Anyone making your own pet food? Cat food?

[mistymoney]

After landing in the ER vet, with a recommendation of giving a mild diet/boiled meat for a while....wondering about taking over wet pet food production.

Anyone doing it?

Sources, ideas, cautions?

Will keep to commerical dry food, and I add some fresh greens for them when I can....

[tooqk4u22]

I haven't done it per se regularly but have looked into it.  If you have a small dog that eats a cup a day it can make sense especially if your dogs has some allergies, dry skin or other conditions.  If you have a large dog that eats 10+ cups a day it can feel like a lot of work.   

Decent enough dry dog food is about $2/lbs +/- and you can probably make wet fresh dog food for same or less than that based on 1/3rd each chicken ($2.50/lb or less sand organic), brown rice or sweet potatoes, and vegetable mix (peas and carrots).   

[hooplady]

Yes, I've been doing it for several years. Ironically, the cat I was really doing it for is now on a prescription diet for IBD so I've paused the homemade and switched to other canned foods for the rest of them. The biggest investment is a meat grinder that can handle a fair amount of bone.

I used the recipe from https://catinfo.org/. I never felt comfortable feeding completely raw so I used the option of "par-baking" the meat.

[FrugalShrew]

Posting to follow. I would be interested to try it.

[mistymoney]

Yes, I've been doing it for several years. Ironically, the cat I was really doing it for is now on a prescription diet for IBD so I've paused the homemade and switched to other canned foods for the rest of them. The biggest investment is a meat grinder that can handle a fair amount of bone.

I used the recipe from https://catinfo.org/. I never felt comfortable feeding completely raw so I used the option of "par-baking" the meat.

thank you! lots of info here, and I have one with kidney issues...

[mistymoney]

Posting to follow. I would be interested to try it.

i had good success with just searing boneless chicken thighs in a little olive oil then adding water to simmer. when cooled, ran meat through my FP shredder then added back to broth. they all loved it!!

adding in just a small bit of rice with subsequent batch really changed their enthusiasm!

[Sibley]

The problem is that you have to make sure it is nutritionally complete. You'll probably have to add supplements. As well as the on going slog of having to make the food regularly, because it is perishable. I personally don't like to cook in general, so am gonna pass on home made cat food.

[GuitarStv]

I have not.  My dog prefers to eat her cats fresh rather than have someone provide her with cat food.

[mistymoney]

I have not.  My dog prefers to eat her cats fresh rather than have someone provide her with cat food.

boo! hiss!

[FrugalShrew]

I read the catinfo page that @hooplady recommended, and it sounds like one of the keys for nutritional sufficiency is making sure there is the right proportion of bone--either through a meat grinder which grinds up the bones or adding a bone meal supplement--in order to make sure there is enough calcium.

This makes sense to me since cats eat the little bones of birds and mice in the wild.

I also liked the suggestion of preparing the food in batches and freezing it so you are not constantly preparing food.

[hooplady]

I read the catinfo page that @hooplady recommended, and it sounds like one of the keys for nutritional sufficiency is making sure there is the right proportion of bone--either through a meat grinder which grinds up the bones or adding a bone meal supplement--in order to make sure there is enough calcium.

This makes sense to me since cats eat the little bones of birds and mice in the wild.

I also liked the suggestion of preparing the food in batches and freezing it so you are not constantly preparing food.

Yes, that's why acquiring a good grinder is important (although I think there are options to use other meats and add bone meal as you mention). There are a whompload of other supplements in the recipe as well. I generally made about two weeks' worth and froze it, that worked well for me.