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, 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 cheeky, mischievous and loves to explore. Gem is more reserved, loves to sit near us but not on us and can be very demanding when she wants a pat.
Gem & Scout
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.
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.
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)
- 4x425 g Tinned Tuna in springwater (No added oil or salt)
- 4x125 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 6 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.
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 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 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;)
Taurine is found in the chicken hearts. No need to supplement taurine unless the food is cooked.
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
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