Is my cat's diet of homemade chicken, fish, and vegetables balanced?

Wild cats are NOT domestic cats, and domesticated cats have very different nutritional needs. Wild cats also do not live as long and may have health issues related to poor nutrition. And while cats ARE obligate carnivores, they cannot get all their nutritional needs from only feeding one type of food (IE only chicken breast) as it doesn't provide a complete amino acid or nutritional profile for your cat. This is why many home-formulated diets require several ingredients and nutritional supplements to balance. It is important to feed your cat a balanced diet in order to prevent nutritional deficiencies, such as taurine deficiencies, which can lead to blindness, organ dysfunction or even death if not addressed. Commercial cat foods are best (and cheaper than formulating your own diet which may require several different ingredients and supplements to provide the right nutrient balance) as they provide your cat with the correctly formulated nutrients to prevent illness or deficiency. If you do want to feed a homemade diet, I highly recommend working with a veterinarian in person in order to formulate a diet for Meo's specific nutritional needs. Otherwise, feeding a commercial cat food will be the easiest, and least expensive option while still providing the right nutritional balance to keep him healthy.

I would recommend consulting a veterinary nutritionist or using a website like https://secure.balanceit.com/index.php which provides recipes for balanced diets for pets, as it can be difficult to provide balanced nutrition from homemade diets. This website provides recipes based on your pet's needs.

People food is just that – food for people. Cats are obligate carnivores, and as such, have a delicate balance of protein, carbohydrates, fat, and vitamins and minerals that must be maintained. Cats should eat a balanced high quality diet in order to meet all of their nutritional needs. Unbalanced diets with vitamin/mineral imbalances risk a variety of health problems. Home cooked diets are not as commonly recommended, but are preferred by some cats and pet owners. If you opt to go down this road, a carefully crafted recipe by a specialist in veterinary nutrition should be used with proper vitamin and mineral supplementation. Even with a commercial diet, occasional treats of boiled white meat chicken, turkey, salmon, or tuna can be perfectly fine in small quantities.

Just eating chicken and fish is not a complete and balanced diet for a cat. You could talk to your vet about trying him on a hypoallergenic diet, like z/d or d/d. Those diets usually work with IBD and are nutritionally balance for a cat. Otherwise, you could use a website called Balance It to make sure his diet is balanced. You pick the ingredients that you are feeding and then they formulate a supplement that is added to the food. Cats can develop diseases, like heart disease, if their diet is deficient. https://secure.balanceit.com/

Floof is such a great name! Unfortunately I am worried that this may not meet the nutritional requirements for a cat. While these ingredients do provide excellent protein, cats have certain special requirements such as taurine and arginine that MUST be in the diet. Even mixing in a small amount of cat food to this mix may prove very helpful. Another choice would be to visit balanceit.com and a board-certified veterinary nutritionist can formulate a home-made diet for you that is guaranteed to be complete and balanced using the ingredients of your choice. There is a fee associated with that service. As a general rule, an average cat eats about 1/2-3/4 cup cat food per day. Hope this helps and best of luck with Floof!

Properly balancing a home cooked diet for cats is extremely difficult, and is nearly impossible for growing kittens. Cats are obligate carnivores, meaning that they require meat as the staple of their diets. They are also require a careful balance of amino acids, particularly taurine, to maintain optimal health. Nutritional deficiencies can lead to dilated cardiomyopathy, abnormal bone growth, or a host of other problems. I strongly recommend exclusively feeding Pelly a commercial kitten food to provide a proper nutritional balance for optimal growth. Royal Canin kitten food is a great option! You do not need to add additional foods or vitamins while feeding commercial diets. If you decide to feed more home cooked foods, try to wait until she is fully grown, and then only do so under the guidance of a board-certified veterinary nutritionist (including the recommendations found on www.balanceit.com). I hope this helps and that all goes well for Pelly!

I personally prefer giving a cat dry food, or a mixture of dry food and wet food. Cats have extremely specific dietary needs, which is very hard to achieve in a homemade diet. For example, cats cannot convert certain animo acids into essential ones they need to be healthy, and they therefore must be present in the diet for the cat to meet the important dietary requirement. There are four brands of food that have a veterinary nutritionist on staff to make sure the recipes for the food meet the cat's nutrition needs, and they are Royal Canin, Hill's Science diet, Purina ProPlan, and Iams. I recommend feeding your cat from those brands. If you really want to do to a homemade diet, I will put two websites below that have recipes for homemade balanced diets for cats. As for chicken and ham, chicken is fine as an occasional treat as long as it's boiled white meat chicken with no bones. I do not recommend ham because it's too fatty. I hope this helps! https://secure.balanceit.com https://www.petdiets.com