I've been feeding my cats a 100% homemade diet since August of 1993. This all started when I read The New Natural Cat by Anitra Frazier. After I read the chapter on Diet, I realized I was doing my cats a lot of harm in "free-feeding" (i.e. leaving food out for them to graze on all day) commercial dry food. I immediately took away the dry food and purchased a natural canned food and the supplements recommended in the book. It took a day and a half for Rooney to adapt to the new diet. Pumpkin refused to touch it. It took me almost five months to get Pumpkin to accept her new diet. Pumpkin's refusal to eat, along with her personality, led me to explore homeopathy.

Rooney began to show the effects of the new diet during the time that I was trying to convince Pumpkin to eat the new diet. Although he wasn't overweight, he was a bit chubby. The excess weight dropped off and was replaced with muscle. His coat took on a wonderful shine and I began to notice less shedding, an increase in activity level, and best of all, less litter box odor. I took a further step and started feeding a completely homemade diet consisting of human-grade raw meat (chicken, turkey, beef and fish); cooked grains and vegetables, raw garlic, parsley and carrots, a vitamineral supplement and oils.

NOTE 06/08/03: I published a book on natural cat care called Raising Cats Naturally: How to care for your cat the way nature intended in February 2003. END NOTE

Since 1993, my clan has grown considerably and BLAKKATZ Cattery was born. In addition to streamlining the production of the diet so it takes very little time, I no longer feed vegetables or grains to my cats and the only oil I use is salmon oil. I continue to see excellent benefits from feeding a homemade diet. I learned a lot about feline nutrition over the years. The more I learn and the longer my cats are on this diet, the more assured I am that I am doing the right thing.

Some of the benefits are:

• Reduced shedding and fewer hairballs;

• Improved temperament;

• Reduced litter box odor (a great benefit for a multi-cat household);

• To date, no need for dental work on any of my cats. I feed raw ground chicken bones and some of the meat fed is in chunks (some is ground) so the cats have to chew. There is no danger of raw chicken bones splintering. Contrary to popular myth, dry food DOES NOT clean teeth. For more information on natural dental health for cats, see my article, Nature's Toothbrush.

NOTE 10/31/00: Cleo, who now lives in Connecticut had to have three teeth extracted recently. All of my other cats have stayed out of the dental chair. END NOTE

• The general health of my cats is better.

• Food consumption is much less as they are getting more of what they need out of their food. I have no fat cats and no skinny cats.

What exactly do I feed these cats?

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"The time you spend preparing your cat's meals, the personal energy you put into it, is a gift of great value and a true measure of your love"
Dr. Jeffrey Levy, D.V.M.