The idea of making homemade cat food can be daunting. But armed with the right strategy and recipe, it’s actually easy!
In this post, I’m going to share with you exactly how I make healthy, balanced raw cat food in the most time efficient, and cost effective way.
I make homemade cat food for four cats. I’m not going to lie, for the first few months, I stumbled through it. It took me such a long time to make each batch, and there was definitely a learning curve.
I didn’t have a meat grinder, nor did I have the extra money to buy one. I also knew that grinding my own meat, while it’s a wonderful option, is also a good amount of extra work.
So, I was going to a local butcher shop instead. The butcher was extremely inconsistent, and the other two workers were very difficult to deal with. Three or four calls to the shop had to be made just to get the “right” guy, because apparently no one knew how to write down an order.
I had to call multiple times in order to speak to the butcher personally, and sometimes this took days.
He would give me a different amount of meat for each order, and charge me the same price. One time he even sold it to someone who he “thought was me” so I ended up driving an hour round trip for nothing.
The cats were running out of food between batches. I couldn’t create a schedule, and since the amount of meat was so inconsistent, sometimes I would have to make a batch once a week, sometimes once every couple weeks.
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The only reason I was putting up with this craziness, was because he was the only shop within an hour that was willing to grind the bone in with the meat. (The best option for raw food. Calcium supplementation isn’t as bioavailable as bone.)
During this time, I experimented with different methods of preparing the food, looking for the quickest way without sacrificiin
This system was not sustainable, but I was determined.
From this process, which was full of ups and downs, I have developed a system. A straight forward schedule, and a much easier process to make the best homemade cat food for my furry ones. A few adjustments can go a long way.
I want to share this process with you, to make your life easier, while you’re helping your cats become happier and healthier.
My cats absolutely love this homemade cat food. They have had so many health benefits from it, it is way more than worth the effort it takes to make it.
And I don’t lose sleep, or stress out over it anymore!
Check out my post: 7 Ways Raw Cat Food Has improved My Cats’ Health
I created the following video, so you can see the process I use to make raw, high quality homemade cat food. The recipe is provided further down in this article.
Pretty simple, right?
You can do this!
It is common for cat parents to be concerned about issues, such as salmonella, when considering a raw diet. It is a misconception that cats shouldn’t be fed raw for this reason.
Truth be told, it’s just as likely, if not more likely to get salmonella from commercial foods, due to improper handling. There have been many recalls due to this issue.
Salmonella is easily avoidable, as long as you’re following basic food safety guidelines for handling raw meat. Such as:
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A cat’s digestive system is not the same as a human’s.
Cats are obligate carnivores. They have a much shorter digestive system than our own. It is also more acidic, and they produce a lot more bile than we do. The reason for this is so that bacteria (from raw meat) cannot survive and proliferate.
A cat is specifically designed to consume fresh raw meat. Studies have even concluded that raw meat is more digestible for a cat’s system than cooked meat.
Now that I make homemade raw cat food for my fur babies, I would never go back to feeding them commercial dry or canned food. I have seen amazing results from this food, just in the short time my kitties have been eating it! I cannot recommend it enough!
Knowing the calcium to phosphorus ratio is crucial when making homemade cat food. This is nothing to be afraid of, it’s just like knowing the other ingredients in the recipe.
The ideal ratio is 1.1:1 (first number is calcium, second number is phosphorus.) But this ratio can vary from 0.9:1 up to 1.5:1
Another way this can be measured is by using 7-10% raw bone. (Meat contains the most phosphorus, and calcium contains the most bone.)
If using pre-ground meat, like in the video above, just find out from the manufacturer what the percentage of bone is, or what the calcium to phosphorus ratio is.
The label should include the amount of phosphorus and the amount of calcium. These amounts can be easily converted to find the ratio.
This is a great article from Feline Nutrition Foundation to help you understand calcium to phosphorus ratio: Don’t Let Calcium/Phosphorous Ratios Scare You
I now have my homemade cat food making process down pat. Here’s how I do it…
First, I calculate how much each cat will be eating daily. Feline Nutrition Foundation has an amazing calculator I use for this. You can find it here.
Then I multiply that number by four, because I have four cats. (They’re all about the same size. If you have cats that are different weights, you’ll need to calculate their daily portions separately, and then add them together.)
After that I multiply that number by 30, because I want to make enough for a month.
The resulting number is the amount of food you’ll need to make in one batch. Use the recipe to figure out the batch size and amounts of each ingredient you’ll need. This calculator from Feline Nutrition Foundation is really helpful with this.
Just keep in mind, each ingredient adds weight to the recipe, so don’t base it solely off of the amount of ground meat required.
Check out this link for variations of this recipe. Feline Nutrition Foundation is a wealth of information on raw feeding, and I highly recommend checking out their site!
I mark the day of the month on my calendar that I need to make another batch of food. Then, I order the meat a couple weeks early from the local groomer that carries it, because it usually takes about a week and a half for them to get it in. (I mark this date on the calendar as well.)
Check here to see if someone carries Blue Ridge Beef near you. On my way back from the groomer, I grab hearts, livers, and eggs.
It’s as simple as that! Takes a minute to get all figured out, but once it’s done, it’s done!
After seeing the amazing health benefits my cats have had from this raw homemade cat food, I will never ever go back to big commercial pet food.
You won’t regret giving this recipe a try!
Have you ever made homemade cat food? What was your experience? Let me know in the comments!
