Can a cat just live on roast chicken and cooked fish?

Ask: I no longer want to feed my cat junk.

I don't have access to purchasing fresh raw meat or want to risk the disease if its not fresh.

I was wondering if its okay to just feed roast chicken or cooked fish, or if I need to add bone meal and herbs or something? Where would I get these from? can you make your own bone meal?

I've tried looking for bonemeal powder for cats and cannot find any, so could I make my own by just using a pestle and mortar to grind up cooked bones? (Obviously feeding cooked whole bones is dangerous but bone meal is added to a lot of pet food)

My cat has access to outdoors
 

Update: I disagree, I've been reading about home cooked /raw/ vs dried food and canned food. One of the leading brands was accused and found guilty of their dried food containing something like 95 percent feather meal. Thats cooked mushed up feathers. they then add things like rice, corn and vitamins.

Cats don't eat rice and corn in the wild, nor do they break into labs to put some vitamin D on their food.
I've been reading about cats that live into their 20's and the majority of people said...

 

Update 2: that they could only put it down to their homemade diet. I understand if its your choice but there is evidence again dried/canned food being the healthiest option. A lot of vets are sponsered by these companies so of course they are going to promote them!!

 

Answer

 

Kai:

Do the research and then work with your vet. Cats need calcium, which your cat won't get by eating cooked chicken and fish. Fish also is not a good staple since it lacks certain vitamins and minerals. Poultry is ok. Raw is better but you'd have to be careful about salmonella and ecoli and like that since much of the poultry sold in the supermarkets are riddled with the bacteria. 

 

So do the research, find out exactly what and how much of certain minerals and vitamins and protein a cat needs to stay healthy. Cooked bone probably isn't all that good since a lot of the stuff you want has been cooked away. And a mortar and pestle is NOT going to grind up the bone fine enough so as NOT to harm your cat--even a tiny shard can rip things inside. In fact, cooked bone is far more brittle then raw bone (moisture has been cooked out of the bone). 

 

They do make high quality meat grinders that you can grind up raw bone (chicken bones) into a fine enough quality so your cat won't get hurt, but they run over $500, plus you'd probably want to make cat food in quantity (since it's time consuming and the prep and clean up), freeze it in small container and only take out what you need for that day. 

 

It's going to get costly but people do do it. Also note that once you start your cat on a fresh food diet, you'll have to continue giving her that diet because cats don't like to go back to a lesser quality menu (can't go back to Kansas once they've been to the Emerald city). 

 

Rae:

That is not a complete and balanced diet at all. Fish is no good for cats, and cooking the meat destroys taurine which is an essential part of their diet. If you cannot prepare a complete and balanced raw diet, then feed a quality canned food because thats the neXT best thing. Dry food is bad for cats. 

 

Dry food doesn't clean their teeth or make them stronger, it's actually worse for their teeth than wet food, and it's definitely worse for their bodies. 

 

Catinfo.org has an easy recipe for a raw diet that would probably cost you less than a dollar a day to feed. I feed my cat and dogs supermarket meats and they've never gotten sick. 

 

Unless you butcher your own meats it'll never be "fresh", but the market meats are fresh enough. They're refrigerated or frozen so it's not like they're sitting out and rotting. 

 

Elaine:

No, chicken and fish are only muscle meat, the cat needs more minerals and vitamins than those carry and they need taurine or they loose their eyesight. 

 

Commercial foods are balanced to keep a cat healthy, feed a better quality food, any pet supplies store carries these. 

 

Jack:

This is a question for your vet. Homemade diets need to be balanced correctly to keep your cat from developing nutritional issues. 

 

Jhon M:

That will be ok but I would add some wet canned food daily to get the vitamins and minerals they need.