Is it ok to give my cats human grade meat?
March 15th, 2010deli turkey
sliced pieces of chicken
oven cooked fish
pieces of beef liver uncooked
Isn't this best!? its real food not disgusting preservatives that are found in regular cat food.
ETA: here is a "real food" diet for cats
http://www.catnutrition.org/recipes.php
Do you have the money and the time to spend making it?
ETA: Which sounds better...the canned cat food that is formulated for cats of course. DUH
ETA: in nature the cat would eat the entire animal.
IE chicken meal, chicken byproducts etc..... Cats need nutrients from the entire animal that is why home made food calls for bones, skin, organs etc. Your cat needs the nutrients in those ingriedients.
I looked at the ingredients of several fancy feast canned products and I do not see preservatives in any of them. I believe you are seeing the names of supplements (vitamins and minerals etc) and are assuming they are preservatives.
ETA: yes I know you mentioned liver, but you did not menioned 75% of the ingredients needed to make you own cat food. You also mentioned deli meat which very well could kill them.Unless you have the time and money to make the cat food I linked to, your cats are much better off with the fancy feast over anything else you could give thm. As someone else alredy suggested on your other question, just avoid the ones with gravy, especially for your overweight cat.
So instead of spending your time complaining about your mother on here, why don't you educate yourself on cat nutrition? Littlebigcat.com has some excellent info and information about preparing your own homemade diet for cats and dogs - http://www.littlebigcat.com/index.php?ac...
edit: honestly? The Fancy Feast your mom bought would be FAR healthier for your cat than the "deli turkey" or "oven cooked fish" you suggested. You really need to read and EDUCATE yourself before throwing these statements out on here. You're not a cat nutrition expert - you're a kid.
Cat food does contain all the necessary ingredients that cats require. Unfortunately, the greed of the manufacturers causes them to add a lot of other junk (grains, chemicals, fillers, etc) that are bad for a cat.
Feeding only flesh meat, although it is high quality protein, does not provide a cat with all its nutritional requirements.
For this reason, it is better to feed a high quality canned food unless you really know what you are doing. For example, cooking food destroys many of its nutrients. Deli foods contain additives and preservatives which are just as bad as some commercial cat food. Fish is not an appropriate food for cats. Many flavorings that humans use to prepare their food can be dangerous in cats, like salt. Onion and garlic can kill a cat. A deficiency of taurine, found in organ meat, can lead to blindness.
But the above should only be as treats - not as the only thing they will be eating. They still need normal cat food (dry and canned) to be healthy.
I do feed ours a certain amount of fresh raw meat or even cooked chicken (no skin, salt, spices, coating or bones) and fish, but they need much more than that to get complete nutrition--muscle meat is fine but it doesn't have the trace elements and minerals they need plus is lacking in some vitamins as well.
There are some pretty good cat foods, but you won't find them at the grocery store. EVO both dry and canned are very good. Ditto with Wysong Vitality (in the silver bag) and Wellness Core. You'd need 35% protein or higher for a good dry food, over 11% protein level in canned--along with as low on grain ingredients as possible. The bag labels will give you what you need to know. Many foods are made without byproducts.
There's a frozen line of raw meat diets that are made for cats (they indluce everything the cat needs) that some pet supplies stores carry. If they don't have it but do have refrigerators, ask if they can stock one for you.
Fish bones are as bad for cats as they are for people, they get stuck in the throat. And considering the price on fish in the grocery store, it's going to be far more expensive feeding that than your mom likely thinks.
I supplement our cats food with a tube of flash frozen ground turkey, it's 1 pound in weight and costs $1.50. I thaw it in the fridge, slice off a 1 1/2" slice, microwave it till it's body temp but not cooked and the three cats get that for breakfast, divided between them. They get dry food in the bowl all day, and canned EVO at night.
Some cat nutritionists say beef and pork are harder for cats to digest because they evolved to kill and eat birds and rodents - but considering how hard it is to find rabbit in the store, that leaves chicken and turkey (always good cat favorites). Beef liver may cause diarhea, but small amounts won't (a tablespoon or so). Our guys do like their baked pork (no salt!), but ham and bacon is way too salty for me to feel comfortable about them eating.
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