I do not trust pet food companies anymore?

Question

Is there any way to home cook a good cat food? I have 7 cats, 5 of my own and 2 belong to my adult son who is living with us. The animals are members of my family and we want to provide the best and not have to worry whether they will die from some commercial pet food on the market. I know that cats need taurine. I am going to try study on what is essential in a feline diet and try to cook a healthy food at home for them. Is this possible?Anyone know of a company that uses good quality meats and grains to make their product?

Answer 1

Absolutely! We have done this for years. To get a start, try the following recipes found at http://www.simplypets.com/pet-recipes/ or Google 'pet food recipes' and examine the many links.

Most of this is common sense, in fact, you can save a good deal of money by using the least expensive cuts of beef, chicken, fish, ground up with an assortment of vegetables, even cereals to make up patties, sort of like a small meat loaf. These freeze well. In no time at all, you can quickly determine what appeals most to the cats and then it gets to be pretty simple.

Best of luck to you, it will be fun.

Answer 2

Our cat is ridiculously finicky - he won't even eat people food!

The other day I switched him to Felidae - he likes it and their website has pretty interesting info. They say there are no hormones or antibiotics in their meat supplies and there is cranberry for urinary tract health.

I agree, the typical large pet food manufacturers really make me wonder what's going on.

It seems as if unscrupulous companies are getting rid of garbage by rendering it into pet foods. It's horrible and why should we pay premium price for essentially crummy by-products? If the cattle are in that bad of shape, they should just burn them and get rid of them.

Castor & Pollox is also supposed to be a good brand, but I've not yet checked into it.

Cats and dogs need their own various nutrients, cats need Taurine for example. It might be easier for you to find a brand of food you have confidence in. Otherwise, check with your Vet and see if you can supplement your pet's diet safely with a vitamin additive. Too much of a good thing can turn the other way around and end up bad for them. Cat's biochemistry is different than a dog's also.

Answer 3

God, this is the ost exasperating and scary thing for me right now. The recall has created so much stress for me, and money spent. Originally before this fiasco began I was feeding my cat Nutro Max canned food, a company who's name was on the recall list. The exact product I was using was not mentioned, but after some searching I found it was "suspected." I immediately took my cat off of it and took him to the vet for tests. $300 later, I found he is in perfect health; no problem. Then I buy him Natural Balance and yesterday some flavor of Natural Balance was recalled, so I got my cat off of that. Last night, after extensive research online, I decided to go to the raw/frozen food path. This morning, before I had fed my cat the new food, I found she had poo'd on the floor...?!???? I cannot understand why this happened before the change came around. Anyway I cleaned that up and I put the food down for my cat and she refused to eat it. I then squished some treats into it and she ate some of it. I really dont know what to do anymore. I am exhausisted and getting angry and spending way more money than I can afford just to keep my eating well and keeping my mind at ease.

Answer 4

I am very concerned but recognize that I do not have the time or the expertise to cook for my animals. I use a high quality commercial food called California Naturals which I selected because it has the fewest ingredients of any commercial food as is designed to be hypoallergenic (I have one dog with allergy issues). It contains no wheat products. They make cat food also. It is balanced and after doing my research I am comfortable using it. There are several other brands out there that I believe to be high quality and you should be able to select one of those.

Answer 5

I heard a new story about this on the radio the other day. It was in reference to the dog food aspect, so I'm not sure if this is applicable to cats. The person they were interviewing said to stay away from grains for dogs. Their diets should be more "meat oriented", with viatamin supplements as well.

Unfortunately, I can't find the new story, because the speaker runs a company that more natural pet foods.

Answer 6

You are actually better off by using a commercial product. They have the resources to test the ingredients and test the final product. Unless you have a chemistry lab in your garage you have no way to do this.

The simple fact of the matter is that all of life involves risk. Menu Foods had no reason to suspect contamination of their wheat gluten simply because they were checking for contaminants that have been known to occur in that product.

The fact of the matter is that it is impossible to protect against an unknown hazard.

Answer 7

Yes, you can find recipes for homemade diets for cats online, or through your vet. But, be reasonable: there have have been recalls/tainted food alerts on EVERYTHING from hamburger to spinach! So, someday you may make your cat's own food to find out the meat you used has a problem, too - these things happen from time-to-time. Don't overeact.

Answer 8

There are many very high quality pet foods. Look at this website for a highly recommended brand: http://www.canidae.com/

The foods are corn, wheat and soy free and they get all ingredients they use from the US.

Answer 9

I would look at the ingredients on the cans in the grocery and then try to cook those same kind of ingreients at home, chopping them or cutting them fine to suit my cat. This may be more expensive but it will put your mind at ease about food safety for your cat. Maybe you will find it fun to cook, too.

Answer 10

I feed my dog Natural Way, it an All Natural food, they make cat food also. There are no preservatives or artificial ingredients in it. I would try it!