The short answer: chicken makes a good base for homemade cat food, but chicken alone is not a complete meal. A cat also needs taurine, calcium, omega-3 fatty acids and a set of vitamins and minerals, in the right amounts. Below are two chicken recipes, one raw and one cooked, what each one adds to make it balanced, and how to prepare and store them safely.
Talk to your veterinarian before you switch. A 2019 UC Davis study checked 94 homemade cat food recipes from books and websites and found that none of them supplied every essential nutrient. A recipe balanced for your cat by a veterinarian or a board-certified veterinary nutritionist is the safest way to feed homemade food every day.
What cats need that chicken alone does not give them
Cats are obligate carnivores: they must get their protein from animals, and they digest most fruits and vegetables poorly. Dogs are different. They can live on a much wider diet, which is why a dog recipe should never be fed to a cat.
- Taurine. Cats cannot make enough of it, and a shortage causes heart disease and blindness. Chicken heart and dark meat are good sources. Cooking and grinding destroy some of it, so cooked recipes need a taurine supplement, and many raw recipes add one to be safe.
- Calcium. Meat is high in phosphorus and low in calcium. Raw recipes get calcium from finely chopped raw bone. Cooked recipes need a supplement, because cooked bones must never be fed.
- Omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids. Sardines or a small amount of fish oil provide them.
- Vitamins and minerals. Liver supplies vitamin A, but keep it to about 5% of the recipe, because too much vitamin A is harmful. A commercial vitamin and mineral blend made for cats covers the rest.
Cats do not need carbohydrates, but a small amount, such as the rice and sweet potato in the cooked recipe, is fine.
Raw chicken cat food recipe
Makes about 1.1 kg, roughly a week to ten days of food for a healthy 4.5 kg (10 lb) cat.
- 350 g chicken thigh meat
- 200 g chicken heart
- 50 g chicken gizzard
- 300 g raw chicken neck, with skin (the bone is the calcium)
- 50 g chicken liver
- 50 g chicken kidney
- 50 g sardines
- 1 egg
- Water (optional)
Cut the thigh meat into larger chunks and the organ meats into small pieces. Chop the necks finely or put them through a meat grinder, so no sharp pieces of bone are left. Mix everything in a large bowl with the egg, weigh out one day's food per container, and freeze all but the next two days' portions.
Cooked chicken cat food recipe
One day's food for an average 5.4 kg (12 lb) adult cat with no medical conditions:
- 83 g cooked chicken thigh, boneless
- 50 g cooked white rice
- 30 g cooked sweet potato, without the skin
- ¼ tsp fish oil
- 2.7 g Balance IT Feline (a commercial vitamin and mineral blend), or the daily amounts of taurine and calcium your veterinarian recommends
Boil the chicken, or sauté it in a little olive oil, with no onion, garlic or seasoning. Remove every bone, then shred the meat into a bowl. Add the rice and the sweet potato cut into small pieces, then the fish oil and the vitamin mix. Stir well, or pulse in a food processor for a smoother texture.
How much homemade food to feed a cat
A common starting point is 2 to 4% of your cat's body weight a day, split into two or more meals. For a 4.5 kg cat that is about 90 to 180 g. Weigh your cat every couple of weeks and adjust: kittens, very active cats and cats that need to gain or lose weight need different amounts, which is a question for your veterinarian.
Switch over slowly. Mix a little of the new food into the old for a week or two, increasing it each day, to avoid an upset stomach.
Safety: bones, bacteria and foods to avoid
- Never feed cooked bones. Cooking makes bones brittle, and they can splinter and injure the mouth, throat or gut.
- Raw chicken carries bacteria such as Salmonella and Campylobacter, which can make your cat and your family sick. Many veterinarians advise against raw feeding in homes with young children, older people or anyone with a weakened immune system. Wash hands, bowls and surfaces after every meal. Our guide to handling raw chicken safely covers the details.
- No onion, garlic or chives, in any form, including onion or garlic powder in stock. They damage a cat's red blood cells.
- Storage. Keep homemade cat food in the fridge for no more than two to three days, and freeze the rest in daily portions. Thaw it in the fridge, not on the counter, and throw away anything left in the bowl after about 30 minutes.
Where to buy chicken for your cat
For over 60 years Cericola Farms supplied fresh chicken for meals like these: antibiotic-free and organic chicken, and the raw backs, necks and cages sold for pet food through our raw chicken pet food line. Those products are no longer available. Cericola Farms' plants have been part of Maple Leaf Foods since 2018 and 2021.
Today, choose any local chicken source you trust: a butcher, a farmers' market, a nearby farm, or a raw pet food supplier. Hearts, livers, gizzards and necks are often easiest to find at a butcher, who can set them aside if you ask. Look for Canadian-raised chicken, and buy it fresh. Enjoy making good meals for your cat.
Cooking for a dog as well? See our homemade chicken dog food recipe, and read about raw pet food diets.