A reason to consider homemade food - cooked or raw (long)

cejhome

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I am new here, came to this site looking for Menu Foods recall info. I don't feed any of the recalled foods (thank goodness!), but I WAS feeding Wellness and Nature's Variety, which are made by Menu Foods. I do not trust them anymore! FDA hasn't figured out yet what the contamination is.

I found this article on USA Today a short while ago (it was posted this evening): http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/...tm?POE=NEWISVA

FDA has NEVER been inside Menu Foods plant, and Pet Food plants are NOT routintely inspected. They are very low priority to the FDA.

I do feed raw to one of our kitties, Puddin (10 yr old girlie siamese) - she is a recent adoptee, and we figured out that she was fed raw by her former person (who died in August 2006). Our boy cat can't tolerate raw (he had severe IBD when we adopted him 7+ yrs ago - doing great for a number of yrs now, but still sensitive). Anyhow... I am also a member of holisicat.com forums, and there is a cooked food recipe available - the website owner has a book out that has the recipe info in detail, but the recipe info is also on the website.

If you are intimidated about trying cooked and uncomfortable trying raw, please know that COOKED is NOT hard! I picked up 1 pound of hormone/antibiotic free grain feed chicken this evening, put it in a saucepan w/a bit of olive oil, added some canned pumpkin, and some chopped chicken liver and cooked. I don't have calcium carbonate, so I added one egg to the meat mix to cook and cooked the washed eggshell in the oven at 300 degrees for 10 minutes (in a small cake pan). The recipe recommends grinding the eggshell (calcium source) in a coffee grinder. I don't have one, so used a mortar/pestle. The cooked eggshell is soft, not dry and brittle. Added that (about 2/3 tspn of it) and taurine powder to the mix. Recipe called for heart (turkey or chix), but didn't have any thawed. Recipe also calls for additional vitamins, but I didn't have them. I do have a kitty multi-vitamin (Thorne), that I will add before serving. This made about 6 4oz servings (I have glass canning/freezing jars on hand that I use for the homemade raw.) Whole thing took about 15 minutes tops. It may not be a perfect version of homemade cooked, but it is much better than the alternative - either cheap canned like fancy feast or meow mix, or possibly poisoned "health food" canned.

Tumper sniffed but didn't eat (I am not surprised - he is not a foodie, and he is very picky. I will try in the morning when he is starving). Puddin, our raw fed kitty LOVED it. She was getting Nature's Variety/Wellness as a snack during the day, but the cooked homemade will now be her snack. If Tumper will absolutely NOT eat the cooked, I was able to purchase some Merrick and By Nature's Organics, which are NOT made by Menu foods.

Also, FYI - Trader Joe's and Whole Foods canned is made in CHINA (at least when I looked at their stuff last year). I believe Fromms is either made there, or is moving their canned mfg to CHINA in the near future. If we can't trust US Mfg, I certainly wouldn't trust made in China pet food!

As for vets that say homemade and/or raw is not healthy...these are the same vets that push prescription foods that are nothing by by-products, grain, artificial ingredients and toxic preservatives. I put as much stock in what they say about diet/nutrition as I put in the quality of the foods they push.
Best regards,
cejhome, Tumper & Nana Puddin
 

sharky

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Hello and welcome to TCS you will find many raw and many homemade feeders on here
...
 

carolpetunia

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What a detailed and informative post! I'm a vegetarian myself, so it's difficult for me to contemplate cooking meat for my kitties... but by golly, this disaster may drive me to it. Thank you for sharing your insight...
 

sharky

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Originally Posted by CarolPetunia

What a detailed and informative post! I'm a vegetarian myself, so it's difficult for me to contemplate cooking meat for my kitties... but by golly, this disaster may drive me to it. Thank you for sharing your insight...
I do know a few non meat eaters on this bourd who cook for there kittys... i actually am finding raw organs easier than cooked
 

denice

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My vet isn't opposed to homemade cooked like she is to raw. She just doesn't think the homemade is necessary. Maybe this massive recall will change her mind though. The problem she has with raw is the possibility of feeding contaminated meat.
 

sharky

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Originally Posted by Denice

My vet isn't opposed to homemade cooked like she is to raw. She just doesn't think the homemade is necessary. Maybe this massive recall will change her mind though. The problem she has with raw is the possibility of feeding contaminated meat.
What HUMAN meats other than chub hambuger have been recalled recently>??? My vet advise raw or homemade feeding .... I do both
 
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cejhome

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I was scared about feeding raw at first with Puddin, but she convinced me! Here's how it happened:

We adopted her in early December from a local rescue - they had let her get down to 5.1 pounds - they "hadn't noticed" she has lost so much weight!
She was a very sick little girl - spent the 1st week she was with us at the vet hospital (diarreha, dehydration, fever). (We saw her on petfinder - 10 yr old siamese. We had just lost our 16 yr old sealie siamese girl to CRF). We knew she was underweight, but didn't realize how much so, and just figured it was from being in a shelter. Her 1st person died in August 2006, and she had been at the shelter since then.

The shelter had been feeding IAMS dry and various junk food canned food as treats. I started feeding her By nature organics as it is only chicken, no veggies, grains, etc... She did a lot better, but still had loose stools. I noticed her teeth looked too good. They are perfectly white. On a 10 yr old kitty? I started thinking that maybe she had been fed raw by her 1st person, as I had read that raw chunks of meat help keep the teeth clean. One day in January, while I was cutting up chicken for our human dinner, she came running in and just pestered me to pieces. So...I gave her some. She went crazy! Acted like it was the first real food she had had in ages. Once we started w/the raw, her stool became perfectly formed.

She convinced me to try it with her! I have read as much as I could get my hands on about salmonella/e-coli and have not found anything to say that cats can get infected w/it. Apparently their intestinal tract isn't friendly to this type of bacteria/cooties. I joint the holisticat yahoo group (now has their own website) -there are people there who have fed raw for years. Lots and lots of members, an no mention of any illnesses due to raw meat.

So here we are March 2007, 3 months and a week after adopting Puddin (she spent most of December in and out of the vet - (in addition to the tummy issues, she had a bad yeast infection in her ears, and a corneal ulcer). She is now 10.3 pounds and according to our vet - the perfect weight for her.

Of this topic - I never thought I would be greatful for Tumper (our other kitty with the sensitive tummy) and his sensitive tummy issues - he is allergic to grain - especially Wheat and Wheat Gluten. He is why we first started feeding better quality canned w/simple ingredients. I can honestly say, if it wasn't for his tummy we probably wouldn't have been so aware of food ingredients, and would quite possibly been feeding one of the recalled foods. My in-laws were feeding special kitty as a treat to their kitty, but she shows no signs of illness. I still shudder that I was feeding the Nature's Variety and Wellness (even though they are not recalled).

Thank you for the welcome - this is such a neat website - I am so glad I found it!

Nighty-night (my husband is out of town - I always stay up way to late when he's gone!)

cejhome, Tumper & Nana Puddin
 

artharitis

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This is a stupid question so don't laugh at me.

If I was to make home made meals for my cats could I make a large portion and freeze it into small portions to use for like a week long?

don't laugh at me!!
 

sharky

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Originally Posted by artharitis

This is a stupid question so don't laugh at me.

If I was to make home made meals for my cats could I make a large portion and freeze it into small portions to use for like a week long?

don't laugh at me!!
I am not a good freeze and thaw so I make about four days worth at a time ....
 
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cejhome

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Good Morning,

Cooked food doesn't have to be frozen unless you make a big batch. Since it is cooked, it can stay in the refrigerator as long as you would keep human leftover meat foods. I'd say 4-5 days, too. I wouldn't make a big batch unless I had lots of mouths to feed, that would take a lot more time and work (and bigger pan, more stuff, etc...).

For raw, I use 4 oz ball canning/freezer jars and then freeze them. Only takes a little bit of time to thaw them in lukewarm water. I just set the jar in a plastic container w/a little bit of lukewarm water, and in about 1/2 hr its thawed enough to use.

For the cooked food, I use pre-ground chicken, turkey and grass-fed beef. I would also consider getting some lamb and having it ground, or grinding it myself, if I had the time. I also add a bit of water to the cooked ground to get it to a wet cat food consistency.

Best regards,
cejhome, Tumper & Nana Puddin
 
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