks Cinderflower for all the tips. I never knew there are so many human food that I can try. I can easily get plain yoghurt, cream cheese, mayo, sardines, shrimp and these are stuff that I will eat, so no wastage if ET doesn't.

I am not vegetarian, but I am vegi lover and I don't eat alot of meat, mainly seafood. I never have beef, chicken or pork in my fridge. Doc had been advising me to eat some meat cos I don't do well on vegi only diet, so if I want any of these food, I eat out at least 3X a week.

I am planning to feed ET home cooked just 2 meals a week, so I suppose it wouldn't cause much harm if I don't add taurine or vitamins. Unless I decide to feed home cooked meals more often, then I'll probably look into getting some multi vit specifically for cats. I am still looking for recipe for something I can easily get. Toying with the idea of cooking minced beef (which is easily available from supermarket) cos I have never given him beef before, maybe its a good idea to add beef to his diet, another protein source. Just don't know if he will eat if I just stir fry it plain with some canola oil.

 

I literally just put the chicken breasts in boiling water- no oil, no nothing. All of my pets will do anything I ask for a little bit of boiled chicken.

Our fancy pet food store sells these freeze dried treats. They have fish and shrimp which are VERY stink- my cat will scarf down anything if I crush one of these treats on it... might work if you have a fish lover?

 

I believe freeze dried are considered raw, but anyway, that's a good idea, I can go petshop to look for some other fishy treats as topper or you just make me recall something I have at home that I used to add into porridge, that is roasted silver fish. I can always crush it.

I went shopping for bonito flake, still no luck, but managed to find a very small pack of grated parmesan cheese instead, will probably try it on the leftover chicken tonight.

 

Oh, my goodness! ET got all excited over crushed roasted silver fish. I started with adding parmesan cheese onto chicken, he took a sniff, licked once then stopped. Added a tbs of kibbles, ate a few mouthfuls then stopped. I finally decided to try silver fish. Went to crush some, brought to his room, before I even added into his bowl, he smelled it, got all excited and then he licked his bowl clean and still looking around for more - sniffing my fingers too. So, think I can continue to cook chicken and then add silver fish. Whew! finally!

 

Hi,sorry, the fish I used shouldn't be called silverfish, I literally translate from the chinese name for this fish. It should be called "Shirasu".

 

i figured as much LOL. i couldn't imagine a cat going wild for crushed insects on his food so i read it as "silver" fish-- (which most of them are but still)

I had read recently that you should never feed bacon. My cats love it, but I stopped giving it to them after I read this. What brand is the bacon and egg cat food?

Foods To Avoid When You Make Your Own Cat Food

You should never give your cat chocolate, pork, bacon, onions, bones or raw eggs (cooked eggs are okay). These foods can cause adverse reactions and effects within your cat's system, so avoid them.
It's also wise to limit the amount of human-food grade tuna you feed your cat.

i'm not going to make any chocolate sundaes for the cats lol but it isn't as toxic to cats as it is to dogs, either that or dogs love it and will eat enough to kill them (?) onions and bones are a definite no, but pork, bacon and raw eggs are debatable.

i make it myself with just scrambled eggs and enough bacon for flavoring but i wouldn't say a lot. i also don't make it often because i wouldn't freeze scrambled eggs, i don't think it would reheat well. also because i don't eat eggs or bacon. as soon as a carton of eggs is gone, that's it for awhile. the reason it says no raw eggs is because of a salmonella risk, but that risk is more or less negligible. it's there, but i think if you give a non-immunocompromised cat raw eggs, it won't kill them. cats have a much stronger threshold for bacteria, eating meat that has lain dead for a week and such. i think their stomach acid is about 10x stronger than ours.

i'm pretty sure they are referring to heavily salted cured meat, like salt pork. i know bacon is cured but it isn't a huge amount of only that. heavy, fatty meat like that can give dogs "bloat" but the amount i give them with scrambled eggs has never caused a digestive problem.

the pork i use is cooked pork i buy raw, not cured salt pork. and i haven't used ham except for ham flavored baby food mixed into things. well, i tried deviled ham once just to see if they would like it, and they did, but i doubt if i'd feed them straight deviled ham for meals.

i always make sure to add the recommended amounts of bone meal, vitamins, and taurine to any cat food i make, no matter how infrequently i feed it to them. taurine deficiencies are nothing to play with (well neither are vitamins) and it's better for a cat to get more than they need (not purposely huge amounts) because they excrete it in their urine.

everything i do is with perfectly healthy cats who have regular bloodwork done. i cannot speak for anyone with an immunocompromised,diabetic or CRF cat.

 

i guess just make sure you have the proper ratio of vitamins. if you don't want to buy bone meal, you can also use crushed calcium tablets. the thing to watch is if they have vitamin D added (like mine do), then you cut back that amount because A and D are fat soluble vitamins and you don't want to od anyone. B and C are water soluble and i can't remember E but it's one that i add. you can buy a little bottle of the oil. i also add salmon oil, the nutritional yeast is for the B vitamins. if you buy vitamin chews, i would think that would take care of it.

taurine is the one to watch out for but i'm sure other deficiencies have pretty bad effects, like a thiamin deficiency causes CNS damage.

if you are concerned, there is a test in bloodwork for a taurine deficiency. as far as vitamins, i don't know but i would imagine a vet can tell that from a blood test as well.

as far as bone meal, i'm not really sure. i know there are ground up bones in a lot of the fish flavored canned foods, but the others i don't remember seeing bone meal or calcium added. i'm sure it's there in some of them, offhand i just don't remember seeing it on the ingredients list.

 

Thanks cinderflower, but wow! looks complicated, guess I'll just buy multivits specifically for cats just to be safe, and give the vits only with home cook food. Am planning to feed 1 meal home cook every alternate day instead of twice a week, so have to seriously look into getting supplements.