First raw meal.....

[tcbemis]

We just made the first (possibly last) of the raw food. We used chicken and tcfeline mix. One of 3 cats liked it.

My husband is a toxicologist and is driving me crazy. How salmonella-y will the floor truly v be if one throws up the raw? He's s insisting we'll need to be constantly dissenfecting. Do their bowls need to be bleached before going in the dishwasher? We have kids, so this is of course a bigger worry.
I'm thinking next time... Lamb.

 

[peaches08]

I would think that the heat of the dishwasher would be enough to take care of the salmonella on the dishes. Get a spray bottle and put isopropyl alcohol in it to spray and wipe the floors, contaminated dishes, etc. Obviously make sure that the alcohol is washed away from the dishes before using again.

Alcohol is fabulous by the way for cleaning the fat off of utensils used for raw.

 

[ldg]

The stomach acid (at a pH of 2) should have killed any salmonella. To clean, use a 10% bleach solution - that's safe for kids and cats. If on carpet, use an enzyme cleaner.

My kitties - who like freeze dried liver (both chicken and beef) didn't like TCfeline. :dk: Some cats go nuts for it. Have you offered just plain chicken to the them? It would help to know if they recognize raw chicken as food. It might also help to start small. Many cats don't just start eating raw food, they need to "learn" to like it.

I don't know what you were feeding. But I think of it like a child that has been eating only dry, sweet cereal (if fed kibble), or only canned stew (if fed canned food). All of a sudden, we want them to eat salad. It's going to take a lot of bacon, cheese, salad dressing and croutons to get that kid to eat any. Over time, we can reduce the amount of "stuff" we add to the salad - and eventually they'll love and crave the salad. But in many instances, it's just unrealistic to expect them to immediately love it.

 

[tcbemis]

The stomach acid (at a pH of 2) should have killed any salmonella. To clean, use a 10% bleach solution - that's safe for kids and cats. If on carpet, use an enzyme cleaner.

My kitties - who like freeze dried liver (both chicken and beef) didn't like TCfeline. :dk: Some cats go nuts for it. Have you offered just plain chicken to the them? It would help to know if they recognize raw chicken as food. It might also help to start small. Many cats don't just start eating raw food, they need to "learn" to like it.

I don't know what you were feeding. But I think of it like a child that has been eating only dry, sweet cereal (if fed kibble), or only canned stew (if fed canned food). All of a sudden, we want them to eat salad. It's going to take a lot of bacon, cheese, salad dressing and croutons to get that kid to eat any. Over time, we can reduce the amount of "stuff" we add to the salad - and eventually they'll love and crave the salad. But in many instances, it's just unrealistic to expect them to immediately love it.

That's pretty much what we did in regards to the bleach, smelled like a pool in the kitchen lol. Two of the cats are used to 2 meals/day of canned and the other is a feral who's been in for about a month. Apparently she's not really missing the raw stuff. She ate a little without the mix in it, the others might have tried it, I'm not sure.

I think tomorrow I'll put a little canned next to it...

Thanks!

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

As far as sanitizing, are your kids eating out of the same bowls as the cats?  My cats have their own dishes (our China saucers) and I hand wash them after each meal with hot soapy water.  Same with their spoons that I use to prepare their meals.  I wash their stuff and set them out to dry on their own dish towel.  The cats eat on their own plastic placemats, so normally there is nothing on the floor to clean up, but if there is, I just spray a little Windex Multi Purpose Cleaner w/Vinegar on a paper towel and wipe down both their placemats and the floor if they happened to "dribble".  I do the same if the throw up, which is very rare. 

On those occasion when I put their dishes in the dishwasher, I just use the "sanitize" cycle. 

Yes, it's a shame cats don't realize real meat is what they should be eating

.  It took me months, and lots of toppers,  to convince mine that it was good for them.

 

[Willowy]

When you prepare meat for your family, do you bleach the container that held the raw meat before you cooked it? I guess some people do but I don't think it's necessary. The dishwasher should handle it. Basically, handle everything the same way you handle preparing meat for the rest of the family. As for vomit, I don't think it's ever especially sanitary . And have your husband look up how many people on record have gotten salmonella from pet kibble (lots) and how many have gotten salmonella from raw pet food (none). Kibble is super germy but nobody ever really thinks of it. So if he didn't worry when they ate kibble he shouldn't have any reason to be more worried now.

 

[laralove]

I'm with Willowy on this. I work with raw meat when cooking for my family all the time. Cutting boards, dishes, utensils, etc. all go into the dishwasher. As for Oliver's dishes, they're stainless steal and I hand-wash them between meals, the spoons I use to serve him get tossed in the dishwasher, and I clean his place mat and the floor around where he eats with the same green cleaner I use for the kitchen.

 

[harrylime]

I was using a ceramic cat food dish, but I found that for some reason the chicken would stick like glue to it after it dried out, and anything less than a deep cleaning left the bowl smelling like raw chicken. So I bought these instead:   They are natural and biodegradable. Also I bought a box of plastic forks that are just for the purpose of handling raw chicken. It's certainly more wasteful but it keeps the floor and sink much cleaner.

 

[laralove]

If you decide to change from disposable cat dishes, stainless steel is cheap, won't hold bacteria, and is really easy to clean. No lingering odor. 

 

[tcbemis]

My cats actually do have all their own dishes, I just use our utensils for scooping their food. And it all goes into the dishwasher, but we don't have a sanitize setting unfortunately. I think the heated drying goes pretty far though.

My husband does spray with bleach water after preparing/cooking raw chicken. Like I said, he's a toxicologist. He knows how bad it can be. That's why I worry about the raw cat food. But we flash boiled it anyway, so I'm sure now the actual prepared food isn't an issue.

We ended up leaving it fairly chunky, and as of the second dinner of it, they love it! I put each cats favorite canned food next to just a dollop of the homemade and they all ate it all. I'm very proud. I let the baggie sit in hot water for about 10 minutes, I'm pretty sure it was up to mouse temp.

 

[lcat4]

I don't have anything new to add to the discussion - I follow LaraLove's protocol of cleaning after a raw meal to a T. Two of my cats eat meat mixed with TCFeline as part of their food rotation.  I hope your cats do well with their new raw food options!

What I wanted to add are a couple "funny" stories regarding cleanliness.  I don't want to minimize your husband's concern for sanitary conditions.  There are certainly lots of bad germs out there that can wreak havoc.

I try to keep a clean kitchen.  To add to the challenge, I have a couple jumper cats that love looking out the front kitchen window.  They understand the term "Hop Down Please" and immediately comply if I find them on the kitchen counter, they may just hop back up a few minutes later.  Last week I was cleaning dishes after dinner.  I always hand wash my sharp knives and leave them on a dish towel to air dry.   A little while later, I walked back in to the kitchen to find one cat sitting (full bottom contact) on my clean and about to be put away knives.  Needless to say, the knives were rewashed, dried, and put away in one swoop.  I won't be letting the air fairies do their work again.  But I have to wonder if this has happened before?

A different cat has taken to drinking the milk remnants left at the bottom of a drinking glass.  My husband tends to use one glass for the day, rinsing it after use, and setting it aside for later.  He apparantly did not fully rinse the milk out, and we saw our cat put her paw down into the glass, scrape the bottom of the glass, lift her paw out and lick.  She then repeated this several times.  Fortunately we saw her in action and my husband grabbed a new glass.  But again, has this happened before without our knowing it?

We no longer have small children in the home so we don't have that worry.  I've always believed a little dirt is good - builds up the immunity.  This doesn't mean I leave chicken juice sitting on the kitchen counter, but I also don't get the bleach out every day.  I use a lot of cutting boards, wax paper, and paper towels, and don't put any food directly on the counter.  This makes it easy to sanitize in the dishwasher or throw away any potential germs.  I hope you find your happy medium!

 

[laralove]

 
We no longer have small children in the home so we don't have that worry.  I've always believed a little dirt is good - builds up the immunity.  This doesn't mean I leave chicken juice sitting on the kitchen counter, but I also don't get the bleach out every day.  I use a lot of cutting boards, wax paper, and paper towels, and don't put any food directly on the counter.  This makes it easy to sanitize in the dishwasher or throw away any potential germs.  I hope you find your happy medium!

I am of the same school of thought. We're over sanitizing, over-using anti-bacterial hand washes, being over-prescribed antibiotics. The effect of weakening our immune systems while simultaneously increasing antibiotic-resistant bacteria is not to be ignored. We're evolving our immune systems in the wrong direction.

 

[peaches08]

I am of the same school of thought. We're over sanitizing, over-using anti-bacterial hand washes, being over-prescribed antibiotics. The effect of weakening our immune systems while simultaneously increasing antibiotic-resistant bacteria is not to be ignored. We're evolving our immune systems in the wrong direction.

We're also finding associations between childhood asthma and certain cleaners like ammonia and bleach. Some of what we're doing isn't lack of exposure to pathogens in a healthy way; we're honest-to-goodness destroying our first lines of defense and their ability to repair themselves properly.

 

[laralove]

I respond to this by not cleaning things... :|

No, I'm kidding! I actually respond to this by using green cleaning products, because you're absolutely correct. I tried doing my own cleaning products using vinegar, baking soda, alcohol, lemon juice, and cornstarch, for example (not all those together in one cleaner, but combinations of those primarily). Turned out poorly. I was upset. But the stuff I buy at the store isn't that much more expensive than the mainstream products. 

 

[peaches08]

I respond to this by not cleaning things... :|

No, I'm kidding! I actually respond to this by using green cleaning products, because you're absolutely correct. I tried doing my own cleaning products using vinegar, baking soda, alcohol, lemon juice, and cornstarch, for example (not all those together in one cleaner, but combinations of those primarily). Turned out poorly. I was upset. But the stuff I buy at the store isn't that much more expensive than the mainstream products. 

Actually that's not a bad approach: less cleaning. One of the first things they taught us in nursing school is to make friends with dust. Seriously. And no one's kids are any more sick for it.

 

[laralove]

Oh good; my laziness is paying off! I hate dusting and always thought I don't do it enough. Now I can feel good that I've been promoting immune system strength!

 

[tcbemis]

I have to laugh... I don't dust, or avoid it, because I do have asthma and is a bit trigger for me.

Just dust... Not my 3 cats, 1 dog, 5 chinchillas or 3 gerbils lol. And definitely not the tortoise or the fish.