Ground Mouse

[leechi]

I ordered from hare today for the first time recently, and got a variety of grinds to try. I got one pound of the ground mouse, and my cat is getting hair balls from it. She did fine when I tried the ground whole rabbit, but the mouse seems to have a lot more fur in it.

I don't plan to ever order it again, but my question is, is there a way I can use up what I have, without giving her hair balls? Has anyone had success mixing grinds with fur with something else, to dilute it? What would be a good thing to mix it with?

I don't really want to use hair ball treatments, as I feel like there's really just too much fur in the grind, and don't want to feed it straight again as I'm worried about a blockage.

 

[dorimon]

You can try mixing it with another grind without fur.

We ordered the ground mouse in our first order as well, but did not re-order. Our three little buggers aren't fans of it, even though they like whole-prey pinky mice just fine.

 

[abby2932]

I have the same issue with both of my cats. They get bad hairballs when I feed them any grind with fur.

You can add egg yolk lecithin to their food. This is a natural way to reduce hairballs. Alternately, you can add extra raw egg yolks but that will reduce the bone % depending on how much yolk you add which is why I recommend the egg yolk lecithin.

 

[orange&white]

I don't plan to ever order it again, but my question is, is there a way I can use up what I have, without giving her hair balls? Has anyone had success mixing grinds with fur with something else, to dilute it? What would be a good thing to mix it with?

I would either defrost it enough to smash it into ice cube trays, and give her one now and then until you use it up. "Ice cube" meat is usually about 1 ounce of food. Or, as you and others suggested, dilute it with any mix that doesn't have fur or feathers. Depending on how many pounds of mouse you have left over, you may need to rebalance ingredients to 80/10/10. "Ice cube mouse" might be the easiest.

 

[leechi]

Yeah I think I'll probably give really small amounts at a time. I only have the one pound to use up. However, since I already thawed it once to mix alnutrin into it, would thawing and refreezing it again be dangerous? I know there's debate over whether whole animal grinds need supplements, but since I'm feeding some unbalanced food such as chicken necks, I figured I should add it.

 

[orange&white]

I try to work with partially-frozen meats because they're easier to cut, but my food goes through a few freezer cycles: I freeze fresh whole meats immediately from the store, then 1st partial thaw is debone and cut into chunks and refreeze in large storage. 2nd partial thaw when I'm mixing together separate ingredients of chunked meats/bones/organs/supplement and refrozen in serving containers. 3rd thaw is for serving, and about the only time the meat totally thawed except at purchase.

So you've mixed supplements, so you'd be at about the 2nd thaw. I think you'd be ok. If you can defrost only until you can cut through with a knife, that would be ideal. If you can catch it at that state, you can cut small squares and freeze on a cookie sheet, then toss them into a freezer bag. The hard part is thawing to the point of cutting without thawing to the point of "squishing". Anyway even if they thaw a little too much but still frosty in the middle, you'll be all right.

 

[dorimon]

Yeah I think I'll probably give really small amounts at a time. I only have the one pound to use up. However, since I already thawed it once to mix alnutrin into it, would thawing and refreezing it again be dangerous? I know there's debate over whether whole animal grinds need supplements, but since I'm feeding some unbalanced food such as chicken necks, I figured I should add it.

There are definitely different schools of thought when it comes to supplementing whole-animal grinds. Some consider them to be basically equivalent to feeding whole prey, which is often touted as being the "perfect food." I prefer to err on the side of caution and supplement.

It's fine to thaw and refreeze. Just make sure that you don't throw away any water / meat juice, since you don't want to lose your water-soluble vitamins and nutrients.

 

[leechi]

Thanks, I feel better now about doing another partial thaw to portion it