So I made the decision to start making Missy’s food myself. At first, I thought “Eh, no big deal, I’ll whip up some chicken and rice and that’ll do it!” Um. NO. Fortunately for Missy, I had sense enough to do some research and I found out that felines, being obligate carnivores, cannot live on chicken meat and rice. Like, at all. The rice especially is horrible for cats. Too bad other pet owners don’t do their homework and starve their cats with a diet like this. :(
Amongst other things, I learned that the feline diet should consist of 80% protein, 10% fat and 10% carbs (at most). Cats in the wild do not eat carbs at all. Cats are completely unlike dogs when it comes to diet. Despite what the pet food industry insists, cats should not eat kibble alone (which I’ve known for a long time), or really at all. Kibble has way too much filler in the form of carbs. And despite what the pet food industry pushes, cats do NOT eat sweet potatoes, peas, beans or any sort of grain. Just because it sounds tasty to us does not mean it’s appropriate for our cats. Dogs? Sure. Feed them whatever. They are omnivores and scavengers in the wild. Cats are not dogs.
As I started to read and learn about the feline diet, I started a cart at vitacost.com with the supplements I’d need to make Missy’s food. It was complicated to decipher the various recipes and I didn’t want to buy a grinder to grind the meat with bones to make the raw food. I’m not even sure Missy would eat a totally raw diet. So I kept reading and reading and I came upon TCFeline.com. This site is a treasure trove for understanding the feline diet and learning to make a homemade food that is balanced. They also link to sellers of the premix for plain ground meat (without bones). AND the mix was the same cost as all the supplements I had in my cart. The 17oz bag is $53 plus s/h and makes about 8-10 batches of 2#. That’s a lot of food! Plus I don’t have to worry about measuring calcium and getting the calcium/phosphorus ratio right or any of that. This mix mimics the nutrients found in rodents, which is the primary food source of a wild cat. ALSO, this premix can be used in a cooked diet as easily as a raw one. Which is what I’m doing. I get 2# of ground meat (I used chicken and turkey for this first batch, next will be chicken and veal) and I cook it at low temp like this recipe suggests.
Missy’s kidney numbers have started to creep up, which is the reason I started looking into CKD dietary needs in the first place. I was surprised to find out that the standard low protein diet for cats with renal issues is actually NOT what you should do at all. There is a good study that was done to prove that low protein diets made no difference in cats with kidney disease. Knowing what I do about the feline diet, I am not surprised by this. While phosphorus is an issue, protein is not. More about chronic kidney disease in the older cat.
I also got an herbal supplement for Missy in addition to her new improved homemade food: Kidney Support Gold from PetWellbeing.com
Her new diet was started Sep 25 2015. Her Urea Nitrogen was 35 at this time. I’ll update this post with her new numbers in a few months. Hopefully, I’ll see improvement. [Missy made it to Aug 2016. Not sure if the diet helped or not. -A 2017]