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Complete and balanced nutrition is vital to a cat’s overall health, helping them live whole and happy lives.
Many cat parents choose commercial cat food to provide optimal nutrition. But what if you’d like for your cat to try something different?
Homemade cat food is an appealing option for cat parents who want their cats to eat something other than commercial cat food. Before putting on your chef’s hat for your kitty, be aware of the pros and cons of making your cat’s food at home.
Let’s review these pros and cons.
The Pros of Homemade Cat Food
Control over ingredients
Commercial cat foods often have long lists of ingredients. Commercial cat food manufacturers employ animal nutrition experts to ensure their foods are formulated to meet a cat’s nutritional requirements. Still, you may be wary of seeing ingredients that are hard to pronounce or that you can’t quite understand.
With homemade cat food, you have complete control over what goes — and what doesn’t go — into your cat’s food. Therefore, you know exactly which ingredients are in the food.
Meeting specific dietary needs
Although uncommon, cats can develop food allergies. Cats can also have food sensitivities and intolerances that can upset their tummies. Preparing homemade cat food is a great way to avoid the ingredients your cat can’t tolerate.
For cats with chronic diseases, such as diabetes, a homemade cat food diet can help manage the disease, along with medication.
Addressing picky eating
Does your cat turn up its nose at commercial cat foods? If so, a homemade cat food diet may be the solution. Be aware, though, that picky eating may be the outward symptom of a medical condition or behavioral issue (e.g., fear) and not necessarily an indication that your cat wants home-cooked meals.
Cooking = love
For some cat parents, preparing food for their cat is an act of love. Making homemade cat food can be a joy, a way to put extra effort into loving your cat and caring for them.
The Cons of Homemade Cat Food
Even if homemade cat food piques your interest, the cons often outweigh the advantages.
Nutritional imbalance
Providing complete and balanced nutrition through a homemade diet is incredibly challenging, leaving the door open for nutritional imbalances. Here’s why.
Cats are obligate carnivores, meaning they require meat in their diet. In addition, cats require specific nutrients in their diet that their bodies cannot make. Ensuring your cat gets all the nutrients they need in the right amount can be daunting.
Common nutritional deficiencies found in homemade cat food include those listed below:
- Taurine: An amino acid. A deficiency can cause blindness and a heart condition called dilated cardiomyopathy.
- Thiamine: An animo acid. A deficiency can cause neurologic signs, digestive upset, and blindness
- Choline: A deficiency can cause liver problems.
- Iron: A deficiency can cause anemia.
- Vitamin E: A deficiency contributes to pansteatitis (inflammation of the fat).
Risk of food-borne illness
Because cats require meat in their daily diets, preparing homemade cat food requires working with raw meat. Cooking with raw meat always increases the risk of foodborne illness because of the potential presence of bacteria like Escherichia coli and Campylobacter.
Your cat could become ill if you undercook the meat when preparing their food.
In addition, homemade cat food can’t stay out at room temperature for long. Keep a close eye on your cat at mealtimes and quickly dispose of uneaten food. Immediately refrigerate any cooked meat you plan to serve your cat later.
Be aware that this foodborne illness risk isn’t just for your cat. If the raw meat contaminates other surfaces in your kitchen, the bacterial contamination exposes you and your family to foodborne illness.
Learning curve
It is essential to understand, at minimum, the basics of cat nutrition before making homemade cat food. However, animal nutrition is complicated. Learning the ins and outs of cat nutrition can feel overwhelming for cat parents who want to make homemade food for their cats.
The learning curve for making homemade cat food is significant — one that cat parents may think twice about trying to conquer.
Time commitment
Making homemade cat food requires a large time commitment. This is because homemade cat food does not contain preservatives and must be prepared fresh every few days.
But it’s not just the food preparation. There is also time needed to plan meals and shop for ingredients.
If you decide to make your cat’s food, be ready to spend a significant amount of time planning, shopping for, and cooking the food.
Expense
Cooking your food at home instead of eating out can save you money. However, preparing your cat’s food home is much more expensive than purchasing commercial cat food.
Not only are you purchasing the individual ingredients, but you may also have to purchase food preparation equipment, such as a meat grinder, and pricey nutritional supplements.
Also, given that you will be preparing your cat’s food every few days, this could mean more trips to the grocery store and more money out of your pocket.
Taste
Commercial cat food manufacturers know how to make their food tasty and enticing, even for picky eaters. However, it can be difficult, if not impossible, for homemade cat food to match the flavor of commercial cat food.
Even if you spend hours preparing a nutritious meal for your cat, they may not eat it because it doesn’t have an appealing flavor.
Considerations for preparing homemade cat food
If you have decided to make homemade cat food, follow the advice below to ensure your cat receives optimal nutrition.
Talk with your veterinarian.
Preparing homemade cat food is hard to get right and easy to get wrong. Talk with your veterinarian about your decision to make homemade cat food. They can provide nutritional guidance and direct you to nutrition-related resources, including veterinarian-approved cat food recipes.
Your veterinarian may also refer you to a veterinary nutritionist who can give you more comprehensive nutrition guidance.
Work with a veterinary nutritionist.
A veterinary nutritionist will be your best resource for understanding cat nutrition and learning how to safely prepare food that provides complete and balanced nutrition for your cat. You can search for veterinary nutritionists at vetspecialists.com.
Use only veterinarian-approved recipes.
You can find homemade cat food recipes on the internet but they may not pass muster when it comes to appropriate cat nutrition.
Trust only the recipes that veterinarians and veterinary nutritionists developed. These recipes may include supplements to ensure complete and balanced nutrition.
Follow the recipes exactly! Do not substitute one food for another or add a little seasoning unless the recipe clearly states you can.
Practice good food safety.
Following food safety practices, such as washing your hands after touching raw meat and cleaning surfaces that come into contact with raw meat, will drastically reduce the risk of foodborne illness.
The Centers for Disease Control has valuable information on food safety.
Avoid raw homemade diets.
Do not feed your cat raw meat under any circumstances. Raw meat diets increase the risk of foodborne illness and do not provide any health or nutritional benefits compared to cooked meat diets.
Switch to the new diet gradually.
A cat’s digestive system needs at least a few days to adjust to a new diet. Rather than immediately switch to an all-homemade diet, start mixing a small amount of homecooked food into their commercial food. Then, slowly increase the amount of homecooked food over several days to a week, monitoring how your cat responds to the new food.
Take your cat for regular vet visits.
Because of the potential for nutritional deficiencies, cats on a homemade cat food diet need regular vet visits to assess their overall health. If your veterinarian detects a health issue caused by a nutritional deficiency, they can advise you on how to adjust the diet to correct the deficiency.
FAQs
Are homemade cat food diets healthier than commercial cat foods?
No, homemade cat foods are not healthier or better than commercial cat foods. Homemade cat foods are prone to being nutritionally deficient because of the difficulty in attaining complete and balanced nutrition with these foods.
How much food do cats need?
Every cat is different, but the average healthy adult cat needs about 200 calories. What this looks like, in terms of food quantity, may differ according to the type of diet (dry food, wet food, homemade).
What if my cat doesn’t like my home-cooked meals for them?
If your cat doesn’t like homemade cat food, consider commercial foods, including dry foods, wet foods, and semi-moist foods.
