Homemade cat food
Rabbit & Pumpkin Gentle Mince
A soft mince of lean rabbit with a spoonful of pumpkin — a novel protein that often suits cats whose stomachs object to chicken and fish.
- Difficulty
- Medium
- Time
- 25 min
- Makes
- 3–4 small meals
🧺 Ingredients
- 150 g lean rabbit meat, finely minced or chopped
- 1 tablespoon plain cooked pumpkin purée (no spices, no added sugar)
- 3 tablespoons water
- 1 teaspoon of the cooking liquid, reserved
👩🍳 Method
- Check the rabbit carefully for bone fragments and remove every one — cooked bone splinters and must never be included.
- Place the minced rabbit in a pan with the water over a low to medium heat.
- Cook gently, breaking the meat up with a spoon, until it is cooked all the way through with no pink remaining — about 10–12 minutes.
- Remove from the heat and stir in the pumpkin purée until the mixture is evenly combined and soft.
- Loosen with a teaspoon of the reserved cooking liquid if the mince seems dry.
- Cool to lukewarm and serve a small portion, either alone or spooned over your cat's usual food.
Nutrition: Rabbit is a genuinely novel protein for most cats, which makes it a useful option where a food sensitivity to chicken, beef or fish is suspected. It is very lean and highly digestible, while a spoonful of pumpkin adds gentle soluble fibre that helps firm up loose stools and supports steady digestion.
📝 Notes
Serve as an occasional meal-topper or treat rather than a complete diet — it contains no added taurine, calcium or vitamins, and a cat fed only home-prepared food without proper supplementation will become deficient. Introduce a new protein in small amounts over several days. Refrigerate for up to 2 days, or freeze in portions for up to a month.
⚕️ 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.