Alnutrin alternative

[fhicat]

It's been 9 months since kitty was on raw, and he seems to be doing okay. His puking episodes are less and less frequent now after experimenting with different protein, feeding temperature, texture, etc, and most of it is hairballs now. I feed him HT pre-ground (with bone) exclusively. He likes the poultry ones -- turkey, chicken, pheasant, quail, duck -- and rabbit. 

I'd like to see if I can cut costs a little further. The alnutrin pack, while convenient, seems pretty pricey. Any recipes I can follow for my particular case? Most recipes I find are geared towards home grinded meat, and calls for ratios to amounts like 8 lbs, which I can't fit into my bowl or freezer (I prepare 2 lbs a time every 4-5 days). There's a Whole Foods right across the street too, so I expect I'll be getting the stuffs from there.

 

[peaches08]

I use Dr. Pierson's recipe, but I add a few things:  glandular supplement, manganese, and if there is no bone in the ground meat then I add eggshell calcium.  I do use egg yolks, mostly for the EYL.

 

[ldg]

For the two pound chubs of HT ground, you can use the supplement I sprinkle on my cats' modified PMR meals:

30 1,000mg taurine capsules (I use NOW)
20 NOW standardized kelp tablets (standardized to 150mcg iodine)
10 10mg chelated manganese capsules (I use Twinlab)
5 400iu dry vitamin E capsules (I use NOW dry E)
2 50mg B-complex (I use Natural Factors Hi-Potency)

You can just toss the capsules in the grinder, it'll grind them up (and the gelatin is good for them). Store it in a glass jar, use as needed. No need to refrigerate.

This balances 50 pounds of meat. I balance per meal, so let me convert.... it would take a scant 1/2 teaspoon per TWO pounds (a scant 1/4 teaspoon per pound).

I would also add egg yolks. I feed four ground meals of food a week in order to get egg yolks into my cats. I have 9 cats, and I want them to get one yolk a week. So I add 7 yolks to the two pound chubs, which works out to about 1/4 yolk per cat per meal. I think most recipes call for only 3 yolks per two pounds though. The eggs are needed for the choline.

I also give the cats 500mg of salmon oil each day, though I add it at meal time.

 

[sophie1]

I also figured out that putting your own supplements together is a lot cheaper than Alnutrin, and is quite easy.  I use Dr. Pierson's recipe which is for about 3.5 lbs meat but am a bit more generous.  For each 2 lb chub I add:

1 50 mg B-complex capsule.  I found that some of these include choline and some don't.  Since I discovered this I stick with the ones that have the choline.

2000mg taurine

400 iu vitamin E

1 beaten egg (I don't bother separating out the white)

I used to add 2000mg salmon oil, but those capsules are pretty stinky.  I am trying the Icelandic unscented salmon oil (squirted on food directly) instead.  Note also that some of the HT products are pastured, so you are getting "free" omega 3 benefits and therefore don't need as much fish oil supplements as you would if you were using grocery store meats.  If you use the whole animal grinds, there's no need for the iodized salt or glandular supplement, because the thyroid gland is included.  Dr. Pierson specifies it's only necessary if using entirely store-bought meats.  I found that reassuring since I do feed some store-bought meats.

I was actually getting ready to post some nutrition questions of my own, so this topic was very well timed!  I was wondering about manganese which has been mentioned several times in threads about supplements. Is there enough manganese in the diet if you include meats like beef, pork and mutton, or should I be adding manganese to the mix?  Note that Dr. Pierson's recipe has been used for many years and apparently those cats are fine.

My other question was about bone.  The whole animal grinds are around 15-20% bone apparently.  My cats handle it just fine, no problems at all except it turns their poop almost white.  When they are at home with me, I feed them about 1/3 chunky meats for dental health reasons and also to bring the bone percentage down.  I throw in 10% of that in liver or kidney, also.  But they frequently go to my mother's house with or without me.  My mother is fine with the ground mixes, but she is very uncomfortable with the idea of feeding them storebought meats.  So they eat only the whole grinds when they're with her, which can be for up to a week or more.  Does anyone know if feeding too much bone could be a problem over time?  It looks like they just excrete the excess, but if it's done chronically could they end up with high calcium levels or poor bone structure or something?

I suppose I could mix chunked boneless meats right into the grinds, but it's an extra complication that I'd be very happy to avoid.