Homemade cat food
Pumpkin & Psyllium Fibre Mash
A soluble-fibre topper for the cat that strains in the tray — psyllium draws water into the stool and pumpkin adds bulk, and between them they solve a great many mild constipation problems without anything from the pharmacy.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time
- 15 min
- Makes
- 8 servings
🧺 Ingredients
- 150g cooked plain pumpkin (not pie filling, which is sweetened and spiced)
- 1 tsp whole psyllium husk
- 100ml unsalted chicken broth, plus extra
- 1 tsp salmon oil
👩🍳 Method
- Steam or roast the pumpkin until completely soft, then mash it smooth with no lumps.
- Warm the broth gently — it does not need to boil.
- Stir the psyllium husk into the warm broth and let it stand for five minutes. It will thicken into a gel; this is the active part of the recipe.
- Fold the gel through the pumpkin mash.
- Loosen with more broth until the mixture is soft and spoonable rather than stiff, because psyllium that is too dry does the opposite of what you want.
- Stir in the salmon oil last.
- Start with a quarter teaspoon per meal and increase slowly to no more than a teaspoon twice a day.
Nutrition: Psyllium is a soluble fibre that forms a gel rather than a scratchy bulk, so it softens stool without irritating an already unhappy gut. Pumpkin adds both fibre and a good deal of water, and the pairing is gentler on the colon than the bran-based approaches once recommended.
📝 Notes
Refrigerate up to four days. Psyllium only works if the cat is drinking — served dry or to a dehydrated cat it can make constipation worse rather than better, so add extra broth and keep the water bowl full. Small doses, introduced slowly, are the whole technique here. Constipation that lasts more than a day or two, or a cat straining in the tray and producing nothing, is a veterinary matter and not a kitchen one: straining can equally be a blocked bladder, which is an emergency measured in hours.
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⚕️ Before you cook for your cat
- Homemade food must be balanced. Cats need taurine, and deficiency causes heart and eye disease.
- Treat recipes are supplements to a complete diet, not a replacement for it.
- Check any new ingredient against the toxic-foods list, and ask your vet before switching diets.