You should know how to prepare raw food for cats if you've acquired a pet. Feeding your pet commercial cat food or meat flavored cereals can adversely affect your pet's health. Raw food for cats might be time consuming and involve some work, but it can ensure your pet's continued good health.
Ingredients for Raw Cat Food:
- Raw muscle meat (4 pounds)
- Raw organ meat such as liver and heart (400 grams)
- Egg yolks (4)
- Vitamin supplements
- Salmon oil (4,000mg)
Step 1. Assemble All the Equipment
You must start by keeping all the equipment such as the grinder, sharp knife, egg separator, cutting board, several small containers and all the ingredients at hand.
Step 2. Cut the Meats
Separate the muscle meat into chunks and separate the meat from the bones. Remove the covering from organ meats such as kidneys. Keep the meat chunks and organ meats in the refrigerator to be used at a later stage.
Step 3. Separate the Egg Yolks
Separate the eggs using an egg separator, and add the yolks to the vitamin supplements with salmon oil and some water. Whisk all these ingredients well.
Step 4. Grind the Bones
Use the grinder to grind the bones. Add the organ meats and the chunks of meat to the ground bones and mix well. Then add the mixture of egg yolks, vitamin supplements and salmon oil.
Step 5. Prepare the Food for Storage
Put small servings of the raw cat food in cup-sized containers. Take care to not fill the containers right to the brim, because the food can expand when frozen and cause the lids to pop open.
Step 6. Label the Containers
Stick labels on the containers and mention the date and type of food on the labels.
Step 7. Remove before Mealtime
Remove a container at every mealtime and warm it up. If you serve it cold, your pet will go off the food, because cold food triggers the gagging reflex in cats. Don't use a microwave to heat the food, because the bones can splinter when cooked and this can be dangerous. You can use a baggie and warm the food by placing the baggie in warm water.
Precautions
It's best to add taurine supplements to the food if you plan to use raw food for cats for more than a week. Freezing can cause loss of taurine. It's best to use a scale to measure the weight of the meats and organs. It's important that the calcium/phosphate ratio is correct and to achieve this, you should try to prepare the raw food from the whole carcass and not just from body parts.
If you suspect that the food is too old, don't feed it to your pet. Although a raw food diet is the best for your pet, you should ensure that you feed him a balanced diet. You should use fresh food as much as possible. Preparing raw cat food can keep your cat healthy and free from the health risks associated with the additives and preservatives that are present in commercial cat foods.