Can't find chicken liver right now, ok to mix chicken muscle with beef liver?

[danaNM]

His name is Toby

Yes it is def just regurgitation, it occurs within a few minutes. This morning he didn't do it! Yay!

That makes sense about the liver, so I think the fat content prob could have something to do with it. He's also been kind of agitated lately. Maybe due to the season change, or possibly there has been a neighbor's cat or other animal outside overnight that's been taunting him. Sometimes I think when he's up all night being crazy he is extra hungry in the morning. Last night he slept with me all night so maybe he wasn't so starving by breakfast time?

We dealt with a similar issue a few years ago (that this site helped with a TON), but that time we realized it was because his food was too cold in the morning (we were feeding canned, so the cans got cold over night). Warming his food slightly solved that problem completely. So when this started again I was so confused because I thought we had solved the problem!

Anyway, thanks for the help!

 

[lisahe]

You're welcome, danaNM !

What you say about Toby's agitation sounds familiar: that's kind of like how Edwina gets worked up when she's hungry. Both our cats have been hungrier than usual lately, too, because the weather has cooled. So many things seem to contribute to their eating habits!

Anyway, good luck! I hope Toby is done with the barfing!

 

[danaNM]

He's been better this week! Woooohoooo! I switched back to 1 large dinner, and then feeding him just a small bit of breakfast first (to see if he's going to puke), then like 10 min later I give him the rest of his breakfast. On nights when he's been extra active I've given him a food puzzle with some treats in it right before we got to bed. So far so good!

I'm making more cat food today. Still no chicken liver available (!) but I did get thighs instead of breast meat. I'm also bummed because they've been out of gizzards and hearts too. Hopefully the extra fat will help him feel full a bit longer!

 

[lisahe]

He's been better this week! Woooohoooo! I switched back to 1 large dinner, and then feeding him just a small bit of breakfast first (to see if he's going to puke), then like 10 min later I give him the rest of his breakfast. On nights when he's been extra active I've given him a food puzzle with some treats in it right before we got to bed. So far so good!

I'm making more cat food today. Still no chicken liver available (!) but I did get thighs instead of breast meat. I'm also bummed because they've been out of gizzards and hearts too. Hopefully the extra fat will help him feel full a bit longer!

I'm so glad to hear this! That sounds like a good feeding plan.

That's weird about the chicken liver... and gizzards/hearts, too. But I may have at least a partial explanation of the shortage for you. I made food with freeze-dried chicken liver yesterday and then roasted a chicken for dinner. The roasting chicken came with a big liver (a little over two ounces, enough for three pounds of Alnutrin, yay!) plus three (3!) hearts and some gizzard matter, perhaps two gizzards. (I always have a hard time counting gizzards.) Given the COVID-19 situation (both in terms of meatpacking, where there's allegedly been a tendency toward simplification of offerings, plus the question of what's selling) I wonder if at least some packers have been putting more innards into roasters rather than trying to sell them as, say, packs of chicken hearts. FWIW, this chicken was a Perdue.

Anyway, fingers crossed that the puking is done!

 

[danaNM]

Oh that's very interesting! I agree that it must be related to the covid-meat-packing plant situation.
I fed him the new batch this morning and so far so good. He seemed VERY excited about it, so he must be liking the higher fat content!

I used a new technique to prepare it that was WAY more simple on my end (way less dishes), and I think actually got him more of the nutrition from the bones because it included more of the cartilage. I was inspired by the way people use pressure cookers. I don't have one... but did have a big pot with a tight fitting lid.
This is what I did:

Weigh out chicken and cook fully: Cook in large pot with tight fitting lid, add the required amount of water so it stews. I cooked for about an hour for 9 lbs of thigh muscle (10.2 lbs bone-in). Allow to cool (took several hours to cool, so this could be done the day before if you wanted to plan ahead)

While thighs are cooling, weigh out and cook the liver. I cooked it with a scoop of the chicken cooking liquid in a small saucepan.

Weigh out the supplements and crush B-50 vitamin with a mortar and pestel, or rolling pin.

Remove most of the meat from the cooking liquid. Check that no bones were left in the liquid.

Add supplements (except gelatin) in the cooking liquid (cooled so nutrients aren't destroyed!)

Separate the eggs and add yolks to supplement slurry. Either save whites for recipe or cook the whites and add with meat.

Mix supplement slurry with an immersion blender. Add liver and blend.

Remove bones from muscle meat. If you stewed the meat, the meat should basically fall off the bone.

Mix supplement slurry with meat, blending some of the meat with the immersion blender, and leaving some in chunky shreds for texture.

Add gelatin if using and mix well.

Distribute into jars and freeze!