Recent Content by soysos

before I started changing up their diet last year they were fed only kibble. the first change I made was to switch their cat chow to the blue buffalo. they did get canned food on occasion as a treat and some table scraps. right now they get two timed meals per day one at 8 am and the other at 9...

hi, I'm trying to make the move from free feeding to scheduled meals. the problem is teddy the one who really needs to scale back always ends up regurgitating the next meal. right now they get two timed meals per day, one at breakfast one at bead time, they get a limited amount of kibble after...

its easier to break the joint by hand than to cut through it. 

don't waste good steel cutting through bone. a good meat cleaver is all you need. for the bones that are particularly thick a wooden mallet or meat hammer is a plus.

well I think I finally have my wife on board. I found a pet shop where not only do they have an extensive raw selection, both frozen and freeze dried, its $0.15 a day more than I was paying for canned and cheaper than some canned foods. anyway she gave them their raw food last night. interesting...

OK a bit of an update. PJ is healing very well, his stitches have dissolved, his gums are nearly healed and there is no sign of infection. I decided that since he is in such good shape that I would try giving him some ground raw, this did not go well. I went out and got some NV chicken bites...

the brine is not vital to the process it just makes the meat taste better. this is mainly a description of the steam and sear method to not only render fat but also yield an eatable product.

here is how I render schmaltz typically I use duck, it does work with chicken, though the yields are lower and you wouldn't want to eat the result. first I portion the duck, I cut the wing flats off and feed to the cats, I cut the back off, and cut the hindquarters off the breast. this gives me...

OK I hope no one minds I'm going to get op on a soap box for a moment to clarify one point. that red liquid in cryobags as they're called in the food service trade is nod blood. the blood in the animal is pumped out before the animal is butchered. the meat is vacuum sealed in those bags this...

finally got pj back from the vet he is very happy to be home and seems to be in less pain then when he went in. they did have to pull all of his molars and premolars. I really don't want to spend the money on a meat grinder but it looks like I'll have to. can anyone recommend a good one, or...

just one other thing. if your gonna add fat like that I would suggest duck schmaltz over lard. it's easier to render because you render it just by cooking a duck if you use the steam and sear method like I do and there is no waste. second I've never met a cat that didn't like it, lard is...

there really isn't animal fats like lard, tallow, and shmalts, are not actually cooked their rendard. fats don't change chemically until they reach their smoke point, with animal fats about 400 degrees. the big exception being commercially available lard, it goes through a refinement process...

argh pj went to the vet at 7 this morning to have his teeth clean and extracted. it is now 530 and he has not yet gone under. pj has a lot of anxiety issues and a heart murmur. I know this is what he needs right now but I know he's going through hell.

there is another option. most butcher shops today carry fat back. this is the cut that lard is rendered from. its also what sausage manufacturers use to up the fat content of their products. it's about 90% raw untreated pork fat.

OK let me clarify this point, the thing that I was upset about is that his original vet was recommending extracting all of his teeth without a detail cleaning. I found out with the new vet I was right. the discomfort is caused by an infection in his mouth, extracting his teeth won't help. he is...