Many busy cat owners free feed their cats, allowing them round-the-clock access to dry cat food. Cats seem perfectly content with this arrangement. Often, there is no indication of food-related problems until the geriatric years. In order to understand why free feeding dry cat food may be the worst feeding approach and why homemade food offers the best approach, it helps to understand how felines evolved.
Feline evolution
Felines hail from the desert and the plains regions of northern Africa where water was scarce. Fortunately, cats were able to rely on their prey to satisfy most of their water requirements. Since animal protein contains up to 70 percent water, the lack of a constant fresh water supply was not life threatening.
Today, domesticated cats and their feral counterparts are still similar creatures. The most significant difference is their diet, something over which domesticated cats have no control. Feral cats, just like their ancestors, rely on their hunting skills. Cats are carnivorous, relying almost 100 percent on their prey to satisfy their nutritional requirements. Unlike humans, cats are obligate carnivores; they require meat to live. Some of a cat's nutritional needs can only be satisfied with raw animal protein, something that homemade cat food can provide.
Raw plant products have never played a role in cat nutrition. That's not to say that cats didn't eat vegetables. They ingested whatever happened to reside in their prey's stomach, including predigested vegetables. This explains felines' lack of digestive enzymes necessary to digest large amounts of raw vegetables.
Domestic companion cats
Domestic cats have altered their eating habits, because their human owners are in charge of their care and feeding. Most cat owners opt for the quick and easy route: dry commercial cat food.
Dry kibbles consist mostly of binders. These carbohydrate binders connect vegetables, additives, preservatives, and small amounts of animal protein and fat. Dry cat food more closely resembles cheap components from the human food pyramid than feline nutritional essentials.
Why would you want to make homemade cat food?
Is it any wonder that cat owners find dead chipmunks, squirrels, and birds scattered across their lawns? You can scream, "Stop that! Leave Mr. Chipmunk alone," until you're hoarse and the neighbors think you're crazy. It's not just instinct that causes domesticated cats to hunt; their bodies crave the essential nutrition lacking in their diets.
Cats lack amylase, the enzyme necessary to digest carbohydrates, the primary component of dry cat food. The lack of bio-available nutrients in dry cat food, its incomplete nutrition, and its lack of water content contribute to a host of problems aside from malnutrition. Academic research has linked dry cat food to chronic and degenerative feline diseases such as chronic renal failure (CRF), fatty liver disease, inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), dental problems, feline urinary tract disease (FUTRD), kidney crystals, dehydration, and more. Canned cat food typically contains more protein, and up to 70 percent water content. Still, the commercial cat foods may not provide a nutritionally complete diet.
Homemade cat food most closely simulates a cat's natural diet. Only homemade cat food provides complete nutrition to cats in a form that allows them to assimilate all the essential nutrients.
Homemade cat food ingredients
Exact recipes for homemade cat food vary, even among experts. If you have committed to serving your cat homemade cat food and you can afford it, use free-range meats and organic vegetables. Most agree that homemade cat food consists of the following ingredients:
• Raw ground meat and fat
• Finely diced vegetables
• Bone meal or finely ground eggshells – Cats require nutritional bone meal, not gardening bone meal. Purchase bone meal at the health food store. If using eggshells, grind into a fine powder.
• Nutritional supplementation – The simplest way to add the proper dose of vitamins, minerals, and essential fatty acids (EFA) is to use tablets or capsules formulated for cats.
• Digestive and other enzymes – The simplest way to add the proper dose of enzymes is to use multi-enzyme capsules formulated for cats.
• Pure water – Anything is better than tap water.
• Cooked or soaked whole grains – Grains are optional. There is disagreement among experts about feeding grains to cats. Some believe they are part of a healthy diet. Others believe that grains were never part of the cat's natural diet, and there's no additional benefit in including them.
Another disagreement among experts is whether to mix meats. One group believes that cats should eat only one meat at a feeding since cats in the wild did not eat a mouse with a side of bird. The other group finds no benefit in limiting the food to one meat ingredient.
Getting started with homemade cat food
Homemade cat food consists of separate mixtures: a meat mixture, a vegetable mixture, and an optional whole grain mixture. It's easier to prepare each mixture ahead of time and combine the mixtures at feeding time.
Preparing the mixtures and optional grains
Use any of the following raw meats: lamb, beef, turkey, or chicken. Do not use raw pork or raw fish. Ask your butcher to grind the meat and the fat together. You may also feed your cat organ meat up to twice a week. Since organ meat is extremely lean, you'll need to add fat. Ask the butcher to add fat when grinding the organ meat. If this sounds like too much trouble, the simplest way to get started is to buy ground hamburger beef that contains approximately 30 percent fat.
Meat mixture
1 pound combined meat and fat
1 cup water
4 tablespoons bone meal or 3 tablespoons powdered eggshells
Add the water to the thawed ground meat. If you use ground chicken, reduce the water to 3/4 cup, adding more if necessary. Incorporate the water into the meat. Add the bone meal or the powdered eggshells to the meat and mix well. Store the meat mixture in an airtight container or zipper bag and refrigerate or freeze.
Vegetable Mixture
Use several different vegetables for this mixture. If you use any of the hard-rind squashes, cook the squash only until the rind is slightly soft. Do not use nightshade vegetables: onions, tomatoes, potatoes, eggplant, and peppers. The nightshade family causes a host of problems in cats.
1 cup mixed fresh vegetables
Wash and dry the vegetables. Grate the vegetables, and then chop the grated vegetables into small bits. If you have a food processor, process the vegetables until they are finely diced. Store the mixture in an airtight container or zipper bag and refrigerate or freeze.
Grains
1/4 cup oats, rice, bulgur, millet, cornmeal, etc.
Water
Follow the instructions on the grain package to determine the proper amount of water. Boil or soak the grains until fully hydrated. Hydration is the goal; it is not necessary to cook the grains.
Mealtime preparation
The meat and vegetable amounts are approximations. After you feed your cat homemade cat food for a few days, you can adjust the amount of each mixture according to your cats needs. After your cat has been on the homemade diet for a few weeks, you'll have a better idea how much of each mixture to use. You can make enough for several days at a time, or you can make bulk mixtures and divide into smaller portions before freezing.
Add approximately 3 spoonfuls of meat and 1 spoonful of vegetables to a clean bowl. If using grains, add a scant spoonful and mix well. Add enough hot water to create a stew consistency when well mixed. Cats prefer warm food--78-103 degrees Fahrenheit. After fully incorporating the hot water, add the nutritional supplements and enzymes. If your supplements come in tablet form, you can grind them in a coffee grinder before adding them to the mixture. If you don't have a coffee grinder, you can place the tablets between two pieces of wax paper and pound them with a hammer. Stir the ground nutrients into the mixture. Serve immediately.
Feeding your cat
The time has come to feed your cat its first natural meal, and you're probably excited about providing your cat with the best possible nutrition, especially after all your hard work. Well, guess what? Kitty may not be nearly as pleased as you are--in the beginning.
Just like their human owners, cats are creatures of habit, and they expect to eat whatever it is you've been feeding them. Do yourself and your companion a favor by gradually incorporating the natural food into the cat's regular food. Start by serving your cat 3 parts commercial cat food to 1 part homemade food. Gradually decrease the commercial food over a week or two depending on your cat's tolerance. Even if your cat never accepts a 100 percent homemade diet, you're still feeding it a higher-quality food, prepared with tender loving care.
Don't panic!
When your cat adjusts to the homemade diet, you're going to notice some changes. Over time, your cat will consume less food and water. The homemade food contains a greater density of nutrients than commercial food, and it contains far more water. A full-grown cat will only require several spoonfuls of mixture a day. Since the stew contains so much water, you'll notice a decrease in water consumption. Your cat is hydrating naturally and isn't as thirsty as before. In fact, you may even notice that your cat's nose is moist. Don't be concerned; this is natural.
You may also find that they gobble their food, and then do not require food for an entire day. If you've been free feeding your cat, this might scare you in the beginning. Carnivores' eating habits are quite different from omnivorous human eating habits. They tend to eat, sleep, play, and eliminate before eating their next meal.
This is going to be harder on you than it is on your cat. This is the way cats are meant to eat, the way they've eaten for thousands of years in the wild. You are providing the closest thing to a cat's natural diet. Relax and enjoy the fact that you are doing what many veterinarians and scientists have determined is the best possible thing you can do for your cat, and you may be adding years to cat's life in the process.
