We love cooking and recipe creation, but we never thought we would have to create a raw cat food recipe! We used to feed our fur babies cat food from the supermarket and never really thought much of it. When one of our girls became allergic to the food she was eating we got to work researching a solution.
To save you some time, we wanted to share this raw cat food recipe in case anyone was going through a similar experience with their precious kitties.
Scout & Gem
Our girls, Scout and Gem, were born on the 1st of October 2012, in foster care, after their pregnant mother was dumped by her owner. They were part of a litter of four and once they were 12 weeks old they were put up for adoption.
We had decided we were ready to bring pets into our lives and started looking for rescue kittens and found this litter through Hunter Animal Rescue. We went and met them and fell in love immediately. They quickly became a part of our family and we have loved watching their personalities grow.
They are inside only cats and are very spoilt. They love to wile away the hours sleeping on the bed while Erika works. Scout is the tabby and is cheeky, mischievous and loves to explore. Gem is the white and black one and is more reserved, loves to sit near us but not on us and can be very demanding when she wants a pat.
Food allergies
At the beginning of 2017 Gem developed a sore on her neck, which resulted in several visits to the vet as she would scratch it obsessively. She was given cortisone tablets and we were advised that she was likely allergic to the food we were giving her.
She also had to wear a “scarf” to stop her from scratching the sore. We were given a hypo-allergenic dry food from the vet and advised if it continued she would need to be on the drugs for life. This prompted us to do some further investigation, as neither of them were very happy with the new food and we wanted to see how we could change their diet to a more real food one.
Feeding your cats a raw food diet
We often get questions about feeding our girls a raw food diet and there is a couple of things we consider when we decided to feed a raw food diet to them.
When we first introduced it, we just added a little bit of the raw food in with their regular food to make sure they didn’t have any reactions to the change in their diet. We noticed straight away that they loved our raw mix and finished all of that first. So, we quickly moved to feeding them a raw food diet. This started in 2017.
Since then we have checked with each new vet that they are happy with the food we are feeding them and it has always been met with a positive attitude.
Some of the considerations we needed to make when developing our raw cat food recipe were taurine and crunch.
We had a few people questioning how our cats get enough taurine if they are not getting it through commercial cat food. Our research showed that organ meats are a great source of taurine for cats and that is why livers and hearts are part of what we include in our mix.
The other consideration we found was that they need to crunch on dried or crunchy food for their teeth. We occasionally include chicken necks or chicken wings (Chopped up) so that they do need to crunch the bones when they eat it.
We also really wanted to give the mix some variety. So we included some beef, chicken and seafood. If you are considering feeding your cats a raw food diet, we encourage you to give it a go and play around with the mix you give them. If you are going to play around with the mix, we would encourage you to make sure you include some organ meats.
Raw Cat Food Recipe
After doing some research we developed a raw cat food recipe and gave it a go. They loved it. The best thing though was Gem’s sore cleared up, the scarf came off and she hasn’t had a sore or itch since starting this food in May 2017. They have now been eating this food for 3 years and have been doing really well.
Tips for our raw cat food recipe
- When you have 1 serve left of the raw cat food mixture, start defrosting a portion of the meat base to prepare for the next mix.
- We feed Scout and Gem twice daily and usually give them about 3 large spoonfuls each serving.
Have you tried feeding your pets a raw real food diet? Let us know your experience in the comments below.
- Garlic yogurt sauce
- Teriyaki Chicken Rice Bowl
- Lemon Orzo Salad
- Honey Teriyaki Sauce
- Mexican Chicken Salad
- Avocado lime dressing
- Mexican tuna salad
- Tuna Salad without Mayo
- Panko Chicken
- Cream Cheese Pasta
Disclaimer: This is intended as advice only, also consult your vet prior to changing our cat’s diet.
Ingredients
- 1 kg beef mince (ground beef) (2lbs)
- 500 g chicken livers (1lb)
- 500 g chicken hearts (1lb)
- 500 g chicken wings (1lb)
- 4×425 g tinned tuna in springwater (No added oil or salt)
- 4×125 g tinned sardines in springwater (No added oil or salt)
Instructions
Meat Base
- Firstly prepare the meat base
- Chop the livers, hearts and chicken wings into bite size pieces. I have found using kitchen scissors works the best for the livers and hearts. I use a meat clever for the wings
- Combine the beef mince, livers, hearts and chicken wings in a bowl and mix with a spoon until all combined
- Divide this mixture into 4 equal portions. Use glad wrap to store portions in the freezer
Raw Cat Food
- Take 1 meat portion and add 1 x 425g tin of tuna (drained) and 1 x 125g of sardines (drained and chopped) and mix until all combined
- Store in the fridge. This mixture usually lasts 2-3 days depending on the serving
Nutrition Per Serve
How large should the pieces of bone be after chopping up the chicken wings? I am unsure the safest size in terms of choking possibility. Thanks!
Years ago I fed our cat raw food as a supplement. She also caught food outside. When I was away, friends gave her regular cat food for us and she was kept inside, for 8 to 10 days. She always developed a terrible choking and sneezing problem then. On researching, I discovered that raw meat has parasites (both wild and domestic), and the parasites only eat and thrive on precooked food. While the cat ate only raw food, it was never sick, but very very healthy. While eating cat food internittently, the parasites thrived and caused worms in the lungs and/or around the heart. I am surprised that your cats are ok with having the precooked fish included in your recipe. Another alternative would be to cut up salmon heads you can get from a fish store, or raw sardines. I think you can buy small fish with the innards still inside. I used to give our cat liver, raw fish, and raw bones, fat, gristle, etc. but she ate outside except in winter.
Thanks for the info
I am considering this diet for our newly adopted cats. I was curious if keto diet could cause constipation in cats as it does in humans? My husband and I have been following keto WOE for 2-3 years. Another website recommended coconut oil, flax seed oil, or fish oil for mixing into the raw cat food diet. What are your thoughts? For humans I find it to be a balancing act, and I wonder if cats can also be prone to constipation or diarrhea if you don’t get it tuned exactly right?
We have not experienced any issues.Cats are carnivores, so their digestive tracts should be accustomed to it. They do have less waste in general though
Absolutely awesome. Thankyou. I will ad a scoop of coconut oil (soft solid at room temp in my part of the world … Western Australia.. for a lot of the year) . Keto and good for them 🙂