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Old February 3rd, 2009, 12:55 AM
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kathryn kathryn is offline
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I've been making my own cat food!

Who is ready to help me add the extra vitamins though I know how much Lysine to mix in but I bought a bottle of taurine and Flax Seed meal. I couldn't afford the flax seed OIL so I got a big thing of the meal which is the same thing except dried. It will mix in just fine I think.

Alrighty.. so usually 8 cats eat the wet food and so I add about 2,000 mg of l-lysine to the pot but how much added taurine and flaxseed should I add?

I have been using low sodium organic chicken broth from whole foods (no corn syrup or preservatives for my kitties!) and I had been buying like the sliced chicken thingys but I couldn't find them last time I was at whole foods and ended up buying boneless chicken thighs. What would be best for the kitties?

To make the 'gravy' I mash up green peas in the chicken broth and it makes this green slime that they really love. I add broccoli and a couple other random non toxic veggies. I also wait until it's almost done and scramble in some eggs and the love that.

So am I doing everything right? I don't always do this but it's a nice treat for them and they gobble it up.


http://www.nowfoods.com/Products/Pro...ically/M038554
http://www.nowfoods.com/Products/Pro...ly/M002927.htm


thanks
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Old February 3rd, 2009, 02:30 AM
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I used to add ground flaxseed to my grrls' raw until my homeopath mentioned to use salmon oil instead.

A full spectrum vit e would be beneficial as well.

About the chicken breast filets vs chicken thighs - I think a combo would be best that way they are getting both the light & dark meat

This might help with your receipe in regards to taurine & other ingredients: http://www.catinfo.org/makingcatfood...he_Ingredients
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Old February 3rd, 2009, 08:01 AM
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That's awesome that you're interested in making your own cat food. What proportion of this "stew" makes up the cats meals? Are you adding a calcium source? If not, I wouldn't be giving this to them for more than 10-15% of their diet because it will be way to heavy on the phosphorus side of things. The proper calcium/phosphorus ratio (1.2-1.4:1) is very important for long-term feeding or you could end up with some serious deficiencies.
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Old February 3rd, 2009, 01:01 PM
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kathryn kathryn is offline
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I just give it to them as a treat every couple days I know either way it's still a dead chicken but it makes me feel better to buy the free range expensive stuff from whole foods. It has got to be better then something from Tyson or Perdue.


What do I add for calcium? Should I just add calcium powder or something?

It gets the little guy (Mr Sniffles) to scarf down his food. I'm still trying to fatten him up because he's still a scrawny little thing. So since he likes this I give it to him for a treat. He licks the plate clean every time!
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Old February 3rd, 2009, 08:32 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by kathryn View Post
What do I add for calcium? Should I just add calcium powder or something?
It's a little more complicated than that. For starters, different calcium salts actually contain different amounts of elemental calcium, and it's the elemental calcium that matters in achieving the correct calcium/phosphorus ratio. So for instance, calcium carbonate has 40% elemental calcium, calcium citrate has 21%, calcium lactate has 13%. Finely ground dried eggshells are a good source at about 35% elemental calcium.

The first thing you'd need to do is find out how much (in mg) calcium and phosphorus are already present in your stew. A nutritional database like this one can help: http://www.nal.usda.gov/fnic/foodcomp/search/

Then you need to pick a calcium source and calculate the amount of elemental calcium it contains (in mg). For example, 5 grams (or 5000mg) of ground eggshell multiplied by 0.35 (for 35%) = 1750mg of elemental calcium.

To get the 1.2:1 ratio, multiply the phosphorus mg of your stew by 1.2, but remember to subtract from that the calcium that's already present. An example: lets say there is 20mg of calcium and 200mg of phosphorus (which gives us a ratio of 1:10). 200mg x 1.2 = 240mg. So you need 240mg of calcium to balance the 200mg of phosphorus. But there's 20mg of calcium already there, so you only need to add an additional 220mg of elemental calcium to get the 1.2:1 ratio. Then, if 5000mg of eggshell contains 1750mg of elemental calcium and you only need 220mg, you have to do another calculation to figure out how much eggshell to add. 5000 divided by 1750, then multiplied by 220, gives you about 628mg (or roughly 1/8th of a tsp).

Is your head spinning yet?

Here are some links on calcium:
http://www.serve.com/BatonRouge/nutr...cium_suppl.htm
http://www.serve.com/BatonRouge/nutrition/eggshell.htm
http://www.serve.com/BatonRouge/nutr...umproducts.htm
http://www.answers.com/topic/phosphorus-and-calcium

And one on taurine:
http://www.serve.com/BatonRouge/taurine_chmr.htm
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Old February 12th, 2009, 01:07 PM
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You might want to consider using the flax seed or, or better yet salmon oil or herring oil etc, as the flax powder often times has alot of the omega 3s removed from it. As in the oil is take off, and then the powder is made.
Not sure which one you are using though...
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