The special nutritional requirements of cats make balancing a home-cooked diet for cats very difficult. Most home-cooked diets fed to pets are deficient in vitamins, minerals and other essential nutrients. Home-cooked food is also time consuming to prepare. Some people prefer to cook human food for their animals but advice from a veterinary nutritionist is essential to ensure that diets are nutritionally balanced. Home-cooked food should only be fed if properly balanced.
Veterinarians do recommend home-cooked diets for some specific purposes.
For example, home cooked diets are used to treat food allergies but food allergies are rare. If you are concerned about a food allergy then first consult a veterinarian, use a defined recipe prepared by a specialist and have your veterinarian check your cat at least every two months while it is on the diet. Unfortunately, even if cats are fed a balanced home-cooked diet, they will usually select between various ingredients so the diet consumed is unbalanced. Nutritional problems usually occur in my veterinary practice as a result of feeding human foods and supplements and do not occur from feeding cat food. Many people like to give human food as treats to their pet.