premixes question

heyitskevinn

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What premixes do you all use? I'm curious and looking for another maybe. :)
 

dhammagirl

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I use Alnutrin, both versions, one for meat with bone, and one with eggshell calcium for boneless meat. I get them directly from the manufacturer, which is the lowest price.
 

Tobermory

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I’m currently using EZ Complete. I tried Alnutrin with eggshell calcium, and they liked it, too.

I made my own “premix” for awhile using Dr. Pierson’s recipe. I mixed larger quantities of the dry ingredients (including homemade eggshell calcium), stored in an air tight container, and measured out the appropriate amount for the quantity of ground meat I was using. I added the wet ingredients, including the liver, as I mixed the batch.
 
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heyitskevinn

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I’m currently using EZ Complete. I tried Alnutrin with eggshell calcium, and they liked it, too.

I made my own “premix” for awhile using Dr. Pierson’s recipe. I mixed larger quantities of the dry ingredients (including homemade eggshell calcium), stored in an air tight container, and measured out the appropriate amount for the quantity of ground meat I was using. I added the wet ingredients, including the liver, as I mixed the batch.
Could you tell me how'd you get the homamde premix stuff, and perhaps the cost?
 

Tobermory

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Okay, here I am. So...

Although I'm currently using EZ Complete premix supplement, I was using individual supplements and following Dr. Lisa Pierson's recipe on cat info.org. I was substituting bone meal calcium for ground bone (she has instructions for doing that). Here's the recipe:
  • 3 lbs. ground boneless meat (I rotate chicken thighs, pork loin and turkey breast. I have a meat grinder.)
  • 3-4 oz. chicken liver
  • 1 c. water
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 5-10 capsules fish oil (5,000 to 10,000 mg.--I usually use seven or eight)
  • 400 IU Vitamin E (268 mg.)
  • 1 tablet/capsule Vitamin B-Complex 50 mg.
  • 2000 mg. taurine (2 g.)
  • 1 tsp. Morton Lite Salt
  • 2T + 1 tsp. bone meal (7 level tsps.)
I buy all of the supplements from vitacost.com except for the fish oil capsules which I get at Costco and the Morton Lite Salt, which I buy at my local grocery store. I know other people use iherb.com for their supplements.
  1. Nature Made Fish Oil, 1200 mg., 400 soft gel caps, $19.49 from Costco (in two bottles of 200 each)
  2. NOW Foods Dry E-400, vegetarian, 100 veggie caps, $12.88 (Vitacost)
  3. Source Naturals, B-50 Complex, 50 mg, 100 tablets, $11.15 (Vitacost)
  4. Source Naturals, Taurine Powder, 3.53 oz (100 g), $6.99 (Vitacost)
  5. NOW Foods Bone Meal Powder, 1 lb. (454 g), $10.73 (Vitacost)
  6. Morton Lite Salt, 11 oz., $2.49 at my local grocery store
With supplements and $2.49 boneless chicken thighs and chicken livers, my cost was approximately 17-19 cents an ounce for food at the beginning of last year. Pork and turkey are higher, of course. But as I updated the prices, above, several have increased, so you're looking at a bit more. 20-22 cents an ounce for chicken, perhaps? You have the upfront cost for the supplements, but they last a long time because you're really not using very much at a time. Also, I know meat prices have increased in some places.

I got tired of preparing the dry supplements each time I made a new batch, so I carefully weighed the dry ingredients after I combined them in the proper ratio for one batch (using the recipe above). Then I made a large amount of the dry ingredients, again being careful to measure them out according to the recipe. I mixed them thoroughly and again when I used them. So next time I made a batch, I used the appropriate amount of dry ingredients based on weight and then added the fish oil, egg yolks and water.

I wouldn't recommend this for everyone. It's extremely time consuming and you absolutely have to have a good kitchen scale and measure very carefully. My spouse was a math major in college, and I always have him check my math when I do these things.

I don't know how helpful this is, but there you go! To be honest, I've just found it easier to use EZ Complete or Alnutrin.
 
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heyitskevinn

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Okay, here I am. So...

Although I'm currently using EZ Complete premix supplement, I was using individual supplements and following Dr. Lisa Pierson's recipe on cat info.org. I was substituting bone meal calcium for ground bone (she has instructions for doing that). Here's the recipe:
  • 3 lbs. ground boneless meat (I rotate chicken thighs, pork loin and turkey breast. I have a meat grinder.)
  • 3-4 oz. chicken liver
  • 1 c. water
  • 2 egg yolks
  • 5-10 capsules fish oil (5,000 to 10,000 mg.--I usually use seven or eight)
  • 400 IU Vitamin E (268 mg.)
  • 1 tablet/capsule Vitamin B-Complex 50 mg.
  • 2000 mg. taurine (2 g.)
  • 1 tsp. Morton Lite Salt
  • 2T + 1 tsp. bone meal (7 level tsps.)
I buy all of the supplements from vitacost.com except for the fish oil capsules which I get at Costco and the Morton Lite Salt, which I buy at my local grocery store. I know other people use iherb.com for their supplements.
  1. Nature Made Fish Oil, 1200 mg., 400 soft gel caps, $19.49 from Costco (in two bottles of 200 each)
  2. NOW Foods Dry E-400, vegetarian, 100 veggie caps, $12.88 (Vitacost)
  3. Source Naturals, B-50 Complex, 50 mg, 100 tablets, $11.15 (Vitacost)
  4. Source Naturals, Taurine Powder, 3.53 oz (100 g), $6.99 (Vitacost)
  5. NOW Foods Bone Meal Powder, 1 lb. (454 g), $10.73 (Vitacost)
  6. Morton Lite Salt, 11 oz., $2.49 at my local grocery store
With supplements and $2.49 boneless chicken thighs and chicken livers, my cost was approximately 17-19 cents an ounce for food at the beginning of last year. Pork and turkey are higher, of course. But as I updated the prices, above, several have increased, so you're looking at a bit more. 20-22 cents an ounce for chicken, perhaps? You have the upfront cost for the supplements, but they last a long time because you're really not using very much at a time. Also, I know meat prices have increased in some places.

I got tired of preparing the dry supplements each time I made a new batch, so I carefully weighed the dry ingredients after I combined them in the proper ratio for one batch (using the recipe above). Then I made a large amount of the dry ingredients, again being careful to measure them out according to the recipe. I mixed them thoroughly and again when I used them. So next time I made a batch, I used the appropriate amount of dry ingredients based on weight and then added the fish oil, egg yolks and water.

I wouldn't recommend this for everyone. It's extremely time consuming and you absolutely have to have a good kitchen scale and measure very carefully. My spouse was a math major in college, and I always have him check my math when I do these things.

I don't know how helpful this is, but there you go! To be honest, I've just found it easier to use EZ Complete or Alnutrin.
THANK YOU !!! This is super helpful, I didn't see it before today sorry! This is wonderful... I want to make my own sometime so I can use my own liver and stuff to get him off chicken 100%!
 

darg

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If you want to completely avoid chicken liver and use liver that you source youself, be careful which supplement you buy. EZ Complete and Young Again premixes, for example, both contain liver already (chicken and/or "poultry"). I'm not sure about all of the others out there but Alnutrin does not contain liver. I use the alnutrin and freeze dried turkey liver that I source myself. My cat can't eat chicken at all, including chicken liver. The Young Again mix has hyrdrolyzed chicken/poultry liver. Technically, it should be fine for a chicken sensitive cat but there are several other ingredients in it and my cat didn't tolerate it very well although he did seem to like whatever flavor it added (I think it has some fermentation products). Alnutrin is a very basic formula and my tummy sensitive boy does well on it. I use the egg shell calcium formula to avoid the bone. He's 13 and been doing very well on it for over a year now.
 
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