Chicken & Beef Starter Meal

A whole-food-forward recipe built on beef chuck, chicken thigh, chicken hearts, mussels, and a blend of beef and chicken liver, balanced with butternut squash and pumpkin. Calcium comes from homemade bone meal made by pressure-cooking chicken bones, keeping the calcium source as close to whole food as the rest of the recipe. The protein mix delivers complete amino acids, naturally high taurine from heart and mussel, and a strong iron and B-vitamin profile from the organ meats. The recipe is built to meet FEDIAF growth requirements primarily through food, with a minimal supplement layer: nutritional yeast for B-vitamin density, iodized salt as a pantry-staple source of sodium and chloride, and small additions of taurine, iodine, and vitamin E. The short supplement list makes this a practical first recipe for cat parents exploring homemade, with less upfront investment in pantry staples. The trade-off of a food-led approach is tighter margins on a few nutrients sensitive to ingredient variability, most notably selenium, which sits near the upper end of its reference range due to the organ and mussel content. All requirements are met as written, but rotating this recipe with our more supplement-supported options as homemade becomes part of your routine gives a wider nutritional buffer over time and a more varied diet for your cat.

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Pâté

Cat Soup

Gravy

Step-by-step instructions are included with the full recipe.

FEDIAF is the European pet food industry federation. Its 2025 nutritional guidelines set the minimum — and, where defined, maximum — nutrient levels for a complete cat food.

Values per 1000 kcal of metabolisable energy (ME). Meet? shows whether the recipe value falls within the FEDIAF min–max range. Balance shows where the value sits within the safe range.