What follows are 4 versions of basic recipes for healthy cats. Kathy's recipe originally came from the Feline Future Foundation http://www.felinefuture.com and she's adapted it for her two cats. Leah compiled her recipe by reading Pitcairn's book, researching components of the diet, and consultation with her homeopathic vet. Vick compiled her recipe after reading Pitcairn, Frazier and the Feline Future Foundation site, then consulting with several holistic vets. And Sandy's recipe is a synthesis of Pat McKay and Pitcairn, plus her own research.

Depending on your cat's health, it may help to start with a standard diet (70-80% protein, 20-30% veggies -- and grains if you feed them) and tweak it according to your cat's own needs.

If your kitty has kidney disease, you may (or may not) want to lower the protein. Other health issues may be helped by increasing the fiber or decreasing the fat content. (Note that cats generally need a reasonably high amount of fat in their diets.) Some health problems can be alleviated by adding certain supplements to the kitty's food. See the other FAQs for help with nutrition for different conditions, and always adjust recipes in consultation with your vet.

Kathy's Recipe

• 600 g raw muscle meat (beef or chicken, but you could also use turkey, lamb, rabbit, etc.)
• 200 g heart
• 100 g chicken gizzards (a good source of Vitamin A, and excellent for a good dental workout :)
• 100 g organ meat (I alternate between kidneys and livers)
• This will add up to 1 kilogram of meat, or 2.2 pounds. 1000 g = 1 kilogram
• It's best to stick to meat and organs from the same source, i.e. all beef, or all chicken, etc. I generally feed beef (but yes, I still add the chicken gizzards) or chicken, but whatever works best for your cats. Variety is a good thing, so it helps to alternate meats for each new batch of food you make.
• 300 g grated raw veggies ( I use carrots or pumpkin mostly)
• 2 whole eggs, slightly cooked
• 2 tablespoons bone meal
• 2 tablespoons Missing Link or a similar cat food supplement
• 1 teaspoon Salmon body oil (available in capsules at health food stores)
• 1 tablespoon calcium ascorbate powder (you could also use sodium ascorbate or Ester-C vitamin C)
• Spring water added to make a moister consistency.

To my basic recipe, I occasionally add 1 clove of minced garlic, sometimes a teaspoon or so of lecithin granules (good for B vitamins but don't go overboard, as they also contain phosphorous). Liquid chlorophyll is a good option as well, as it's a blood cleanser. I keep out one container of food and freeze the rest in portion containers. Each week I give each cat about 100-200 IU vitamin E. This is a fat soluble vitamin, so don't go overboard on this one, either.

Note that many nutritional and herbal supplements are best given apart from food. And if your cat is especially fussy, it's best not to add too many things to her food -- she may simply refuse to eat it, and that won't do anyone any good. On the other hand, you may have a cat who will claw you apart if you try to put anything in his mouth that he doesn't want there. In this case, try mixing the supplements in his food.

One of my cats falls right in the middle. She's very fussy, and hates things added to her food. But she's also downright impossible to pill or syringe, so squirting anything in her mouth apart from food is simply out of the question. I sneak what I can into her food, and hope for the best :)

Leah's Recipe

• 70% protein (this will vary somewhat depending on type of meat sources used for protein; some suggestions would be raw chicken or turkey, raw beef with beef heart)
•  20% veggies (raw zucchini or carrot, cooked broccoli, asparagus or peas, occasionally a teensy bit of lettuce)
• 10% cooked grains (oats, barley flakes, millet or amaranth are a few suggestions)

http://www.dataweb.net/~sham/nutrient/index.html
http://www.ag.uiuc.edu/~food-lab/nat/mainnat.html

If you feed less grains and veggies than  the proportions I listed above, a general guideline is to add 1 ½ teaspoons of bonemeal, 600 milligrams of calcium lactate or 1/3 teaspoon of eggshell powder per cup of meat.   To assure adequate taurine, I give a daily cat multiple vitamin mineral supplement that contains 50 mg of taurine.   For essential fatty acids, I put ¼ teaspoon of cod liver oil in the a.m. feeding and ¼ teaspoon of flax seed oil in the p.m. feeding.  I don’t rely on cod liver oil as a sole source of essential fatty acids, as the levels of vitmins A and D are high and it would be easy to overdose.  Some individuals prefer to use salmon oil as one of the sources for the essential fatty acids.

I do feed cooked grains along with the protein source and veggies.  I believe there’s some nutrition to be obtained from them and my cat eats his food better with them in the ration.  Once a week, I substitute some beef heart for part of the meat so he gets some organ meat; it’s a good source of protein, B vitamins and iron.  If your cat will tolerate some herbs in his/her food, you could add some dried alfalfa, some catnip tea (good for digestion) or rosemary (a calming herb).  With the rosemary, you can either use fresh leaves and cut into tiny pieces or make a tea and use just a small amount.  With herbs,  I always rotate them and use on a five days on, two days off schedule to monitor effects and benefits.

I chop the vegetables and meat with a food processor, then add in cooked grains and a heaping teaspoon or two of organic, non-fat plain yogurt.  Mix this completely and add oils in at each feeding.  Individual cats will eat varying amounts, but mine eats from ¼-1/3 cup per feeding; some may need more than that.  If you’re starting your cat on a raw food diet or they have a health problem, you may want to include a small amount of digestive enzymes at first.

Please e-mail me if you have questions, comments or concerns.
 

Vick's Recipe

This recipe feeds two 13-pound cats for about 3 weeks:

• 3 4-pound chickens (organic preferably, but grocery store chickens are still better than "cat food" :)
• 1 pound chicken gizzards
• 4,000 mgs powdered Vit C (I use calcium ascorbate because it's really mild)
• 2 tablespoons lecithin (phos is balanced by the cal in the Calcium ascorbate)
• 8 tablespoons ground flax seed
• 1 pound frozen peas  and carrots, thawed and whacked up in a food processor
• 2 human multi-vitamin capsules, opened and mixed throughout
• around 1/2 cup filtered water to make everything mush together
• sprinkle of kelp and/or trace mineral powder
• 3,000 mgs of taurine

I choose not to feed grains. I've read multiple sources who say that cats don't need them as long as they consume sufficient animal fat. Since they eat the entire chicken -fat and skin included- I feel confident they've met that need. Besides, Skippy has a grain allergy, so grains are out for him anyways.  If you feel more comfortable using grains, I imagine you could add a serving spoon or two without adversely affecting the recipe.

Regarding the veggies.... if you want to cook them, you can. I have tried raw, cooked and substituting baby food veggies. All work, but the cats seem a little constipated when I use baby food veggies. Next recipe, I plan on returning to raw ground carrots with baby food squash. Good and bad veggie choices can be found at the Feline Future Foundation site here. My cats won't touch raw or lightly steamed squash, but inhale the baby food version. Baby food broccoli is another hit. For carrots, I buy frozen baby carrots, thaw them to room temp and whack them up in my mini chopper.

I'm lazy, so I add all the supplements mentioned in my recipe to the raw meat mixture. Once it's all mushed up together, I portion it out into daily servings. For my two cats, I found they eat somewhere around 1/6 of a pound per meal. Your cat may need more or less food, depending on age, size, activity level, etc. My cats eat twice a day.

I also add a tablespoon or so of fresh filtered water to each meal. Sometimes I water down low sodium chicken broth or the left over liquid from soup and use it as gravy. As I said earlier, I give a vitamin A&D combo and 400 IU of Vit E twice a week because I don't feed organ meats.

You can email me with any questions you have about what I'm feeding them.

Sandy's Recipe

Sandy's recipe for the mountain cats:

• 80-85%  raw organic meat (inclusive of organs and bones) - chicken, quail, turkey, pheasant, cornish game hen, duck,    goose, rabbit etc.
• 15-20%  raw organic veggies - carrots, zucchini, alfalfa sprouts, celery, broccoli, asparagus, pumpkin or peas
• Add 1 clove of garlic and 1 entire egg (including shell) per 2 lbs of meat.
• No grains

All the supplements, vegetables, and meat are thrown into an electric meat grinder.  At each feeding, aloe vera juice and freshly ground flax seeds (about 1/4 tsp. per kitty) are added to the meat mixture. Once a day, sprinkle the contents of a 250 mg capsule of taurine over the 4 cats' food.

The herbs and supplements are rotated so that over a period of 2 weeks or so, the cats get each of the following:  Vitamin E, Vitamin C (calcium ascorbate or ascorbic acid), B-complex, cod liver oil, lecithin, organic apple cider vinegar, liquid amino acids, and aloe vera gel (without sodium benzoate or any other preservatives), alfalfa, kelp, stinging nettles, dandelion, and very occasionally brewer's yeast.  Some cats are allergic to brewer's yeast but (fortunately) none of the mountain cats are.

Feel free to email Sandy if you have any questions/comments.