Cat gravy

[Silver Ether]

I was going to put this in livestock but thought you may think I was eating cats.... My cat only likes meat with gravy wont touch the jelly type and will only eat fish if its my sardines on my plate I have to stand up or eat them when she is out Well recently she has been eating the gray and will eat dried biscuits but keeps leaving the meat ... mind you I can't blame her it looks pretty crap. So I thought iIwould do her own gravy to go with cat biscuits and any meat I have that can be used for her... I have found a site telling me how to make kitty gravies etc .. some of the ideas are veru posh and she wont be getting those ... just wanted to know
a/ anyone else cook their own cat food.
b/ how did the cat like it.
c/ is it worth doing.

[MuddyWitch]

I must be a mean person 'cos I still thought you were eating kitties!!!

Don't know any recipes but I will warn you not to use instant gravey mixes/powders/granuals as they all contain rather a lot of salt for small animals. We warn rehomers not to use it for greyhounds & my dog weighs 7st....far more than your puss, I hope!

MW

[Jandra]

I agree with MuddyWitch to avoid salt, bacon, sausage, etc. as that is very unhealthy for pets. Also I'd make sure that the main ingredient of the cat's meals is a 'complete' catfood, containing all the essential elements of a cat's diet.

Our cats occasionally get a bit of raw meat and there is an entire raw-food movement for pets. If you google for "barf" or "barfing" you can find info on that.

Oh, and stay away from cooked bones (esp chicken) as they can easily splinter. E.g. raw chicken wings are no problem, but cooked ones (without salt) need to be de-boned.

Our cats also prefer the gravy over the canned meat, but in the end they'll eat it all.

Jandra

PS I know someone who ate cat ('roof-hare') in the winter of 1944, known in the Netherlands as the hunger winter, and can attest it's perfectly good eating. Unlike tulip bulbs, which taste awful apparently.

[Silver Ether]

PS I know someone who ate cat ('roof-hare') in the winter of 1944, known in the Netherlands as the hunger winter, and can attest it's perfectly good eating. Unlike tulip bulbs, which taste awful apparently.


I could imagine all sorts being eating when your very cold hungry and food shortages.


I know more about feeding pets than I thought. I know about the cooked chicken bones also about not giving them salt etc. think I will give her ago... old fella making some stew so pinched a little of his stewing steak to try her... shhhhhhh don't tell him ....

[pouch]

I had to click on this as the title made me think you were going to ask for recipes for cooking cats

our vets told us that tinned cat food is mostly made up of water and that cats get much more goodness from a good brand of dry cat food.

ours eat the jelly cat food and Royal Canin dried food, if we feed them the gravy stuff, they lick off all the gravy and leave the chunks of 'meat', which doesn't say much for the taste of the chunks in cat food!

[Annpan]

I had one cat who we had to syringe feed for a while because he had liver failure - according to the vet, it was because he lived off of dry cat food alone. Another cat of mine (who my sister adopted from me when I was in student diggs) was recently put down because of liver failure... though she was 16, but the vet mentioned the dry cat food. It isn't so bad if your cat is good with drinking water (cause you know that she is getting the liquids she needs.

Just a heads up.

Our Cat gets mostly dried food, about 3 or four times a month she gets tinned food but she hunts and eats alot of wild food too, and she has always been good at drinking water (though she does prefer shower puddles and waterbutt water to her water dishes )

[Greenbeast]

I make my own cat food

I mince whole chicken carcasses and add vitamins that might be missing in the right quantities and then bag and freeze in portions.
I defrost them and then lightly warm it through (body temperature) before dishing up.

They love it!

[Silver Ether]

Well I have come to the conclusion that she is just fickle ... I can never tell what she is going to eat so she is getting a bit of everything ... If she licks the gravy of the cat food I pop it in with some chicken and water and give it a boil together and mash it a bit with a fork ... saves having to keep throwing the nasty meat out when she has left it.

I have tried her with raw meat but she seem to bit a bit nippy after so as I don't want my fingers chopped on I left that one alone.

She isn't very fishy but the little bugger keeps pinching my sardines in tomato sauce if I turn my back and gives me such a hurt look when I shout at her. Not looked to see if theres anything in the sauce to hurt her .. the sardines I get are as cheap as cat food. Wanders of to the cuboard

[fruitcake]

the subject name made me chuckle

I'm fed up feeding our cat whiskas and want to find something from a less 'corporate' source (and less canned / stupid little plastic pouch packaged that OH seems to keep buying and using). She's not massively fussy - not too keen on the jelly round the stuff though. She does love cheese and hunts loads in the summer - rabbits being a favourite which is great cos the wee bandits eat my trees (in fact pretty much anything i plant).

I'd appreciate cat food ideas too please

ta v much

[JulieSherris]

I feed the dogs a BARF diet where I can - last xmas I was given 14 turkey carcasses for them

Anyway, when we had the cats, they too were fed the same & they were fine on it too.
I always had a bowl of biccies down for them & of course plenty of fresh water, but I've always been very loathe to go down the tinned cat food route....

Have a look for 'Nature's Diet packs of mince in the pet shop - but you could always try what I do & just pop to the local butcher & butter him up for freebies

[pouch]

yep, I definitely dont like buying pouches of cat food, they only contain enough food for one meal and you're left with all that plastic to throw away!

I haven't thought about getting freebies or offcuts from the butcher, but I find that cats are fussier than dogs, so not sure if they'd turn their noses up at it :)