Kidney Support Homemade Cat Food

My 15-year-old cat has had kidney issues for a few years now. Over the last couple of years, I have managed it well by giving him homemade low-protein cat food made from recipes by established veterinary nutritionists, and under my vet's supervision. I choose not to buy the prescription canned food because of the numerous recalls that have plagued pet food in recent years, plus even though the food I make is expensive, it still costs less in the end than canned food, and I control the ingredients.

The process is time and labor intensive, but I use all parts of what I cook. I hope this is useful for you if you have an ailing cat as well. It may also be useful to you if you want to learn how to slow-cook chicken and use up all the parts of it.

DISCLAIMER: This is not meant to substitute for veterinary medical advice. It is a guide to how I prepare a recipe my vet recommended, along with other holistic wisdom I picked up along the way. Your mileage may vary, but please only proceed under medical supervision.

Step 1: Ingredients & Supplies

To make the food, you will need:

- Chicken
- Brown rice* (I have recently moved to quinoa; see Step 3 for more details)
- Salt
- Salt substitute (potassium chloride)
 - Baking soda (calcium carbonate) or calcium carbonate supplements
- Taurine
- Bone meal
- Multivitamins - I use these: Nu-Cat Senior
- Vitamin K
- A good blender
- Mortar & pestle

Optional but recommended:
Renal Essentials - Kidney Support for Cats
CoQ10

For an explanation of the recipe as well as others for both kidney issues and many others, you can read the book Home-Prepared Dog and Cat Diets, which is the top-recommended resource for this knowledge. My vet originally provided me with recipes from the previous edition, but I bought this edition and have been using it as my guide with my vet's approval.

Comments

[lizzyanny]

A great recipe. thanks! In regards to not using rice because of the arsenic levels recently discovered; I read the Consumer Reports article and they said the high arsenic rice was rice from the southern USA where DDT was used for so many years in the production of cotton. Rice from California and the Eastern coumtries (Thailand, India etc) have a much lower arsenic content.

[Rm-1268]

This s a great recipe, and very easy to understand. I've been looking for a good recipe for my cat. Thank you.

[sunshiine]

I really like this! Thanks for sharing.

[susanrm]

Thank you!