New To Raw

[Rosepud]

I recently took the plunge and ordered from Darwin's raw pet food as I would be too worried making my own that I'd mess up. I don't honestly know how much of it my cat should be getting in a day, he's currently eating thw chicken and his vet recommends he gets 236 kcal a day. He does get some dry about 130kcal a day which I'm working on lowering but he has food insecurities and I worry he'll starve(which I'm aware is unrealistic). So my biggest question is after thawing in the fridge how long is it safe to have the food in the fridge before they can't eat it anymore? They come in fairly large packages and I can't see it being gone in less than 4 days but am worried he might get sick. I'm also generally worried about bacteria and disease. Any advice is appreciated he does like the chicken at least!

 

[RejoiceErb]

I think generally you can keep an opened can in the fridge for 5-7 days. If your cat “free feeds” I wouldn’t leave a can out for him for more than a few hours.

 

[daftcat75]

I personally never trusted raw in the fridge more than a couple of days. Eventually I learned how to re-portion so that I could thaw to serve straight from the freezer individual portions. You'll want to run the blob or brick or tub or whatever form it comes in under cold water for 5-15 minutes. Less is better. You want to work with it as frozen as possible without injuring yourself. I water thawed it just enough that I could get a carving fork into it and using a carving knife shave off slices that I could then repackage in individual baggies. It's best if you get a jewelry scale and can weigh out the individual portions and press them as flat as possible into the baggies squeezing out as much as possible to prevent freezer burn. For a 24 oz tub of Rad Cat, it took me 45 minutes (after the water thaw) to carve, weigh, reportion, then put all the individual portions back in the freezer. When it comes to meal time, the best way to thaw it would be to run it under lukewarm water (just cooler than you like your bathwater) for several minutes until the portion is also lukewarm. You don't want to microwave it because you don't want to cook it. But I've gotten impatient lately and I do something in between. I take a cup of water and microwave it for 1 minute. Then I pour that water into a shallow container. I take the bagged portion and squish it under the Starbucks hot but not boiling water until the food is thawed and body temperature (lukewarm.)

So that's how I would handle reportioning and serving. Nothing was ever fully thawed until it was time to serve.

As for amounts, they say 3-6% bodyweight daily divided by however many meals you feed.

 

[daftcat75]

I think generally you can keep an opened can in the fridge for 5-7 days. If your cat “free feeds” I wouldn’t leave a can out for him for more than a few hours.

That's a can of cooked food. Raw food won't last 5-7 days. I don't trust it past two and Krista would give 3 day thaw back almost immediately.

 

[kittyluv387]

I stick with about 2 days. You'll just have to store some in the freezer.

 

[Rosepud]

I personally never trusted raw in the fridge more than a couple of days. Eventually I learned how to re-portion so that I could thaw to serve straight from the freezer individual portions. You'll want to run the blob or brick or tub or whatever form it comes in under cold water for 5-15 minutes. Less is better. You want to work with it as frozen as possible without injuring yourself. I water thawed it just enough that I could get a carving fork into it and using a carving knife shave off slices that I could then repackage in individual baggies. It's best if you get a jewelry scale and can weigh out the individual portions and press them as flat as possible into the baggies squeezing out as much as possible to prevent freezer burn. For a 24 oz tub of Rad Cat, it took me 45 minutes (after the water thaw) to carve, weigh, reportion, then put all the individual portions back in the freezer. When it comes to meal time, the best way to thaw it would be to run it under lukewarm water (just cooler than you like your bathwater) for several minutes until the portion is also lukewarm. You don't want to microwave it because you don't want to cook it. But I've gotten impatient lately and I do something in between. I take a cup of water and microwave it for 1 minute. Then I pour that water into a shallow container. I take the bagged portion and squish it under the Starbucks hot but not boiling water until the food is thawed and body temperature (lukewarm.)

So that's how I would handle reportioning and serving. Nothing was ever fully thawed until it was time to serve.

As for amounts, they say 3-6% bodyweight daily divided by however many meals you feed.

Thank you so much this is really good to know!

 

[Rosepud]

He is not free fed either he gets 30 minutes to eat it after it's out of the fridge and whatever is left is thrown away.

 

[RejoiceErb]

From my understanding of bacteria growth, putting food in the freezer is like hitting the slow motion button. So you shouldn’t take food in and out of the freezer because bacteria is still slowly growing.

 

[RejoiceErb]

That's a can of cooked food. Raw food won't last 5-7 days. I don't trust it past two and Krista would give 3 day thaw back almost immediately.

Ohh I was thinking canned. Sorry.

 

[daftcat75]

From my understanding of bacteria growth, putting food in the freezer is like hitting the slow motion button. So you shouldn’t take food in and out of the freezer because bacteria is still slowly growing.

Right. But the way I do it, nothing is ever fully thawed until meal time. Everything still remains as frozen as possible without injuring oneself. Still not a very hospitable environment for bacteria growth. It's going to be better this way than leaving it in the fridge for a couple of days or longer.

 

[daftcat75]

Maybe there's some bacteria hitchhikers that somehow get frozen on the surface of the meat tundra when they go back into the freezer. When they come back out, they're going into a cat's belly within 30 minutes or down the drain they go. Not nearly long enough to get overrun.

 

[Rosepud]

Right. But the way I do it, nothing is ever fully thawed until meal time. Everything still remains as frozen as possible without injuring oneself. Still not a very hospitable environment for bacteria growth. It's going to be better this way than leaving it in the fridge for a couple of days or longer.

Should this first bit be ok to be left in the fridge for today and tomorrow and then switch to portioning or should I portion it and put the rest in the freezer?
For reference it's still a bit frozen but has been in the fridge for 12 hours so far.

 

[daftcat75]

Should this first bit be ok to be left in the fridge for today and tomorrow and then switch to portioning or should I portion it and put the rest in the freezer?
For reference it's still a bit frozen but has been in the fridge for 12 hours so far.

Because it's been in the fridge, that has slowed the growth. 12 hours isn't too long. If it's still mostly frozen, you should be able to reportion this and refreeze it. The outer edges will be more thawed than the inside. I'd scrape off any of the outer edges that are already thawed and keep that in the fridge. Serve that first. The remainder you can run under cold water (sealed in a bag) for 5 minutes or as needed to get a knife into it, reportion and re-freeze. This way you hedge your bets. You're re-portioning and refreezing the bits that are still frozen and you have a meal or two to serve from the fridge.

 

[Rosepud]

Ok thank you!

 

[Rosepud]

I took your advice and everything seems okay, but today Wilbur had diarrhea and in the entire time I've had him this has never occurred however he has been on antibiotics for about 3 weeks now as he's post surgery, but this is still the first time in the 3 weeks this has occurred should I continue feeding him raw or stop?

 

[daftcat75]

It could be the antibiotics. Though that should have happened from the start. It could be the newness of the raw. Do you have another wet food he eats that you can mix it with so it's not all new?

 

[daftcat75]

To be clear, I don't think it's the food as in bacteria or food poisoining or any of those other scary things feared with raw. I don't think 12 hours in the fridge was long enough for that.

 

[Rosepud]

I've been doing a mix of his normal wet and then just a little bit of raw now, and he hasn't had diarrhea since, I didn't think it would be food poisoning or anything as it was just like 3 liquid poops in a 10 minute period and nothing else, I think it just upset his stomach.

 

[Rosepud]

He has had no since incident.

 

[lisahe]

I never felt comfortable with Rad Cat more than two days after it had been completely thawed.