Homemade is best! I hope!

I cannot be out on the highways everyday, although if I could, I might be!  There are home things that need to be taken care just like in everyone's life.  We are a cat family now, having lost our beloved soft-coated wheaten terrier, Murphy, almost a year ago.  We are waiting for the hurt to heal up just a little bit more before we open our hearts to a new dog.  Meanwhile... 

We are the proud owners of two aging felines.  Lola, who is 17 years old and Pip (Pipin), who is 16 years of age.  They came to live with us many years ago from our daughter who could not move them with her to a new place.  We have come to love them and their unique personalities.  Lola is sweet and loving and very peaceful and is affectionate with anyone, friend or stranger.  Pip on the other hand has learned that when the doorbell rings, someone who does not live in his home is coming in.  He runs and hides, usually under the bed.

Lola has been losing weight severely the past couple of months and Pip has taken to meowing almost constantly.  They are both scheduled to visit the veterinarian tomorrow afternoon but I felt I needed to do something for them now.  They both have weak teeth which makes eating dry food difficult although they still eat it a little.  We started adding canned wet food a couple of months ago but they have taken to just licking the gravy off and leaving the actual food in the bowl.  Too wasteful for my liking so I began looking for homemade cat food recipes that would be soft, nutritious and cheaper.  The cat food recipe was found!  (Thank you Joanna Trautman)

I bought 10 pounds of chicken quarters, a bag of white rice (we only eat brown) and pulled down a bag of flaxseed that I already had on hand.  (The author of the recipe I found uses homegrown pumpkin or zucchini but I didn't have either.) I let the chicken thaw out in the sink overnight, and in the morning I put it into two pots, covered the chicken with water and turned the heat up on high.  Once the pots began to rapidly boil, I turned the heat down to a vigorous simmer.  The pots simmered for six hours with additions of water when it began to get too low, so as to keep the chicken covered. (Do not add any seasonings!)  After about six hours, I checked the chicken and found the meat falling off the bones.  I turned the heat off and using a slotted spoon, placed the chicken pieces and bones into a big bowl.  I left the chicken to cool until it was cool enough to handle.  I poured the pots of chicken broth through a colander into a bowl to make sure there were no bones in the broth.  I deboned all the chicken meat and mushed it in my hands feeling for any little bones hiding in the meat.  There are a lot of little bones in chicken!!  You do not want any bones to go to your cats.  After all the chicken was deboned and mushed through my hands (you can use a food processor or a hand blender) I combined both pots of chicken broth into one and turned the heat back up and added 2 cups of white rice and brought to a boil.  I turned the heat down and simmered for an hour and then added a cup of finely ground flaxseed to the pot.  I then added the chicken back in and let it all simmer for another 1/2 hour before turning the heat off.  I let the pot cool overnight.  The flaxseed adds wonderful nutrients for the cats and also works as a thickener.  In the morning I fed the cats and they both chowed down!  

I reuse my freezer ziplock bags so had several on hand and ended up freezing 11 quarts with one quart in the refrigerator.  I filled each quart bag just about 3/4 full, pushed the air out and zipped them up.  I had marked each bag as cat food and the date.  

I will let you know if this helps with the cats' health.

I spent $9.98 for a 10 bag of chicken quarters and $2.28 for the white rice.  This compares to $1.25 every day for a can of wet food that mostly was thrown outside for the feral cats.  I am not sure how long each quart will last, I am assuming 1 quart will last for 3 to 4 days.  By my calculations that is .45 cents a day.