Article: Your cat should be completely healthy before you begin feeding her a homemade diet. Take your cat to the veterinarian for a thorough examination. You should also show the diet and recipes to a certified animal nutritionist to make sure they provide all the nutrients your cat needs. The veterinarian can help you locate a certified animal nutritionist in your area or you can find one online. When you grind and freeze raw cat food, this reduces the amount of taurine available to the cat. You'll need to supplement this amino acid to prevent major eye and cardiac problems. Recognize that a taurine deficiency doesn't show up immediately. Instead, it will take a few years, but by then the damage may be irreversible. Ask the animal nutrition expert to recommend a specific dosage for your cat. Any time you handle raw food, you need to wash your hands frequently and safely store the meat. This is important to prevent salmonella poisoning. Always use fresh meat, never meat that looks like it's starting to go bad. This can increase the risk of disease. Handling raw meat when pregnant can increase your risk for toxoplasmosis, a parasitic disease. Wash your hands frequently or wear gloves when handling meat. If you're concerned about the nutrition of a raw diet, understand that no nutrients are lost by preparing raw food rather than cooking it for your pet. Depending on what meat you choose to use, you may have a hard time finding high-quality meat. While it might be easy to buy a whole chicken from your grocery store, you may need to seek out a local farmer or butcher to get organ meat. If you can only find whole chicken to use, only grind up and offer bones that are small. However, if you include bones that are too large, your cat will simply avoid them. Just make sure not to cook the bones, which can cause them to splinter and damage your cat's digestive system. Fortunately, pre-made mixes of ground raw meat are increasingly available in refrigerated and frozen sections of pet stores. All you need to do is thaw and add supplements to the meat.
What is a summary of what this article is about?
Get your cat examined. Be prepared to supplement. Practice safe food handling. Purchase the meat.