Homemade cat food
Salmon & Flaxseed Skin & Coat Bites
Small baked bites loaded with omega-3s, aimed squarely at dull coats, dry flaky skin and the winter dandruff that appears when the central heating goes on.
- Difficulty
- Easy
- Time
- 25 min
- Makes
- 24 bites
🧺 Ingredients
- 1 can pink salmon in water (drained), 150g
- 1 tbsp ground flaxseed (linseed)
- 1 egg
- 2 tbsp oat flour
- 1 tsp salmon oil
👩🍳 Method
- Preheat the oven to 175°C (350°F) and line a tray with parchment.
- Drain the salmon well and mash it thoroughly, crushing any soft bones completely — they are an excellent calcium source once crushed.
- Grind the flaxseed fresh if you can; pre-ground flax oxidises quickly and loses much of its benefit.
- Mix the salmon, flaxseed, egg and oat flour into a firm dough, adding a little more flour if it is too wet to handle.
- Roll into pea-sized balls and flatten each one slightly with a fingertip.
- Bake for 14–16 minutes until firm and lightly golden underneath.
- Cool completely, then brush with the salmon oil just before storing — adding it after baking preserves the fragile fatty acids.
Nutrition: EPA and DHA from oily fish are incorporated directly into skin cell membranes and reduce inflammatory signalling in the skin. Flaxseed supplies ALA plus soluble fibre, though cats convert ALA to EPA poorly — which is why the fish, not the flax, is doing most of the work here.
📝 Notes
Store in the fridge for up to 5 days or freeze for 2 months. Coat improvements from dietary omega-3 take six to eight weeks to become visible, so persistence matters more than quantity. If dandruff, itching or hair loss is severe or worsening, see a vet — flea allergy, ringworm and hyperthyroidism all present this way and none of them are fixed by treats.
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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.