Feeding Chicken to Cats?

[Dreamingofplenty]

I'm curious if anyone here has made home-made cat food out of old, non-productive chickens.

My problem is that I eat very little meat, and the rest of my family probably won't be enthusiastic about eating homegrown meat. But my cats have never turned down meat before, so this seems like an ideal solution.

Has anyone tried this? Any tips or recipes to share?
Thanks in advance!

 

[JaeG]

Cats need to be fed a variety of prey species to remain healthy if fed a raw food diet and small bones are essential if you go that route. You cannot mix cat biscuits and raw food as any kind of starch increases the pH of their stomach acid making it unable to break down small bones sufficiently to prevent an impaction. Even if you cook the meat (and then you mustn't give them cooked bones as they are more brittle, breaking into sharp pieces) you cannot feed them on it exclusively, as it won't provide enough general nutrition. You could feed it a couple of times a week in addition to their normal diet, freezing it until you needed it.

 

[Dreamingofplenty]

Sorry for the silly question, but cat biscuits are what is sometimes called "dry cat food", right?
Thanks for all the help! I searched every book about raising chickens I could find, but none had any information on the topic.

 

[JaeG]

Sorry for the silly question, but cat biscuits are what is sometimes called "dry cat food", right?
Thanks for all the help! I searched every book about raising chickens I could find, but none had any information on the topic.

Yes, cat biscuits - it's sometimes hard to know which words to use with so many different countries joining together on here. Our two old girls are on grain free (but still full of starches) biscuits but our younger, less fussy cat loves her raw food.

 

[FrankHomestead]

I'm curious if anyone here has made home-made cat food out of old, non-productive chickens.

My problem is that I eat very little meat, and the rest of my family probably won't be enthusiastic about eating homegrown meat. But my cats have never turned down meat before, so this seems like an ideal solution.

Has anyone tried this? Any tips or recipes to share?
Thanks in advance!

Absolutely, your cat will be your biggest fan. I feed my cat chicken, fish, beef, pork, lamb...ooo his favorite is lamb..even over fish. he's an outdoor mouser cat, and I only feed him food, never bothered with kibble. He's a very healthy, active cat. Cats are carnivorous, if it's meat, they're all about it. in fact, he even devoured raw chicken organs that my dogs wouldn't touch.

 

[Kusanar]

I'm curious if anyone here has made home-made cat food out of old, non-productive chickens.

My problem is that I eat very little meat, and the rest of my family probably won't be enthusiastic about eating homegrown meat. But my cats have never turned down meat before, so this seems like an ideal solution.

Has anyone tried this? Any tips or recipes to share?
Thanks in advance!

I feed my cats raw, and they get chicken nearly exclusively, I know it's better to give them a variety of meats, but they are healthier on the raw chicken than they were on cat food. I had to switch 5 cats over to raw because they were throwing up on the cat food and one of them gets really bad diarrhea when he gets more than a bite of cat food, I tried several different brands, dry, wet, nothing helped him until I switched them to raw and now no problems at all. I switched them when they were about 8 weeks old and he's now around 2 years old, 12.5 pounds, with a slick and glossy coat.
Now, they do go through a LOT of chicken, I buy a 10 pound bag of leg quarters every 3-4 days plus an occasional pack of giblets or livers.
As someone else pointed out, switching back and forth between raw and cat food isn't a good idea, it will cause all sorts of problems, but, a cat won't have a problem with a single bone in a chicken, at least mine don't with store chickens, I assume home raised ones get tougher bones, but I can give mine an entire 5 pound chicken from the store and they can eat it ALL overnight, no bones left.

I have one I am trying to transition to raw, she is currently getting wet cat food in the mornings and cooked chicken in the evenings, I will start switching her to all cooked chicken, and then adding in a little bit of raw to get her used to the taste, currently she won't even LOOK at raw chicken...

 

[FrankHomestead]

I feed my cats raw, and they get chicken nearly exclusively, I know it's better to give them a variety of meats, but they are healthier on the raw chicken than they were on cat food. I had to switch 5 cats over to raw because they were throwing up on the cat food and one of them gets really bad diarrhea when he gets more than a bite of cat food, I tried several different brands, dry, wet, nothing helped him until I switched them to raw and now no problems at all. I switched them when they were about 8 weeks old and he's now around 2 years old, 12.5 pounds, with a slick and glossy coat.
Now, they do go through a LOT of chicken, I buy a 10 pound bag of leg quarters every 3-4 days plus an occasional pack of giblets or livers.
As someone else pointed out, switching back and forth between raw and cat food isn't a good idea, it will cause all sorts of problems, but, a cat won't have a problem with a single bone in a chicken, at least mine don't with store chickens, I assume home raised ones get tougher bones, but I can give mine an entire 5 pound chicken from the store and they can eat it ALL overnight, no bones left.

I have one I am trying to transition to raw, she is currently getting wet cat food in the mornings and cooked chicken in the evenings, I will start switching her to all cooked chicken, and then adding in a little bit of raw to get her used to the taste, currently she won't even LOOK at raw chicken...

Yes raw chicken bones are fine, it's when it's cooked bones become brittle and splinter causing choking or internal puncturing.