How to Make Raw Cat Food? 6 easy steps!

Cats have been consuming raw food for several years. Although cats have been trained, they still get and consume mice, pests, and additional rodents. This indicates that they still require meat in their food to obtain the whole nutrition that retains them healthy. Additionally, if you are tired of purchasing costly marketable cat food, try forming your raw cat food at home. However, making your own cat food will keep your kitten healthy as well as happy. Lets dive into how to make raw cat food?

What Do Cats Want to Eat?

As carnivores, cats require:

• Protein in the form of chicken or fish
• Amino acids such as taurine and arginine
• Fats
• Essential vitamins
• Trace minerals
• Water

Hazards and the Rewards of Raw cat food

Raw cat diets are neither harmless nor nutritionally good. For feline owners who need to make raw cat food, they should follow ideas, tips, and essential nutrition recommendations from their veterinarian.

Additionally, there are numerous individuals who like to feed raw. It is recommended to be conscious about the transmission of zoonotic diseases, food safety, as well as contamination problems.

Furthermore, feeding felines raw food also leaves excessive room for variables. The possibility for mistake is high if you go out of your town and the cat food is left for a longer period or if they substitute one constituent for another. Little logical evidence occurs either for or contrary to cooked food for felines.

Some, similar to the Cornell University of Veterinary Medicine, notify against forming raw cat food at home due to the significance of obtaining the right amount and percentages of nutrients.

How to make raw cat food?

Ingredients:

• Two kg raw muscle meat, including bones
• Approximately 14 ounces’ raw heart, preferably from a similar animal as the meat. When you do not find a heart, you must add around 4000 mg taurine.
• Around 200 g of raw liver, preferably from a similar animal as the meat. Whenever you can’t get suitable liver, you can go for 40,000 IU of vitamin A along with 1600 IU of vitamin D; however, try to utilize real liver rather than alternates.
• Extra muscle meat when you’re replacing organs with taurine, vitamin A, as well as vitamin D. Such as, if you can’t get heart, add additional 14 ounces of meat having bones.
• Around 16 Oz of water
• About four raw egg yolks
• Around 4000 mg of salmon oil
• Approximately 200 mg of vitamin B complex
• About 800 IU of vitamin E. You can also go for oil-filled capsules.
• Four teaspoons of psyllium husk powder.

Benefits of making homemade raw cat food

Homemade cat food offers several noteworthy benefits:

• You have ample control over the constituents in your cat’s food. A few commercially accessible cat food companies contain ingredients that aren’t essential for your cat, for example, vegetables, fruits, and extra grains. By preparing your homemade cat food, you can select the meat, essential vitamins, as well as minerals that your cat requires.
• You can freeze hefty batches. Pierson suggests preparing sufficient food for 3 to 4 months. But, be assured not to keep raw cat food in your freezer longer than 4 months as nutrients can degrade with the passage of time.

Felines can flourish on diets that are high in animal protein, preparing homemade raw food especially useful. Raw diets:

• Have low carbohydrate concentrations, which can prevent obesity as well as diabetes
• Are rich in moisture, assisting your cat get sufficient hydration that encourages kidney health
• Offer effective protein levels because of the absence of heat processing
• Encourage dental health by lessening plaque accumulation, tooth damage, and gum ailment

6 easy steps to make raw cat food

1. Get your cat observed

Your cat must be entirely healthy before you start feeding her raw homemade food. Take your feline to your veterinarian for a complete examination. You have to show the food and recipes to an expert animal nutritionist to ensure they deliver all the essential nutrients your cat requires.

Furthermore, the doctor can help you find an expert animal nutritionist in your region, or you can get one online.

2. Be ready to add a supplement.

Once you grind as well as freeze raw cat food, this decreases the quantity of taurine accessible to your cat. You can add a supplement to avoid main eye and cardiac issues. Additionally, know that a taurine insufficiency doesn’t appear immediately. As an alternative, it will require some years; however, these problems can be irreversible by then.

3. Consider safe food handling.

Whenever you handle raw cat food, you should wash out your hands often and carefully store the meat as this is significant to avoid salmonella poisoning. Moreover, always consider fresh meat. Not using fresh meat can enhance the danger of disease.

Also, handling raw meat once pregnant can enhance your hazard for toxoplasmosis. Wash out your hands often or wear gloves while handling meat. Additionally, if you’re worried about the nutrition of cat food, recognize that no nutrients are lost after making raw food instead of cooking it for a cat.

4. Buy the meat

Based upon what meat you select to utilize; you might have a difficult time getting superior meat. Although it can be easy to purchase a whole chicken, you might have to look for a native farmer to obtain organ meat.

When you can only get the whole chicken to consider, just grind up and provide small bones. But, if you use large bones, your kitten will avoid them. Only ensure not to cook the bones; otherwise, they can damage your cat’s gastrointestinal system.

By chance, pre-made mixtures of ground raw meat are excessively available in chilled and frozen units of pet stores. You should thaw and include supplements to the meat.

Accumulating raw cat food

Meat preparation: Slice the carcass and isolate the muscle meat. After that, slice the muscle meat into pieces or process it using a meat chopper through the oversized grinding plate. Separating chunks of meat can offer your feline something to chew and provides excellent tooth exercise. Keep the meaty bones away, then keep the arranged muscle meat in the fridge.

While using chicken, eliminate the skin. Chicken necks are an excellent option to use as they are generally cartilage, easy to cut, and are easy to digest. Furthermore, you can also utilize rabbit meat.

Processing of organ meat: After preparing the muscle meat, utilize a scale to measure the organ meat weight. After that, grind the organ meat using a grinder and place it in the fridge and prepare the remaining constituents.

Now, you can also use the meaty bones and grind them using a grinder. Please do not use a food grinder to grind the bones, as it’s possibly not made to handle them.

Whisk a supplement slurry: In a distinct bowl, whisk the kelp, glandular supplement, vitamin E and B complex, distilled water, and egg yolks till it’s combined. When you want to use the psyllium, include it last and mix again. In addition, you can store the egg whites for additional use.

Combine the supplement blend and meats: In a big bowl, combine the muscle meat, ground meat, as well as bones until fully mixed. After that, add stir the supplement slurry until it’s equally dispersed.

5. Store the food safely.

Store the finished kitten food in convenient containers, for example, refrigerator bags or plastic refrigerator containers. Do not overfill the containers. As an alternative, leave no less than half-inch gap at the upper surface.

This will expand the food as it cools down. Label the food containers with the category of meat and the time before freezing. In addition, mason glass jars containing wide-mouth can retain the food fresh and healthy; however, be sure to purchase jars particularly prepared for freezing.

6. Serve the raw food to the cat.

Take the food from the refrigerator during mealtime, then warm the cat food using a baggie. If you contain food in the freezer, you will have to warm it before offering it. Numerous felines will vomit their raw food when it’s cold.

You can run baggies under warm water until they become warm. Do not utilize the oven to warm the cat food, particularly if you are using bones. Cooked bone pieces can be unsafe for your cat; however, your cat can easily digest raw bones.

Equipment and tools to make homemade raw cat food

You’ll require numerous essential tools before you can start making homemade cat food. Here is a list:

• Meat Grinder
• Ear Plugs
• Sharp Knives
• Kitchen Scale
• Large Cutting Boards
• Freezer Space
• Meat Cleaver
• Mixing Bowls
• Poultry Shears
• Nitrile Gloves
• Newspaper
• Freezer Bags

Essential Tips for Feeding Raw Cat Food to Your Cat

A raw cat diet is an excellent choice for cats; however, as with any diet, you must ensure your cat receives all the essential nutrients they require to thrive. In some circumstances, you should add some supplements, particularly taurine, and include bones and eggshells for calcium as well as other minerals.

With a raw cat diet, you’ll have to feed your felines what’s recognized as a “nose to tail” diet, comprising bones, organs, and muscles in their meals.  Felines require protein from meat or fish and related amino acids such as taurine and omega fatty acids to flourish.

They also require essential vitamins, such as B12 and minerals. Although nutrients can be attained from organ meats, bones, and muscle meats, the quantities differ a lot, and it is essential to supplement according to the recipe you pick. Cats have little carbohydrate requirement; thus, the raw cat diet is species-appropriate as it passes on proteins and contains a high moisture level.

If you want to make raw food for your feline at home, it is essential to get the meat from a reliable source, prepare it on a clean metal surface, and clean it carefully again. This is because of the real salmonella hazard for you and your feline.

Making homemade cat food can be an excellent way to guarantee your cat obtains the nutrition they require to prosper.

What nutrients do cats require?

When we talk about homemade cat food, making whole as well as balanced recipes is a must. Wild cats can obtain all of the essential nutrients by eating their prey; however, modern cats require additional vitamins as well as minerals.

Below is a list of some supplements required for making homemade cat food. Feline Nutrition recommends buying these supplements:

• Vitamin E
• Taurine
• Wild Salmon Oil
• Vitamin B-Complex
• Lite Salt Containing Iodine

Cats have developed to get hydration by consuming their prey, which is why cats lack a natural thirst drive similar to dogs. Besides, raw meat used in several homemade recipes delivers an outstanding source of hydration; however, you must always provide fresh water.

Ensure you obtain the freshest, good-quality meat for your cat food recipes. Never eliminate the fat from the meat; it’s significant for nutrient use, cell reliability, and metabolic management.

How Do You Store Raw Cat Food?

The easiest thing to do is prepare a larger quantity of food every week or two and freeze everyday portions in small, eco-friendly containers. You can use a container each evening once you return home and melt it in the microwave until it is thawed.

Why Won’t My Feline Eat Raw Cat Food?

Some cats, unluckily, are used to consuming canned as well as processed foods and need to shift better to whole foods. In this case, you may require to cook the food lightly to enhance their will to eat. Consider a ceramic skillet; thus, the food patty does not stick. However, if you require a little oil, utilize a teaspoon of coconut oil.

Do not let your felines go hungry if they hate this food. First, you should deliver a raw chicken thigh and notice how that goes. If your feline rejects to eat it, you can heat the surface in a skillet or consider the other meat source to notice if there’s one he chooses.

Frequently asked questions

Q: Is it OK if I feed my cat raw meat?

A: Although it’s perfectly suitable to feed the cat a marketable dry or wet cat food, you can give your cat food’s variety by feeding it raw or fresh meat. Several cats like fish, but it is not suitable food for regular feeding.

Q: Can I cook raw cat food?

A: It is significant to recognize that feeding a raw diet to your cat can create dangers. Raw cat food might have pathogens such as Salmonella as well as E. coli that can cause lethal infections. Additionally, cooking food eliminates several pathogens; that is why we cook our food.

Q: Are raw eggs suitable for my cat?

A: Raw eggs are not acceptable for felines. If eggs are not properly cooked, they can get bacteria such as Salmonella. Besides, raw egg whites might be unsafe for felines because of the protein known as avidin, which can bind the biotin (also called vitamin B7); thus, cats become unable to get it.

Q: What type of raw food can my cat eat?

A: Appropriate raw meaty bones contain raw chicken as well as and raw beef shanks. They should always be provided raw (uncooked). Do not feed your cat cooked bones because these can disintegrate, causing potentially deadly internal injury or blockage. Excessive raw bones may cause constipation.

Take Away

There is a load of controversy regarding raw cat food, mainly because of the danger of disease transmission; however, also because of the fear of insufficient nutrition. This is a risk; thus, you should carefully choose fresh constituents from a trustworthy source and supplement the cat diet accordingly.

Making raw cat food isn’t difficult at all; someone can! When you prepare your own, you’ll get that raw cat food is not challenging. It supports knowing how crushed raw meals are prepared because synthetically frozen foods are made similarly, only on a big scale.
Besides, taking the secret out of what you offer your cats is significant. Although they help from the nutritionally good food, the assistance to you in terms of calmness shouldn’t be ignored.

Additionally, a healthy, energetic adult feline without any special nutritional needs can flourish on raw cat food. Still, if your feline is used to processed food, the change must be done slowly. Ensure you get meat from a reliable source to decrease disease hazard.