Trendy Cat

Many people have joined the gluten-free band wagon, deciding that they feel better without most grains in their diet. Good for them if it works! Of this group, there are some that are bringing their pets along for the grain-free ride. It has become trendy. Our cats are on a grain-free diet, too, but for us it was a medical and olfactory necessity.

Lemon, being so soft and fuzzy, seems to beg to be picked up.

Unfortunately, from early on in my meeting her, often when I picked her up, she’d fart. It only happened when I picked her up. Dang, that was toxic waste with an incredible hang time. DH2U found it funny until the smell hit him!

At first we thought it was just Lemon expressing her thoughts about my presence or that she was simply relaxed around me (that was my spin). Then we realized that she was having some other intestinal difficulties. Something was definitely wrong with this adorable cat.

We tried all sorts of different foods, and what we learned was that any food we gave her that had grains in it caused this unfortunate result. Neither of us are made of money, and paying $1.69 a can for two cans a day simply wasn’t going to work. DH2U did all the research, and we entered into the cat food making inner circles of people who spoil love their pets!

It takes most of a day to make a batch that will feed them for two and a half months. We start with my pressure cooker, which I got for pressure canning (thanks for that birthday gift, Ma!) – which I still haven’t used for that purpose.

That enables the bones to get soft and not create dangerous slivers when the cats eat them. The bones have all sorts of essential nutrients, so into the cooker they go.

Then there is a lot of grinding.

In order to assist the digestive health of both kitties, in goes some fiber in the form of peas. Carmen loved when we used pumpkin instead, but Lemon wasn’t as convinced. Both definitely eat the peas, even when some manage to make it through the grinder whole.

After that we (meaning DH2U) adds all the vitamins to the huge vat of food. Then it is divided out into four portions, so we can make four different flavors. Right now we leave one of them plain, add canned tuna in oil to another, canned chicken flavor cat food to another, and canned salmon cat food to the fourth. Heaven help us if we don’t give them variety!

The last step is freezing all this up and creating single serving blocks.

At meal time each cube is divided in half and each kitty gets her own serving – heated and stirred of course!

Me being me, I take one block of each flavor and put them in a baggie. I put the little baggies in a freezer baggies, and into the freezer they goes.

The cats love the food, it costs us roughly $.33 a serving, and Lemon no longer expresses her love for me with a foul smell. I think we all win on this one.

What steps have you gone to for a pet? or Have you ever tried an elimination diet?