Dr. Fox's Homemade 'Natural' Cat Food Recipe
Diet for Cats
1/2 cup of peas, chick peas or lentils
Pinch of salt
1 T. fish oil *
2 T butter
2 T unflavored gelatin
1 egg, whole
1 T. cider vinegar
1 T. chopped canned clams in juice
1 t. nutritional yeast*
1 t. dried kelp*
1 t. calcium lactate/citrate/ or carbonate supplement or oyster shell or 3 Tums tablets
1 whole chicken cut in pieces,
or 1 lb. hamburger (not too lean), or ground lamb, or turkey.
1 cup chopped chicken hearts and gizzards.
Combine all above ingredients. Add water to cover all ingredients, simmer and stir, and add more water as needed until cooked and thickened. Stew should be thickened enough to be molded into medium-sized or muffin-size patties (add a little oat meal, bran, or mashed potato to thicken if needed). Also add an egg or cup of cottage cheese. Immediately after cooking and cooling, de-bone and discard bones (cats should not be given cooked bones to eat since they can splinter and cause internal damage). This stew can be served as: 1/2 cup full for a cat with the rest of his/her rations. Freeze the rest of the stew as patties, or in muffin trays, and thaw out as needed. Serve one patty to a cat about three times per week with regular rations.
For variation, substitute 1 pound lightly cooked and mixed equal parts of ground or chopped pieces of calf heart, kidney and liver. (NOTE: some cats are allergic to fish, corn, and also to beef and dairy products).
· * These items are available in health food stores. Ideally all ingredients should be Organically Certified.
·NOTE: Add fish oil, like Nordic Naturals or wild salmon oil after the cooked food has cooled to room temperature.
A daily multi-vitamin and multi-mineral supplement is also advisable, and one that also supplies essential amino-acids and is recommended by feline vets is called Platinum Performance Feline Wellness. Designing Health Inc. also makes excellent animal (and human) supplements under the label The Missing Link. At a pinch, crush up one human a ‘one-a day’ complete multi-vitamin. & mineral supplement and put light sprinkling (about one-fifth or less) on the cat’s food at one of the daily feedings.
T = Tablespoon
t = teaspoon
--TRANSITIONING YOUR CAT ONTO THE NEW DIET SHOULD BE DONE GRADUALLY SO AS TO ALLOW FOR ADAPTATION AND AVOID AVERSION AND DIGESTIVE PROBLEMS THAT A SUDDEN DIETARY CHANGE MAY CAUSE----MIX INCREASING AMOUNTS OF YOUR CAT’S NEW FOOD WITH DECREASING AMOUNTS OF THE OLD FOOD OVER A 7-10 DAY PERIOD.
IT IS ADVISABLE TO VARY THE BASIC INGREDIENTS TO PROVIDE VARIETY AND TO AVOID POSSIBLE NUTRITIONAL IMBALANCES, AND TO MONITOR THE ANIMAL'S BODY CONDITION AND WEIGHT SO AS TO AVOID EITHER OVER-FEEDING OR UNDER-FEEDING, BASED ON THE AVERAGE CAT CONSUMING ONE THIRD OF A CUPFULL THREE OR FOUR TIMES A DAY. THIS RECIPE CAN ALSO BE PUT INTO A FOOD PROCESSOR AND FED RAW.
--NOTE: DIFFERENT ANIMALS HAVE SLIGHTLY DIFFERENT NUTRITIONAL NEEDS ACCORDING TO AGE, TEMPERAMENT, AMOUNT OF PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND HEALTH STATUS).
Keep teeth clean by giving a scalded (to kill bacteria) raw chicken wing tip with skin on it for your cat to chew every 3-4 days, or thin strips of scalded raw beef heart or shank meat—the tougher the better! .Avoid addictive and potentially harmful dry foods that do little to keep teeth clean.
Home-prepared foods for our animal companions, ideally with organic ingredients that were locally produced, are important because you then know what your animal is being fed if a food-related health problem such as an allergy to a particular ingredient or digestive upset were to arise. With most processed commercial pet foods containing all kinds of human food-industry by-products and ingredients considered unfit/unsafe for human consumption, many of questionable nutritional value after repeated processing, you just don’t know. Aside from coloring agents that may cause problems other than saliva-staining of animals’ faces, and paws, some commercial pet foods and treats still contain artificial preservatives like BHA that is linked with cancer of the bladder and stomach; BHT that may cause cancer of the bladder and thyroid gland; and Ethoxyquin, one of Monsanto’s many allegedly harmful products that renderers (meat and poultry processors) add to the fat/tallow that is put into pet foods to prevent rancidity. Ethoxyquin is a recognized hazardous chemical, a highly toxic pesticide. Most pet food manufacturers have recently phased out using BHA and BHT and now use ‘mixed tocopherols’ (a claimed source or form of vitamin E), citric acid, beta-carotene and Rosemary extract as preservatives.
For more information on holistic cat care, see my books The Healing Touch for Cats published by New Market Press, NY. and for food industry concerns that affect us all, see my book, Eating With Conscience: The Bioethics of Food. New Sage Press, Troutdale, OR.My latest book on cats entitled CAT BODY CAT MIND: EXPLORING FELINE CONSCIOUSNESS AND TOTAL WELL-BEING was published by The Lyons Press in 2007. For details on the health risks of manufactured pet foods, see NOT FIT FOR A DOG: THE TRUTH ABOUT MANUFACTURED DOG AND CAT FOODS, by Drs. M.W.Fox, E.Hodgkins, and M. Smart, Quill Driver Books, Sanger CA 2008
This recipe is safe for all kittens as well as for adult cats unless they have a genetic predisposition for nutrient-related disease, or have a pre-existing medical condition such as pancreatic of kidney disease. In which case, consult with your veterinarian, and always remember to transition on to any new food gradually. Giving probiotics daily during such transition can be helpful Normally when healthy animals are fed a wholesome, balanced diet, they absorb what nutrients they need. An unbalanced, high-cereal content diet leads to unbalanced physiology, nutrient excesses and deficiencies leading to obesity and a host of health problems as documented in the book NOT FIT FOR A DOG; THE TRUTH ABOUT MANUFACTURED DOG & CAT FOOD