How to Make Homemade Cat Food
To begin with why would you want to? Isn't it easier just to go down to the pet food store and load up with all those cases of cans and packets of dried food? Most of us would honestly answer yes.
Indeed this was my standard approach with the first cats I and my wife owned.
In stark contrast, my mother never bought any commercial pet food.
What struck me most forcibly was that her cats, the ones we grew up with lived to be a great age, so much so that we thought of them as part of the furniture; they were always there! Both her cats were almost 30 years old when they died of plain old age.
More importantly they were always healthy, full of vigour, energy and vitality.
I cannot once remember them being taken to the vet.
My "stewardship" of cats was sadly different; we lost one at 7 and the other passed away aged 9.
Their deaths were never satisfactorily explained but kidney and liver failure were cited.
It took us nearly two years to get over their loss and get another pair.
Fairly soon after we purchased two new cats, I noticed a gradual change in their behaviour.
One was becoming an overweight couch potato, and the other seemed ever more lethargic.
When my mother visited she commented adversely; she was scathing about the tinned food, telling me to junk it.
Opening a tin was for her, a last resort.
Like many of my generation I reckoned I was cash rich but time poor.
Ultimately, it is how we choose to spend our time that matters.
I made the decision to follow my mother's methods after she came to stay with us for several months.
She went off one morning early and arrived back with a variety of food she sourced herself; some of which amazingly was free! She set about both cooking and creating raw food for our cats.
The resultant smells from the kitchen spawned a new expression here, 'dancing cats,' for they weaved around and through her legs and climbed up the kitchen units.
A far cry from their normal lethargic behaviour and the wasted food they usually left behind.
By the time she left the cats condition had changed dramatically, our former couch potato no longer needed its daily turning out of the house, and the male was always out, active and hunting.
The cat litter tray was no longer needed - what a relief! What my mother had demonstrated was how easy it was to feed a pair of cats with quality food cheaply and have a pair of very healthy animals.
All this without spending a huge amount of time (that I claimed never to have) and without visiting a pet food store.
A considerable saving of both time and money Both our cats are alive well and fit and are almost 20.
Now, like my mother's pets, they seem immortal.
These are just some of the reasons to go it alone, the pet food recalls of `07-`08 have made thousands of pet owners worry about just what does go into those cans.
Those of you who read my article on "Recipes for a Cat with Kidney Problems" will know that I highlighted the link between diet and disease.
Commercial pet food is thought by many experts to have serious deficits in its nutritional content.
This is due to extreme temperatures used in the processing plant.
Saturated animal fats are added to make the food taste better along with colouring, preservatives and other chemicals.
In short, your cat's immune system becomes susceptible to disease through a build up of toxins in the blood, lymph nodes and tissues.
Your pets begin to get the same serious problems as humans who consume junk food; obesity, diabetes, lethargy and, sadly, an early death.
Are we killing our own cats through ignorance? So what can be done? A return to a more natural diet is clearly important.
We have to remember that cats are naturally hunters, and they would normally eat raw meat, which contains all the nutrients they require.
Cat food made in a rendering plant by adding chemicals, colouring, fat and "meat by-products" that contain no actual meat IS NOT nor will it ever be, a natural diet.
I have been able to demonstrate that by preparing my own homemade cat food, sourcing the raw ingredients is the secret to cat longevity.
This provides my cats with all the nutrition they need.
More than that, it sustains their immune systems; preventing those expensive trips to the vet.
To see our cats so active, fit and healthy is a joy, and I recommend you take control of YOUR cat's diet and health.
Don't let them die of ignorance; just spend your time differently, that time you were so sure you never had.
I previously said that 'experts' thought commercial pet food contained poor nutritional content, and for further reading you can do no better than read Ann N.
Martin's excellent book, "Food Pets Die For.
" And Henry Pasternak's "Healing Animals with Natures Cures" For further help and advice on feeding your cat, please visit us at http://www.
catfoodrecipesonline.
com
Indeed this was my standard approach with the first cats I and my wife owned.
In stark contrast, my mother never bought any commercial pet food.
What struck me most forcibly was that her cats, the ones we grew up with lived to be a great age, so much so that we thought of them as part of the furniture; they were always there! Both her cats were almost 30 years old when they died of plain old age.
More importantly they were always healthy, full of vigour, energy and vitality.
I cannot once remember them being taken to the vet.
My "stewardship" of cats was sadly different; we lost one at 7 and the other passed away aged 9.
Their deaths were never satisfactorily explained but kidney and liver failure were cited.
It took us nearly two years to get over their loss and get another pair.
Fairly soon after we purchased two new cats, I noticed a gradual change in their behaviour.
One was becoming an overweight couch potato, and the other seemed ever more lethargic.
When my mother visited she commented adversely; she was scathing about the tinned food, telling me to junk it.
Opening a tin was for her, a last resort.
Like many of my generation I reckoned I was cash rich but time poor.
Ultimately, it is how we choose to spend our time that matters.
I made the decision to follow my mother's methods after she came to stay with us for several months.
She went off one morning early and arrived back with a variety of food she sourced herself; some of which amazingly was free! She set about both cooking and creating raw food for our cats.
The resultant smells from the kitchen spawned a new expression here, 'dancing cats,' for they weaved around and through her legs and climbed up the kitchen units.
A far cry from their normal lethargic behaviour and the wasted food they usually left behind.
By the time she left the cats condition had changed dramatically, our former couch potato no longer needed its daily turning out of the house, and the male was always out, active and hunting.
The cat litter tray was no longer needed - what a relief! What my mother had demonstrated was how easy it was to feed a pair of cats with quality food cheaply and have a pair of very healthy animals.
All this without spending a huge amount of time (that I claimed never to have) and without visiting a pet food store.
A considerable saving of both time and money Both our cats are alive well and fit and are almost 20.
Now, like my mother's pets, they seem immortal.
These are just some of the reasons to go it alone, the pet food recalls of `07-`08 have made thousands of pet owners worry about just what does go into those cans.
Those of you who read my article on "Recipes for a Cat with Kidney Problems" will know that I highlighted the link between diet and disease.
Commercial pet food is thought by many experts to have serious deficits in its nutritional content.
This is due to extreme temperatures used in the processing plant.
Saturated animal fats are added to make the food taste better along with colouring, preservatives and other chemicals.
In short, your cat's immune system becomes susceptible to disease through a build up of toxins in the blood, lymph nodes and tissues.
Your pets begin to get the same serious problems as humans who consume junk food; obesity, diabetes, lethargy and, sadly, an early death.
Are we killing our own cats through ignorance? So what can be done? A return to a more natural diet is clearly important.
We have to remember that cats are naturally hunters, and they would normally eat raw meat, which contains all the nutrients they require.
Cat food made in a rendering plant by adding chemicals, colouring, fat and "meat by-products" that contain no actual meat IS NOT nor will it ever be, a natural diet.
I have been able to demonstrate that by preparing my own homemade cat food, sourcing the raw ingredients is the secret to cat longevity.
This provides my cats with all the nutrition they need.
More than that, it sustains their immune systems; preventing those expensive trips to the vet.
To see our cats so active, fit and healthy is a joy, and I recommend you take control of YOUR cat's diet and health.
Don't let them die of ignorance; just spend your time differently, that time you were so sure you never had.
I previously said that 'experts' thought commercial pet food contained poor nutritional content, and for further reading you can do no better than read Ann N.
Martin's excellent book, "Food Pets Die For.
" And Henry Pasternak's "Healing Animals with Natures Cures" For further help and advice on feeding your cat, please visit us at http://www.
catfoodrecipesonline.
com
