The following recipe must be prepared using the whole dressed (no head, feet, feathers, guts) carcass of a chicken or other bird, or a rabbit. You will need a meat grinder capable of grinding the bones.
Recipe
- 2 kg whole fryer chicken/stewing hen, “dressed” carcass
- 200g chicken liver
- 4 raw egg yolks
- 4 gram (1 tsp.) iodized “Half Salt” or “Light Salt”
- 4000 mg Salmon Oil/or other fish body oil
- 4000 mg Taurine
Yields 18 x 130 gram (1/2 cup) daily rations. Feed 1/4 cup 2-3 x a day.
About the ingredients:
- Do not cut corners by using only chicken legs, or – heaven forbid – just chicken backs and necks to make this recipe. Use the whole, “dressed” bird (chicken can be substituted by other edible birds) and don’t cut anything away, like skin or fat. The chicken meat itself will contain little fat, and the visible fat is important as a source of essential fatty acids. Of course, don’t use a bird with guts, feathers, head, and legs.
- You don’t need to add Vitamin A, B, D or E, because these are naturally occurring in both the raw egg yolk and raw liver.
- Do not add whole egg, but only the egg yolk. Egg white contains an enzyme which will make the essential B Vitamin Biotin unavailable to your cat.
- Instead of Kelp, we add “Half Salt” or “Light Salt” to this recipe, which is readily available at your grocery store. It is a mixture of iodized sodium chloride and potassium chloride. It is easy to overdose iodine when using kelp on a small scale as in the do-it-yourself recipe.
- Add 1 can of salmon, sardines, or mackerel packed in water as a source of Omega 3 fatty acids, instead of 4000mg Salmon Oil or an Omega 3 fish oil, if you wish.
- Although chicken – especially the dark meat of chicken legs contain Taurine, it is advisable to obtain Taurine (available as L-Taurine) from your health food store to assure optimal levels of this essential amino acid in this recipe. If available, you can add 400g of chicken hearts, but take ½ chicken breast away. In that case, you do not have to add supplemental Taurine.
- Cats do not need fiber. There is no need to add Psyllium husk or any other source of soluble or insoluble fiber to this recipe.
- This recipe has a naturally pleasing texture and does not require the addition of water.
- If your store bought chicken contains the heart, liver, gizzard, and neck in the body cavity, remove these from the little bag and simply grind into the recipe.
Step-by-step pictoral preparation instructions:
Besides a grinder capable of grinding bones, you will need a few, basic utensils to measure, prepare, and mix your ingredients.
An electric grinder motor should be at least 1/2 horse power for this task, and the grinder attachment should ideally be made of metal.
The ingredients necessary for this recipe are readily available. You will be able to find nearly all on them at your grocery store, with the exception of Taurine, which will be available at your health food store.
Prepare your ingredients.
For the purpose of this pictorial demonstration, we have DOUBLED the above recipe.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk egg yolks into a smooth texture.
Add Salmon oil, by pricking each capsule with a large needle…
… and squeezing the content over your egg yolk.
Add Taurine by pulling each capsule apart and emptying the content into the bowl of egg yolk and Salmon oil.
Choose the fine plate of your grinder for the next step of grinding your liver into the egg yolk mix.
Grind the liver right into your bowl…
… and blend thoroughly with the egg yolk mix.
Switch to your coarse plate for the next step of actually grinding your chicken.
First, part out your chicken into legs, wings, beasts and backs.
Break down your parts with a meat clever…
… like this.
Feed your chicken parts through your meat grinder.
Our meat grinder is a refurbishes antique, which works like a charm!
Your coarsely ground, whole chicken carcass will look like this…
… but already you can barely feel the bones.
Switch back to your fine plate, for the second pass of your chicken through the grinder.
Grind directly into your bowl of the egg yolk – supplement – liver mix.
Your second grind is very fine without visible bits of bone.
Second grind whole chicken carcass on black surface to demonstrate how finely bone and cartilage are being broken down during this process.
Close-up
If you didn’t know it, you couldn’t tell this is a whole chicken with bones!
Some larger bone and cartilage fragments will be retained in your grinder attachment by the time you are finished. Do NOT add these into your cat food, but discard.
Ready for the final mix of combining your egg yolk-supplement-liver mix with your double-ground whole chicken.
Done!
Ready to divide into rations and freeze…
… or serve!
