How to Make Cat Food at Home: 3 Recipes

If your cat has allergies or sensitivities to certain ingredients, purchasing pre-made food can turn out to be a hassle. To counteract that, you can opt to make homemade cat food where you have full control over the recipe and ingredients.

With that in mind, 5-Minute Crafts gathered some healthy recipes you can easily make for your pet.

❗ Always consult your veterinarian before starting your pet on a homemade diet.

Differences between store-bought and homemade cat food

Before making a decision, it’s best to take a look at the pros and cons of a homemade cat diet. Every cat is a carnivore by nature, and they benefit a lot from eating meat. If you’re going to make the switch to a homemade diet for your cat, it’s extremely important you balance it correctly.

Pros:

✅ Complete control over the ingredients used

✅ Possibly better quality nutrition

✅ Choosing the type of meat according to your cat’s preferences

✅ Mixing any supplements your cat takes directly into the food

✅ Highly customizable

Cons:

❌ Can turn out to be more expensive

❌ Takes more time to prepare

❌ Getting used to homemade food so it won’t want to switch back to store-bought

❌ Trying to achieve the appropriate nutrition levels can be tricky

❌ Having to know what cats can and can’t eat (onions, milk, chocolate, etc)

Recipe #1: raw chicken and salmon

Ingredients:

• 700 g of raw chicken wings (with bone and skin)
• 100 g of raw salmon (with bone)
• 100 g of raw chicken heart
• 50 g of raw beef kidney
• 50 g of raw chicken liver
• 1 whole egg (raw with shell)
• 1 teaspoon of the taurine supplement
• 2 cups of water

Instructions:

1. Start by cutting the salmon and meat into chunks that can fit through a meat grinder.
2. For the chicken wings, split them as needed so they fit through the grinder.
3. Get a bowl and place it under the grinder to feed the meat and organs through.
4. Now you can add the egg, taurine, and water to the mixture and combine everything. Lastly, divide the mixture into portions and feel free to refrigerate or freeze it.

Note: If you don’t own a meat grinder, you can instead use a blender or a food processor. If you don’t have any of those either, you can instead begin by pureeing the meats with the egg and water.

Recipe #2: cooked rabbit and poultry

Ingredients:

• 2 to 2.25 pounds of whole rabbit carcass
• 75 to 1 pound of boneless chicken or turkey thighs
• 2 eggs (raw yolk, white, slightly cooked)
• 10,000 mg of fish oil
• 400 IU of vitamin E
• 50 mg of vitamin B complex
• 2,000 mg of taurine supplement
• 1 teaspoon of lite iodized salt
• 1 cup of water

Instructions:

1. Begin by grinding the rabbit carcass and chopping the chicken or turkey into small pieces.
2. Then bake the poultry thighs at 350ºF for 15 to 20 minutes, but leave 50% of the meat raw. While it’s baking, mix the dry supplements in a bowl.
3. Grab the fish oil, egg yolks, and water and whisk them together to form a slurry.
4. In a bowl, pour the slurry into the ground mixture. You can now portion the mixture and place it in the refrigerator or freezer.

Recipe #3: chicken and rice

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup of cooked chicken breast
• 1/2 cup of long-grain steamed rice
• 1/2 ounce of chopped canned clams (in juice)
• 1 tablespoon of chicken fat
• 1/8 teaspoon of potassium chloride (salt substitute)
• 1/4 of a multi-vitamin tablet (crushed)
• 1/10 vitamin B complex tablet (crushed)

Instructions:

1. Set the chicken aside and prepare the ingredients as desired.
2. Cut up the chicken and mix it with the rest of the ingredients.
3. You can now serve this meal to your cat, but remove the leftovers after 30 minutes.

Notes:

• This single-serve recipe is easy to scale by simply measuring the ingredients to make larger batches, but it’s not intended to be a complete diet.
• Don’t season the chicken and rice.
• If you want to store larger portions, combine the chicken, rice, clams, and chicken fat apart from the dry supplements and add them in prior to serving.