By Lalinda De La Fuente

It was almost a year ago that the tainted pet food scare occurred. Pet owners responded in an uproar and with that, opened up the market for wholesome and organic pet products. In less than a year, all natural pet food companies have gone from being virtually unknown to all the rage. The mantra for the industry seems to be “human grade ingredients.” In other words, if my pet can eat it I should be able to eat it too. Case in point when, just yesterday, our marketing manager and pet care and supply guru bit into an all natural doggy treat. When asked what exactly he was doing he responded, “How else am I supposed to know if it’s good or not?”

He made a decent point. We dote on our pets day in and day out. We coo at them. We rub their bellies and give them kisses. We let them sleep in our beds at night and rest at our feet during the day. It’s only natural that we should provide them with food that is wholesome, tasty, natural and healthful. You would want it for your kids, so why not your cats or dogs?
Some take pet cuisine one step further. For those with a little time on their hands, why not make your own pet food? As a pet lover and pet owner, I thought, “If I take the time to cook food for myself, why not for my cat too?”

So I did.

I began with cat treats. After extensive internet research and countless pet treat recipes, I settled on the most common and simple one. It went something like this:

Mix whole wheat flour, corn meal, some water and six ounces of canned tuna together to create dough. Roll the dough out and cut into treat sized pieces. Place on a greased baking sheet and bake at 350 degrees for about 15 minutes.

According to the recipe, all I had to do now was let them cool and watch my cat “gobble them up.” I was excited. I had this image of my cat thoroughly enjoying them and me every few weeks conjuring up new and tasty treats for my feline friend. I love cooking wholesome and healthful meals for myself so the notion of creating the same for my cat sounded perfect to me.

Fifteen minutes later, I was removing the tuna treats, or cat crackers as the recipe called them, from the oven. Trying not to inhale to hard because of the tuna fish stink wafting through the air, I handpicked the piece that seemed to have the most tuna and went looking for my cat. These are the events that followed:

I put the treat in front of my cat. The cat sniffed the treat. The cat licked the treat once. The cat lifted her head and looked at me for a few seconds. The cat then proceeded to turn around and sit on the treat as if to say, “This is what I think of your homemade treats.”

The lesson learned? Just because it is homemade does not make it good. Making the treats cost me a perfectly good can of tuna, my time and my kitchen’s generally fresh, tuna-free air.

If your cat is finicky beware of internet pet treat recipes or else you may be the one picking a cat cracker off your cat’s hind quarters. Instead, take a look at ONLYforPETLOVERS.com’s recommendations for some tasty and wholesome food and treats by clicking here.

Photo Caption: The cat that snubbed my cooking.