Homemade cat food
Chicken & Butternut Winter-Warmer Mash
Soft poached chicken folded through steamed butternut squash — a warming, gently fibrous topper for cold-weather appetites and fussy senior cats.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time
- 30 min
- Makes
- 4 small servings
🧺 Ingredients
- 120 g skinless, boneless chicken breast or thigh
- 2 tablespoons peeled, deseeded butternut squash, steamed until soft
- A little of the plain chicken cooking water
👩🍳 Method
- Poach the chicken in plain unsalted water until cooked right through, then lift it out and reserve a little of the cooking water.
- Steam or boil the peeled, deseeded butternut squash until it mashes easily with a fork.
- Let both cool to lukewarm, then shred or finely chop the chicken.
- Mash the butternut squash smooth and fold the chicken through it.
- Loosen to a soft mash with a spoonful of the reserved chicken water and serve warm, not hot.
- Refrigerate leftovers and use within two days, warming gently to take off the chill before serving.
Nutrition: Chicken supplies the animal protein and taurine cats depend on, while a little butternut squash adds soluble fibre, moisture and beta-carotene to a warming winter topper.
📝 Notes
Butternut squash must be plain, peeled, deseeded and thoroughly cooked — never seasoned, buttered or spiced. Keep it to a small amount alongside the meat, as squash is a treat vegetable and cats are obligate carnivores who need meat as the bulk of any dish.
⚕️ 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.