Is there a meat recipe that I can give to a butcher?

[angela1573]

I just did the math... I feed 56 lbs of canned cat food a month! I feel like I can probably do better if I set something up with a butcher.

Right now I am feeding Fancy Feast 3oz cans to four cats, two of which get extra feedings because they are underweight. Here's my math:

4 cans x 2 meals a day=8 cans plus 2 bonus cans for my skinny kitties = 10 cans a day x 30 days a month = 300 cans x 3oz =900 oz / 16oz per lb = 56.25 lbs per month / 4 weeks per mo = 14.06 lbs per week.

300 cans x .56 per can = $168 per mo +7% tax =$179 monthly cat food budget / 4 weeks per mo =$44.75 weekly cat food budget

Can I get a better quality food for about the same price if I have a butcher make me something from real meats? What meats should be included? I'd like to have it all ground together and then I can portion it out at home. And I think maybe I would like to cook it possibly. I can't quite stomach the idea of feeding raw.

 

[ritz]

I was recently at PetCo looking for a high quality cat food for the community cats I feed as a treat (they fought over an old can of B.G.). I was shocked at the for in medium to high quality food. It would cost me at least $1.50 a day to feed Ritz a high quality canned food versus maybe 50 cents for raw prey model. And, she has expensive tastes!
Another member calculated how much it would cost her community cat colony of around eight cats--cheaper to feed raw. (The cats in my colony alas don't recognize raw food as, well, food.)
If you haven't already seen/read this forum, do check out this. It has several recipes for home cooked meal.
For raw recipes, check out this link and this.
I would talk to your butcher first to make sure he would be willing to provide this service; I would imagine it is somewhat time consuming. You'd need to stress the importance of exact measurements (that is, he can't eyeball was 1.2 oz of liver; he'd have to weigh it). Also, you'd have to be comfortable with some possibility of bacteria--you won't have much control over sanitary conditions and how long the meat has been exposed to air, cross contamination were a butcher to do it, rather than yourself.
PS: never ever serve COOKED bones.

 

[angela1573]

There's a lot of info there. I didn't know there were supplements available to add to the meat. I have fed premium cat foods before and had it shipped, but the cats were finicky about it. They consistently eat the Fancy Feast though, so that's why I buy it now. But I do wonder exactly what's in there..?