Homemade food for your ominovorous cats?

[Narelle]

I am madly in love with my asian bumblebee cat and want to give him the best of everything I can. Feeding the right foods will especially be important when I try my hand at getting them to breed (I know I would be the first to successfully intentionally breed them if I managed it and that it is pretty unlikely I'll have success). Right now, my bee, Dexter, is getting Hikari Sinking Wafers, Hikari Carnivore Pellets, New Era Pleco Pellets, Omega One Veggie Rounds, Ken's Catfish Sticks, Ken's Earthworm Sticks, and New Era Catfish Pellets. I have fed live foods (ghost shrimp and blackworms) on occasion, but that's not something I can do with too much regularity. (I can't keep up with my own cultures to save my life and I can't really be constantly buying more all the time. I would make sure to have live foods more frequently when trying to breed them, though.) I do also drop in the occasional fresh veggies, mostly zucchini and shelled peas, but I don't know that he ever gets any of those (my bristlenose pleco and tiger barbs usually get to it all first).

I've been wanting to try homemade gel food and actually did put one together awhile ago, but it didn't set right and got wasted. :/

So I was hoping I could see what everyone else was making for their omnivorous cats (of any origin, not just this species or similar ones) and maybe get some opinions on what I'm planning to make.
According to this source (pg. 106), Pseudomystus siamensis diets in the wild consist of insects, crustaceans, snails, earthworms, roots, fruits, and detritus.

So my plan was to make food out of the following:
- feeder ghost shrimp
- live earthworms
- frozen blood worms
- live blackworms
- shelled frozen peas
- zucchini
- duckweed
- orange bell pepper
- mealworms?
- garlic
- pumpkin?
- banana?
- pond snails?
- bound by agar agar if I can find it, gelatin if not

The protein based food would be in larger portions than the fruits and vegetables, since my research seems to suggest they lean more towards the carnivorous side than the herbivorous one.
I would be interested in trying to switch some of these things out for actual food sources that would be available in the species's natural habitat, but I don't know which things would be safe fish foods.
I have also seen a lot of homemade food recipes that contain vitamin supplements to make sure the fish are getting everything they need. I wouldn't mind adding some if I wouldn't be getting enough out of the foods I'm planning to use, but I would need to know what kinds would be best and definitely safe for my fish. I would rather skip them entirely if there's any risk of them being more harm than good (i.e. too much of one kind of vitamin or other additives that would be unsafe for fish).

[Shovelnose]

My first catfish were a pair of Pseuodumystus siamensis in 2005, one specimen is still with me presently (http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... =9&t=37167). This is one 'bullet proof' species adapting to a wide range of water parameters and food. I feed Hikari Carnivore and Massivore, Tetra Bits , ANS Sting Ray Pellets, Novo Bits, live blood and tubifex worms, scampi feed, live ghost/wood shrimp and prawn. I have never tried feeding vegetables to this species and would be interested in the results.

The most reaction I have seen from this species was always towards Hikari and scampi feed.








This is scampi feed and comes with varying protein content (20%-80%) and sizes with the price ranging from 40 INR to 150 INR per kilo. An extremely cheap yet fairly effective feed that most of my fish get. The only concern would be to ensure excess protein doesn't enter the diet (usually leads to fatalities in fish).


This thread might be of some interest to you : http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... collecting

[Viktor Jarikov]

These may help:

http://www.planetcatfish.com/forum/view ... hilit=Clay

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forum ... ight=F1vet

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forum ... ight=F1vet

Or search "DIY fish food" here and on MFK.