Raw meat at room temperature unsafe?

[space1101]

Hi everyone,

We didn't close the freezer door properly at 8am and the door was opened until 3 pm.  When I found out, the raw meat in there are alerady soft, and already at room temperature.   Is the meat still safe for cats to eat?  

If it takes 1 hour for meat to defrost, the meat are soft for 6 hours, and the meat are near the door so it was kind of in touch of room temperature for 6 hours.

Can anyone give me some advice?  Should I still keep the meat.  There are lots of meat.....

 

[peaches08]

This is something kind of hard to advise on, but I'll do my best.  First, do the cats have any health problems?  I'd feel like a real jerk saying to keep the meat and come to find out the cat was immune-compromised and my advice hurt the cat.

I've done something like this before, but mine didn't get to room temp.  Mine just defrosted but was still cold.  I kept the meat, even my seafood (crab legs), and it was fine.  I also generally have an iron stomach and eat like crazy in foreign countries, and my cats are very healthy except for diarrhea from certain ingredients in canned foods that raw feeding resolved,

I remember reading where Dr. Pierson saw a wild cat (a cougar maybe?) eat a deer carcass for a week.  I'm cheap, so I'd probably try to use it.  I guess you could refreeze the meat and after defrosting it for meals, if the cat refuses it, you have your answer.  Cat noses are way more sensitive than ours about meat being "off" to them.

 

[ritz]

Sorry about the door not closing.
I personally would not chance feeding the food to Ritz. Any idea how long the food was at room temperature? If the food were cool, I might; but not at room temperature. Cats have a good smeller, more so than humans. Once or twice I've put food down that I knew was at its useful age/a bit 'ripe'; Ritz sniffed at it and walked away. I trust her judgment, so threw away the food.

 

[goingpostal]

I'd feed it but my cat often gets leftover ferret scraps that have sat out all day.  If it's really smelly I just give it to my dogs instead.  If you decide you don't want to risk it someone who raw feeds dogs would probably take it in a second. 

 

[Willowy]

I've seen cats eating week-dead birds. So they should be able to handle it. But if you're afraid the bacteria level got too high, you could cook it. Of course not the bones but cooking meat should kill any bacteria.

 

[roguethecat]

If your cats are healthy, go ahead and use it! Chances are if it's too far gone they won't like it anyway. I have to admit here that I give the leftovers of my crowd to the ferals outside, mixed into canned stuff (leftovers meaning they have been at room temp for about 12 hours). The ferals are fine... 

mae1.JPG

• roguethecat
• Apr 30, 2014

this is Mae eating leftovers

 

[space1101]

Thanks for the advice.   The freezer was full of raw meat for cats, and it has been in touch with room temperature for 7 hours.  It took about 2 hours  to defrost, so it has been in room temperature for about 5 hours.   The meat that was close to the door was already at room temperature.   The ice cubes have turned into water already.  

My cats are healthy, I was just worried about too much bacteria might cause food poisoning.  I gave them some in the afternoon, and they seemed fine, but I'm still baffling about the  wild birds that have turned soft,  

I guess i will try to give them the birds and see how they do..... Eating bacteria is not that bad for cats' health  right? 

 

[furmonster mom]

These are the factors that I would consider before feeding it...

How was it packaged?

Was it vac packed? or just in plastic containers?

Were the meats whole or ground?

The bacteria would have a harder time proliferating in a vac pack... not that it won't, just that it will be slowed down by reduced oxygen. 

Bacteria like to live on surfaces that have oxygen as well as moisture, the best of both worlds, so to speak.  So, if the meat was just packed in regular plastic containers, I imagine the bacterial load would be a bit higher than meat that was vac packed.

Also, whole meats have less surface areas than ground meats.  It's harder for the bacteria to reach overload levels on whole meats (not impossible, but harder).  Ground meats reach it quicker, as there are plenty of surfaces and air pockets for bacteria to take advantage of.

If the meats were whole and/or vac packed, I would have no problems re-freezing and feeding it.  A cat's stomach has a high acidity level for the very purpose of destroying incidental bacteria.

However, if the meats were ground and/or container packed, I might have second thoughts.  The bacterial load could be a bit high, even for a cat's "iron stomach".