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.
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
Congratulations! It’s always heartwarming to read about people who changed their pets’ diet to species-appropriate meat-based raw food. In your recipe, you don’t seem to use supplements. Feline nutrition experts say that meat and poultry are too low in taurine for cats, at least in Europe and the US.
We have been feeding our cats a raw diet for many years and will never go back to kibble or tinned food.
For further information see: feline-nutrition.org and Dr. Lisa Pierson’s web site on feline diet and over-vaccination, catinfo.org
Best wishes for 2018
Mo.
Thanks for the info Monika I will have a read. We want to make sure we are giving them the best nutrition.
I have just found your blog.
I have read with interest this post. I am totally with you regarding feeding pets a raw diet. My vet advised me to feed my cat biscuits. I protested, saying that cats in their natural state don’t make biscuits to eat! She assured me that the food was well researched and just perfect for my cat. So I followed her advice. What happened next? My cat developed kidney failure and died! What is the main cause of kidney failure in cats? Dry food! What! I have two three year old cats now. They have only ever had raw food, they are a picture of health. Their coats so glossy. People who pick them up often comment on how “sweet” they smell. They also have very low dander and even people who say they are allergic to cats have no reaction to them.
Keep up the raw food for those precious kitties. It’s simply the best thing for them.
Kind regards
Linda
Hi Linda, thank you so much for your comment. I am so sorry to hear about your cat passing away, that must have been devastating. So glad to hear the raw diet is working out great now. Amazing about the dander too! They certainly are precious!!
Hi,
What recipe do you use for your kittens?
Long as your kittens are eating regular food you can feed them the exact same diet starting very young
Hi girls or should I say fellow Novocastrians, although I have not lived there for more than 50 years more’s the pity. We have 2 tiny rescue poodles now 5 and were delivered at 18 months with expensive dry food as their suggested diet. We feed them all raw food, less fish than your moggies, but they are very healthy with stunning coats. We tried to give them the food that came with them, but it was never touched, had to be thrown out.
Many congratulations I saw your achievements on diet doctor
keep travelling
Ruth
Thanks so much Ruth.
Scout and Gem love the raw food. They are no longer interested in dried food. We love hearing about others feeding their pets this way too. Thanks so much for sharing.
Hi! I just came across your website through Pinterest. I’m considering switching my cat to this raw food diet. She’s a bit “chunky” and could stand to lose some weight.
Could I substitute pork for the beef? When we’re cooking and chopping our meat for ourselves, she loves the pork and chicken, but she turns up her nose at beef. I’m just wondering if there’s a reason why I see beef in lots of raw food recipes, but not pork.
Thanks!
Sophie
In pork meat can be a virus included which is deadly for cats and dogs. Thats why it should never be fed raw.
Hi, I have a cat that had a stroke last year and am wanting to put her on a keto diet but I’m concerned about feeding daw meat because of toxoplasmosis. My other concern is that cats need certain minerals etc like taurine. What are your thoughts on these things?
Thanks
Given the fact your cat has had a stroke, it’s obviously best to consult the vet about this. Our cats have been eating this way for year and they had their annual check a couple of weeks ago and they were fine. Some taurine is found in the raw meat we give them. I know my cats have been better for it, but we are just talking from our own experience.
No totally. That’s why I was commenting because I wanted to know your experience with and whether you were concerned about toxo. My cat was inside only as well unless she was with us out side in the garden.
I’m a vet nurse and work in a specialist centre so I do know your a lot.
I think it’s wonderful that you’ve done this. I live a ketogenic lifestyle and have been watching a summit and they had a pet talk which I had never consiseeed.
Thanks for putting this out there;)
I rescue and have 24 babies that I feed twice a day….. I am looking into a raw diet for them….. I know I’m spending way too much money on canned food and 3 types of dry….. I have been reading how bad the food I’m feeding them is!!!… I am in shock and I want my babies to live long happy lives….. I normally go through 100 cans a week plus treats, tuna chicken and dry food…. with a raw food diet will I still have to feed them twice a day plus all the extras……. would love to hear back from you…. thanks proud rescue mom of 42 years
I hear gizzards are very high in taurine
Our two rescue cats love it and the vet knows what we are feeding them and they are hPpy
Taurine is found in the chicken hearts. No need to supplement taurine unless the food is cooked.
The highest amount of Taurine is found in hard working muscle meat such as hearts, wings, thighs and drum sticks and gizzards. Chicken breast for example is very low in taurine. The most impwortant when feeding raw diet, it has to be balanced: 80% muscle meat, 10% bone and 10% oval (whereas liver has to be at least 5%).
If for example you feed too much liver, your cat will get diarrhoea and if you feed too much bone, your cat will get constpated. There is this fantastic raw feeding group on Facebook which i was so lucky to discover after finding/rescuing a very sick cat in my garden two years ago. This group is called ”cats raw and proud”. They have about 35.000 members from all over the world. You will learn everything regarding raw. Really, they are the best! Do check them out please!
Thank you for all the info Ingrid!
This may be a silly question, but do you take the bones out of the wings?
We don’t as they actually need to crunch the bones for their teeth. I’ve also started using necks which have some bones for them to crunch on too
I add nutritional yeast to the raw to add some b vitimans into their food. Hearts and gizzards are best for nutrients. Salmon oil for omegas anf yeast for B vitamins.
Also, is it wings with the drum, or no drum? Thanks!
I chop up both bits the drum part and the other part.
Is there no fear of the chicken bones splintering? Also, why don’t you just mix the fish in with the rest before freezing it rather than after it has thawed? Just wondering.
Hi Shannon thanks for your comment. As long as the chicken bones are raw the cats have no problem with them. The same as if they caught a bird in the wild I guess!
We don’t mix it all together just because of the volume, it would take up too much space in our freezer. I don’t see any reason why you couldn’t try it that way though.
I spent a great deal of time to find something such as this
Thanks. Hope your cats enjoy it.
You said that you feed your cats three large spoonfuls twice a day. What sized spoons are you talking about? My cat desperately needs to lose weight.
Our cats don’t need to lose weight and they are still really good at moderating themselves. So I kind go off them. In winter they eat a lot more so I give them a bit more. The three spoonfuls was more of a estimate as they change. I would say start with an amount and see how your cat goes for a period of time.
I really liked your post. We have a lot of rescue cats. We have researched raw cat food diet for quite some time. We actually started making our own for our cats. Most of them love it but there are still a few stragglers that won’t let go of the klbbles. I am curious why you use ground beef rather than chicken? We actually break ours down into 3 different bags and use a grinder to grind it and put into storage bags. Large bag for breast meat about 2.5 lbs, 2nd bag is dark meat bag approx 1lb and 3rd bag is heart, livers and gizzards bag approx 1 lb. At serving time we mix all 3 bags together. I had been concerned about the taurine and have looked at and purchased a lot of supplements for this. But I did run across a website today that explained taurine to me to where I am not looking at supplements anymore due to the ingredients that we have put together has all the taurine the cats would need. I will include the web page. I used to grind the chicken bones into the meat but have recently stopped it seemed like they didn’t eat it as well. Recently started looking at the KetoDiet for pets due to one of our girls has cancer. I do like the idea of giving them the chicken necks to remove plaque from their teeth, thank you for that input.
Keep up the great work
https://perfectlyrawsome.com/cats/prey-model-raw-pmr-for-cats/the-importance-of-taurine/
Hi Bill,
Thanks for your comments. I think we just chose beef as it is slightly cheaper than chicken. I also mix it up from time to time. Don’t want them to get too bored. Thanks for your comments about the taurine as that is mostly what some people are concerned about. I had researched it and I think they are getting what they need from what we are feeding them. They love it.
So sorry to hear about your cat. I hope you can help her through this.
Thanks
Dan and Erika
Well done! I have a pregnant stray cat to feed. I need to give the best start possible. I found your recipe while researching, and am looking forward to mixing up a batch. I have cat probiotics, so I think I will add a bit to your recipe. Any way, thank you for posting it!
Our girls love it. They won’t touch commercial cat food any more. Good luck with your new cat. Not sure if a pregnant cat needs more than a regular cat, so maybe check that out.
Hi there,
Thanks for the recipe.
I’m about to start my 1 year old cat on this diet. Seeing as it’s been 2 years since you posted originally I wonder if you have any comments or updates regarding this recipe. Is it still the same or have you made any updates or additions to it? Do you think cats would require any addtional suppliments?
Great question. I am still feeding them this mix 2 years on. Neither of them have had any issues and on the odd occasions I have had to use commercial cat food, they definitely prefer this mix. We are definitely not experts around supplements, but I don’t feed them anything else and they are good healthy cats.
Hi do u leave the bones from the chicken wings in it?
Yes, they crunch the bones and it’s good for their teeth
Hi. Just read your article. I had no idea pets could go on a keto diet. My 4 year old cat has recently gotten sick. He has pain in his back legs, mostly right side, so he isn’t moving as much as he use to. A trip to the vet said he is anemic and believes that the lameness is due to the anemia. We have been feeding him broenswagger to help treat the anemia. Do you think this diet would also help with that?
We are definitely not experts in this area and it would be something you would want to check with your doctor. We really just feed our girls a raw food diet and they love it.
Are duck hearts just as good? I can’t find chicken hearts,
Yeah duck hearts will work too
Hi.
I in your recipe I see
4×425 g Tinned Tuna in springwater (No added oil or salt)
4×125 g Tinned Sardines in springwater (No added oil or sal
4×425 tuna is right? No 4×125?
Thanks
Hi, Thanks for your comment. No, I use 4x425g for my mixture. So I make the mince, chicken liver and wings mixture and freeze those into 4 separate portions. Then I defrost that mixture and combine 1 425g of tuna and 1 125g of Sardines. This mix usually makes 4-6 serves depending on your cat. So each of the frozen portions gets a big tuna tin and a small sardines tin mixed in. I hope this makes sense. To be honest the amounts don’t matter too much. It’s just about making a mix that the cat enjoys and has a combo of different flavours.
Hi, have been feeding my cat a raw diet that i buy from the pet store but want to make my own soon. Can i buy the meat at the store? Have been told to not feed my cat meat from the store as that meat is made for humans to cook and can be dangerous for cats.
We have been feeding our two cats the food from the supermarket that is for human consumption and they have not had any issues. They have been having for 4 years. We are not vets, just someone that feeds this to our cats, so we can not say it is 100%, but we have had no issues and our vet has had no issues with what we feed them.
Hi, was just wondering. I have heard many times to not feed cats with meat from the store so i have always bought frosen raw food from the petstore. But have wanted to give my cat some chicken bones to crunch on. Is it ok to feed meat from the store or not?
Check out my previous reply to your similar comment.
This recipe is not nutritionally complete. What is the purpose of the sardines? Where is the source of iodine and manganese? What about Vitamin E? A proper raw cat food recipe takes these into consideration. A good one can be found on feline-nutrition.org. I’m sorry but this is not a safe recipe to feed regularly to your cat. And, although cats can digest raw meat, you shouldn’t feed minced beef from the grocery store to your cats as it is very high in bacterial load. Only whole cuts of meat should be fed (you can grind them with a grinder yourself). Tuna should also not be fed on a regular basis as it is high in metals.
Iodine from Sardines and Tuna. They are both also high in selenium, which chelates mercury and carries it out of the body. Vit E in Sardines, tuna, beef, chicken which is high in healthy fishoils. they only need .3mg manganese a day and they get more than that with the sardines, tuna, chicken, beef and liver.
Thank you so much for this! We have a cat who we found living in our roof in 2015, and have no idea how old she is. Looking at your recipe I can see we haven’t been properly balancing the raw food for her. She’s pretty good, but I’m going to try to improve her health using your recipe. She has quite a lot of main coon and is very chatty, but when she’s not feeling good she goes very quiet…we’ve bought raw mixtures from a place called Harmony Farms in LA, but I don’t know if she gets enough bone to chew on…and are cats ok with sardine bones? They look so sharp…I did get some frozen sardines but I was worried about choking as she hasn’t tried them before. Anyway, thank you so much, I’ll get our mixture made up this weekend…!
Our girls have no issues with the sardine bones and they love the sardines.
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 🙂
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
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
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!