Preparation and feeding made more easy?

I fed raw to my adult males for four months. But I'll be honest I got frustrated because it was becoming too time consuming for me--by hubby refused to participate in the raw.

I felt like between thawing organs and muscle meat and bone etc my method just wasn't working.

I'm realizing now that the benefits were so great and with the new kitten and cost I'd like to try raw again--as I know the males will eat it.

So what is your preparation and feeding method, especially those who are feeding multiple cats?

I froze muscle meat, organs and bone all separately. But I'm thinking that I need to freeze them in meal proportions together for time saving sake.

Leslie

I don't feed raw, but... Can you prepare a whole bunch - say a month's worth, and place it on Ice cube trays? After it freezes, you can transfer the cubes into a freezer ziploc bags to prevent burning...
Before every meal you just thaw those cubes you are going to feed (I thaw my food in the ziploc, under hot water, and it is super quick).

Originally Posted by carolinalima

I don't feed raw, but... Can you prepare a whole bunch - say a month's worth, and place it on Ice cube trays? After it freezes, you can transfer the cubes to a freezer ziploc bags to prevent burning...
Before every meal you just thaw those cubes you are going to feed (I thaw my food in the ziploc, under hot water, and it is super quick).

Click to expand...

That's essentially what I do. I feed ground raw. Once a month or as needed I make up large batches of what I need. I use jumbo muffin pans to make approx 4 oz chunks. I put the pans in the freezer for about 4 hours then transfer the chunks to zip lock bags. Every other day I put 4 chunks in a stainless steel container with a lid and put it in the refrigerator. By next meal time they are thawed enough that I can use them. I use 1 chunk per meal. I also use a baggie in warm water to warm the meat a bit before serving.

I feed lots of cats raw - around 20 cats a night. I buy everything on sale and stuff that is easy to cut up for instance beef steak, pork chops, beef heart, chicken breasts w/ ribs, turkey drumsticks, and chicken thighs. I buy the livers in plastic tubs so i can just cut all the livers up in it without having to take them out; so i use liver gravy basically. Kidneys (i finally found a place that has them) i also try to turn into mush.

I cut the meat up into fairly large chunks and make a seperate pile of the bones so that i can put 10% bone in everybag. I put what i need for a day in a large ziploc, add the bones/liver/kidney and freeze it till i am going to need it again. the pork i try freeze for three weeks the rest i don't worry much about.

Turkey drumsticks for me are the easiest to feed since i can just set them down and the cats tear off all the meat and if i try break up the bone with a hammer they will eat part of it too. For drumsticks i just smear it with some liver so that they don't get constipated because of the bone and then give it to them.

I have five cats. I feed turkey drumsticks, chicken leg quarters, boneless pork, beef stew pieces, ground chicken wings and beef heart, liver and kidney.

The turkey drumsticks and leg quarters serve as whole meals. I buy them in bulk, skin them and freeze them in separate freezer bags.

The beef is already in stew-size pieces. The pork comes in strips and the heart comes in steak-like slabs, I cut them both into good size chunks and freeze all three in 8 oz packages.

The kidney and liver organs are whole - I cut them into 1 oz pieces and freeze five to a bag.

The chicken wings are ground for me by the store and require the most work, as I buy a month's worth at a time (13 lbs). I scoop out 10 ozs, squeeze 5 caps of salmon oil into it, mix it by hand, then freeze it. (Messy work.)

That's it, that's all the prep work I have to do. Every morning, I move what the kitties are going to eat the next day from the freezer to a bin in my fridge. I alternate heart, beef and pork for breakfast, because they're easy to feed. The chicken wings and organs are also easy, just plop 'em on the plates (although I have to watch to ensure everyone eats their own servings ).

Since I strip the meat off the turkey drumsticks and chicken leg quarters, I generally serve them as dinner, when I'm already in the kitchen.

I've been doing this for several months now, with just a few tweaks to bring me to the above, and this is working great for me.

Thanks for all of the information everyone.

I would love to go back--I have the resources here--still have pork kidney, chicken wings and venison in the freezer. Also a husband who will shoot a deer for the kitties this fall.

I may start adding a bit slowly as I'm not sure how the baby will take to it--and I just bought two cases of 13 oz cans from petfooddirect.

Leslie

I used this site for tips and their recipe
http://www.catinfo.org/makingcatfood.htm
http://www.catnutrition.org/pictorial.php

I used chicken thighs so I didnt freeze muscle meat/bones seperately. I'd partially thaw everything, make the recipe and then freeze in 8oz glass canning jars. Then I could thaw a jar at a time instead of just one serving or a whole bunch. I did make 1oz patties once but it took so long to make them that I stopped doing that. It was nice though for serving.

I feed 3 cats and 4 dogs raw. What I do, is have one day where I go freezing crazy. I make 'meal baggies' for a few weeks. I make a whole meal into one baggie and label it. For instance, I will put say a duck neck and beef heart into one baggie and label it "dck nck/bf hrt BONE MEAL" or ground beef organ blend in cubes and label it "bf orgn blnd ORGAN MEAL", etc. I don't feed organs everyday or overly bone meals everyday. This way I can give variety and keep everything firmed up- poop wise. hehe

Put the ground meat in ice cubes, so you have one ounce portions.