Home-cooked ... Skin Or No Skin.

darg

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I made my my first batch of homemade cat food a few days ago. I used Turkey thigh (boneless) and liver with Alnutrin premix. I partially cooked the Turkey thigh but left most of the skin on during cooking. I removed the skin after cooking and didn't include it in with the meat.

For those of you who make your own raw or cooked Turkey or Chicken cat food ... do you use all the skin? Some of the skin? None of the skin?

I left the skin on during cooking figuring it would add to the quantity and flavor of the turkey drippings. But I'm wondering if it's better just to remove it before cooking. There probably isn't a right or wrong here, but just wondering what some of you do.

Thanks.
 

lisahe

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Dr. Pierson discusses poultry skin in homemade food on her site. I think her advice might be summed up as "it depends." It's on this page: Making Cat Food

Personally, I'd probably keep it. Or at least most of it. Just be sure to weigh the meat -- everything that you're going to use in the actual food -- before cooking so you have the right weight for calculating how much Alnutrin to use. [Edit: Or maybe not, given the posts below!]
 
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kittyluv387

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I emailed alnutrin about this and they said to remove the skin from half the thighs or else the phosphorus level will fall below AAFCO recommendations. Which is between .5-.6 DMB I believe. I like to leave the skin on for half because I do want a lower phosphorus food for my cats in case they become kidney compromised.
 

lalagimp

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I do Dr Pierson's slurry instead of a premix, and she said that if I have to keep the weight on Tom, I might as well use all the poultry skin and get "more bang for your buck".
 

lisahe

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I emailed alnutrin about this and they said to remove the skin from half the thighs or else the phosphorus level will fall below AAFCO recommendations. Which is between .5-.6 DMB I believe. I like to leave the skin on for half because I do want a lower phosphorus food for my cats in case they become kidney compromised.
This is very interesting! darg darg , maybe it's worth calling Alnutrin to ask more questions (maybe about a weighing workaround?) if you want to keep all the skin? I wonder if the fat rendered would affect things -- turkey thighs can be pretty fatty. (Who knew this could be so complex?!)

I do Dr Pierson's slurry instead of a premix, and she said that if I have to keep the weight on Tom, I might as well use all the poultry skin and get "more bang for your buck".
This is exactly why I would want to keep the skin! This is also why I keep all the fat on most of the meat that I use for food: we have one cat who tends to be skinny and almost all the meat I buy is pretty lean to begin with.
 
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