Eating a raw food diet is not just for humans. The additional health benefits that we enjoy when we eliminate processed foods, hydrogenated oils and increase the amount of raw fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds can also be experienced by our feline companions. Cats have been eating raw food for centuries. They have been in order to eliminate rodent population in barns and homes.
Owners who want to feed their cats raw food have several options available to them today. There are several different manufacturing companies which produce raw cat foods sold by veterinarians or in the refrigerator section of your favorite pet store. Unfortunately because of the preservative process needed in order to maintain the vitamins and minerals available in the food this process may be only slightly better than feeding dried food.
Making your own raw food is probably the best solution in order to keep your feline friends as healthy as possible. While it may take a slight amount of work and it\’s definitely more work than dropping off pet store to pick up a bag of cat food, it is definitely a labor of love to keep your cat happy and healthy. The steps to making raw cat foods are simple.
Before beginning it is important to gather the necessary ingredients together. Most importantly it is essential to have all the supplements that will be added to the food process in place in the kitchen where they can be reached easily. If you choose to grind your own meats be sure to have grinder out and the carcass available. It is however, simpler to use grounds meats from the butcher shop at the grocery store. If you have more than one cat and buy the meats in bulk on a consistent basis you may also be able to strike a deal with the butcher for a reduced rate.
If you are grinding your own meats, be sure to separate the muscle, take off as much skin as possible. Separate large pieces of muscle meat from the rest of the carcass to two separate piles. Keep some of the muscle meats as chunks to give your cat some things to chew on and get good chewing exercise.
Now put all of the meats and organ meat into the refrigerator until you mix up the rest of the ingredients. Separate out several eggs and place into a mixture which contains water, salmon oil, kelp, glandular supplements vitamin E., psyllium, and be complex. At this point you may also add Taurine.
Now run the meat and organ meats while adding the hand-chunked meat to the ground mix. Stir this well. Add the supplements the egg yolks and mix again. Put the finished food into individual feeding containers like freezer bags but do not overfill, leaving at least a 1/2\” gap or more at the top to allow expansion during freezing. Be sure to label containers with dates food was prepared and freeze.
Use room temperature food to feed your cat. Some cats will vomit if the food is very cold. Don\’t use the microwave to warm the food up as you partially cooked with and destroy the vitamins and minerals so hard to maintain.
While preparing raw food for your cat may be a labor of love, it is also something that will decrease vet bills and extend the life of your cat for years to come.