The following recipes were from the author of the first version of the guide page feline nutrition, Margitta Graeve , developed. They have proven to be ideal and are ideal for beginners who are with your cat to enter the raw feeding dare want.
The four basic recipes with a basic recipe, an extended basic recipe , a recipe with bones and a recipe with whole chicken were developed by Ms. Graeve for the first time over 30 years ago , but are still excellent for healthy, balanced diets in modern cat nutrition as of 2020 Suitable for feeding cats.
The recipes make it clear which components a balanced cat meal should be made up of and can be varied with other healthy ingredients. It is even desirable to change the recipes and use them only as a guide through cat nutrition.
Add variety to your cat’s diet
You yourself know your cat best, so you should also preferences I consider stirrer Cat in the preparation of meals. Avoid a monotonous meal plan and change the recipes again and again so that the cat does not start to reject the food or to eat less in the end. You should also keep in mind that the recipes have been adapted to the needs of a healthy cat. A sick cat has different nutritional requirements than a healthy cat and must be provided with a special diet. Raw feeding is partly a matter of practice and over time you will develop your own routine to offer your cat varied and tasty meals.
Tip from Margitta Graeve : when following the three recipes, it is very important to understand why the different ingredients are used. You shouldn’t simply follow the recipes blindly, but have dealt with this topic sufficiently.
We recommend that you read the chapters on nutrients , raw feeding and preparation before trying out the recipes in order to obtain important information.
Basic Recipe 1 – simple recipe to get started
– meat
1000 g muscle meat (alternating types of meat with different fat contents)
– fat
Oily fish or 1 – 2 capsules of salmon oil once a week
– Fibers / dietary fiber
50 g vegetables or 1 – 2 teaspoons wheat bran (optional, if ready-made feed is given on the same day)
– Minerals / trace elements / vitamins / taurine
1 tsp (5 g) Kitty Bloom Kalac M34 or 1 tsp (5 g ) eggshell powder or 3 tsp (5 g) calcium carbonate or 4 tsp (9 g) calcium citrate
1 teaspoon (5 g) unrefined natural salt
2 tsp (5 g) Kitty Bloom VM900 + 3 or 1 Capalette Centrum AZ
1000 mg taurine kg / food or 150 – 200 mg per day / cat
– water 100 ml
Preparation :
- Mix water with salt, calcium, vitamins and, if necessary, salmon oil
- Cut the meat into small pieces or process it on the meat grinder, mince the vegetables and soak the wheat bran
- Mix all ingredients well and chill in the refrigerator.
Note : If you want to prepare and freeze a large amount of feed, the meat and salt + calcium should be frozen in portions. Please freeze the vegetables separately and mix the additives with the vegetables and meat just before serving.
Basic recipe 2 – the extended basic recipe
– meat
900 g muscle meat + 100 g offal, the heart can also be higher, liver not more than 3 – 5% of the total feed, from time to time stomachs, kidneys, lungs etc.
– fat
Fat / oil, depending on the fat content of the meat, or once a week fatty fish or 1 – 2 capsules of salmon oil
– Fibers / dietary fiber
50 g vegetables or 30 g sprouts or 30 g seeds or 1 – 2 teaspoons of wheat bran
– Minerals / trace elements / vitamins / taurine
Calcium addition
1 teaspoon (5 g) unrefined natural salt
1000 mg taurine kg / food or 150 – 200 mg per day / cat
Multivitamin trace element additive (with high vitamin A content only half the dose), often only use vitamin B complex or nutritional yeast , now and then seaweed powder
200 IU of vitamin E per kg of feed or 30 IU per day / cat or 200 IU per week / cat, if not included in the vitamin supplement or salmon oil
– water 100 ml
Preparation :
- Mix water with all additives
- Chop up vegetables and meat , mix well and refrigerate.
Note : If you are using defrosted meat, the vegetables and all other additives should only be freshly mixed with the meat just before serving.
Recipe with bones „for advanced users“
Note: W hen bones are used, no additional calcium is needed and the salt content is reduced !
– meat, minerals
350 g chicken giblets and / or necks, wings
650 g meat, possibly with a portion of offal
Fat / oil, depending on the fat content of the meat or fatty fish or 1 – 2 capsules of salmon oil once a week
– Fibers / dietary fiber
50 g vegetables or 30 g sprouts or 30 g seeds or 1 – 2 teaspoons of wheat bran
– Minerals / trace elements / vitamins / taurine
1/2 tsp (2.5 g) natural salt
1000 mg taurine kg / food or 150 – 200 mg per day / cat
Multivitamin additive (only half a dose with trace elements), often only use vitamin B complex or nutritional yeast, now and then seaweed powder
200 IU vitamin E per kg feed or 30 IU per day / cat or 200 IU per week / cat, if not included in the vitamin supplement or salmon oil
– water 100 ml
– Tools : meat grinder, poultry shears + butcher ax
Preparation :
- Turn bones and meat through the meat grinder
- Wash and chop vegetables
- Mix additives with water
- Mix all ingredients together and store in the refrigerator.
Note : If the feed is to be frozen, the vegetables should be frozen in portions and the additives should only be freshly added shortly before feeding . Meat and parts with bones can often be fed in larger pieces.
Whole Chicken Recipe (Except)
Note : this recipe can also be made with rabbits or non-gutted animals, including blood. For this then use 750 g chicken / rabbit and 250 g additional meat, reduce the salt accordingly, vegetables are optional .
– meat / minerals
500 g chicken, gutted, with heart and liver, without head, feet, blood, as you would normally buy it in a store
500 g additional meat, depending on the meat content of the animal above, with a small amount of offal
– fat
Oily fish or 1 – 2 capsules of salmon oil once a week
– Fibers / dietary fiber
50 g vegetables or 30 g sprouts or 30 g seeds or 1 – 2 teaspoons of wheat bran
– Minerals / trace elements / vitamins / taurine
1/2 tsp (2.5 g) unrefined natural salt
1000 mg taurine kg / food or 150 – 200 mg per day / cat
Vitamin B complex , yeast flakes and multivitamin preparation alternating, now and then a preparation with trace elements or seaweed powder
200 IU of vitamin E per kg of feed or 30 IU per day / cat or 200 IU per week / cat, if not included in the vitamin supplement or salmon oil
– Aids : meat grinder + meat ax
Preparation :
- Wash the chicken and chop it into 2 – 3 cm pieces . Then turn through the meat grinder . M it mix the salt and pack portions and freeze.
- Either grind the extra meat or give it in pieces to chew.
- Mix the chopped vegetables and freeze them in daily portions, for example in ice cube trays.
- Before feeding, thaw the chicken mixture and vegetables, mix everything with a little warm water and additives, and serve.
Change of food – this is how you get your cat used to new food
Many beginners find that it is not that easy to get your own cat used to a new food. Cats are creatures of habit that are not always curious and interested in new things. Unfortunately, it does not work to simply offer the cat a few pieces of meat, as the cat will probably prefer to stop eating altogether and go hungry rather than accept the new food. On the one hand, this is due to the fact that finished feed has a more intense taste and smells more intense than raw meat. If you want to feed your cat with raw food in the future, you have to bring a lot of perseverance, consistency and patience with you, as it can often take weeks or months before the cat accepts the new food.
Experience has shown that almost every cat can get used to a new food over time. Changing the food is also a matter for the cat owner. You have to be very knowledgeable about the subject and also really ready to consistently provide your cat with raw food. Since raw feeding takes a lot of time and involves a lot of organization and planning, you need to be clear beforehand whether you can find this time and be able to prepare fresh meals for the cat every day.
Which cats are better at accepting raw food?
Basically, it can be said that young cats that have not yet received a special food are more likely to accept rose food than older cats that may have received the same food throughout their life or have received dry food that was freely available in a bowl throughout the day and was not divided into individual meals.
If you have a varied diet and have offered it on the one hand from and food and the cat has caught its own prey in the open air at the same time, there is a chance that the animal will accept the raw food well and will not need long to adapt. Gradually try to feed the cat meat over and over again and vary the type of meat over time.
By the way: at the beginning of the feed changeover, you should refrain from feeding meat-containing bone parts such as offal, chicken necks, chicken legs or wings, as experience has shown that these are less well accepted than raw meat.
5 tips for a successful feed change
1. For health reasons, you should not starve your cat for more than 12 hours at a time, as overweight and older animals in particular can cause health problems such as fatty liver if the food is withheld for too long.
2. The cat’s stomach, digestion and metabolism must first adapt to the change in food, which is why this has to be done slowly for cats over a year. In addition, you should prevent digestive problems by giving your cat an intestinal flora remedy during the change in food.
3. Cats less than 1 year old can quickly get used to raw food. However, do not want to get the cat used to a new food shortly after you move in, as the move already means stress for the animal. For the first few days, you should therefore give the kitten the food that it received from the breeder. The animal can then be used to raw feeding. However, you should also use the pace of the cat as a guide.
4. In order to establish a certain routine, you should get your cat used to regular feeding times and stick to them consistently without feeding the cat in between. It is best to plan 3-4 fixed meals per day, one meal of which can be skipped if necessary. After 30 minutes, you should remove leftover food from the room and put it in the refrigerator for the next meal.
5. Make sure that the cat is eating enough food. That is at least 25 g of food per kilogram of body weight, which should be consumed with at least two meals a day. If the cat refuses to feed, you should adjust the speed of the cat’s change of food and not be discouraged as quickly as it may take the animal to adjust. You shouldn’t be tempted to serve the cat its familiar ready-made food in the hope that your pet will eat more. This will ruin your successes and you will have to start all over again.
Get your cat used to raw food from dry food – this is how it works:
While raw feed has a water content of around 70%, dry feed only has a proportion of 8-10% moisture, which means that the taste of the feed is much more intense. This is the reason why many cats prefer dry food and refuse to touch any other food. A cat that has been fed dry food all of its life will find it difficult to accept raw food at first.
Cats that have received mostly dry food are often used to having it available throughout the day. Fixed meals must be planned in the context of raw feeding. There is no feeding other than these meals. The cat has to get used to this fact as well as to the increased moisture in the food. Experience has shown that cats that are used to dry food are often never really full and never really hungry, as they consume small amounts of food throughout the day and prefer dry food to other food if they have a choice.
First, you should start dividing the dry food into 3-4 meals at fixed times. You should not offer food outside of these times. In theory, it is not advisable to provide the cat with a large amount of dry food, as the risk of dehydration from the inside can arise at times, as the food does not have enough moisture and cats naturally do not feel thirsty. Cats that are not quite healthy are, should not be used in this type of rose lining and they should practice this phase of change in diet for a short time. The food should be offered for 1 hour during meals and then removed. You should now gradually shorten this period until the cat is able to eat the meal offered in 15 minutes or less. Overweight cats can get smaller portions, which also stimulates the cat’s appetite. However, the portion should only be about 10-20% smaller.
When the cat has got used to the fixed primeval times, the food can be moistened gradually . Since many cats soak through and reject dry food, you have to be patient here and possibly only start with three drops of water. The amount of moisture should be increased daily until all of the dry food is soaked. Remember that soaked dry food spoils quickly and should therefore not stand too long.
If the cat still refuses the soaked dry food, it can alternatively be ground up and fed dry first. If this food is accepted, you can start again with moistening the food with a few drops of water. Alternatively, a little canned food or fresh meat can be mixed with the dry food. The better the cat accepts the soaked dry food, the faster it can begin to gradually serve canned food in small quantities or small pieces of meat with the requested dry food. The changeover has been successful up to this point. You can switch to normal raw feed. If your cat is not ready yet, you can gradually replace the portion of the dry food with wet canned food until it is finally consumed pure by your cat.
Another option is to mix your beloved dry food with some canned food and raw vegetables. If the cat refuses this food, dry food can be offered as an alternative, which the cat does not like. This has the effect that the cat prefers the mixed food with raw food content, since a positive taste experience is caused by the amount of the beloved dry food.
Get your cat used to raw food from canned food – this is how the transition works
If your cat has been used to canned food, you can gradually add small amounts of strongly chopped meat to the canned food. However, you must estimate the amount carefully and watch your cat carefully so that the food is not rejected due to the amount of meat it contains. If the cat refuses to feed, the amount of meat must be reduced again. Gradually, the amount of meat in canned food can be increased. If the cat refuses the food in the course of the changeover, the increase in amount can be paused for 1-2 days and then slowly tried again to increase the dose.
In you, as in getting used to dry food to raw food, even with canned food, in the event of rejection, a canned food that your cat does not like can be served first. You can then offer your own feed mixture, consisting of canned food and small amounts of meat, which the cat will usually accept because the beloved canned food is preserved. Chicken, turkey, and rabbit are great starters and will be adopted by most cats. If the cat does not like the meat, try another variety until you meet your cat’s taste.
Experience has shown that it has proven to be very helpful not to give pure canned food from the start in the conversion phase, as cats are smart enough to skip a mixed meal only to satisfy their hunger with the next „pure“ canned food portion.
This is how you get your cat used to different types of meat and additives
Only when your cat has a certain amount of meat in the contract can you start adding additives such as salt and taurine . Other additives such as vitamins, vegetables and minerals can gradually be increased proportionally. At the same time, the meat content should also be increased again and again. Phase you will find out which food composition your cat prefers and which type of meat tastes best.
The fact is that lean meat is more likely to be distorted than offal. You can start with an addition of chicken liver, which you mix with the feed, greatly reduced in size. In the next step you can mix in heart, for example. Here too, the tastes are different and the cats react differently to the added additives. Even more fleshy bones such as the necks and wings of chickens are initially rejected by many cats and should therefore be turned through the meat grinder and mixed with the food. The pieces of meat should gradually get bigger. You should not leave pieces of bones to the cat unattended, as you have to be careful that an inexperienced cat does not swallow them completely instead of chewing them thoroughly. This is particularly important for the necks and wings of chickens . The se should therefore be quartered in size for the time being, so that the cat is accustomed gradually to larger bone parts.
As part of the change in food, it is also very important to supply the cat with sufficient minerals and trace elements such as calcium and should therefore keep adding bones or a calcium preparation to the food until you have switched completely to raw food.
In all efforts, you should keep in mind that there are always exceptional cats who will never be willing to eat whole prey. For the health of the cat’s teeth and gums, it is absolutely sufficient if the cat chews larger pieces of meat over and over again.
Helpful practical tips for changing the feed:
1. Take your time and be patient and creative when it comes to determining your cat’s preferences and tastes.
2. Food can be warmed up in a water bath, as cats always prefer body-warm food to cold food.
3. Mix raw food with your cat’s preferred canned food. Alternatively, a few days before the start of the change in food, a rather unpopular canned food can be fed so that the cat will prefer to accept your food mixture after a few days.
4. You can sear raw meat on the outside slightly so that the meat has more flavor but is still raw on the inside. Depending on the cat’s taste, the meat must initially be completely cooked and then gradually offered less and less cooked.
5. Alternatively , the meat (for example chicken) can also be boiled at the beginning and served in a slightly warm broth for more flavor. Gradually, the meat should be cooked less and less until it is finally eaten raw by your cat.
6. In order for the cat to accept the new food better, some additives can be used to improve the taste of the food. Examples of this are products that your cat generally likes, such as
– goose fat, lard, duck fat
– vegetable oils
– yogurt, cottage cheese, cream
– Cottage cheese, grated cheese, especially parmesan
– dry food in powder form
– crumbled cat treats
– Chicken broth, tuna or other canned fish
– yeast flakes
– Kitty Bloom ( with cheese flavor)
7. Shape pieces of meat or minced meat into small balls and bread them in ground dry food for added flavor
8. Respect whether your cats would like to be around during meals or whether they would like to be undisturbed. Some cats do not like to be watched while they are eating, while others like to be petted, praised or hand-fed.
9. While S the food he can prepare you I always give a quick bite-phones cat meat so the meat this in mind as a special treat stores and takes so the lining prefer.
10. Alternatively, you can use the cat also e twas food off the counter or a plate or even the dog bowl “ steal “ leave. However, this has the disadvantage that you have to take your time afterwards to wean the cat off these little raids.
Always make sure that there is as much variety as possible in the choice of meats and additives in the food, so that your cat gets to know as much food as possible and thus gives you the opportunity to make the various meals varied, nutritious and balanced. At the end of the day, you cannot force your cat and if, even after a long period of exercise, it refuses various additives or a certain type of meat, you should leave them out and replace them with another type of meat or another addition.
It is normal for some cats to initially consume more Rose food than the average amount after the change in diet. It is possible that the cat unconsciously compensates for such a lack of nutrients or finds pleasure in the new food. The amount of feed consumed levels off by itself after a while.
Keep in mind that changing the feed can often be a long and arduous journey, which is characterized by small successes but also setbacks. Once the change has been successful, your cat will thank you in the long run with good health, fitness and a zest for life.
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