Homemade Diet Center
Why This Is Harder Than It Looks
Cats are obligate carnivores with genuinely unusual nutritional requirements compared to dogs or humans — they need preformed vitamin A (can't convert beta-carotene like we do), preformed taurine (deficiency causes heart disease and blindness, and taurine is easily destroyed by cooking), arachidonic acid (an animal-fat-only nutrient), and specific ratios of calcium to phosphorus. A homemade diet that looks reasonable — meat, some vegetables, maybe rice — will reliably fall short of one or more of these unless it's specifically formulated to cover them, and the failures aren't always obvious until real harm has occurred (taurine-deficiency heart disease, for example, can take months to years to show symptoms).
If You Want to Feed Homemade
The credible path is working with a board-certified veterinary nutritionist (via services like balanceit.com or a referral from your vet) to get a recipe actually formulated to meet AAFCO or NRC nutrient profiles for cats — not a recipe found online without that verification, however well-intentioned it looks. A properly formulated homemade diet typically needs a specific vitamin/mineral supplement mix added, since whole foods alone rarely hit every target without it.
Raw Diet Considerations
Beyond the general homemade-balancing challenge above, raw diets carry additional bacterial contamination risk (Salmonella, Listeria) for both the cat and household members handling the food, and bones (if included) carry a choking/GI injury risk if not ground appropriately. If pursuing raw, the same "get it actually formulated" guidance applies, plus safe handling practices similar to raw meat handling for human consumption.