With all of this talk about starting to make our own food, I was curious to see if anyone has a recipe for home-made cat food. I searched very briefly just now and found one, but would like to explore as many as possible before deciding on which one to try first.
My concern is all of mine liking it. They all cannot even agree on one brand of wet food! :lmao:

For reasons that I'm sure are obvious, I'm also interested in this. If I see anything, I'll let you know! :)

I'm just concerned about my cats getting enough taurine. They have to get taurine somehow for their cardiac and eye health. Uncooked organ meats (such as heart) are very rich in taurine.

Yes, I'm concerned with that also, Lisa, as well as the other vitamins that they need that aren't in the foods in the recipe. This recipe does have Taurine in it that I found, so that's a plus :thumbsup:
http://www.catnutrition.org/recipes.html

Looks like we're going to need a meat grinder too.

When I was researching this a while back, I noticed the really expensive taurine supplement for cats I found on one website was identical to the human supplement that was much cheaper at GNC. Same dosage, ingredients and everything. If you're worried about taurine, consider using the human supplements available out there. You probably will not have to worry so much about purity and safety with the taurine supplement for people.

Thank you!! :) :thumbsup:

What about something like this, where you add the meat and organs?
http://www.felinefuture.com/products/
Or are you trying to avoid all packaged products?

I've read repeatedly that it's very difficult to make a balanced diet for cats at home for some reason. I'm very concerned about getting them to eat it. But I know, given time, they can get used to just about anything, right?

Thanks, Lisa...after reading and researching I've decided not to go the home made route. I just know mine wouldn't all like it and I'd have to incorperate other food in anyways, I just know it.
I've went with the Grain-Free food. I posted a topic on it if you're interested :)

There are, unfortunately, a lot of scare tactics out there about homemade/raw diets. It's actually not difficult at all :wha: Cats need meat, bones, and organs - that's what their bodies are designed to process, and that's where they get all of their nutrition (and in the correct, balanced proportions). It's pretty simple :)

I'm currently looking into starting this - but I'm looking to keep their dry food, just use the home-made stuff to replace the wet food I normally give them at dinner.

Here one as well:

http://www.felineinstincts.com/orderNow/Re...structions.html

I tried some raw feeding tonight and a lot of them liked it - but I don't think we could ever do it, Tink and Minnie are waaaaay too finicky eaters. They would barely touch it. The others went nuts though.

I'm trying a homemade recipe tomorrow. If that fails, then I need to go back to cans and just try that once in a while. I found a lot of great treat and "extras" recipes I'll use.

I have homemade treat recipies and tried the tuna recipe (made with all human ingrediants) *some recipes have cat nip in them.
Back to the tuna treats, the human in the family (hubby) really like them LOL
4 felines turned their noses up :neener:

So I fed an all-raw dinner last night and everyone ate but Tinkerbell (Minnie ate a piece or two but that was it).

I woke up to NO poop in the litter box!! Normally I'm scooping a mine field in the morning!

I'm hoping they take to this, I'm enjoying it! :rotfl:

:rotfl: That's great, Crystal!!!

I use to feed sun and shine some home-made food.
The easiest recipe is: filet of fish in the micro. But i also cook meatballs for them (no salt and no spices, just meat, eggs and parmesan cheese), or chicken. My mother fed them with raw horse meat while i was not there (she knows that i would not allow her, in any way, to give raw meat!)

So the nutrition that feral cats get from killing animals is adequate? I just assumed with all the research that they had figured out a more healthful diet for them. Just because it's what they eat in the wild doesn't mean it's what they need for optimal health.

Do cats have a natural immunity to salmonella and other food borne pathogens? I would assume they would have to.

Well I think we're going back to cans. :(

I made a homemade recipe today and our three finicky eaters wouldn't eat (Nala, Tink, Minnie) - the others ate, but when I gave Nala a can of cat food, they went and ate that, too.

I have some leftovers from what I made today that I'll serve to those who will eat it unitl it's gone, and I will finish up the raw meat I bought - but overall I don't think it's going work for us.

On the upside, they're accepting Merrick wet food again (after Max Cat, they wouldn't touch it) - so we have something to keep us good until it comes back.