Homemade cat food
Chicken & Butternut Squash Gentle Loaf
A soft, baked loaf of lean chicken bound with a little mashed butternut squash — gentle on sensitive stomachs and easy for older cats to eat.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time
- 35 min
- Makes
- 4 small servings
🧺 Ingredients
- 100 g skinless, boneless chicken breast or thigh
- 1 tablespoon plain cooked, mashed butternut squash
- 1 tablespoon plain water or unsalted chicken broth
- Optional: a pinch of dried catnip to encourage a fussy eater
👩🍳 Method
- Steam or poach the butternut squash until soft, then mash a tablespoon of it smooth with no butter, salt or seasoning.
- Poach or steam the chicken in plain water until fully cooked through with no pink remaining, then let it cool to lukewarm.
- Finely chop or briefly blitz the chicken so there are no large chunks an older cat might struggle with.
- Fold the chicken and mashed squash together with a splash of plain water or unsalted broth until it holds as a soft loaf.
- Press into a small ramekin and serve a spoonful at room temperature.
- Cover and refrigerate the rest, using it within two days, or freeze single portions.
Nutrition: Lean chicken supplies highly digestible protein and taurine, while a little butternut squash adds gentle, soluble fibre plus beta-carotene and potassium — a soft texture that suits kittens, seniors and cats recovering from an upset tummy.
📝 Notes
Introduce butternut squash in small amounts the first time, as any new food can loosen a cat's stools. Keep this as an occasional complement to a complete, balanced diet rather than a full meal replacement, and skip the squash entirely for a cat on a strict low-carbohydrate plan advised by your vet.
⚕️ 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.