Make your Kitty a Prepper too-- Make Cat food At Home

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By Jessica Burke

Prepping, not to use what’s becoming a kitschy term, means preparing for you but also your felines. You can certainly stock up on several pounds of dried kibble and store it for some time. But, the problem with dry food– as I note in some other posts– cats need increased water, AND dried kibble is a one-way ticket to an early grave for your cat, harsh as that may sound. Unlike some folks that I’ve seen and read about, I will NOT be putting my cats down if there’s any SHTF scenario. My girls are a part of our family, and they’re part of our emergency alarm system– so they’re part of our preparing. The first stage is to make your own cat food. Get used to doing it now, and get your cats used to it now. It’ll save you money and create a healthier cat. It’ll also help remove you from the need to purchase processed prepared cat food.

You’ve read our other articles and made the decision that homemade cat food is the way to go for sustained independence– for yourself and your kitty. You have enough stock pots. You have the digital scale, complete with tare function, and you even ordered Alnutrin after finding out that your cat didn’t mind the taste of it at all.

Hint—when trying out a vitamin like Alnutrin, follow their directions about how to prepare and serve the meal. I just use cooked meat, for previously mentioned reasons. Unless you have access to chickens and lamb you can and are willing to kill for your kitties, then I suggest you do the same.

So, kitty ate the first Alnutrin meal with NO problem. What now?

You could do one of 2 things. Start clean and fast: give kitty the new food. Both of my kitties took to it immediately. I didn’t have to acclimate them to it. It’s that good. Honestly, my husband sometimes wishes I cook this well for him.

The latter method would be to start slow. Feed your usual food and start adding the new bit by bit.

If you’re using dry food as a main food source, you will shock kitty by removing it entirely. NEVER Never ever leave dry food down all day for your cat. I’ll refer you again to my feline bible—The New Natural Cat by Anitra Frazier. She tells you exactly what to do about dry food and why.

The next step would be to give your kitty 2 meal times—morning and evening, ideally 8 to 12 hours apart. I generally feed my girls around 8am and 8pm. They’re more than happy with that. When I was feeding Luna a lunchtime meal because the new kitty Sage needed a 3^rd midday meal, Luna began putting on a bit extra poundage. By the time I noticed that, Sage was about 7 months and perfectly fine with 2 meals a day.

If using the 2^nd method, acclimation, begin with 3 parts the old kitty food and one part new, homemade food. A healthy cat shouldn’t need more than 4-5 ounces of food per day—not per meal. That’s only 2 to 2 and ½ ounces of food PER MEAL. That’s plenty. Anything more is obesity territory. Your cat won’t starve. And, if your cat IS obese, you must—for her health—cut back on the food intake.

A general rule—if a cat is pretty much lying down while eating, she’s too fat. If you pet her and cannot feel her backbone or her ribs, she’s too fat. If you see her sitting still more than she’s active—she’s too fat. Obese felines are just as numerous as obese humans. Depending on your cat’s breed and gender, a healthy feline should be between 7 and 13 pounds, unless you’ve got a Maine Coone or another massive breed on hand. A Domestic Shorthair shouldn’t weigh more than 10 pounds, but for a Bengal, 10 pounds is pushing obesity. Be aware of the weight limits for your breed. Those orange tabbies that do tend to get large, still shouldn’t be more than 11 pounds. Ever single one that I’ve seen with an owner that claims “He’s big boned” was in denial over a seriously obese feline.

So—back to acclimation. If you’re feeding the proper amount, 2 ounces per meal—initially only ½ ounce should be the new food. Keep this ratio for two to three days, then increase the new food to 2 parts, or 1 ounce. If all’s quiet on the kitty front, after another 2-3 days have passed, then increase again to 3 parts, or 1 and ½ ounces of homemade versus ½ ounce of old food. And, with the final push after another 2-3 days of no complaints, eliminate the old food entirely.

If your cat has for some reason stopped eating, go back to square one. You went too quickly. Keep in mind, the older the cat, the more time he or she needs to become used to the new food. If your cat refuses to eat it at all, it’s not the food—it’s the feline and the environment.

Make sure your cat’s sinuses are clear, that there’s no evidence of runny eyes or sneezing, that there’s no cold or respiratory thing. And, make sure kitty’s nose is clear. The only 2 times Luna wasn’t interested in the food was when she was dealing with a blocked tear duct and had a blocked nasal passages as a result, and when I found a dead bug up her nose. Mommy to the rescue both times and as soon as she could breathe, she ate. A cat who can’t smell, can’t taste and won’t eat, generally.

If the nose isn’t the problem, make sure you have no remnants of the old food lying around—no old dishes, no kibble. If you have a dog in the house, please remove the dog food from the area too—and wash the floor. Just because you can’t smell it, it doesn’t mean kitty can’t. When I first began using homemade food with Dusty, in 1995, after I washed the floor, I washed it a second time with Nature’s Enzyme, a product usually used to clean up around if kitty has an accident somewhere. If you can’t get Nature’s Enzyme, use distilled white vinegar. Follow with a wipe down with plain old water and allow it to dry thoroughly. Try to feed again.

Finally, if you have multiple cats—you must all get them on the same food regimen. The only friend who tried homemade food and claimed failure wasn’t failing because of the food. She failed because she tried giving new kitty homemade food, while she kept another, older feline, dry food. Matters were complicated by a dog, who ate at a whenever schedule and the result, new kitty became a dog-food addict pretty quickly.

The length of this process really depends on you more than your cat. Don’t hover over him while he’s eating. Don’t pay too much attention to the new food. Give good, strong positive energy with the clear intent that this food is DELICIOUS. Don’t think about the time you spent making it. Don’t complain and Do NOT regardless of your cat’s reaction, scold him or her.

Cats aren’t children and aren’t dogs. Keep a positive mind and your cat will like what you want him to like….eventually.

The quickest acclimation period was my own. I made the sample food, Luna scarfed it. I took the plunge and prepared the first batch of food—Chicken and Broccoli, using about 6 pounds of meat initially and, since I was following the Alnutrin recipe to the letter, I didn’t give her any grain and no veggies. She still scarfed it. The only bump in the road was her digestion. After doing more research, reading the articles for and against raw diets for cats, and speaking to my vet, I came up with the recipes and preparation methods that I’ve already written about. I’ve been using it ever since, with zero regrets.

The longest acclimation period, a friend who was admittedly inconsistent with her kitty, was about 3 months. The inconsistency included a complete unwillingness to remove dry food. She was a single mom, supporting herself and her child, and was a firm believer that kitty needed to have access to food ALL day ALL the time.

Admittedly, the scent of dry food is irresistible to most cats. It’s made that way—with preservatives and scent enrichers and all sorts of questionable stuff, even in the organic, higher quality stuff. I had mentioned that I had tried using an organic, high quality dry food with Luna, with the intent of cleaning her teeth. We started calling it kitty crack because she very quickly refused all other food. We even found her gnawing a hole into the bag one day, and wound up putting it into a metal container (one of those large, metal popcorn tins). Another time, we found her wrestling with the tin, trying to get the lid off. She was howling the whole time. Her behavior also became pretty aggressive too. She was getting frustrated because her access to the kitty crack was limited, and so she started taking out that frustration on her humans. In less than a month, I removed the kitty crack from the house entirely. I kept it on the porch and fed my neighbor’s neglected outdoor feline with it until he disappeared from town.

Try option 1 first. I have such confidence in the food that I think kitty will take to it immediately.

If not—try option 2. If you’re still having trouble, contact me. I’m available (in the NYC area) for home consultation, for phone consultation, or even email and via Skype. Email for rates and details.

My next hurdle with homemade cat food is how to preserve it. Currently, I make enough for 2 to 3 months and store it in the freezer in 1 pound baggies. Without electricity, all that stored food is useless. Also, since Alnutrin has a shelf life of only about 6 months, canning the food will help lock in the nutrients. And cats who eat homemade food, eat less. My girls only eat about 4-5 ounces a day, total. And I don’t starve them either. If I give them more, they don’t eat it. A 16 ounce ration of food lasts between 2 and 3 meals, for 2 cats. If it’s a richer meat, like lamb, we get 3 meals because it’s more filling for them than chicken, which generally lasts 2. I’ll do the math another time, but that’s a fair starting off point to decide how much you’ll need to have canned on hand to feed your felines during an emergency.

Hubby and I recently made the plunge and purchased a 15-quart pressure canner. It looks like Robbie the Robot and weighs more than both my cats combined. I’ll need to research proper canning times for 16 ounce jars of cat food, but I’d assume that the canning time would be similar to the canning time for a chicken and vegetable stew. There’s all the same kinds of ingredients, and you can certainly add more stock to each jar so you’re making sure that kitty has her daily water requirement there with food. If a cat has sufficient water in her food, she won’t drink water during the day. My cats NEVER do. Luna has, to date in 5+ years, only drank water 3 times– and all 3 times she wasn’t feeling well. Twice was after returning from having her teeth cleaned, and the excess water may have been to flush the anesthetic from her system. So in an emergency scenario, homemade and home canned cat food would contain the daily calories and daily water requirement for your feline companion.

UPDATE:
After the last batch of food I made on Sunday, 4/29/12, I decided to put my pressure canner to work. I a few weeks ago, we took the plunge and purchased the All-American 15 and a half quart pressure canner.   I did a lot of research on how to properly can chicken and mixed ingredient foods– like chicken and vegetables. Every single book or article had different guidelines. Some said never can chicken, while others said never can anything with a thickened stock. Some said use 15 pounds of pressure and can for 70 minutes while others said use 11 pounds for 1 hour and 55 minutes. I wanted to scream.  I looked at blog posts, website forums, and read information in about half a dozen different books before I took my basic cat food recipe, made a few alterations, and actually canned 6 pint jars as a test.

I used my chicken and broccoli recipe as a basis but did not add any grain or any thickeners, essentially. I had only 5 ingredients: chicken, broccoli, liver, giblets, and the stock they were initially cooked in. I combined them all and simmered them on the stove until hot, since I was using a hot pack method. Everything was cooked ahead of time, so I was just combining them and heating them to simmering.

All my jars were sterilized, as were the lids, and were placed in hot, almost boiling water, until I needed them. I used my appropriate tongs and funnels, made sure there was no food residue before putting on the seal and did not tighten the bands much at all.  I reread the instructions for basic meat canning before proceeding, and filled my jars, leaving about an inch and a half headspace.

I read the instructions on the pressure canner, made my husband read them, and read them again myself before putting everything together to actually process. I grew up with stories about how a pressure canner exploded on my grandmother and tomato sauce burst like a geyser all over their apartment in Brooklyn. It was either the late 1940s or the early 1950s. My mother had me terrified of using a pressure canner.

I filled the canner with the jars neatly, making sure jars neither touched the sides nor each other, and making sure they were snug on their rack. I then filled the pot with freshly boiled water to within 2 inches of the top of the jars. The lid went on and so did the range.

Ultimately, I processed the jars at 10 pounds of pressure (or 240°F) for 1 hour and 30 minutes after the initial jet of steam escaped the valve, before putting on the pressure control whosit.

No jars exploded. They all sealed well. I watched the pot the entire time to make sure it didn’t fall below temperature, or went above temp. After everything was over, and the jars and pot cooled down, I carefully removed the jars, emptied the water, and put the jars back into the pot– cover and all– to further cool down overnight before inspecting them a second time.  I left them on the kitchen table for a day or so, just incase they wanted to explode after the fact. They didn’t. I just labeled them and put them away.  I’ll update you in a few weeks when I decide to pop open a jar and see what happens.

One note though– do NOT mix your food with Alnutrin or any vitamins BEFORE processing in a pressure canner. The high heat will destroy the vitamins. I plan on mixing the food with vitamins just before serving.

2013-02-16 08:00:22

Source: http://www.green-and-growing.com/2012/03/make-your-kitty-prepper-too-make-cat.html