Offering raw for the first time....a couple of quick questions.

[txcatmom]

Last week I posted that I was delighted to find that we have a holistic pet food store in town.  I bought a bag of Stella and Chewy's freeze dried raw to offer as treats and snacks to my 3 cats and they looove it.  They are currently eating grain free canned and were so-so on a couple of new brands we are trying.  This morning I crumbled one nugget of Stella and Chewy's on each dish of food and they licked their bowls clean!

So today I went back to the store and bought some Nature's Variety Instinct Raw.  (I know Rad Cat has more of a sure thing for first timers reputation but I went with what is available locally.)  I plan on offering little bits for treats and snacks at first.  (I figure I'll pinch off about an ounce at a time and roll it in Stella and Chewy's crumbles if it is totally snubbed.)  Medallions would have suited my purposes better but the 8 oz patties were a dramatically better deal.

Here are my questions...

1)  The package says to offer it cold to the touch (for food safety reasons.)  Do you really do this?  Seems like it would be unappetizing.  I'm sure you wouldn't want to microwave it, but is there any way to get it room temperature safely?  Or are cats really okay with it cold?

2)  Since I'll be offering little bits at a time, I will thaw out one 8 oz patty at a time.  But that will probably last a few days if I'm just offering one oz per day to each cat.  Will it be okay in the refrigerator for a few days? 

Thanks!

 

[ldg]

Yep, you can keep the patties in the fridge for at least 2 days. I don't know that I ever had any longer than that, but I just don't remember. Basically, my rule of thumb is the same I use for human meat. When we buy meat from the butcher, it doesn't have a "sell by" date on it, just a "packaged on" date. Sometimes we forget when we were at the butcher. :lol3: If it doesn't smell "off," I use it. :dk: I wouldn't keep the patties in the fridge longer than 3 days - but given the NV uses the high pressure processing to kill any bacteria in it anyway, I expect it would last longer than fresh meat would.

As for the temp... when I first began feeding raw, they didn't like it unless it was room temp. I would put the dethawed patty in a baggie and run it under warm water to take the "fridge chill" off of it. I'm really not sure when or how it changed, but now they like it right from the fridge, so easier. :lol3: You can offer it straight from the fridge - if they don't like it, just know it COULD be the temperature, and it needs to be warmer (at least until they're used to eating it). When I was transitioning, they were really sensitive to temperature.

Sounds like you're having fun with this!

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

One of mine won't touch his unless it's been sitting out on the counter for at least 15 minutes!  The other two like their's straight from the fridge.  So....I take the picky one's out of the fridge early and let it sit out.  What are you gonna do

.  I guess I could run it under warm water, but I'd rather not.  Just a weird phobia I have.  Maybe because of the way I store it  when moving from the freezer to the fridge (I put it in little plastic tubs, so am a little concerned with getting water in there...who knows.  But I usually have leftovers from tat plaster tub after it's been sitting out for that 15 minutes, so back into the fridge it goes until the next meal.  Don't think it's ever more than 2 - 3 meals though.  Otherwise it gets tossed