Homemade cat food

Egg Yolk Hairball Paste

A mild, food-based paste for a long-haired cat that coughs after every grooming session — lecithin from egg yolk and a little oil help hair move through the gut instead of gathering in it.

Difficulty
Easy
Time
15 min
Makes
About 14 doses

🧺 Ingredients

  • 2 hard-boiled egg yolks
  • 1 tsp salmon oil
  • 1 tsp plain cooked pumpkin
  • 1 tbsp unsalted chicken broth
  • A pinch of dried catnip (optional, to improve acceptance)

👩‍🍳 Method

  1. Hard-boil the eggs fully, then separate and discard the whites — raw white contains avidin, which interferes with biotin absorption, and it serves no purpose here.
  2. Mash the yolks with the back of a fork until completely smooth and free of lumps.
  3. Work in the pumpkin, which adds fibre and stops the paste from being purely fat.
  4. Add the salmon oil and mix until glossy.
  5. Loosen with broth a few drops at a time until you have a paste that just holds on a fingertip without dripping.
  6. Stir in the catnip if your cat is a hard sell.
  7. Offer roughly a quarter teaspoon two or three times a week — most cats take it straight from a finger.
Nutrition: Egg yolk supplies lecithin, an emulsifier that helps fat and hair move together through the digestive tract, along with biotin and choline that support skin and coat quality — and a better coat sheds less in the first place, which is the more useful end of the problem.

📝 Notes

Refrigerate up to four days. Treat this as a mild preventative for the ordinary hairball, not a treatment for a blockage: a cat that is retching repeatedly without producing anything, refusing food, or constipated for more than a day needs a vet the same day, because a true trichobezoar or a linear foreign body is surgical rather than dietary. Daily brushing removes far more hair than anything you can feed. Egg yolk is rich, so keep the dose small in overweight cats, and check with your vet before using this alongside a prescribed petroleum-based laxative rather than doubling up.

Every grooming session swallows hair — the aim is to keep it moving through
Every grooming session swallows hair — the aim is to keep it moving through
Long-haired and fastidious groomers are the cats that need this most
Long-haired and fastidious groomers are the cats that need this most

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⚕️ 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.

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