WooHoo New Toy has Arrived!!!

UPS just delivered the new meat grinder...now to look into switching everyone over to Dr. Lisa's homemade raw diet...I know at least one cat that is going to be thrilled...well okay several but Autumn especially as she will crawl over broken glass for a chunk of raw chicken, and so will my semi-ferals.

I love the idea of knowing exactly what is in their food and when it was made, because I have often wondered when they are being picky if it is just them being picky or if they smell something in the food that isn't right.

Mel, Maxwell, Autumn & The Fur Gang

 

Love it!

Congrats on the new toy! Did you also get all of the vitamins and minerals delivered for the recipe, too?

 

Not yet....the grinder was a gift from a friend because it has a little problem so got to get it fixed first, figured while it is getting fixed I will get all the other goodies to go with it...then time to switch the babies to a new diet. Also got to get a hold of my chicken lady and see if she has enough chickens ready to be butchered to keep up with all the kids...lol Usually in spring she doesn't have as many ready to go as she does by summer. So may have to go store bought on them for awhile, but would rather get them from her as I know that hers aren't stuffed full of all kinds of junk.

Mel, Maxwell, Autumn & The Fur Gang

 

so true!

Remember that you get $5 off the first order.

 

That is very exciting!

 

Please keep track of every penny and the weight of the food etc. I really want to know if it is cost effective, doesn't have to be cheaper, just comparable to canned and I might try it too. I'd much rather mine eat what is natural and healthy.

I'd probably get ground meat first to see if they would eat it before I spend the $$ for the grinder and stuff. It's quite an investment for a good one.

I am sincerely interested in seeing how it goes and I'm sure others are too. You could do us a great service by keeping track of everything.

Those of you in rural areas really have the advantage when it comes to getting fresh meats etc. Hard for us in the city, but I don't plan to be here forever.

I'm really excited to see how it goes.

 

So I see the header and that the post is from Lady Mel........


Lets just say its not what I thought ....but congrats on the grinder. I've thought about going with a raw diet but its just not practical for me in terms of time effort and cost (since I'm dependent on grocery store meat).

 

:lol: haha_smiley

 

On the thing with the pre-ground meat- not always the best to get. Any bacteria on the surface of the meat gets ground down into the whole batch and if you keep it mostly raw can contaminate it all.

Dr. L's recipe calls for baking slightly to kill the bacteria, chunking it and then grinding it.

I've attached my redo of the recipe- all on the first page while the links are the pages after that- and the order I found it easiest to do it in. And I did a cost analysis for it as well. And all my chicken I get on sale at the grocery market and freeze until it is time to use. It it easier to cut the chicken into chunks when it is half frozen. COLD hands, but way easier to slice and dice.

 

Wow nice breakdown on price and with my herd will definitely help the catfood budget as well as peace of mind for mom about exactly what is in my cats food. Since right now 13 are costing me 46 cents/5.5oz and Autumn is 55 cents/3oz. Even if at current market prices if it just comes in at the same as what I'm paying for Friskies and 9-lives it will be worth it for the better quality of food. Because it would sure beat the heck out of paying over a buck a can for something like Wellness or Merrick

Mel, Maxwell, Autumn & The Fur Gang

 

Unfortunately here even on sale I don't find chicken thighs for under 1.29 a lb - and that's with the bone in so I am sure there's some waste (I'm assuming that you have to debone it to use it, though I just skimmed the recipe). So for me the chicken alone is about the cost of canned Friskies.

But I think its a great idea for someone who has access to inexpensive poultry, a grinder, and probably an extra freezer to store everything.

 

Me too....I wondered which one she and Jon had adopted now.... ;-)

Store bought chicken - be sure to read the label in case they add the sugar solution to keep it moist and fresh. They can add up to 3% sugar just like turkey....

 

If I understand it correctly at least some of the bone goes right in the grinder...remember in the wild cats eat the bones of their prey. After many years of having barn cats who were mousers the only thing I would ever find of a mouse was the tail, everything else was eaten.. They get their calcium from the bones. I know here I can get without a sale, 10lbs of chicken hindquarters for a little under $7 from the grocery store of course I would rather get whole chickens for $3 each from my egg and chicken lady because her chickens are HUGE fully dressed out they look like little turkeys..lol. She has Rhode Island Reds and Leghorns...those guys are big chickens. If I roast a whole one for us humans we eat on it for at least 3 days and then I end up boiling down the carcass to make soup or chicken and noodles casserole and still have scraps for the critters.

I know the last time I was out to her place to get eggs the roosters came up to about my thigh. And have some very pretty plummage which I am still thinking about talking to her about saving for me to make feather earrings and the feather hair extentions that are all the rage now. As she is a very furgal little only german lady and the more parts of the bird I take off her hands the deeper the discount on the eggs. ;-) That is actually how she and I hooked up, I had a rescue here that there was just no taming, she was feral as the day is long, so I advertised her at my vet's as a barn cat, and my egg lady took her in to keep the mice out of the chicken feed. So I get 36 eggs now from her for $2. And her large eggs make the store bought large look like humming bird eggs. :lol: And if I bring back the cartons she only charges $1.75 for 36.

Also once hunting season opens DH has lots of coworkers that like to hunt but only use the big pieces of meat so I'm sure I can cut them a deal for the scrap meat, and some of the ducks and pheasants. I could probably get rabbits too, just not trust wild rabbit as there as been problems with disease in them around here every now and then. But I think the cats would love a little game meat as a change of pace off the chicken as well.

Also you are only feeding 2....I'm feeding 14 plus a drooler in a town where the nearest petsmart or petco is 200 miles away so I don't even have access to the better quality canned food, except at one store where it is $2.56 for a 3oz can of Wellness...so not happening with 14. And if I want other than 3 flavors of 9-lives that Walmart carries (when they actually have it stocked) it is $2.09 for a 4 pack.

Mel, Maxwell, Autumn & The Fur Gang

 

Oh I don't disagree - I figured chickens were cheaper in your part of the country....and likely much better too - if we can find poultry that hasn't been "processed" - its called organic and is even more expensive. I won't tell you what I'm paying for eggs, sigh.

I thought that the bones would go in the grinder - but then I noticed that bone meal was on the ingredient list so I wasn't quite sure.

Sounds like its a great deal for you to make your own food and who knows - if you wanted to do so, you could likely start a parttime business selling it to others who don't have the time inclination or sources that you do.

 

I would buy it in a heart-beat! I've been itching to make my own cat food, but I have only two kitties, no extra freezer room, and no extra meat grinder room, so that's a dream that will have to wait until I move to a bigger place some day. Or make some more money and get rid of a roommate or two. :lol:

 

I would buy it too! Today I was making chicken for dinner for DH and me and let me tell you Abigail just about ripped it out of my hands! I gave her a tiny piece of raw. I am very interested in your trial and error. I would love to get the kitties on a raw diet. I know it would benefit Abigail. She would eat it and no more dry food!

 

The bone meal in the recipes used b/c not too many people have a grinder that can do bones. If you add the bone (still have to cut meat off as you don't use all bones) you don't use the bone meal.