Started Grim on Raw!! :)

[minka]

I almost forgot to post that I had started Grim on raw!!

I finally just went and DID it. Went down to my local health food store and bought him Nature's Variety Rabbit Raw.
I was worried about starting it because it has pork in it as well, and I had no idea if he would be allergic to pig, but I started him on it and haven't seen any itching so far.

I'm still giving him Natural Balance LID Salmon and Before Grain Salmon since they are his base foods (the ones I know he's not allergic to) and because NV is so expensive but it's a start!!

I also called that same food store because they can special order me some rabbit meat but I haven't heard back from them. How exciting would that be for Grim though??


I did want to ask: how do you guys go about thawing out your raw? I've been taking 2 medallions out of the freezer and putting them in a tupperware container in the fridge for a few hours and then if I have time, leaving them out for half an hour to warm up to room temp. Do your cats mind raw being cold? Grim definitely doesn't like it cold. He looks up at me like 'Hey. Give me something else. Hey. Hey. This sucks.' but eats it slowly as soon as I walk away. lol..



Yayyyyyyyyyyy

 

[ldg]

You can put the patties in a baggie, and put that in a bowl of cold water to dethaw, and then put them in the fridge dethawed. :dk: Mine didn't dethaw if I left them overnight.

At first, the cats definitely wanted them room temp. So I'd take what I needed for meal time, and warm that up by running warm water on it (in a baggie) and mushing it around a bit. Then I'd put it in the bowl and mush it up with my fingers - I'd pull out the larger pieces of bone, because they target 15% bone content anyway.

But now they prefer the food right out of the fridge. :dk: Not sure how that happened. :lol3:

 

[minka]

Mine dethaw in a couple of hours in the fridge, but maybe that's because they are just small medallions vs whatever meats you feed. My problem is just getting them to room temp, but the baggie warm up method sounds good.

 

[princessesme]

YAY Grim!

I do the baggie warm up method for Naku. Esme will eat hers straight from the fridge (thank goodness). I took out enough medallions for 2 days.

 

[carolina]

All my meals are bagged into portions into Ziplock bags. They go straight from the freezer into a container with warm/hot-"ish" water to defrost at the time of feeding.... I don't defrost overnight, since they like the meat warm anyways.... IMHO the least amount of time the meat is out of the freezer, the better.

BTW Minka - Congrats on finally making the jump!

And..... I am sure you have heard of Hare Today? Here is the link for their Rabbit: https://www.hare-today.com/product_...d=114&osCsid=90507eb29af345d4e2566ffe6d3c1233

It is $4.39/lb. Their supplement adds about $1/lb, and shipping another $1...... It comes out cheaper than NV, and it is very quality meat, no veggies, fruits, nothing added.
They have a ton of variety - Should we say llama?! :lol3:

Check it out - I but some meats in there - not ground anymore, but I did feed for a while on my ground time, and they are wonderful!

BTW - here is the supplement: https://www.hare-today.com/product_...d=290&osCsid=90507eb29af345d4e2566ffe6d3c1233

 

[minka]

Yea, I've heard of them plenty. I just am too cautious still I think to go and order a big bag of something and then realize 'nope, hes allergic.' I'm still really cautious about anything that isn't fish. Thank you though..

 

[carolina]

Yea, I've heard of them plenty. I just am too cautious still I think to go and order a big bag of something and then realize 'nope, hes allergic.' I'm still really cautious about anything that isn't fish. Thank you though..

What do you mean? They are single proteins though.... for a cat with allergies, a safer bet than NV, for example - Say the Rabbit: Whole extra fine ground rabbit includes meat, bones, head, and organs (liver, heart, lung, pancreas and kidneys). But it is ALL Rabbit. It comes in 1lb, so they are not big bags at all.... Not like the others that come in 5-6lbs.... Am I missing something?

Oh, BTW - they do have Ground Salmon/Bone, Ground Herring/Bone - and other foods that are good for allergies too..... If you haven't tried....

Just so you know, Bugsy had an awful time with chicken.... but As long as it is raw, vegetarian fed chicken, he is ok - so, you never really know what is going to happen when feeding raw - it is an entire other beast :nod:
Anyways, Just food for thought.... I started with NV too.... My cats only liked the Rabbit, but it is good..... Moved on to RadCat - IMHO the very best.... Then added HT and loved it.... Good on wallet too....

 

[wolcar]

Awesome.  I've recently started raw myself.  My cats seem to like it straight out of the fridge (I'm currently feeding primal/rad cat) but sometimes I will mush it up real good and throw a few teaspoons of luke warm water on top of it to take the edge off the chill.  I also think the smooshing and the water both help my boys to SLLOOOW down the eating process.  Mine seem to be in a race when they eat. UGH. 

Good luck!

 

[minka]

Yea, I've heard of them plenty. I just am too cautious still I think to go and order a big bag of something and then realize 'nope, hes allergic.' I'm still really cautious about anything that isn't fish. Thank you though..

What do you mean? They are single proteins though.... for a cat with allergies, a safer bet than NV, for example - Say the Rabbit: Whole extra fine ground rabbit includes meat, bones, head, and organs (liver, heart, lung, pancreas and kidneys). But it is ALL Rabbit. It comes in 1lb, so they are not big bags at all.... Not like the others that come in 5-6lbs.... Am I missing something?

Oh, BTW - they do have Ground Salmon/Bone, Ground Herring/Bone - and other foods that are good for allergies too..... If you haven't tried....

Just so you know, Bugsy had an awful time with chicken.... but As long as it is raw, vegetarian fed chicken, he is ok - so, you never really know what is going to happen when feeding raw - it is an entire other beast :nod:
Anyways, Just food for thought.... I started with NV too.... My cats only liked the Rabbit, but it is good..... Moved on to RadCat - IMHO the very best.... Then added HT and loved it.... Good on wallet too....

I'm not 100% sure he's not allergic to rabbit. I had added NV canned rabbit to his diet, but then the rabbit shortage happened and well, the stores stopped carrying it. And even if it's only 1lb, it's still 1lb wasted if he's allergic.

Yea, I'm hoping that he's not allergic to raw chicken, at some point I would like him to be on 100% raw...

Awesome.  I've recently started raw myself.  My cats seem to like it straight out of the fridge (I'm currently feeding primal/rad cat) but sometimes I will mush it up real good and throw a few teaspoons of luke warm water on top of it to take the edge off the chill.  I also think the smooshing and the water both help my boys to SLLOOOW down the eating process.  Mine seem to be in a race when they eat. UGH. 

Good luck!

Congratz to you too
Just keep in mind if you smoosh it up, it takes away the teeth cleaning aspect of them chewing it up a bit. :nod:

 

[bluebo]

I've heard that Natures Variety sources their rabbit from China... thought I would let you know.
http://m.naturesvariety.com/learning/questions/5

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

Congrats on coming over to "the WILD side"

. 

I put my frozen stuff out on the counter for about an hour, then put in the fridge to finish defrosting, where it will stay for maybe 24 hours before it's completely used up.  And instead of using ziplocs, I prefer small glad containers that I can wash.  (I just hate to think of all those plastic bags in the dump somewhere!).  So, I defrost maybe 7 nuggets at a time of Primal, and I freeze 6 oz of Radcat in individual Glad containers to defrost at once (that is after semi-defrosting them enough to divide them into those containers)

Then when getting ready to serve, Stinkpot likes his room temp, so I dish up his bowl first and let it sit around for awhile (15 min or so), then get the others out and serve 'em up

 

[minka]

I've heard that Natures Variety sources their rabbit from China... thought I would let you know.
http://m.naturesvariety.com/learning/questions/5

I'll keep that in mind but NV is very reliable in my eyes, so I'm not worried.

Congrats on coming over to "the WILD side" . 

I put my frozen stuff out on the counter for about an hour, then put in the fridge to finish defrosting, where it will stay for maybe 24 hours before it's completely used up.  And instead of using ziplocs, I prefer small glad containers that I can wash.  (I just hate to think of all those plastic bags in the dump somewhere!).  So, I defrost maybe 7 nuggets at a time of Primal, and I freeze 6 oz of Radcat in individual Glad containers to defrost at once (that is after semi-defrosting them enough to divide them into those containers)

Then when getting ready to serve, Stinkpot likes his room temp, so I dish up his bowl first and let it sit around for awhile (15 min or so), then get the others out and serve 'em up

I use a tupperware container in the fridge too, but I think I'm going to use a plastic bag to heat it up. I figure that there is no need to worry about the dump because I will just wash and reuse.

 

[carolina]

I'll keep that in mind but NV is very reliable in my eyes, so I'm not worried.
I use a tupperware container in the fridge too, but I think I'm going to use a plastic bag to heat it up. I figure that there is no need to worry about the dump because I will just wash and reuse.

They are a reliable Company - (NV) My cats loved the Rabbit....
One tip - Stay away from Bison - all my cats
Lamb was another one!

Lauren's kitties love the organic Chicken - might be a good one for you too :bigthumb:

One thing that I learned way too late in the game, but that made a World of difference: well, now it's not a big deal, as your meat comes in patties..... But later, if you make your own meat, freeze it flat - WAY easier to defrost :nod:

 

[ldg]

I've heard that Natures Variety sources their rabbit from China... thought I would let you know.
http://m.naturesvariety.com/learning/questions/5

Actually, a member of TCS works for Nature's Variety, and has addressed those concerns on numerous occasions. Here is one such post:

http://www.thecatsite.com/t/247127/natures-variety-mixing-kibble-with-raw/30#post_3234458

When they originally began sourcing the rabbit there wasn't a big enough facility to produce the meat that was required, it isn't a big enough market. The meat that is from China is held to the same standards as the meat they get from the US. It's shipped from France.

 

[minka]

One thing that I learned way too late in the game, but that made a World of difference: well, now it's not a big deal, as your meat comes in patties..... But later, if you make your own meat, freeze it flat - WAY easier to defrost :nod:

Thank you!

 

[wolcar]

Just keep in mind if you smoosh it up, it takes away the teeth cleaning aspect of them chewing it up a bit.

I did not consider this. hmmmm Just one more thing to consider.

 

[mrsgreenjeens]

Just keep in mind if you smoosh it up, it takes away the teeth cleaning aspect of them chewing it up a bit.

I don't get your thinking on this

.  What does smooshing have to do with whether or not they chew it?  The only way you can smoosh it is if it's ground already, which doesn't require much chewing

.  At least mine don't chew it.  They just seem to lap it up and swallow it.  (the reason I smoosh mine is to slow my piggy down....I want to keep him occupied as long as possible, so I try to get the meat to stick to the entire bottom of the bowl 

)

 

[carolina]

I don't get your thinking on this :scratch: .  What does smooshing have to do with whether or not they chew it?  The only way you can smoosh it is if it's ground already, which doesn't require much chewing .  At least mine don't chew it.  They just seem to lap it up and swallow it.  (the reason I smoosh mine is to slow my piggy down....I want to keep him occupied as long as possible, so I try to get the meat to stick to the entire bottom of the bowl  :lol3: )

I was confused about that too.....

 

[minka]

Just keep in mind if you smoosh it up, it takes away the teeth cleaning aspect of them chewing it up a bit. :nod:

I don't get your thinking on this :scratch: .  What does smooshing have to do with whether or not they chew it?  The only way you can smoosh it is if it's ground already, which doesn't require much chewing .  At least mine don't chew it.  They just seem to lap it up and swallow it.  (the reason I smoosh mine is to slow my piggy down....I want to keep him occupied as long as possible, so I try to get the meat to stick to the entire bottom of the bowl  :lol3: )

The raw I feed, Nature's Variety, comes in medallions. If I give Grim a whole medallion, he has to chow down on it in order to get bites of it. There's no way to lick any of it off. However, it I smooshed it down with a spoon, he would be able to lick it up and get no oral health benefits from it.

 

[carolina]

The raw I feed, Nature's Variety, comes in medallions. If I give Grim a whole medallion, he has to chow down on it in order to get bites of it. There's no way to lick any of it off. However, it I smooshed it down with a spoon, he would be able to lick it up and get no oral health benefits from it.

But the meat is ground..... He wouldn't have the benefits of tearing the meat apart....