Portioning ground raw

[dreamraider]

Havent started raw yet but want to plan EVERYTHING out because im just a wee bit crazy.
I was planning on using ice cube trays to portion my raw ground after I mix it with the supplement (hare-today) and then putting it into either jars with screw on lids (one per cat per day- like I read someone else here does) or their bowls and keep them covered in the fridge.
I have long work days and don't want to worry about dishes and doing too much stuff in the morning.. in the evening I don't want too too many dishes to wash. I plan to do all my mixing and freezing etc on days off. Also I am trying to avoid baggies as much as possible because I hate the waste (or the need to wash them all if I reuse).

The problems I had with this plan are;
- my cats need to eat aprox 2.88 and 3.5 oz I believe it was.. and ice cubes are aprox 1 oz each (I would measure, I have an old school kitchen scale).. so the plan to keep ice cubes of food in a big freezer bag wouldn't work well because I would have to have partial cubes too.
- between two jars a day and 4 bowls plus utensils a day its more dishes than I want to do (yes I can do it, im just lazy and looking for alternatives)


To remedy these;
- I thought about making 'patties' .. using some sort of larger ice cube tray type thing- one patty per cat measured out to the correct amount. This would be two bags in the freezer- one for each cat. But I don't know what I would use.. I was thinking muffin trays but the metal ones would be hard to get the patties out of and I don't know if tin foil ones would work?
- I was thinking about using some sort of feeding bowls that had lids (like the ones you buy for cans) so that I can put their patty in the bowl with the lid to thaw the day before.. and the day of just offer it out for a short time in the morning and a short time in the evening (this is if they will eat the food cold, I used to do this with wet before mistys recent issues) they don't over eat so they wouldn't eat the whole dish in the morning.. at least they don't with their food now lol.

Any other ideas to perfect this? I like the hopes of the tinfoil trays because they are cheap and I can buy as many as I can have sit in my freezer so I can make up more food at once. And when I prepare it I only have to squirt some oil on.

I also read you can freeze eggs in ice cube trays which is neat- though if they were getting eggs regularly I would probably be able to keep them fresh (we don't eat eggs ourselves)..I just don't know how many they would need to eat is all.

 

[ldg]

Well, you don't need to use something round to form patties. You can just use wax paper on a cookie sheet or something in the freezer, and just form them yourself?

As to the eggs... they really only need one, maybe two egg yolks a week. If they like them, you can just feed them as is. But you can also figure out how many egg yolks need to be added to the ground food so it works out that they're eating (one or two) egg yolks via the food over the course of the week. That's how I manage it, because a number of my cats don't like just eating egg yolks plain or with toppers.

 

[dreamraider]

Okay I can deff work the eggs out and do it that way.. wont the patties not form bc of all the water? If they will that would be perfect!

 

[ldg]

If you're planning on using Alnutrin + Hare Today ground foods, you can use the minimum amount of water to get the vitamin stuff mixed in evenly. They should still be "dry" enough to form into patties.... I think. Some of them may spread a little.... (and sorry, I haven't used the poultry products in so long, I don't remember the texture).

I use goat, llama, and rabbit. The only one that would be a little runny would be rabbit. But given it's moisture content, you could use less water and still get the vitamin mix distributed evenly.

If some of them are too runny, I think oiling tin foil muffin trays would work.

...and then you can add a little more water (if you want to) when you feed it to them.

 

[dreamraider]

Okay so ill get the muffin trays just incase before when I get my first batch- but ill also have the paper on hand. Those dishes with the lids are called pyrex I think.. I just saw them in the store.

On another note- Should I start them off with all this stuff? like I mean egg+ meat with bones/ organs+ alnutrin+ salmon oil- Im worried about if they don't like it A) not knowing what part they don't like and B) wasting all that stuff lol... I mean im going to start off with commercial raw from the store to get them switched to raw because I can buy it in smaller amounts but I have to buy 30lb of meat from hare today plus the oil and alnutrin comes in big containers.

I was looking at their site and Rabbit, chicken, turkey, duck, pork and beef (I think that was all) are affordable. I know red meat is to be avoided until they are on the other meats, and im defiantly starting with chicken.. but which are white? all but the beef? and should I choice the rabbit that has fur?

 

[dreamraider]

oops cavies and lamb are affordable too, and goat I could do as an occasional. And what is Tripe?

 

[ritz]

Green Tripe is the rubbery lining of a (usually) cow's stomach. It is loved or hated by animals and people alike (by animals because well, who knows; by people because of smell). The calcium to phosphorus ratio is 1:1, which is really good. LDG can tell you why; she knows everything!
The white, bleached tripe you find in some grocery stores is NOT the same as green tripe; well, it's from the same animal, but the honeycomb white tripe has little nutritional benefits. You will rarely if ever find green tripe in the grocery store because of the smell. I buy it at the local high-end pet store.
I wasn't bothered by the smell of tripe; I actually think baby food smells worse!
Ritz loves the stuff (tripe). But she likes chicken heads, too. Drew the line at chicken feet; she has good taste.
A thought occurred to me about oiling the tinfoil trays: maybe you could brush on krill oil; it's chock full of Omega 3 and 6.

 

[dreamraider]

Yes this sounds like it would be better than veg oil which I was shying away from..they get 1 pump each of salmon oil per day in the diet I plan..could I pump a squirt ijto each muffin pan (one cats daily food) and use it to greese it?
Or would freezing ruin it?

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

Just letting you know, in the beginning none of my cats ate anything from Hare-Today.  They would only eat Primal Beef/Salmon and Radcat Lamb.  They totally rejected Hare-Today rabbit, chicken, goat, duck, whatever else.  Can't remember.  It was a very gradual process to get them to eat it.  I think it was almost a year before I could wean one of them off the Primal, and the other two were so finicky I thought we were going to have to stop feeding them raw at all.  Now one of those two is strictly eating ground turkey (using the turkey organ mix from Hare-today, and ground turkey/bones from a local co-op)  The other one hasn't touched raw since April, even though she used to be my best raw eater

Now, to answer your question about using foil containers for freezing/feeding. I would NOT feed in foil, because foil is actually used to repel cats...there is something about the sound and feel of aluminum foil they don't like, so I would definitely not use it.  Don't you just have cats?  You mentioned 4 bowls per day.  Are you talking about washing 2 in the morning and 2 at night?  I use Dawn Foam for washing up, and you just have to put it on a wet sponge, so clean up is a breeze.  But some people use little french fry baskets to feed their cats in, then toss them in the trash.  

As far as storage, I use Glad plastic containers and freeze the ground turkey mix in about 8 oz portions, so one containers is good for approx 2 days.  When it starts getting low, I get another one out of the freezer.  There is no reason you have to use it all in one day.   When I empty out one Glad container, then I wash it and it's ready when I make up a another batch.  (so I have about 24 of those containers, and they stack nicely in the freezer.  I used to use post-its on the tops of them when I had multiple proteins, but now that only one cat is eating ground, I don't need those anymore...they are all Turkey

 

[dreamraider]

Walmart has freezable glad containera 4 for 2 bucks...I should think about doing that.. also in regards to tripe..is it a meal that I add supplimennt to..a snack...or something nutritional to add?
I hope mine are ok with hare today...I gave them eggs last night and they liked it...and ill get them used to comercial raw first first I don't think there is another internediate step as I don't have a grinder..

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

Tripe is very nutritious.  And extremely stinky

It smells like a cow paddy

  Some cats love it, some don't (like everything

.  It seems to me I've heard you don't need to add anything at all to it, not even calcium, but don't quote me on that, since I've never served it except in the freeze dried form as a treat.  Even that stinks to high heaven.

I don't think it was the Hare Today mine didn't like, they are just finnicky.  For instance, I talked to Traci at Hare Today, and she suggested I start with rabbit, because most cats take to it really well.  NONE of mine like it...still don't.  Maybe it's the desert air down here or something...who knows. 

So what are you going to start with...Primal, Natures Variety?  I know we discussed this on another of your threads, but can't recall the final results.  Just don't be disappointed if you plop down some raw the first time and they look at you like you've lost your mind

  Have you been keeping up with this thread?  http://www.thecatsite.com/t/262457/trying-to-convert-kyle-kegan    Maybe it will give you hope if your little ones don't take to it immediately

 

[ldg]

Green tripe (unbleached) is really nutritious, and yes, already properly balanced with calcium. It makes a good meal in and of itself if your cats like it. It can be fed once a week or several times a week... Here's info. http://www.truecarnivores.com/nutrition/green-tripe/

You won't find anything but bleached tripe in a supermarket because it's not legal to sell for human consumption. That may vary by State, but I don't think so.

I don't know about using the salmon oil for freezing. I don't know how quickly it goes rancid, but I know it's not as stable as vegetable oils. Ground recipes, like Dr. P's, have far more vitamin E added than AAFCO calls for - this is because it's being used as a preservative for the fats and fish oil being added to the food.

 

[dreamraider]

Its called pets4life.. that's all they have here..and it is 7 bucks a pound so not affordable long term lol.

 

[ldg]

Canned?

I know a number of raw feeders in Canada that get it directly from the abbatoirs, actually. But they're feeding dogs, and buying in bulk. :lol3:

 

[dreamraider]

I'm not surr what a abbitoir is but pets4life is commercial raw that comes in 7 dollar 1lb chubs. They gets canned right now and diago is still eating a dry meal. Thats changing soon..the bag is almost done and its been convient with some ossues I was having with misty

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

Well, if your transition is anything like Dan32, that 1 lb will last you awhile

    For Primal, last time I bought it (been awhile), I paid over $6 per pound, although they sell it in 3 lb packages, so that price isn't bad.  (And I got a smoking deal...regular price was about $9/lb

)

 

[ldg]

Abattoir is a nicer sounding name for a slaughterhouse. Usually easier to purchase (or just pick up!) what would otherwise be garbage from small places that serve local farmers.

 

[dreamraider]

Well I don't mind buyinf I'm bulk once I know they will eat it...wonder how I would fijd these places.

 

[meranaldar]

One other option for portioning is silicon muffin trays. More expensive than tin trays, but no need to oil them, and they should last a long time.

As for oiling the tin trays with krill/fish oil, I would think most of the oil would remain on the tray, so would be mostly wasted. Especially krill, that would be an expensive method.

 

[dreamraider]

I thought about silicone and liked it but it would have been tons to buy enough of them..I wonder if I could use the paper in muffin tins..