Must I Bake 50%?

[samyoz]

Hi everyone around the globe,

I follow Dr. Pierson's recipe for making Raw food,
but I wanna ask here if someone can tell,

Dr. Pierson said that you should partially bake 50% of the thighs and all the liver, for they come from refrigerators not freezer, to kill surface Bacteria,
ok, I froze mine yesterday after 1 hour of buying them and now I'm gonna make them.
as far as I know that bacteria can't live in the freezer,
so now I can just make the food immediately? without baking them?

 

[dhammagirl]

I've done that, sometimes I'll get some turkey thighs from the local meat shop, though I usually get stuff from Hare Today.

I have never done the 50% bake, and haven't had any problems in the two years or so of raw feeding.

 

[EmmiTemmi]

as far as I know that bacteria can't live in the freezer

Some bacteria found on meat can live in the freezer. It goes dormant until it warms back up, and then becomes active again. But if the meat was handled responsibly and frozen quickly, the amount of bacteria on it should be fairly small, definitely fine for cats to consume. Just use good hygiene practices when handling raw meat.

 

[entlaufene]

Bacteria can live in the freezer, like EmmiTemmi said. A lot of parasites, however, are killed, so maybe that's what you're thinking of.

 

[orange&white]

A lot of here feed all raw, no heating. Pierson's recipe used to be all raw when I started making cat food in 2008. I think she has had several cats get cancer, and being a vet, she's worked with many clients' immune-compromised cats. I think she started partially baking because immune-deficient cats would be more sensitive to bacteria.

If your cat is healthy, you can feed raw.

 

[Neo_23]

This is what it says on Dr. Pierson's website about why she cooks the meat:

"The liver is cooked for about 20 minutes. ~10 minutes into the time, I stir/break up the liver to ensure even cooking throughout. I cook the liver more than the thighs because bacteria does not reside in the depths of the thigh meat but, instead, lives on the surface. The liver, on the other hand, has a higher chance of having bacterial contamination throughout. Plus, one of my own cats because extremely ill (horrible vomiting and diarrhea) after eating raw liver that was fed within 1 hour of being purchased….with current/fresh dating."

She also says that she cooks the chicken and turkey thighs to kill surface bacteria.