D********3 发帖数: 786 | 1 from internet
Many pet care providers and enthusiasts support feeding a homemade diet.
Some of the benefits include
avoiding commercial pet food artificial colors and fillers, preservatives
and other additives. These
unnecessary additions to pet foods can cause problems in sensitive pets—
from diarrhea, allergies or
dermatitis to worse. Some homemade diet supporters note that the poor meat
quality, meat-by-products
and other unnecessary additives to commercial pet foods are also unhealthy
and warn that eating such diets
can put pets at risk for serious diseases.
If you decide to feed your cat a homemade diet, do so gradually by mixing a
small amount of new
homemade food with her old food. Increase the new food a little each day
until you switch her over entirely.
Here are some healthy homemade cat food recipes from “Food Pets Die For”
by Ann Martin, New Sage Press,
to get you started:
Chicken, Rice and Vegetables
2 cups of ground or chopped chicken, cooked
1 cup of cooked brown rice
¼ cup grated carrots
Put chicken, brown rice and carrots in a blender and mix well. If there is
any fat from the chicken, pour
about two teaspoons over the mix. Serve at room temperature.
Ms. Martin stresses that cats require more protein than dogs do, but they
should also have grains and
vegetables. Grains need to be cooked, but vegetables and fruit can be served
either steamed or raw.
A proponent of homemade cat food, but specifically of raw food, Dr. Richard
Pitcairn, DVM, PhD, author of
“Dr. Pitcairn’s Complete Guide to Natural Health for Dogs and Cats,”
Rodale Press, describes a study in
which two groups of cats were fed two different diets for several
generations—one diet was comprised
completely of raw food (meat, bones, cod-liver oil and milk), and the other
group was fed the same foods
that were cooked.
The study results showed that the cats on the entirely raw diet never
required veterinary attention and were
very healthy. He also notes that the more food was cooked, the less healthy
the cats were. Interestingly, the
health problems cats showed on the cooked food diet were very much like the
usual problems seen by
veterinarians like gum disease, thyroid disorders and bladder inflammation,
among others. Dr. Pitcairn says
that after three generations, the cooked-food-fed cats couldn’t reproduce
anymore as their health
deteriorated so much. Dr. Pitcairn explains that between 52 and 79% of the
amino acid that cats need—
taurine—is destroyed in the cooking process, which is why it is added to
cat foods and supplements. One
has to wonder what else might be destroyed in the cooking process.
When feeding a raw diet, Dr. Pitcairn suggests adding what he calls his “
Healthy Powder.” His Healthy
Powder recipe is for a bulk amount that you will use to add just a few
teaspoons at a time to your cat’s food:
2 cups of nutritional yeast, 1 cup of lecithin granules, ¼ cup kelp
powder, ¼ bonemeal and 1000 mg vitamin
C. Mix all ingredients together and refrigerate. The powder contains
elements that are rich in B vitamins,
iron, essential fatty acids, and other vitamins and minerals. One recipe he
recommends is:
Beefy Oats
4 cups rolled oats or 8 cups cooked oatmeal
2 eggs
2 pounds ground lean hamburger
4 tablespoons Healthy Powder
2 tablespoons bonemeal
2 tablespoons butter
10,000 IU vitamin A
100-200 IU vitamin E
1 teaspoon fresh vegetable with each meal
500 mg taurine supplement (optional)
Bring 8 cups of water to a boil. Add oats, cover and turn off heat, letting
oats cook for 10 minutes until soft.
Stir in eggs, letting them set form the heat for a few minutes. Mix
remaining ingredients. Yield: about 12
3/4 cups. Freeze whatever cannot be eaten in 2-3 days. Daily feeding: small
cat— 1/2 to 3/4 cup; medium
cat—1 to 1 1/3 cup; large cat—1 1/2 to 2 1/4 cups.
If you decide to switch your pet to a homemade cooked or raw diet, you may
wish to consult a holistic
veterinarian who is familiar with such diets and who can guide you in
devising the right menu for your cat. | l*****i 发帖数: 183 | 2 Raw feeding is simple and easy. Take 80% meat, 10% bone, 5% liver and 5%
other organs. You are done.
You don't have to follow the formula every day. You can get to the ratio
spanning over a week even a month. I normally feed my golden roughly the
ratio spanning about two weeks. | c**********t 发帖数: 8546 | |
|