West Coast Canine Life
FOR OUR FELINE COMPANIONS

Try adapting our Canine Life recipe for your finicky feline!

Cats lick their lips for West Coast Canine Life muffins too.Cats can be finicky eaters, but some really seem to like eating their dog's Canine Life muffins! However, cats require additional protein and calcium, so we have adapted the Canine Life muffin recipe accordingly to make it more suitable for your cat.

Please note that there is no nutritional analysis for the Feline Blend recipe.

Cats - big, small, wild, and even domestic - eat prey whole (e.g. muscle, organs, bones, skin, and hair). Some folks believe this is the very best for our companion/domestic cats to eat. This option is not always readily available, and some just can't stomach the whole process of feeding a raw diet.

Others have done their research and do not want to feed dry or canned cat food.   The solution is to find the right choice and balance that works for you and your cat.

 

Feline Blend Muffins Recipe

Please read all instructions before preparing your cat's home-made muffins:

FELINE MUFFINS

  • 2 1/2 cups WEST COAST CANINE LIFE Pre-Mix
  • Protein (choose from the following):
    • 1 lb. raw ground boneless fish OR
    • 1 can of fish AND 1/2 lb. of raw ground boneless chicken OR
    • 2 cans of salmon, sardines OR tuna*, including the liquid (packed in water or broth, preferably without added salt)
  • 1/2 cup raw minced green and yellow vegetables (eg. beans and carrots)
  • 1 egg, including the crushed shell
  • 1/3 cup safflower oil
  • 1/2 cup distilled or filtered water
  • 2 tbsp. PURE cranberry juice

INSTRUCTIONS

  1. Preheat oven to 325F (180C) degrees.
  2. Lightly grease 18 - 20 mini muffin tins.
  3. Combine all ingredients in a  food processor and mix well.
  4. Place mixture into mini muffin tins.
  5. Bake for 15 minutes.
  6. Remove from oven and cool to room temperature, before storing in an air tight container or ziplock bags. Refrigerate 2 to 3 days worth of food, and freeze the rest. DON'T OVERBAKE!
  7. A greased cookie sheet works well too. Just spoon the mixture into 18 - 20 equal spoonfuls and lightly push down with the back on the spoon. Baking time is the same as the muffin tins.

* NOTE: Tuna is not recommended as the daily protein staple in a cat's diet, as they can become "tuna junkies." If this occurs, cats will NOT eat anything else and it may cause a vitamin E deficiency. The scientific term for this condition is "steatitis" which simply means "yellow fat disease."


Nutritional Information

Cats require more protein than dogs, therefore the amount of Canine Life Pre-Mix used in the FELINE recipe is different than in the CANINE one. The amounts of fish and meat are different as well.

There is a calcium supplement (dicalcium phosphate hydrate,  a pharmaceutical grade calcium) already added to the Pre-Mix, and when you add one crushed egg shell to the recipe you are supporting your cat's daily calcium requirement. Phosphorus is by nature attracted to calcium, forming a chemical bond: calcium phosphate. If meat were to be ingested without the correct amount of bone, the phosphorus in meat would draw calcium from the cat's bones - resulting in disease such as bone deformities, limping, muscle failure, fractures.

The same happens in humans. A diet of hamburger and pop is very high in phosphorus, and people start to suffer from osteoporosis as a direct result. The cat has a very high requirement for calcium due to the high level of phosphorus in her high portion of meat diet. As omnivores, people require less calcium if eating a plant based diet. Herbivores require even less calcium, and all the calcium they need is contained within the plants they eat, which also contain small amounts phosphorus - resulting in a proper ratio. The calcium / phosphate partnership is what gives bones and teeth their strength and rigidity and is present in a 2:1 ratio in bone. Isolated calcium in the body is used for proper muscle function, and isolated phosphorus represents a structural component of cells, including soft tissue. This is why muscle tissue (meat) contains such high levels of phosphorus. 

Testing of our Canine Life muffins shows a 1.41:1 ratio of calcium to phosphorus. This is the reason why the amount of Canine Life Pre-Mix used in our feline muffin recipe is less than in the canine muffin recipe, and the recipe calls for more fish/meat. This fine tuning of our feline diet keeps us well within the  guidelines of an ideal calcium:phosphorus ratio in a cat's diet of 1.1:1. Research tells us that a cat can readily tolerate up to 2:1. Any more calcium in the diet would cause an over-saturation in the body, and can result in calcium deposits in soft tissue such as oxalate stones. Upon recommendation from your vet of a restricted protein diet, we have a recipe we use for dogs and cats who have/ or are prone to stones/crystals.

Contact us for more details.

There is no nutritional analysis available for Feline Blend muffins.