When you have a pet cat, you want to feed it the most balanced and nutritious foods that you can possibly provide. Since all cats are carnivores, this means meat. Cats can thrive on a diet of both raw and cooked meat. Fresh meat can help your cat avoid feline diseases and debilitating medical conditions common to pet cats. Here are some ways to prepare and preserve nutritious food for your cat that they will love:
- Prepare Fresh Raw Meat: You can prepare raw meat meals for your cat by purchasing fresh ingredients such as chicken, turkey, beef, tuna, salmon, shrimp, and clams and cutting the muscle meat from the bones and chopping it into small chewable pieces. Portion the raw meat into single servings and freeze it in individual baggies. The internal organs, skin, and fat from these meats should also be included when chopping these raw meats. Be careful to avoid including any bones in your cat's bagged meals.
- Prepare Fresh Cooked Meat: Canned cat food is full preservatives and meat by-products. Instead of buying canned cat food for your cat, cook fresh chicken, turkey, beef, and fish by boiling, roasting, or baking it. When cooked and cooled, debone the muscle and internal organ meats and portion them into single servings. Freeze these individual meals in freezable baggies. When needed, you can defrost one or two bagged meals so that they are ready to be consumed by your cat.
- Meat Broth and Meat Water - Cats in the wild get their needed liquids from the fresh meat that they eat. In order to increase your domesticated cat's water intake, you can add meat broth and meat water to their raw and cooked meals. Beef, turkey, and chicken broth can be easily made by boiling these meats in water and saving the cooled broth by freezing it in ice cube trays. Tuna, salmon, and clam water can be made by mixing one cup of these meats in 3 cups of water and mashing the meat solids into the water. Let this mixture sit for 20 - 30 minutes and then pour the liquid into ice cube trays and freeze. Each cube will yield 2 - 3 tablespoons of nutritious broth and water for your cat. The leftover meat from this process can be given to your cat for one of their meals.
- Check Ingredients on Pre-Prepared Cat Foods - If you must occasionally feed your cat canned cat food, thoroughly read the product labels to avoid grain fillers such as wheat, soy, and rice and corn. These grains are not natural to a cat's diet and can cause them to have an upset stomach, loose bowel movements, and diarrhea. To avoid these additives and other preservatives, you can purchase canned meats and fish for humans and give those canned foods to your cat. Dry kibble for cats is very high in carbohydrates, plant-based proteins, and very low in water which makes it a poor choice to feed your pet cat.
To keep your pet cat healthy and free from cat diseases, it is best to feed them fresh food that you prepare yourself. Serving your cat fresh foods can help your cat avoid feline diabetes, cystitis, inflammatory bowel disease, cancer, tumors, asthma, and many other diseases common to the modern feline. Preparing fresh food for your cat can be done once a month or once every other month so these tasks are not difficult to accomplish. By preparing fresh food for your cat, you will enable your pet to thrive and live many years as your pet and companion.
For a veterinarian, contact a clinic such as Clayton Veterinary Associates.
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