Homemade food and raw (BARF) diets for cats: what you need to know before you start
Feeding a cat homemade or raw food is possible, but it is not just “giving it meat”. It is an obligate carnivore with very precise needs, and mistakes give no warning: they show up months later in the heart, the eyes or the bones. If you are considering it, this is what you should know.
Why cats make it harder
A dog copes reasonably well with a slightly unbalanced homemade diet for a while. A cat copes far less well. It needs taurine, arachidonic acid, preformed vitamin A, niacin and a high amount of protein, and it does not make them itself, or not in sufficient quantities. In the wild it gets them by eating the whole prey: muscle, organs, bones, blood and even the stomach contents. When you give it only chicken breast, however good, you are giving it one part of the prey and it is missing almost everything else. That is why homemade food for cats has to be formulated, not improvised.
What happens when taurine is lacking
This is the clearest example. Taurine is found in muscle, especially heart, and in shellfish, but some of it is lost through cooking, mincing and long freezing, because it escapes with the juices. A homemade diet low in taurine can cause, after some months, dilated cardiomyopathy, a potentially fatal heart disease, and a degeneration of the retina that ends in irreversible blindness. It also affects reproduction and kitten growth. There are no symptoms at first, and by the time they appear the damage is done. That is why most serious homemade recipes include a taurine supplement.
Calcium, the other big mistake
Meat and fish are high in phosphorus and contain almost no calcium, and cats need both in a specific ratio. A boneless meat diet without a calcium supplement, kept up over time, causes nutritional secondary hyperparathyroidism: the body takes calcium from the bones, which become fragile and fracture easily. In growing kittens it is particularly serious and can appear within a few weeks. The opposite extreme, too much bone, causes constipation and blockages. Getting it right means weighing ingredients and following a calculated recipe, not guessing.
Liver, tuna and other excesses
Liver is a valuable ingredient, but in excess it causes vitamin A toxicity, which in cats leads to abnormal bone growths in the neck and legs, with pain and stiffness. It tends to appear in cats that eat liver every day for months. Raw fish fed regularly, particularly some species, contains an enzyme that destroys thiamine, vitamin B1, and a lack of it causes neurological problems. Tinned tuna as the basis of the diet is low in vitamin E, high in fats that go rancid and in mercury, and very addictive. A balanced recipe avoids all of this; improvising, it is easy to fall into one of these traps.
The hidden risk: bacteria
Raw meat carries bacteria. Salmonella, Campylobacter, Listeria and E. coli turn up frequently in studies of raw pet foods, commercial ones included. Many cats carry them without falling ill, but they shed them in their faeces and saliva, and that is a risk for the people in the household, especially young children, pregnant women, older people and anyone with a weakened immune system. Raw meat can also pass toxoplasma to the cat. And in 2024 and 2025, cases of cats infected with bird flu from contaminated raw food were documented in the United States, several of them fatal. Freezing reduces some risks, but it does not eliminate bacteria.
If you still want to feed raw
Some owners do it well, and it can be done, but with conditions. The safest option is a commercial raw food that is labelled as complete for cats, from a manufacturer that publishes its analyses and microbiological testing. If you make it at home, use a recipe calculated by a vet specialising in nutrition, not one taken from a forum, together with its mineral and vitamin supplement. Strict kitchen hygiene: dedicated surfaces and utensils, hand washing, thawing in the fridge and removing leftovers from the bowl after twenty or thirty minutes. And do not feed raw in homes with babies, pregnant women or people with weakened immunity.
The alternative: cooked homemade food
Lightly cooking the meat greatly reduces the bacterial risk and still allows a homemade diet. In exchange, some of the taurine and certain vitamins are lost, which makes supplementing even more important. A typical cooked homemade recipe uses muscle meat as the base, a small portion of organ meat such as heart or liver, a source of fat, a mineral and vitamin supplement made specifically for cats and, where needed, taurine. Vegetables and cereals are not necessary and, if added, should be in very small amounts. There are veterinary nutrition services that design a recipe for your particular cat, for around €60 to €150 in Spain.
What it must never contain
Onion, garlic and leek, in any form, whether powdered or in stock, because they damage the cat’s red blood cells, and cats are more sensitive to them than dogs. Grapes and raisins, chocolate, alcohol, caffeine and raw yeast dough. Cooked bones, which splinter; raw bones, if used, should always be small, meaty and suited to the size of the cat. Salt, cured meats, sauces, spices and leftovers from human meals. And no raw fish every day. If you are unsure about a particular food, our tool goes through them one by one.
What it really costs
Homemade food done properly is not cheap. For a 4 kg (9 lb) cat, between good-quality meat, organ meat and the supplement, the cost in Spain in 2026 is around €40 to €80 a month, not counting preparation time. A complete commercial raw food for cats falls in a similar range, between €50 and €100 a month. On top of that come the nutritionist consultation and, ideally, a check-up blood test a few months in. It is more expensive than a good dry food and similar to a diet of good-quality wet food only, which has many of its advantages without its risks.
How to tell if it is working
With any homemade diet, keep an eye on weight, coat, energy, stools and urine, and have a veterinary check-up with blood tests three to six months after you start, then every year. Always tell your vet, even if you fear criticism: some blood values, such as urea or creatinine, are affected by very high-protein diets, and knowing about the diet avoids scares and wrong diagnoses. If at any point the cat loses weight, vomits often, has persistent diarrhoea or goes lame, review the diet with a professional.
What we think is sensible
For most cats, a diet of good complete dry food with some complete wet food covers all their needs, with less risk and less work. If homemade food appeals to you because you want to give your cat something more natural, good-quality wet food with a high meat content is a very close alternative. And if you decide to make it at home, do it properly: a calculated recipe, a supplement, hygiene and check-ups. What is not a good idea is the thing you see most often: giving a cat plain mince or boiled chicken and believing that is its natural diet.
Homemade or raw food is only safe for a cat with a recipe calculated by a veterinary nutritionist and its supplement of taurine, calcium and vitamins. Raw meat carries bacteria that also affect the people at home; a good complete wet food is the simplest alternative.
Educational content from Michipedia, translated from the Spanish original. It does not replace the advice of a vet or a feline behaviour specialist. Every cat is an individual.