Ashton and Newton have been eating raw, ground cat food for about six months now, and I have been making it for them for about three months. A lot of my friends have been curious about how I make raw cat food and what it looks like, so I thought I’d tell you a little about the process.
It’s important to add the proper supplements to be sure your homemade diet is safe and balanced for your cat. You can’t just feed your cat some meat and expect kitty to stay healthy. The recipe I use is based on one from Dr. Lisa Pierson on her CatInfo site.
Raw Cat Food Recipe
Since I really don’t enjoy spending time in the kitchen, I make a lot of cat food at a time so I don’t have to do it too often. This recipe makes 30 lbs of raw, ground cat food at a time.
Ingredients
24 lb bone-in poultry thighs (not leg quarters)
2 lb poultry liver
8 – 16 cups water
16 egg yolks
40,000 mg salmon oil or fish oil (not cod liver oil)
3200 IU (2969 mg) vitamin E
400 mg vitamin B-complex (I like capsules)
16,000 mg taurine
8 tsp Morton lite salt with iodine
Other Things You’ll Need
A grinder
I bought a beastly-strong Weston #12 grinder. It doesn’t have any problems at all handling raw chicken bones. You can get a less expensive grinder like the Tasin TS-108 that a lot of people who make raw at home use and be just fine. Avoid buying preground meat, unless you are buying it from somewhere that prepares and handles it specifically for use in raw pet food. Ground meat at your grocery is handled and packaged assuming it will be cooked. There’s less time for bacteria to grow in the ground meat if you grind it yourself.
Freezer space
Don’t underestimate how much space 30 lb of cat food takes.
Freezeable containers
A 4 cup container holds a little over 1 lb of cat food. Freezer-safe glass containers are best, but my family drops things a lot, so we’re using plastic right now to avoid breakage. Because of my limited freezer space, I bulk pack 20 lb of food in 4 cup containers and 10 lb is separated into smaller containers.
Something really large to mix in
Unless you are running a commercial kitchen, you don’t have anything big enough in your cabinet to mix 30 lb of cat food in. I use a beverage tub intended to hold bottles of beverages of beer on ice.
Disposable gloves (optional)
Making cat food is messy business. Being able to switch gloves periodically, especially when you are between steps or when the phone rings unexpectedly, is a big help to avoid cross-contamination.
Instructions
Prepare the Chicken for Grinding
First, prepare the poultry thighs. Since we are serving Ashton, I like to use chicken. Remove the bones from 25% of the thighs. The rest of the thighs will be ground with the bone in so that the marrow and uncooked bones are included in the food.
Also, remove the skin from half of the thighs. I actually removed the skin from 75% of the thighs for this batch to see if it helps manage Ashton’s weight. One of the great things about grinding your own meat is that you have control over how much skin you include in the ground meat so you can tweak the calories of the mix.
Grind
Run the chicken thighs and liver through the grinder using a small grinder plate around 4mm or so. I’m using a 4.5mm plate right now because that’s what came with my grinder, but Ashton doesn’t like the bone bits and leaves them in the bottom of the bowl. I may upgrade to a 3.5mm plate to see if it helps in the future.
When I’m making this much food, there’s no way to put a container in the sink that will catch all of it. I have to empty the catch bowl several times during the process.
When I’m making this much food, there’s no way to put a container in the sink that will catch all of it. I have to empty the catch bowl several times during the process.
Mix the Supplements
I mix the dry supplements (vitamins B and E, taurine, and lite iodized salt) together first. You can just open the capsules and roll them between your fingers so they will pour their contents out into a bowl, where you can mix them up.
In a separate bowl, count out the salmon oil capsules. For this quantity of food, you get quite a pile of capsules! Pour at least 2 cups of very hot water over them and let them melt. When you think they’re melted, put your hand in the water and squeeze them to be sure the outer gelatin of the capsules have melted enough to let the oil out. This is a great job for a disposable glove, because otherwise it’s pretty slimy.
Once the oil is out of all of the gelatin capsules, pour the oil/water mixture into the bowl with the supplements. A big glob of gelatin remains at the bottom of the bowl. I like this method of emptying the gelatin capsules more than the idea of puncturing each capsule and squeezing the oil out, but if a big glob of gelatin is going to gross you out, you can do the more labor-intensive puncture and squeeze method.
Prepare Eggs
Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites. Put away the whites in a storage container and promise yourself you are going to make a fabulous egg white omelet tomorrow.
Mix Ingredients
In your large container, pour your supplement into the meat and liver mixture. Add the egg yolks and water, then start stirring with a sturdy spoon.
It seems like a lot of water when you first start mixing, as you continue to mix, it takes on a thick, soupy texture.
(Yes, my beverage bucket has”Boo!” stenciled on it. I bought it on clearance after Halloween.)
Package and Store
Fill your freezer-safe storage containers for storage. Best practice is to use glass containers, but I use BPA-free plastic. Either way, fill the containers but leave room for expansion when the food freezes, since it contains quite a bit of water, and water expands upon freezing. Don’t leave too much air in the containers you are going to store the longest of the batch to help avoid freezer burn.
Because I have very little freezer space, I package about 10 of the 30 lb in smaller serving-sized containers. I weigh each of these contains as I fill them to ensure they contain enough food for one meal for Ashton and Newton. My freezer holds 48 meals on the designated cat food shelf.
I bulk package the remaining 20 lb of ground, raw cat food into 4 cup containers. Since I can’t fit a chest freezer into my garage, my sister, who lives nearby, donated a shelf of her freezer to storing cat food for my cats.
Making nutritious and balanced raw food for your cat isn’t hard, and both Ashton and Newton agree that it’s the cat’s meow! Newton even wants to help make it.
Newton: I am the official taste tester!
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Madi says
Oh my cats that is a very very impressive procedure. We had no idea about any of it.
The meat coming out of the grinder looks very very healthy and delicious. 48 meals right at your finger tips. Pierre you Ashton and Newton are well fed.
Hugs madi your bfff
Melissa & Mudpie says
You are an extremely brave woman. I am very, very impressed.
Kitties Blue says
Thanks for the step-by-step instructions, Julie. With eight, I know I cannot do this. I’d be making food constantly, and I have no place to store it. But should I decide to give it a go, these are excellent instructions. XOCK, Lily Olivia, Mauricio, Misty May, Giulietta, Fiona, Astrid, Lisbeth and Calista Jo
Connie says
we made it for eight (and we currently make it for seven)
APB says
Hi, and thank you for this post. We live with five cats in an apartment with a tiny fridge/freezer in our tiny kitchen so making and storing raw isn’t possible. If we move, I’d like to start, so my question is: how many single meals do you get from 30 lbs of food? Our cats each eat a 5.5-ounce can (95% meat, grain-free, low-carb) of food per day, split over two meals. Our four lean cats are about 10 lbs; our more “upholstered” guy is about 14 lbs and very lazy/inactive. Does one feed less raw than canned because it’s nutritionally denser, or more? I imagine I’d need to be making about 50 lbs of raw per month, and I can barely deal with a raw chicken, so would love to know. Also, have you figured out what your food costs, per pound? Many thanks!
Sometimes Cats Herd You says
Great questions! I need to sit down with receipts from this last batch to see what the numbers look like, but making your own raw is actually cost-effective. My back-of-the-envelope math is about 44 cents a serving, but that may be high. My Whole Foods bill the day I bought the chicken thighs was lower than I expected, so I think I may be overestimating the cost. At any rate, the canned I was previously feeding them runs about $1.70 per 5.5 oz can, or 85 cents per meal. The cost for raw is less. I’ll put together a blog post about that in a couple weeks to give you some more exact numbers, OK?
Raw goes farther than canned. Ashton and Newton, like your cats, previously sate half of a 5.5 oz can of grain-free food. Ashton now gets about 2 oz at mealtime and Newton, who is larger-framed, gets about 2.75 or he feels like he’s losing a little weight. So the recipe makes about 202 meals, or roughly 50 days of food for 2 cats.
Connie says
10 pounds of raw food made feeds about 49 meals..
Savannah's Paw Tracks says
I will stick to buying my raw. I know it has all the necessary nutritional ingredients and Savvy and Sage like it. Sage more tha Savvy unfortunately, we still have to. Is canned with raw for Savvy. Nonetheless she almost never vomits certainly not like before we fed raw.
Denise says
Where do you purchase your raw food ?
Emma and Buster says
Wow, that’s interesting and informative.
da tabbies o trout towne says
guys….even tho de B werd iz in thiz post…..manee thanx ta yur mom for sharin de recipezz…. we haz several friendz who feed raw & we will send em thiz way….all sew tell yur mom ta chex out Only Natural Pet sum time; they haz salmon oil in a bottle !!♥♥♥
The Parish Cat Family with Julie says
That is quite a process, but I know it’s worth every minute, especially if you get some kitty help and lovin’ after a yummy meal. x
Dragonheart, Merlin, and Devi says
We used to eat raw! Unfortunately we had to stop because of Merlin’s cancer. 🙁 The vet said that raw wouldn’t be good with his meds and his weakened immune system. But we were on raw for many years and loved it!
Connie says
I’m sorry your vet doesn’t see the benefit of it. The risk of contamination with raw is actually lower than most commercial foods.
Connie says
We used to cook the egg whites and put them in the food, but reading how much biotin is in the yolks and in the b vitamins we add, I’ve stopped and simply use the whole egg raw… adds good proteins.
I also don’t skin any of my chicken thighs. I grind them all. Fat does not make cats fat, but a lack of fat can cause problems. there is a reason why you add fat in if you are feeding rabbit 🙂
I put the supplements right into the grinder, usually right at the beginning of the batch to make sure they all get pushed out with the meat. I put the water and the eggs in the bucket (we bought dish pans for it http://www.amazon.com/STERILITE-06578012-Sterilite-White-Dishpan/dp/B0039V2G5E/ref=sr_1_3) and grind once with the smallest plate that came with the grinder (and that beast is SOOOO worth it) I add the ingredients and grind, and my husband mixes and dishes out into containers to freeze them in.
I used to do “5lb” batches at a time, which doubled Dr. Lisa’s recipe which is made with 2.5 lbs of meat.. but now we make 10lbs at a time which makes things go so much faster. The last time we did it we made 80lbs of meat worth of food.. I don’t see us doing that again, but even that only took us under two hours.
APB says
You can come over and show me someday! There would be cake afterward, if either of us still had any appetite. And you could see Lion’s food dish again!
Summer says
This is a great tutorial, but I still don’t think I’ll be able to get my human to do it! Even with all the savings – she spends a boatload of money on a combination of premium grain and carrageenan free cat food and store-bought raw made by a company local to us. But she’s lazy and doesn’t even prepare food for herself.
The Island Cats says
Wow! That’s quite the production! And while it probably isn’t that difficult or costly, the mom thinks she will stick with buying raw food for us. Besides, we all haven’t bought into raw food yet…Ernie seems to like it the most.
Lola and Lexy says
We showed Mommy this post because it looks delish, but we’re not hopeful that she’ll do it for us.
Katnip Lounge says
Mommy is VERREH intrigued. She is going to buy some pre-made raw food to see how we like it, and then…you never know!
We are free fed, how long can you leave raw food out at room temp?
Sometimes Cats Herd You says
We have specific mealtimes, so our food is never down for more than 15 minutes before it vanishes. I would think an hour at the outside before discarding it, to be safe. It’s raw chicken, after all. You could extend that somewhat with a bowl that takes an ice pack (there are some out there intended for this) or just put a towel around an ice pack and put the bowl on top of it to keep it cool longer.
Robin says
This seems like a really simple recipe! I wish that I could fit a meat grinder in my kitchen (darn tiny apartment kitchen). It would be nice to be able to make food like this for my kitties! I have tried a few times to get them to try commercial raw and they haven’t been interested. I will keep trying!
Sometimes Cats Herd You says
Try different commercial brands. Ashton had no interest in the raw from the first few big name commercial brands, even the chicken, but was perfectly happy to eat Darwin and then Farm Life Blends (a locally-produced raw) once she had a chance to try them.
Julie says
I ask the butcher at the market to grind it for me as we don’t have room for a grinder either.
Ellen Pilch says
I am so impressed . I wish I wasn’t so lazy as I am sure this is good for them. I can’t imagine how much I would need to make for 14 cats.
William says
Wow! Maybe you should start a cat food catering business. My mom, well…she just about yakked at the mention of liver.
Cathy Keisha says
a) Can people eat this too? b) Aren’t chicken bones harmful if the can gets them caught in her throat? 3) how long does it take to sterile the grinder and all the pans you use for mixing? Your freezer is bigger than our fridge. TW says you’re very brave cos she’d never hardly that much raw meat.
Sometimes Cats Herd You says
I wouldn’t recommend that people eat it, though all of the ingredients are certainly human-edible. Due to having raw egg and meat, there’s a higher chance of bacteria that human digestive systems wouldn’t appreciate. Cats have much tougher digestive systems than we do.
The bones are ground up really small and don’t pose a choking hazard. The holes in the grinder are 4.5 mm. I’m pretty sure cats swallow kibble whole that’s much larger than that!
Cleaning the grinder is the biggest pain in the rear of the whole process, but it doesn’t take terribly long. 10 minutes or so, maybe? It may just be this model of grinder, but the place where the moving parts connect into the machine itself get machine grease on them, and that stuff is much harder to wash off than the ground food if you touch it and then touch something else, which the head peep always seems to do. Good help is hard to find, and she isn’t it when it comes to that part.
Cathy Keisha says
Thanks for answering my questions but I meant if people can cook it like a hamburger, er chicken burger and eat it.
Laila and Minchie says
What a great and informative post!
Raven says
Looks yummy. If they’re picking out the bone, does that mean you might need to add bone meal to the mix?
The Swiss Cats says
What a great post ! Mum is interested, sooo interested, but she cannot even think of when she will find time to do it (bad reason, isn’t it ?). She’s looking for pre-made raw food in Switzerland but has still not found anything. Purrs
Sweet Purrfections says
Very interesting. We’ve read a lot about the benefits of feeding raw to cats, but Mom Paula just doesn’t have the time or room right now.
Rachel says
Very informative – thank you!
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Michelle says
I stumbled across your blog and decided to give this a go for my senior kitty. He’s 15 years old and is stubborn when it comes to food.. dry food he usually throws up but wet food he can be picky.. so hopefully this works! Made it tonight but cut the recipe in half as I just have the 1 cat and not quite as much space. Used a 3.5 and It made it pretty mushy in the end, which my cat likes the wet foods in gravy so I think he will be ok with this. I also left skins on all the chicken to see if it’ll help him gain some weight in his senior age. I gave him a little bit tonight and he did seem to like it.. so we will see!