HOW MUCH IS TOO MUCH?
my human friends to elaborate marinated, seasoned, garnished and otherwise primped-up dishes than I had from
Delphi and Liberty to some simply poached chicken or steamed fish.
But cats can be a challenge. Unlike dogs, who are invariably ruled by their stomachs, cats can be fussy.
They might like something to eat, or to chase a leaf with laser-focused concentration, or to bask in a puddle of sunshine on a chair by the window.
I am reminded of this daily when I look at my two dogs, Gracie and Barney, wolfing down their food, so much so that Gracie has to have a special bowl with a sort of maze in the bottom to stop her guzzling her dinner without drawing breath. Meanwhile, Dixie, the elegant Burmese who currently deigns to live with us, eats with enormous grace and discernment.
In the wild, cats are carnivores. They hunt and eat what they catch, and very few of their nutritional needs are met by eating plants. I try to keep Dixie’s diet as close as possible to the kinds of foods she might eat in the wild. I feed her a combination of fresh food I make myself and commercial food with as short an ingredient list as possible. I go big on rabbit, chicken, duck and lamb, with the occasional bit of poached or canned fish or steamed prawns (shrimp). I keep the meat content of her diet as close to 90 per cent of what she eats as I can. And yes, I do give her the odd treat, for training and bonding, and to express my boundless love for her dear, sweet, aristocratic self.
The reason I don’t cook all of Dixie’s food is that developing a complete feline diet is a very complex thing. It would involve grinding up bones and an animal dietitian’s knowledge of which supplements might be required. I am not that person. If you think you might be, buy a good meat grinder and seek professional advice. I feed my cat home-cooked food about 30 per cent of the time, with a high-quality commercial wet food such as Lily’s Kitchen or Nature’s Menu, which are grain-free and very low in carbs, making up the balance of her food.
Of course, I feel crestfallen if she rejects my offerings at mealtimes, but I have learned what she likes, and that’s a mixture of really good, complete, canned food, some of my special dinners, and the occasional homemade treat. Give the lady what she wants, I say. She is sleek and healthy and has the energy and spirit of a tiny tiger.
I am sharing with you here some of the favourite dishes and treats I have created for the five cats we have loved over the past two decades. Sharing our home with our cats has given me so much pleasure over the years, so these offerings feel like a very small gesture of thanks for all their boundless affection. I hope your cats will enjoy them too.
Some brown rice from time to time adds fibre to your cat’s diet and aids its digestive system.
Working out how much to feed your cat depends on her age and activity level. My dainty Burmese, Dixie, eats a lot less than our neighbour’s enormous moggy, Arthur. An indoor cat will probably eat less than an outdoor cat, an elderly cat less than a young cat and so on. Give them just enough so they polish it all off in one sitting – if they leave food you have given them too much. And watch their weight. If they are looking a little fat or a little thin and there are no underlying causes, adjust their portion sizes.
Squash is a good source of fibre and is tolerated by most cats, especially when combined with turkey, which they all seem to love. You can use chicken in this recipe if you prefer.
MAKES 30 INGREDIENTS
150g squash, peeled, deseeded and cut into 2cm cubes 500g minced turkey or chicken
1 tsp fresh mint, finely chopped
METHOD
Preheat the oven to 200C/180C fan/Gas 6. Line a roasting pan with parchment paper.
Using a steamer or sieve (strainer) set over a pan of boiling water, steam the squash until it is very soft.
Transfer to a bowl and mash it roughly. Leave to steam for about 10 minutes, so it loses some of its moisture.
When the squash has cooled, mix in the turkey or chicken and the mint until everything is well combined.
Roll into walnut-sized meatballs and place in the prepared pan. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes until cooked through and very lightly browned. Cool before feeding to your cat.
The meatballs will keep in the refrigerator for a couple of days.