Since I started to think about my cat's diet I met quite a few people with holistic views on health and nutrition.
Those views can be summarised in two scentences:
1. Food should be as fresh as possible.
2. A balanced diet means that you should never add any supplements, vitamins or bioactive additives to it unless they are prescribed by a doctor.
The same applies to your cat. In nature it hunts for his mice and birds and eats them fresh. Sometimes he can catch a lizard, a frog an insect or even find some bird eggs in a nest. Everything is always fresh. Dogs can scavenge. Cats rarely do that. And they definitely get all the necessary nutrients and vitamines from their food. Otherwise they wouldn't have survived for thousands of years.
So the idea is to feed your cat with various raw meats, organs and bones to mimic it's natural diet.
It's as simple as that.
Bones are necessary as a main source of calcium in cats diet. Chicken necks, chicken heads and whole quails are perfect for cats as sources of bones. I believe that chicken necks and chicken heads should be 20-30% of your cat's diet and you can give him a quail to gnaw on it once or twice a week.
Gnawing on meaty bones stimulates and cleans cat's teeth and helps to develop healthy jaw muscles. (Bones should always be raw. Cooked bones can be lethal to you cat, they cause blockages, they can splint and lead to internal bleeding. Never cook bones for your cat. Don't even unfreeze them in a microwave just to be sure.)
Taurine is another cat's owner concern. Cats should get it from their food because their bodies are unable to produce taurine by themselves since cats evolved eating raw. It seems that there can never be enough taurine in your cat's diet. But actually almost any raw muscle meat contains taurine. Taurine degrades with heating and cooking. So again, all meat should be raw not to deprive your cat of it's valuable aminoacids. Heart muscle is one of the greatest sources of taurine and almost all cats love eating raw hears. Pork heart, turkey heart, beef or chicken heart - all good. Hearts can be 20 to 50% of your cat's diet depending on other ingredients of his meals.
Other muscle meats that are good to your cat include any parts of beef, turkey or chicken legs, rabbit, lamb and even pork. Chicken or turkey stomachs are also very nutritionally valuable and healthy to eat. But never use chicken breasts. Chicken breasts are poor in nutrients and eating a lot of chicken breasts can lead to vitamin deficiency and cause a disease or syndrome known as an avitaminosis or hypovitaminosis.
The rest of you cats diet should be liver as a great vitamin A source (no more than 5-10% in total or you risk your cat to have a runny tummy or even vitamin A toxicity), raw quail eggs, diary, some vegetables and other sources of insoluble fiber (no more than 2% in total). Fiber is important for healthy bowel movements but it is not necessary.
I usually make a mix of most of the ingredients and some of the ingredients I give separately.
The recipe is very simple:
20% chicken necks
10% chicken heads
30% hearts (pork, turkey or beef, lamb or whatever heart I can find)
10% turkey leg meat
10% beef muscle meet
10% chicken or turkey stomachs
8% rabbit or beef liver (chicken and turkey liver is also fine)
2% of the mix are raw vegetables minced to an almost puree form (zucchini and pumpkins are the best) and wheat bran (one table spoon per kg of meat)
Two times a week my cat gets a quail egg as a snack.
Every other day I give my cat a couple of tablespoons of fresh non sweet yogurt (3-5% fat) or fresh quak. My cat prefers goat milk yogurt to a cow milk yogurt :)
A 5 g of grated cheese is ok to add to his portion of meat or you can give it to him separately if he eats cheese on its own. Cheese is also a great source of calcium.
One drop of olive oil added to his food once a day won't hurt as an additional source of vitamin E and as hair ball prevention, but it is not necessary. Some cats don't like the smell.
Two times a week my cat gets raw fatty fish like salmon or mackerel to supplement his diet with healthy omega-3 and vitamin D in its natural forms.
You can give your cat whole quail as a separate meal. Cut it into 3 or 4 pieces so that it's easier for your cat to eat. Or give the whole thing and see what happens. You can give chicken necks and heads separately as I said before. There are plenty of variations and adjustments to a homemade diet.
Here is my cat sleeping after a meal.
Those views can be summarised in two scentences:
1. Food should be as fresh as possible.
2. A balanced diet means that you should never add any supplements, vitamins or bioactive additives to it unless they are prescribed by a doctor.
The same applies to your cat. In nature it hunts for his mice and birds and eats them fresh. Sometimes he can catch a lizard, a frog an insect or even find some bird eggs in a nest. Everything is always fresh. Dogs can scavenge. Cats rarely do that. And they definitely get all the necessary nutrients and vitamines from their food. Otherwise they wouldn't have survived for thousands of years.
So the idea is to feed your cat with various raw meats, organs and bones to mimic it's natural diet.
It's as simple as that.
Bones are necessary as a main source of calcium in cats diet. Chicken necks, chicken heads and whole quails are perfect for cats as sources of bones. I believe that chicken necks and chicken heads should be 20-30% of your cat's diet and you can give him a quail to gnaw on it once or twice a week.
Gnawing on meaty bones stimulates and cleans cat's teeth and helps to develop healthy jaw muscles. (Bones should always be raw. Cooked bones can be lethal to you cat, they cause blockages, they can splint and lead to internal bleeding. Never cook bones for your cat. Don't even unfreeze them in a microwave just to be sure.)
Taurine is another cat's owner concern. Cats should get it from their food because their bodies are unable to produce taurine by themselves since cats evolved eating raw. It seems that there can never be enough taurine in your cat's diet. But actually almost any raw muscle meat contains taurine. Taurine degrades with heating and cooking. So again, all meat should be raw not to deprive your cat of it's valuable aminoacids. Heart muscle is one of the greatest sources of taurine and almost all cats love eating raw hears. Pork heart, turkey heart, beef or chicken heart - all good. Hearts can be 20 to 50% of your cat's diet depending on other ingredients of his meals.
Other muscle meats that are good to your cat include any parts of beef, turkey or chicken legs, rabbit, lamb and even pork. Chicken or turkey stomachs are also very nutritionally valuable and healthy to eat. But never use chicken breasts. Chicken breasts are poor in nutrients and eating a lot of chicken breasts can lead to vitamin deficiency and cause a disease or syndrome known as an avitaminosis or hypovitaminosis.
The rest of you cats diet should be liver as a great vitamin A source (no more than 5-10% in total or you risk your cat to have a runny tummy or even vitamin A toxicity), raw quail eggs, diary, some vegetables and other sources of insoluble fiber (no more than 2% in total). Fiber is important for healthy bowel movements but it is not necessary.
I usually make a mix of most of the ingredients and some of the ingredients I give separately.
The recipe is very simple:
20% chicken necks
10% chicken heads
30% hearts (pork, turkey or beef, lamb or whatever heart I can find)
10% turkey leg meat
10% beef muscle meet
10% chicken or turkey stomachs
8% rabbit or beef liver (chicken and turkey liver is also fine)
2% of the mix are raw vegetables minced to an almost puree form (zucchini and pumpkins are the best) and wheat bran (one table spoon per kg of meat)
Two times a week my cat gets a quail egg as a snack.
Every other day I give my cat a couple of tablespoons of fresh non sweet yogurt (3-5% fat) or fresh quak. My cat prefers goat milk yogurt to a cow milk yogurt :)
A 5 g of grated cheese is ok to add to his portion of meat or you can give it to him separately if he eats cheese on its own. Cheese is also a great source of calcium.
One drop of olive oil added to his food once a day won't hurt as an additional source of vitamin E and as hair ball prevention, but it is not necessary. Some cats don't like the smell.
Two times a week my cat gets raw fatty fish like salmon or mackerel to supplement his diet with healthy omega-3 and vitamin D in its natural forms.
You can give your cat whole quail as a separate meal. Cut it into 3 or 4 pieces so that it's easier for your cat to eat. Or give the whole thing and see what happens. You can give chicken necks and heads separately as I said before. There are plenty of variations and adjustments to a homemade diet.
Here is my cat sleeping after a meal.
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