Types Of Pork(boneless Only) For Home Cooking

shadowsrescue

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I recently ventured into home cooking for my cats. We have been at it for almost 2 months now. The transition has gone really well. We are working on pork right now. I had a great deal on boneless pork sirloin roasts and made those last week. Yet, usually the cost might be too much. What kinds of cuts ( boneless only) are you using? I am mixing with EZ Complete for now and hope to one day do my own supplements. Just wondering if some of the fattier cuts of pork roasts are too fatty?
 

mschauer

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I always use pork shoulder (aka, butt or carnitas). It can be fatty but much of it is easily removed. It's inexpensive and the carnitas I get is cut into pieces that fit into my grinder and has the worst of the fat removed. And the kitties love it!
 

amysuen

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Is the guideline the same for pork as chicken - remove 50% of chicken skin so remove 50% fat off the pork?

So far I haven't ventured beyond chicken and turkey. Laelia puked up the piece of beef roast we gave her to see if she liked it and we don't eat much pork so there hasn't been an opportunity to try that with the cats.
 

mschauer

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I don't think you can say that 50% of the fat on a piece of pork should be removed because the amount of fat present will vary a lot from piece to piece. The carnitas I get isn't excessively fatty so I don't trim it but a port shoulder roast (the same cut of meat) usually has so much fat that I trim a lot off. For me I just look at a piece of meat regardless of what animal it is from and remove any large pieces of fat. One time I purchased a package of beef scaps and they were so fatty I deemed them unusable.

Also, how much fat you want may vary depending on the cat. An active cat may need the calories while an inactive one may not. The suggestion to remove 50% of the skin from chicken I believe comes from Dr. Pierson and I beleive she recommends it because she has cats that tend to gain weight. It isn't necessarily something everyone needs to do.
 
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shadowsrescue

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I will be on the look out for the pork shoulder or butt. I was concerned they were too fatty.
My boys so far prefer the pork to the chicken. I am going to try rabbit next month.
I would love to try some fish. My boys all just love fish but I am trying to limit it. Any thoughts on a boneless fish to mix with Ez complete or should I just forget about fish?
 

mschauer

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I don't feed fish because one of mine has a potential allergy to fish. I'm not certain she does but is too risky to try.

Are you thinking about mixing up a fish only plus EZComplete food? That might be too much fish. For one thing if the food is more than 25% fish ( by weight ) additional vit K would need to be added. Also there is the same concern with cats and fish as there is with people and fish, much of the fish available in the US is grow in polluted waters. I'm not talking really icky waters. Just that all of our waters are polluted to some extent and the fish from them can contain toxins that when consumed in high amounts can be risky.

If I could feed fish I would add a bit ( < 5% by weight maybe?? ) to my other foods just to make them more tasty. In fact that is what I used to do. Fish are a good source of omega 3's.

Hopefully others with be more knowledgeable than I am about using fish in our foods.
 
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shadowsrescue

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Thank you so much. You are so knowledgeable! Adding some fish to the chicken recipe might really perk things up for them! I never thought of adding just a bit. I will look to do that down the road later this summer once we get a good rotation of food.
 

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I use the $1/lb pork. :crackup:

Seriously though, a couple months ago a local grocery had sirloin pork chops on sale for $1/lb., so I bought 36-37 pounds. Last month, pork blade roasts were on for $1/lb, so I bought 3 of them (approx. 27 pounds).

If you're cooking, then you can drain a lot of the fat off after cooking.

Sirloin is lean. Pork butt/shoulder is fatty. For fattier meats, I only cut any huge chunks of fat off the outside and add a lot of chicken gizzards which are very low in fat to bring down the calorie count in the batch.
 

amysuen

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I don't think you can say that 50% of the fat on a piece of pork should be removed because the amount of fat present will vary a lot from piece to piece. The carnitas I get isn't excessively fatty so I don't trim it but a port shoulder roast (the same cut of meat) usually has so much fat that I trim a lot off. For me I just look at a piece of meat regardless of what animal it is from and remove any large pieces of fat. One time I purchased a package of beef scaps and they were so fatty I deemed them unusable.

Also, how much fat you want may vary depending on the cat. An active cat may need the calories while an inactive one may not. The suggestion to remove 50% of the skin from chicken I believe comes from Dr. Pierson and I beleive she recommends it because she has cats that tend to gain weight. It isn't necessarily something everyone needs to do.
Thanks for the info! Next time we have pork I'll see what the cats think of it - I want to vary their diet but don't want to waste time and money on food they won't eat. I'm following Dr. Pierson's recipe, and CatNutrition.org also said to remove 50% of the skin, so that's what I do. It's too hard to compare all the "expert" recipes and figure out a "middle road" so I just decided to go with Dr. Pierson's
 

mschauer

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Dr. Pierson is, justifiably I think, widely viewed as a reliable source of information on raw feeding. I don't follow much of her advice but not because I don't think it is good advice. I just use a different method for formulating my foods than she does. And I'm pretty certain I remember correctly that the author of the catnutrition.org web site collaborates with Dr. P.

I think many people make the mistake of thinking that just because someone posts a lot on or has a web site devoted to a particular subject that they must be an "expert". Nothing could be further from the truth. Unfortunately there is no easy way to distinguish between someone who knows what they are talking about and someone who doesn't unless you are already familiar with the subject yourself.
 

amysuen

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Dr. Pierson is, justifiably I think, widely viewed as a reliable source of information on raw feeding. I don't follow much of her advice but not because I don't think it is good advice. I just use a different method for formulating my foods than she does. And I'm pretty certain I remember correctly that the author of the catnutrition.org web site collaborates with Dr. P.

I think many people make the mistake of thinking that just because someone posts a lot on or has a web site devoted to a particular subject that they must be an "expert". Nothing could be further from the truth. Unfortunately there is no easy way to distinguish between someone who knows what they are talking about and someone who doesn't unless you are already familiar with the subject yourself.
Yes, I think the two sites collaborate. I've also read perfectlyrawsome.com, feline-nutrition.org, catcentric.org, and many of the posts here. They all seem to be saying about the same thing, except Dr. P partially cooks her food and omits some of the supplements others include, like the glandular one. Dr. P impressed me because there was SO MUCH information, the what, how, and WHY. Her being a vet didn't hurt either. :biggrin:

You're so right about people thinking that everything on the internet is true! :rolleyes2: I'm still learning ( orange&white orange&white introduced me to secreting organs :eek3: ) but tend to get "paralyzed by indecision" so I knew if I didn't just pick a decent recipe and start I'd be researching and agonizing for months. I recently found the Cooked Recipes thread and have been working my way through the 5 pages. It would be much easier if there was only one "right" recipe! :lol:
 

orange&white

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Pierson has been around a long time. I expect that millions of cats have eaten her recipe by now with good results. That why you see her recipe recommended by "end users" so often. Healthy kitties! (...and it doesn't hurt that she's a vet. ;))
 

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mschauer mschauer : I'm curious as to how you formulate your recipes and how it's different from Dr. Pierson's method.
 

mschauer

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mschauer mschauer : I'm curious as to how you formulate your recipes and how it's different from Dr. Pierson's method.
With some exceptions I follow the AAFCO guidelines and Dr P doesn't. The guidelines specify the nutrient content a food has to have for a food to be labelled as nutritionally complete and balanced. The guidelines are meant for the manufacturers of processed commercial foods and as such aren't a perfect fit for our home-made raw foods. But they establish a baseline so that consumers can be reassured that the food they are buying at least meet an established standard and they serve the same purpose for me: I find it reassuring to know the foods I make have, as well as science can tell us, sufficient levels of some important nutrients. I've just never been comfortable with the amount of guesswork involved in so many other approaches. That's not to suggest I think other methods result in inadequate foods, it's just that I'm more comfortable with my approach.

The biggest downside to my approach is that it is difficult to analysis a recipe and compare the results against the AAFCO recommendations. I wrote a computer program to do that analysis and comparison.
 

orange&white

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A lot of people moved to raw food due to a lack of trust and respect for AAFCO's "guidelines".

Good example of this negative sentiment surrounding AAFCO: "One last thought…if the AAFCO complete and balanced claim was really the level of excellence it is proclaimed to be, then why is obesity in pets epidemic? Why do 50% of all dogs die of cancer? Why do so many pets have skin issues or kidney disease or an array of other common diseases?"

That's from the final paragraph of this article: Should My Pet’s Food be AAFCO Approved?

Similar sentiment from article which also mentions Dr. Pierson here: Frederick Cat Vet, Feline-Exclusive Veterinarian, Maryland

You'll see the same lack of regard for AAFCO "standards" on many sites. As mschauer concurs, it is hard to compare a fresh raw diet made with human-grade foods to standards set by the feed industry (not food industry) where the intent is to create a highly-processed, cooked-to-death feed (not food) for cats which won't kill the cat...in the short run anyway.

I'll stick with trusting a veterinarian who has spent decades dedicated to the study of cat nutrition well before I would trust unregulated AAFCO officials who oversee processed pet feed for manufacturers.
 

mschauer

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I find much to criticise in the approach other people take in preparing home-made pet foods. I refrain from doing so except in cases where what they are doing is demonstrably harmful to their pets.

I would appreciate the same consideration from others when it comes to comments on my approach.
 

orange&white

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Debate and discussion does not indicate lack of respect, nor should it be taken personally. Open communication is healthy, even (sometimes especially) when people disagree. :hugs:
 

mschauer

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For the sake of not taking this thread hopelessly off topic I will accept that the decidedly dis-respectful tone of your post is unintentional.
 
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Ardina

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Apologies for helping to derail the thread! I think we all get passionate about nutrition and health, but I also believe that that passion comes from having our cats' best interests at heart. As such, I hope we can separate our disagreements from any personal animosity and still respect each other.
 
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shadowsrescue

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I will try to get this back on topic..... types of pork!
I was able to get a cheap boneless butt roast today. I was thrilled it was so cheap! Thanks for the help.

Now, one other question about adding a small amount of fish to my chicken and/or turkey recipes. Since I am using EZ Complete right now, I need for the meat/fish to be boneless. So would I add a small amount of white fish fillet or salmon fillet or is it at all possible to use canned boneless fish. I will only be adding less than 5%.

My hope someday is to do all my own supplement adding, but when just starting out Ez Complete is much easier.

Thanks for all the help.
 
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