These are the cat food recipes we use to make our raw meat homemade cat food. We also include tips and time savers for making several batches at once if you plan on feeding lots of cats!
Print these pages and refer to them frequently until you feel comfortable making your own homemade cat food!
If you have any doubts at all about making raw meat cat food, click on the links following these cat food recipes to find out everything you need to know about making healthy raw meat cat food!
RAW MEAT CAT FOOD RECIPES…WITH BONES
- 4.4 pounds raw muscle meat with bones
- 14 ounces raw heart. If you can’t get heart, substitute 4000mg Taurine and add an additional 14 ounces of raw muscle meat
- 7 ounces raw liver. If you can’t get liver, substitute with 40,000 IU of Vitamin A and 1600 IU of Vitamin D and add an additional 7 ounces of raw muscle meat
- 16 ounces of water
- 4 raw egg yolks
- 4 capsules raw glandular supplement
- 4000mg salmon oil
- 800 IU Vitamin E
- 200mg Vitamin B
- 1/4 tsp kelp (optional)
- 1/4 tsp dulse (optional)
- 4 tsp psyllium husk powder OR 8 tsp whole psyllium husks (optional)
If freezing the finished cat food recipes for more than a week or two, add an additional 4000mg of Taurine to make up for what may be lost during storage. We add the additional Taurine to each batch of cat food recipes we make regardless of how long it will be frozen just to insure our cats get enough of this vital nutrient.
- Remove the skin
- Wash the meat. If you will be using the skin, wash it as well (see note)
- Chunk the meat into bite-sized pieces. Do not grind. Place in refrigerator
- Grind up the raw meaty bones, heart, liver and skin (if using). Mix well. Place in refrigerator
- Fill a bowl with the two cups of water and whisk together all of the non-meat ingredients except the psyllium. It will clump up if the psyllium added too soon. If substituting Vitamin A & D for the liver and Taurine for the heart, add them now
- Whisk the psyllium into the elixir mix
- Combine the elixir, chunked meat and ground meat together. Mix well
- Portion into containers and serve or freeze. Be sure to allow room for expansion when portioning into the containers to freeze.
Two or three times a week, sprinkle a few drops of fresh salmon oil onto the food just prior to feeding it to your cats. The essential fatty acids in salmon oil are very fragile. There is no way of knowing if any gets lost during freezing so it’s a good idea to put a little on the food just to be sure your cats are getting enough. Most cats love the taste so it’s a nice treat for them.
It is also a good idea to sprinkle on a little extra Taurine two or three times a week as well just to be sure your cats get enough of this essential amino acid. As with the salmon oil, it is hard to be sure how much may get lost during freezing.
Skin – if your cats are thin, grind up the skin with the meaty bones. The extra fat in the skin will help put weight back on. If your cats are normal weight or overweight, omit the skin. We don’t usually use the skin but will add some if we are a little short on the weight of the meat for the cat food recipe. If we have a skinny cat that needs to put on weight, we just feed him or her more frequently until a good weight is reached.
Don’t get too hung up on the weight of the meat for the cat food recipes. There is no need to throw away a piece of thigh meat just because you are a few ounces over. As long as you are close, the cat food recipe will turn out fine.
You may need to experiment with the amount of water a little. If your cats prefer it a little soupy, add more water to the cat food recipes. If they like it a little more solid, put less water in your cat food. Our cats seem to prefer the food a little more chewy so we only add 1 1/2 ounces of water.
This cat food recipe is excellent for most cats especially for those who have allergies, irritable bowel syndrome, or chronic viral infections such as Herpes. If you are making this cat food recipe for kittens, omit the psyllium.
RAW MEAT CAT FOOD RECIPES…WITHOUT BONES
This cat food recipe is not as healthy as the homemade cat food recipe with bones but you can use it in a pinch. We do not recommend using this cat food recipe on a regular basis.
- 3 pounds raw muscle meat
- 14 ounces raw heart. If you can’t get heart, substitute 4000mg Taurine and add an additional 14 ounces raw muscle meat
- 7 ounces raw liver. If you can’t get liver, substitute with 40,000 IU of Vitamin A and 1600 IU of Vitamin D and add an additional 7 ounces of raw muscle meat
- 2 cups water
- 4 tablespoons bone meal. (The kind made for humans not the kind for your garden)
- 2 tablespoons unflavored gelatin
- 4 raw egg yolks
- 4 capsules raw glandular supplement
- 4000mg salmon oil
- 800 IU Vitamin E
- 200mg Vitamin B
- 1/2 tsp kelp
- 1/2 tsp dulse
- 4 tsp psyllium husk powder OR 8 tbsp whole psyllium husks
If freezing the finished cat food recipes for more than a week or two, add an additional 4000mg of Taurine to make up for what may be lost during storage. We add the additional Taurine to each batch of cat food recipes we make regardless of how long it will be frozen just to insure our cats get enough of this vital nutrient.
- Remove the skin
- Wash the meat. If you will be using the skin, wash it as well (see note)
- Chunk a good portion of the meat into bite-sized pieces. Do not grind. Place in refrigerator
- Grind up the remaining meat, heart, liver, and skin (if using). Mix well. Place in refrigerator
- Fill a bowl with the two cups of water and whisk together all of the non-meat ingredients except the psyllium and gelatin. It will clump up if the psyllium and gelatin are added too soon. If substituting Vitamin A & D for the liver and Taurine for the heart, add them now
- Whisk the psyllium and gelatin into the elixir mix
- Combine the elixir, chunked meat, and ground meat together. Mix well
- Portion into containers and serve or freeze. Be sure to allow room for expansion when portioning into the containers to freeze.
Two or three times a week, sprinkle a few drops of fresh salmon oil onto the food just prior to feeding it to your cats. The essential fatty acids in salmon oil are very fragile. There is no way of knowing if any gets lost during freezing so it’s a good idea to put a little on the food just to be sure your cats are getting enough. Most cats love the taste so it’s a nice treat for them.
It is also a good idea to sprinkle on a little extra Taurine two or three times a week as well just to be sure your cats get enough of this essential amino acid. As with the salmon oil, it is hard to be sure how much may get lost during freezing.
Skin – if your cats are thin, grind up the skin with the meat. The extra fat in the skin will help put weight back on. If your cats are normal weight or overweight, omit the skin. We don’t usually use the skin but will add some if we are a little short on the weight of the meat for the recipe. If we have a skinny cat that needs to put on weight, we just feed him or her more frequently until a good weight is reached.
Don’t get too hung up on the weight of the meat for the cat food recipes. There is no need to throw away a piece of thigh meat just because you are a few ounces over. As long as you are close, the cat food recipe will turn out fine.
You may need to experiment with the amount of water a little. If your cats prefer it a little soupy, add more water to the recipe. If they like it a little more solid, put less water in your cat food. Our cats prefer the food a little chewy so we only add 1 1/2 cups of water.
As stated at the beginning, this cat food recipe is inferior to the recipe with bones. Cats need the calcium and minerals found in real bones. Supplemental calcium is simply not as good but this recipe will do in a pinch.
MAKING CAT FOOD FOR A LARGE MULTIPLE CAT HOUSEHOLD
When you first start out making cat food, we recommend making only one batch at a time. Because we feed so many cats, we usually make 5 or 6 batches of food at a time. The following are some tips and time-savers we have learned along the way.
Remove the total amount of meat you will need from the freezer the day before ‘cat food making day’. Place it in the refrigerator to thaw. By the time you are ready to use it, it will still be a little frozen which makes removing the skin and cutting a little easier. (If you will be using liver and heart, remove them and put in the refrigerator as well.)
On ‘cat food making day’, measure and empty the capsules for the supplements needed for each batch of food into individual paper cups. For example, 6 batches = 6 individual paper cups. Don’t add the salmon oil or Vitamin A & D yet. Just put all of the dry ingredients into the cups for now. (We use paper cups so we don’t have to wash more dishes.)
Label all of the bags you will need with the date and type of meat. (We use gallon size Ziploc bags, one bag per meal.)
Wash and remove the skin from all of the meat. Weigh out enough meat for one batch of food, place it in a container and refrigerate. Repeat the process for all of the batches you will be making.
Take out one container of meat at a time and separate it into a container of meat to be chunked and a container of meaty bones for grinding. Put both of these containers back in the refrigerator. Repeat the process for the rest of the meat. We usually get out a new container for the chunks and keep the stuff to be ground in the original dish to cut down on dishwashing. At this point, if you are making 6 batches of cat food, you would have a total of 12 containers, 6 for chunking and 6 for grinding.
Weigh the liver and heart (if using) for each batch and add it to the container for grinding. Returning each to the refrigerator.
Starting with the chunking plate on the grinder, chunk each of the containers of meat separated for chunking (no bones) one after the other, returning each container of chunked meat back to the refrigerator.
Change to the grinder plate and grind each of the containers of meaty bones, liver and heart (if using) one after the other, returning each container of ground meat to the refrigerator.
Now that all of the meat is ready, it’s time to make the ‘elixir of cat life’.
Make the elixir one batch at a time. Separate the eggs and place the yolks in a mixing bowl. Add the water. Add the salmon oil. Add the Vitamin A & D (if using). Whisk it till mixed. Add the pre-measured cup of dry ingredients and whisk it well.
Add the elixir to the ground meat and mix well. Add the meat chunks and mix well. Portion into the labeled containers, seal and freeze.
Repeat the process with the next batch of food, and continue repeating the process until all of the batches of cat food you are making have been mixed, bagged and put in the freezer.
Clean-up and you’re done for the week! (or maybe 2 weeks depending on how many cats you are feeding!)
While this can be done easily by just one person, it is more fun with two or more! Have a cat food-making party! And when you are done making cat food, pour yourselves a drink and order pizza!
The following links will take you to other pages of our website which provide detailed information on every aspect of making your own raw meat homemade cat food. Our goal is to ensure you have everything you need to make your homemade cat food-making experience as positive as possible.
