Making your own cat food - My vet doesn't approve
 

I have been doing canned for years. So I figured for after awhile I would do my own food. My new young cat loved it. The older cat didn't but was starting to get used to it. Just when things were going smooth I had happened to mention to my vet at an appointment that I was doing my own cat food. Immmediately I got a scolding (well it felt like it) of how people could not possibly get the proper balance of right nutrients needed for cats on a daily basis. I brought up the argument that would it be good for humans to eat from a cat every day with fully nutritional complete meals? She wouldn't get into it but kept insisting the cats needed the proper diet. I was so confused and bothered by the whole thing I just didn't argue and switched them back to their canned food diet.

Just wondering how everyone else feels about this? In general are most vets like this?

A lot of vets aren't taught alternatives to the foods made by the huge corporations. Even holistic foods can spark debates in the vet's office. If you have read up on feeding cats, and you make certain you're feeding them balanced meals, there's no possible way your kitties will eat anything worse than the food they sell at the vet.;)

As long as you do your research, making your own cat food shouldn't be a problem. Cats can not live on tuna alone.

Next time you see your vet, ask her (?) how many hours of nutritional training that she has. I would be surprised if it was much more then a semester or two out of all the years she went to college.

All the vets I know want you to feed dry Science Diet, so just ignore that.

But cats have VERY strict dietary requirements, so if you want to feed raw, please do a ton of research first.

If you cannot provide exactly what they need, better to stick to canned.

Thanks everyone! I've got some books I was following on the correct percentage of each type of ingredient (along with some recipes) so I think I'll pull it out and start doing it again. I'll just lie to my vet, can't be bothered getting into it. Yeah, I know they recommend some pretty crappy food from the vets. The cats never like it.

PS:"would it be good for humans to eat from a cat every day with fully nutritional complete meals?" That was supposed to be CAN (typo) but I think everyone figured that out. :D

ohhh... No, I didn't figure that one out... I was thinking your vet said it, like you were sharing your meal balanced for humans, and a cat sharing his balanced meal with you wouldn't be good for you, or something like that.

Oh wow, the "eat from a CAN" thing makes SO much more sense...LOL

I just love that sort of argument. "You just can't meet their nutritional needs." As if Purina has it down perfectly, just because "most" cats don't die before their food trials are complete :rolleyes:

Cats do need a proper diet, but there's no reason that proper diet can't be made at home if it's fully planned and researched in advance.

Making your own food
 

I don't have a cat so don't know much about them but...
I have Westies and two were having a lot of stool problems and one was itching.
After many $'s spent at the vets. and still they were no better I started doing my own cooking for them.
I had to cook different things but came up with a meatloaf that is working great.
The fur look is thicker, no itching, and stools ate as should be.
I do give a good vit, with minerals just to be safe.
I have a opened minded vet, she looked the meatloaf over and said don't know why it's working but keep it up.
So give them a top of the line vit, and cook away is what I would do.
SeaLady

Vets and pet food..
 

I moved to Canada with my two cats.... they have had quite a hard time adjusting to the canned pet food.. and I look at it when I open the tin and think.. omg.. what IS that?

My first trip to the local vet...... when he saw my Manx.. asked.. oh dear.. whatever happend to her tail? Even though their notes stated "Manx" he didnt know what a manx was? After a check up.. he decided we should have both cats eat their food...($$$$$) .. (obviously had a deal with the manufacturer), and said we should bring them in to be checked again after several weeks...($$$$$$) ...... needless to say, we didn't.. and we have also stopped vaccinations.. and so far... happy, healthy cats.

I'm at the stage that If i care what I eat.. I should care what they eat.. and just looking at the contents of the tinned food makes me shudder. Yes it may have some of the important essentials.. but for the most part.. it looks more like someone has been sick. Junk food for pets?

Long term, I want my cats to be healthy... bad diets don't show up overnight.. its an ongoing thing. If anyone has any good recipes to share.. please email me at *** Would appreciate it.

Dry Cat Food
 

[COLOR="DeepSkyBlue"][B]Hi there, I am very new to this site, but find everything that you have all written very interesting. I have 2 male burmese cats that are 8 yrs old and am still learning about how to look after them best. These are the first cats I have ever had and I love them sooooo much......way better than dogs....hahaha. My boys have always eaten dry cat food and seem to be doing well. I know that I have switched between companies a couple of times only after seeing certain things, but they seem to be doing pretty well. The only time they get the wet nasty food is to take any kind of medicine or once in a blue moon......I feed them the sheeba as it looks sort of real. I would love to try to make them some real food, but have know idea what to make......any easy ideas????[/B][/COLOR]

This is such an awesome site. Thanks to all your wonderful ideas too. :crazy:

:ca: :pawprint:

Your best bet for making your own food would be to head to the book store and find a book. I dont know of any good books, but hopefully someone else on here can reccommend some.

When it comes to male cats, its usually best to feed canned rather then just dry. My male cat ended up with a blocked urethra from crystals that formed, and also a UTI. This is because they naturally dont enough water, then dont get enough from dry food. I now have dry food out at all times and feed him canned food twice a day. I would much rather make his food, but he hates anything other then pizza crust!

Sarah

[B][COLOR="Blue"][B][B]Thank you for that insight SaraLynn. I thought that crystals form due to seafood.....it never occurred to be about the water part. They will like to hear about that. Perhaps I will start to give them more wet food too. I know that Domi drinks alot of water, but Zets only seems to drink out of the faucet so only when I turn it on. I am sure he drinks out of the bowl too. What was it like with him having crystals??? I am sure it is very painful for them, eh. Ouch! I can't think of my boys in any pain. I will also check up on some petfood books. My boys don't seem to be picky about food which is good.

Anyways, thanks alot for the tip.[/B][/B][/COLOR][/B]:crazy:

:pawprint: :ca:

[QUOTE=lovemycats][B][COLOR="Blue"][B][B]Thank you for that insight SaraLynn. I thought that crystals form due to seafood.....it never occurred to be about the water part. They will like to hear about that. Perhaps I will start to give them more wet food too. I know that Domi drinks alot of water, but Zets only seems to drink out of the faucet so only when I turn it on. I am sure he drinks out of the bowl too. What was it like with him having crystals??? I am sure it is very painful for them, eh. Ouch! I can't think of my boys in any pain. I will also check up on some petfood books. My boys don't seem to be picky about food which is good.

Anyways, thanks alot for the tip.[/B][/B][/COLOR][/B]:crazy:

:pawprint: :ca:[/QUOTE]


It was quite obvious something was wrong, he started by peeing outside of his litterbox and that escalated to licking himself and growling, crying while trying to pee, and trying to run away and dig away from the pain in the garbage cans. I took him in right away and they took a urine sample and tested it right away. It was caught early so he ws on canned food for a couple weeks with no dry and pills twice a day.

You'll know right away if they develop them, I hear its quite common in male cats, poor boys!

Take care
Sarah

[COLOR="DarkOrchid"][B]Oh my gosh, poor baby......yes, I heard it is quite common with male cats.......this is why I have kept them away from seafood........I will definately start buying them wet food and perhaps give that to them at least once a day???? Ya think that should be good? Any suggestions on a good food or pretty much any kind is good......the only problem with wet food is that it makes the little box smell more.....but i will do anything to prevent them from having any pain.......thanks alot for the info[/B][/COLOR].......:D

:pawprint: :ca:

Here are some really good kitty canned foods...

The Canidae ones:
[URL="http://www.canidae.com/cats/cat_and_kitten/canned.html"]Cat and kitten[/URL]
[URL="http://www.canidae.com/cats/chicken_and_rice/canned.html"]Chicken and Rice[/URL]
[URL="http://www.canidae.com/cats/platinum/canned.html"]Platinum[/URL]

The Merrick ones:
[url]http://www.merrickpetcare.com/store/canned_cat_food.php[/url]

The Solid Gold ones:
[URL="http://www.solidgoldhealth.com/products/showproduct.php?id=10&code=240"]Blended Tuna Canned Cat Food [/URL]
[URL="http://www.solidgoldhealth.com/products/showproduct.php?id=69&code=232"]Chicken, Turkey, White Fish & Liver Canned Cat Food [/URL]



The Natural Balance ones (scroll down for all ingredients):
[url]http://www.naturalbalanceinc.com/catformulas/NB_CatCanned.html[/url]

Innova Canned:
[URL="http://www.naturapet.com/display.php?d=product-detail&pxsl=%2F%2Fproduct%5B@id%3D%2734%27%5D"]Cat Canned[/URL]
[URL="http://www.naturapet.com/display.php?d=product-detail&pxsl=%2F%2Fproduct%5B@id%3D%271305%27%5D"]Evo canned[/URL]


California Natural canned:
[URL="http://www.naturapet.com/display.php?d=product-detail&pxsl=%2F%2Fproduct%5B@id%3D%271007%27%5D"]Chicken and Brown Rice Canned[/URL]
[URL="http://www.naturapet.com/display.php?d=product-detail&pxsl=%2F%2Fproduct%5B@id%3D%271003%27%5D"]Deep water fish and rice[/URL]
[URL="http://www.naturapet.com/display.php?d=product-detail&pxsl=%2F%2Fproduct%5B@id%3D%271010%27%5D"]Venison and rice[/URL]

Some Wellness canned:
[url]http://www.omhpet.com/cats/wellness_detail.asp?pCode=canCatTurkeySalmon[/url] (the rest are in the menu on the left side)

Thanks alot Prin
 

[FONT="Comic Sans MS"][B][COLOR="DarkOrchid"]WOW! That is very good Prinn. Thanks alot for that info. I saw that food, but wasn't sure how it was. I feed my guys Max, but I don't think it is as good as they say, just cheap. I don't want cheap food for my babies. I want the best food. I was going to try to make my own maybe too. I will definately read up on those websites you gave me.

Thanks again.[/COLOR][/B][/FONT] :crazy:

:pawprint: :ca: