Chunked Meat Meals

[EmersonandEvie]

Hi all,

For those of you that feed chunked raw diets...how do you do it? How do you mix in supplements? How do you feed the bone vs the meat vs the organs? Where do you get your meats and organs?

Thanks!

 

[lisahe]

There are supplements that you can add to plain meat (no bone, no organs) for complete food. I use EZ Complete to make cooked cat food but the supplement can be used with either raw or cooked meat. I just buy meat at the grocery store.

 

[Ardina]

I do a half-ground, half-chunked approach. Ground meat to include bone and organ (from Hare Today), and boneless meat chunks and hearts to get the ratios right and dilute out the bone. I mix it all together and add the supplements.

 

[EmersonandEvie]

Wow that EZ complete is pricey, even if I use it only half the time! But thank you I will look into that!

I think that approach is good but don't you also have to add more organ and liver to bring the total 10% organ up, since you added boneless meat?

 

[lisahe]

Wow that EZ complete is pricey, even if I use it only half the time! But thank you I will look into that!

I think that approach is good but don't you also have to add more organ and liver to bring the total 10% organ up, since you added boneless meat?

EZ Complete is already balanced (here are the ingredients) so it already has everything you need for organs. Everything's already included so you should only use muscle meat. Be sure to look around on the Food Fur Life page: there's lots of information about the ingredients.

EZ isn't cheap but it really is easy, which is worth a lot if (like me) you don't want to source various ingredients. I only feed one meal a day but the typical average price per meal seems to come out around the same as the mid- to upper-end price for good canned food. Of course prices vary a lot depending on what meat you buy. I tend to buy what I can on sale.

Edit: I also can't say enough how happy I am that EZ works so well for Ireland. That's worth a lot!

 

[EmersonandEvie]

Sorry about the confusion, my bit about adding more organ was in response to Ardina!

Back to EZ: My local Kroger tends to be good about markdown prices. Finding meat without added salt and such is hard to come by where I am. Thank you, I will be sure to look into EZ Complete after I finish my grinds! I want to do the chunked meats so that my two will get some good chewing in and not just slurping up a grind or canned food.

Would giving them each half of a (dehydrated) chicken neck per week be ok? They love them (I've given them one before) and I love the dental benefits. I'm scared to give them something with more bone because I don't want to throw off any ratios, especially since the EZ Complete is, well, complete.

 

[Tobermory]

I do the same as Ardina , using HT ground meats with bone and organs and dilute to bring down the bone content. Rabbit from HT is 15% bone; the turkey is 27% (I think, without going back to check). I use the dilute bone calculator to see how much non-bone muscle meat and organ meat I need to add: Dilute Bone Content I buy the supplements from Vitacost.com. I cut up the additional chicken thighs with kitchen shears.

I got the sample from EZ Complete and my cats loved it. My plan is to use it periodically to vary the batches where I add the individual supplements. That way they’re getting some real bone batches and some with calcium added.

Oh, and I buy boneless chicken thighs from the local specialty butcher shop, although I scored some thighs on sale this past weekend at Fred Meyer (which is owned by Kroger).

 

[lisahe]

EmersonandEvie , yes, it can be difficult to find meats without added salt or rosemary or other odd additives. Some meats also have higher natural sodium than EZ recommends: certain chicken thighs, for example, are over their maximum. Our cats don't like chicken thighs much anyway, though, so that doesn't seem to matter much! Our pickier cat loves pork, though, which is a great thing since it's almost always reasonably priced. They especially like pork tenderloin (these are cats who seem to know what costs most! ) so I'm glad my grocery store often has end pieces on sale!

 

[Ardina]

Wow that EZ complete is pricey, even if I use it only half the time! But thank you I will look into that!

I think that approach is good but don't you also have to add more organ and liver to bring the total 10% organ up, since you added boneless meat?

I do add ground organ from Hare Today for exactly that reason. Ground specifically because my cats don't like organ meats, so this way I can mix it in and mask the taste. Sorry, forgot to mention that in my earlier post.

 

[EmersonandEvie]

Which organs do you use?

 

[Ardina]

I use Hare Today's ground rabbit organ mix. It's 75% organ - a mix of liver and kidney (25% is heart, which is considered muscle meat).

 

[sophie1]

I do what Ardina does: mix bone-heavy whole animal grinds with chunked boneless meat and liver. I don't bother with other organs generally because they're in the whole grinds, but I did splurge on rabbit organs on my last HT order.

Specifically, I defrost the grinds and mix in supplements, then snip the boneless meats with scissors and distribute everything proportionally into jars for feeding and/or freezing. I was feeding sequentially which would be even easier, but one of my cats started holding out for just the chunked meats so I'm back to mixing.

BTW after all these years I FINALLY figured out the best way to open HT chubs! Defrost for a few hours, then snip off the top, turn it upside down and push out the chub (still partly frozen) into a pyrex loaf pan (for a 1 lb chub). Another half day in the fridge and it's all defrosted and ready to go. Sheesh, I am such a bozo for not figuring that out earlier.

 

[Sallysoo]

I buy whole raw human grade boneless muscle meat from our local wet market. Pork and Sakura chicken with EzComplete premix used. I used kitchen scissors to cut into chunks. I do occasionally add raw chicken hearts and wings bones to the meal. Nothing really compared to the fresh ones. The type of meat price really determine the total cost that u are willing to pay. Sakura chicken is perferred to cage chicken,thus more costly. I don’t buy raw meat from supermarket anymore as they are costly and may not be as fresh as the local wet market and may have added stuff to maintain its freshness....
Yes with the meat grade that I can choose added with the premix, it is really worth the price I pay which is comparable to premium canned food. Once a while I do buy from our local pet store commercial raw venison and beef for variety purposes. My kitty loves raw meat. He doesn’t want canned food anymore since he is on raw 9 mths ago. He still loves kibbles but a NO from me unless I have no choice!

 

[prairiepanda]

I mush my liver and kidney into a pate texture, then mix in vitamins, egg yolk, and water to make a sort of sauce to cover the meat chunks. Jonesy likes it a bit soupy, so I add lots of water, but if I leave the water out it would be a thick paste that sticks to the meat chunks. He can't have any of the premixes I can easily get ahold of, so I make my own vitamin mix.

 

[sophie1]

Prairiepanda, how do you mush the liver and kidney? Sounds a bit awkward unless you've figured out an easy way to do it?

 

[prairiepanda]

Prairiepanda, how do you mush the liver and kidney? Sounds a bit awkward unless you've figured out an easy way to do it?

I use a potato masher to preserve nutrient values as much as possible. It mashes quite easily. If I don't have time, I just throw it all in a blender. To be honest, it would probably be fine to use a blender every time, but I'm paranoid so I try to keep the processing to a minimum.

 

[sophie1]

Ah, I was wondering. It's not hard to snip liver into small pieces though, and that's one less utensil to clean.

 

[Sallysoo]

If ur kitty can take chunks, just use scissors to cut them. For chicken hearts which is small can just give whole. I don’t cut the hearts just give a whole piece into one meal. He loves it and you hear his munching sound on them...