How to Make Organic Cat Food

Series Summary

Cats have been domesticated pets for centuries, providing companionship to people as far back as 9,500 years ago. Despite the stereotype of cats as solitary animals with no need for human presence, many cats have a very social relationship with their owners, providing and receiving affection on many levels. In fact, some people suggest that human owners provide a sort of surrogate mother figure for cats and kittens, and that adult domesticated cats live in a sort of extended kittenhood. In this free video series, a cat behaviorist demonstrates how to care for cats, how to feed cats and how to treat sick cats. Discover how to make organic cat food, how to toilet train a cat and how to tell signs of a pregnant cat. Treat sick cats as well with tips on treating flea allergies in cats, treating cats with colds and buying over-the-counter medicine for cats. Make sure that every pet cat or kitten is happy and healthy!

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Diana Korten and I am here today with Daisy to talk about making homemade organic cat food. When your making organic cat food the most important thing is to start with organic ingredients. So, you want to go to your health food store and you want to get your organic chicken or your organic beef. Some organic vegetables. The three things that you are going to want to really experiment with are taste, texture and temperature. To figure what it is that your cat really likes. So, what I have done is I've got a few options. What you want to start with is you want to go to your health food store and you want to buy some organic meat. Meat is the most important ingredient in cat food. What I've got here is just a little raw chicken tenderloin. I went ahead and baked it in the oven. I just sprayed the pan with a little bit of olive oil, baked it until it was nice and thoroughly cooked. I'm going to mince it up for the cat. Most cats aren't going to want eat it whole. Because, it just takes a little more effort than they are accustomed to. Another option is of course some ground beef. This I'm actually going to serve up raw. I know there is a lot of controversy about raw meat and cats. But, I have visited many, many sanctuaries across the country that are using raw beef. That they are feeding their cats. Their cats are incredibly healthy. So, I'm a big fan of it. The reason that I've included this is that it's got the bone. Because the thing that you want to do. You know that one of the big issues with making your own homemade food is the cat going get enough taurine. Which is essential for the cat's diet. They get really sick without it. Well, one solution for the whole vitamin, minerals and all that is to have your butcher grind the meat with the bones in it. This has some bone and cartilage. If you had your butcher grind it for you. So that it has the meat and the bones. Then you have got really a very wholesome meal for your cat. You can do the same thing with the chicken. Another protein option is of course to start with some organic eggs. Here I am just going to go ahead and scramble an egg. There is no salt. You never want add salt or sugar to your cat's diet. Another option of course is just to add a little bit of raw egg yolk. Not the whites, just the yolks to your cats food. You can mix it in with beef here. The advantage of the egg yolk is it increases the acidity of the food. It can help prevent urinary tract infections. Things like that. Most cats are not fond of their food served cold. But, you don't want it to be too hot because you don't want them to burn their tongues. But so we got a couple different texture options here. We've got this you know flaky cooked meat. Then we've got the ground up raw beef. The nice thing about cooked squash is that it's very sweet to the cats palate. Of course, you don't want to add sugar. But, if you got a vegetable that caramelizes a little bit. That can be very pleasant to the cat. I'm going to go ahead and add some of this squash here to the chicken. Not a whole lot. But just enough to give it a little bit of sweetness. Now, you will notice that we not actually added any carbohydates to any of these. That's a big controversy in the homemade cat food world. You may feel that you want to add a little bit of rice or some potatoes. You definitely want to discuss that with your vet. If your cat is having kidney problems ,you may really want to consider adding some carbohydrates. Another option that I like to do is add a little. This is freeze dried chicken. Just sprinkle it over. Most cats just think that this stuff is the best tasting stuff ever. So it just gives it a little bit of garnish. It gives it a little enticement for them to go ahead and eat some more."