Want to add some different proteins

[peaches08]

Good question about if they need it! At this particular point, no. I didn't add enough turkey or beef to either batch to matter. I thought about maybe adding more of other types of meats in the future, but I don't guess it is imperative.

As far as the chicken wings, I wanted to see if some frankenprey might be an option. Plus the teeth cleaning that they do! The brother and sister have lost interest in gizzards, whereas Gadget will eat anything not nailed down. All of them have great teeth and my vet said they did not need dentals in January, but I started chunking some of the meat again for dental benefits. They all chew their meats, but the plain chicken wings stumped Mason and Julie.

 

[peaches08]

Tried chicken wings again today, no dice with Mason and Julie. Only Gadget will eat them. I think I'll just add gizzards as a meat to their ground food occasionally.

 

[harleydiva]

Tried chicken wings again today, no dice with Mason and Julie. Only Gadget will eat them. I think I'll just add gizzards as a meat to their ground food occasionally.

My crew won't eat chicken wings either.  They do like hearts and gizzards.  The hearts are a good taurine source.....the gizzards don't offer much in terms of nutritional value, but are great at teaching them to chew meat and help with teeth cleaning. I started out cutting up the hearts and gizzards, but can throw a whole heart, or good sized chunk of gizzard in the bowl now.  I have recently started cutting long thin strips of boneless chicken thigh (chicken "french fries") and putting a couple on top of the ground food.  These are going over pretty well now, after some hesitation the first few days.  The long strips encourage them to chew from one end to the other, rather than just swallowing small chunks.  Adding this stuff, as well as green tripe, also lowers the percentage of bone in the ground meat/bone/organ mixes.

 

[peaches08]

I wish I could find heart other than beef heart, they didn't like beef heart. It's hard to find organs here period. Maybe one of these days I'll get a small order from online.

I am cutting their chicken and whatever other meat into big chunks and they do spend time chewing. All of them have beautiful white teeth; I'm just trying to keep it that way.

I think they've gotten used to their ground/chunks with supplements and don't recognize the wings as food.

 

[vball91]

I'm surprised you can't find the combo chicken hearts/gizzards at the grocery store. I see those all the time. My only gripe with those is that it's mostly gizzards with only a few hearts. My cat doesn't like the gizzards, so it's sort of a waste for us, but I think your cats eat gizzards.

 

[harleydiva]

I wish I could find heart other than beef heart, they didn't like beef heart. It's hard to find organs here period. Maybe one of these days I'll get a small order from online.

I am cutting their chicken and whatever other meat into big chunks and they do spend time chewing. All of them have beautiful white teeth; I'm just trying to keep it that way.

I think they've gotten used to their ground/chunks with supplements and don't recognize the wings as food.

Most grocery stores sell packages of chicken hearts and gizzards.  The ones I get are from Tyson....I don't think they are a local company???

 

[peaches08]

No chicken hearts. Nor duck. Only beef. As far as kidney, only bovine there too. No clue why, I live in a resort area with 5 star restaurants!

 

[vball91]

I think you might be in too ritzy of an area. No organ meats for the rich vacationers!

 

[peaches08]

That's what is so odd...there's a lot of organs/exotics used in fine dining.

 

[harleydiva]

Maybe ask the meat department at your grocery store if they could order some hearts and gizzards for you from one of the companies they buy chicken from???

 

[peaches08]

I get gizzards from there, I'll ask about heart. Great idea!

 

[ldg]

.....the gizzards don't offer much in terms of nutritional value, but are great at teaching them to chew meat and help with teeth cleaning.

Everyone says this about gizzards. And while true, it should also be noted that they're FULL of glucosamine and chrondroitin! So they provide benefit above and beyond just the dental benefit, and if they don't get much cartilage in their diet, gizzards are a great food choice to include in rotation, or even in a grind.

 

[harleydiva]

Everyone says this about gizzards. And while true, it should also be noted that they're FULL of glucosamine and chrondroitin! So they provide benefit above and beyond just the dental benefit, and if they don't get much cartilage in their diet, gizzards are a great food choice to include in rotation, or even in a grind.

Cool...I was happy just with the teeth cleaning part.....but this makes them even better.  My crew are all young, but glucosamine and chondroitin sure can't hurt.

 

[ldg]

That's true - it helps prevent the degeneration of the joints. :nod:

 

[peaches08]

They are still wild about beef. Turkey, they'll eat it just fine but aren't in love with it.

Their coats have all improved, but I think that is due to hairball season.

Just a thought: is there anything wrong with incorporating chicken thighs, beef, and turkey all together in the one batch? Or limit it to 1 or 2 proteins per batch?

 

[vball91]

Once you know that your cats are all tolerating those proteins just fine, I can't think of a reason you couldn't combine proteins. I think it's only when you're introducing new ones that you want to keep to single source in case there's a problem.

 

[peaches08]

That makes sense!

 

[ritz]

I agree with vball91.  I typically give a "potpourri" meal a week, has bits and pieces from other meats, everything from goose to goat to beef to chicken breast to venison.  No problem.

You could try mixing all dark meat in one meal/day and all light meat in another, or different kinds of poultry (chicken to goose to quail to turkey) and different types of game meat (chiefly red meat like venison, llama, goat).

I do feed Ritz very low fat meat (chicken breast) with relatively high fat meat (goose) on the same day; otherwise, if only low fat, she seems/seemed always hungry.  (She is on Prozac now which has affected her appetite significantly.)

Ritz is the antithesis of a picky eater with raw food; she was an incredibly picky eater of canned food.

 

[peaches08]

Thanks! I forget that many here do frankenprey and need to switch up meals to make it complete. I'll continue introducing new proteins individually with chicken thighs, but otherwise know that I can incorporate more than just 2 proteins once I know they're OK with the new protein. Makes perfect sense.

I'm going to continue to use chicken thighs as a base due to bones. I think I'll try chicken breast and pork next time for new proteins. One of these days I'll try rabbit. Maybe quail too. Two small birds for $9 just seemed a touch pricey on my student loan budget!

 

[vball91]

Just be careful when shopping for pork. I have difficulty finding unenhanced pork.