Homemade Cat Food: 'Mum' knows best

Why would you want to get involved with making homemade cat food?

Whether you have a Siamese cat, other pedigree or a wonderful house cat, what you feed your feline will affect her or his health and happiness - and ultimately reduce expensive vet visits.

I am writing from the position of a lay person. I draw my opinions from sources that don't directly profit from vested interest. Food whether for pets or us is sure to bring out some really intolerent rhetoric. When drawing your own conclusions I feel it is always best to 'follow the money' It is much easier to have an unbiased view if you are an outsider and don't stand to gain from your conclusions isn't it?

I hate to remind you but this may be a good time to: ALL cats in the wild eat small mammals, insects, lizards and sometimes a bit of fish, so don't think our pedigree or house cats somehow have different food needs. We have to copy their natural diet when making our homemade cat food.

The majority of pet foods use meat, meat by-products, fillers and additives that for many reasons are not good enough for us to eat and are becoming more and more questionable as suitable cat foods as well.

If you consider that meat - supposedly safe for us to eat - has had the following problems, you might re-assess a lot more than just your cat's diets. I did:

Mad Cow Disease (Bovine spongiform encephalopathy): Caused when cattle are fattened unnaturally quickly by being fed ground and occasionally diseased animal carcasses rather than the grass they are designed to eat. When disease harboring cattle were killed for meat, the disease was passed on to humans who ate the contaminated meat. Some humans have since gone on to develop a human version of mad cow disease and died.

The US Food Safety and Inspection Service
has been keeping records of banned meat and other food products since 1996. The number of cases they have investigated is staggering so don't read about these if you are the squeamish type.

Problems with human food are one thing, but mass-produced pet foods have their own secrets.

One of the most infamous is the recent cat food recall when melamine contaminated dog and cat foods resulted in thousands of indiscriminate pet deaths, Siamese cats included. Being a tad cynical I wonder how many other issues have never been reported or discovered and how many pets have been killed by the food we have given them, believing it was of the best quality?

It's hard to imagine what might actually be in your pet food when you watch those cute and adorable cat food ads on TV. Beware, though,ignore the ads. Many tinned (and dry) cat foods are made with some of the more disgusting animal parts and additives that are not even meat based. Next to cans, that dry food starts looking more pleasant.

Is dry cat food better then?

Dry cat food certainly is popular.

It is extremely convenient because it doesn't look or smell like canned cat food. Factor in that dry food does not attract flies and lasts all day: put it down in the morning and your cats will still be able to fill their bellies if you're home unexpectedly late. We may feel guilty about leaving our cats alone all day, but at least they get to eat when we are away. Feeding on demand is not healthy just convenient for us and can lead to weight and health problems.

Many vets also boost their income by selling dry foods. The subliminal message is that these dry foods have their stamp of approval, and we tend to think of professional vets like doctors - we respect their opinions.

People are becoming increasingly concerned about dry cat food and everyone from cat lovers to holistic vets have severe reservations about it, and wonder whether dry cat food may actually be causing many health problems and even deaths. Many people are starting to describe dried cat foods as the equivalent of what we call junk food or even kitten Crack. Surely we can do better than serve up junk food to our trusting pets?

One solution is to make your own homemade wet cat food.

We instinctively know that homemade dishes are best for us and chefs in good restaurants are increasingly producing some great wholesome foods from healthy organic ingredients. No need to look at the food label because these quality foods won't have a list of bizarre chemical sounding ingredients. Lets bring these feel good feelings and values into our own kitchens so that our cats can enjoy healthy, natural homemade cat food.

We've seen it all before. Processed food companies know how busy we are so they literally offer us convenience on a plate. Remember TV dinners? Not too bad tasting, quick to make, and often cheaper than a healthy home-cooked meal.

The same goes for our cats. Cat food companies make it easy and usually cheaper than if you made your own homemade cat food from scratch. Bottom line: making your own cat food at home requires an effort on your part, just like preparing healthy home-cooked meals for your family. Those of us who choose to do it do so because we believe in taking control of our food choices.

If you really can't bring yourself to make homemade cat food, please do your cats a huge favor and at least serve up good quality tinned wet cat food, with as little cereals and vegetables as possible.

Leave the dry food for rare emergencies if you have a healthy cat, if your cat is not healthy then never in my mind. Dried food is rarely a healthy choice if your cat suffers from diabetes and has been prescribed diabetic cat food; or if he or she has irritable bowel syndrome (constant diarrhea), is overweight, has allergies, skin or teeth problems or any other health problems.

I hope I've given you a few reasons to deepen your education about what makes good, balanced homemade cat food. Here's what you need to know:

• There's an increasing body of literature that believes your pet should be fed organic cat food but 'organic' on a label doesn't necessarily make that food OK.
• If you have a diabetic cat or believe your cat might be diabetic please, please, please read about diabetic cat food here

• So should you only feed your cat meat? No, No and No. Please be aware that making homemade cat food is much more than just buying some meat from the butcher for your cat! Your cat will get ill and be far worse off than if you had just stuck with the wet cat food in tins.
• *How do I make the best homemade (raw cat food)?
• What about natural cat food?
• *Find out how (raw cat food) can help make your sick cat better, or keep your cat from getting sick in the first place.
• *And what about k/w (kitten feeding) if your cat is still a little thing?
• How about a free homemade cat treat recipe or two? Don't kill your cat with kindness, some homemade cat treat ingredients are bad for your cat. If you have worries about the healthiness of dry cat food just read the list of ingredients on the back of a packet of some cat treats!

I hope by now you're convinced you should invest some time and money in making good quality, balanced homemade cat food, buying the best of ingredients. Remember a dedicated (for the cats) food preparation machine or two can make this job much easier. If you are a cat breeder and show your cats your cats will glow with health. The well-being of your cat is in your hands - especially if your cat is an indoor cat. So go on, spoil them properly with the best homemade cat food.

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