How do you pack and store your raw food?

I feed hare-today chicken and turkey mixed with Alnutrin. I portion it into 3.25 oz (approximate) servings, and put each serving into a Ziploc quart size freezer bag (  ), and then all of the little bags go into a very large 3 or 4 gallon bag which then goes into the freezer. 

I'm realizing that buying these ziploc bags each time actually adds up pretty quickly. Also it's wasteful, of course. My problem is that I live in a small Manhattan apartment, and I don't really use my kitchen for anything BESIDES cat food (therefore using some kind of reusable containers would be especially annoying/impractical). 

I'm looking for some new suggestions/products that might make my raw life a little easier. Suggestions?

I was just about to recommend reuseable containers (that's how I store prey model raw) until I saw you've already considered that idea.
This article gave me an idea: how about ice cube trays? They do come in different sizes, i.e., mini cubes to large cubes and are stackable. The food defrosts quickly, too.

I use plastic bags also. I agree it is very wasteful but for making efficient use of space they can't be beat. I like to make large batches of food. If I used reusable containers the food would probably take up 3 times more space.  Here's 60 lbs of prepared food:

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mschauer - I just LOVE your freezer, it is absolutely beautiful! 

I store my cat food exactly as what Ritz suggested above. Since my cats eat just under 2oz (each) per meal, I have this ice cube tray that holds 2oz of food in each cup: 

 

Once my food is made (I usually only make 2 or 3 pounds at a time) I portion it into the tray and let it freeze. After a couple of hours, I pop out all the frozen cubes and put them into a gallon size Ziploc freezer bag. I am still wasting one freezer bag per 2-3 pounds but I'm saving all the little bags that would have been inside.

After I feed my cats, I just take 2 more cubes out the bag (1 cube for each cat) and it is defrosted for the next meal. (The 2 cubes that I take out after I feed them breakfast are defrosted for the next breakfast meal and the 2 cubes I take out after dinner are ready for the next dinner meal)

If you like to make approximately 3.25oz portions, you could buy a couple trays that hold 4oz per cup. Hmmm...I was searching for ice cube trays that hold 4oz but these are the largest I can find, they hold 2.5oz:


**Editing to add that both of the trays that I attached links to are BPA free

Abby2932 said:

I store my cat food exactly as what Ritz suggested above. Since my cats eat just under 2oz (each) per meal, I have this ice cube tray that holds 2oz of food in each cup: 

 

Once my food is made (I usually only make 2 or 3 pounds at a time) I portion it into the tray and let it freeze. After a couple of hours, I pop out all the frozen cubes and put them into a gallon size Ziploc freezer bag. I am still wasting one freezer bag per 2-3 pounds but I'm saving all the little bags that would have been inside.

After I feed my cats, I just take 2 more cubes out the bag (1 cube for each cat) and it is defrosted for the next meal. (The 2 cubes that I take out after I feed them breakfast are defrosted for the next breakfast meal and the 2 cubes I take out after dinner are ready for the next dinner meal)

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So where exactly is the food for that day defrosting? In the cat's bowl? In a separate bag?

Abby2932 said:

 
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I love those trays! I never liked using ice cube trays to freeze food because they are such a pain to clean. It's hard to get into the corners. Those look  like they would work so much better!

HarryLime said:

 
So where exactly is the food for that day defrosting? In the cat's bowl? In a separate bag?

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Oh yea. I have 4 stainless steel bowls: 2 for breakfast (since I have 2 cats) and 2 for dinner.

http://www.petsmart.com/cat/food-water-bowls/whisker-city-cat-bowl-zid36-6061/cat-36-catid-200062

Once they are finished each meal I wash their bowls, put one frozen cube in each bowl, cover with saran wrap and put it in the fridge. I suppose the saran wrap is wasteful as well....but I like the system and it works for me!

mschauer said:

 
I love those trays! I never liked using ice cube trays to freeze food because they are such a pain to clean. It's hard to get into the corners. Those look  like they would work so much better!

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Oh yes, I did regular plastic ice cube trays at first and they WERE shockingly a pain to clean. And they are only 1oz cubes each so I had to fill twice as many ice cube "cubes" as I do now. These trays are dishwasher safe so I don't even hand wash them.

Abby2932 said:

 
Oh yea. I have 4 stainless steel bowls: 2 for breakfast (since I have 2 cats) and 2 for dinner.

http://www.petsmart.com/cat/food-water-bowls/whisker-city-cat-bowl-zid36-6061/cat-36-catid-200062

Once they are finished each meal I wash their bowls, put one frozen cube in each bowl, cover with saran wrap and put it in the fridge. I suppose the saran wrap is wasteful as well....but I like the system and it works for me!

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I suppose you could use something like this, which is washable and reusable: http://www.mileskimball.com/buy-elastic-bowl-covers-set-of-50-312261 

HarryLime said:

 
I suppose you could use something like this, which is washable and reusable: http://www.mileskimball.com/buy-elastic-bowl-covers-set-of-50-312261 

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Yes you could absolutely use those!

I think I would prefer the saran wrap though   I know it is more wasteful but the wrap (I buy an off-brand kind) is so cheap and I use such a small amount each day that one roll just lasts forever. I don't wrap the whole bowl, I just cover the top (exactly like the reusable ones do). I don't feel like the cost of it adds up fast like it does when you use one or two snack bags a day. And less washing.

Found a couple of trays on amazon that make bigger "ice cubes"..   They're 2" cubes and in the description on the first link, says they're 3 1/2 oz each..    All are on amazon Prime if you have it..  the second 2 are a bit cheaper, same size (2 " cubes) but didn't state the capacity, so posting the first link for that.




Just found this one, says the cubes are 2 1/2" each, so would probably be at least 4 oz


also found, says they are 4 oz:

Hi! I'm new to the CatSite Hope it's ok for me to add to this thread

I'm in the process of transitioning my two cats from Nature's Variety frozen raw to what I call "semi homemade raw" - a commercial raw meat grind for pets with a pre mix.  Right now I'm just adding small amounts of Hare Today chicken grind (the one with organs) to the NV to get them used to it.

I'm still figuring out how to store a batch of 2 pounds of meat in my small freezer Ideally I would like to have the food in 1 oz serving size portions. Neither of my cats will eat more than 1 oz of food for a meal. Has anyone used silicone ice cube trays to freeze a batch of raw food in? I saw a tray that makes 1 oz cubes. My other thought was to use small 1/2 cup plastic food storage containers. I think I have enough room in the freezer to stack a bunch of containers. Are bags more space efficient/cheaper?

Welcome to the forum! 

I use silicone trays (see my links above) and they work out for me. Plastic storage containers would work just fine but since I only defrost about 3.5oz at a time, I prefer to make "ice cubes". If you have a bunch of cats and they are eating a pound or more a day, the storage containers would be the way to go. The easiest to work with (for me) are small size ziploc baggies but the cost does kind of add up and it's a bit wasteful.

I actually tried ALL methods of storing and defrosting before finally deciding to stick to my regimen of preparing "ice cube" cat food and defrosting 2 cubes at a time for my two cats.

I think ice cube trays are more space efficient. They are easily stackable too. I got some ice cube trays from a thrift store, they work well.

Thanks for the welcome

Abby2932, I actually looked at those baby food trays and other similar food containers on Amazon.com All seem pricey though really cute



I saw some Rubbermaid Take Alongs 0.5 cup (4 oz) containers at the supermarket and bought a few to try out. There are lines on the side of the containers that measures 1 oz and 3 oz which I think will work out pretty well. One of my cats eats 3 oz a day and the other one eats 2 oz a day. I have a little 1 oz scoop that I can use to measure portions.

Do keep in mind that volume size is not the same as weight. Four ounces of lettuce would not fit in the Rubbermaid take alongside,or am I confused?

I use freezer-safe mason jars and thaw in the refrigerator. I add a little warm water when I serve each portion. An 8 oz (by volume) jar holds about 1.5 days worth of food for my cat. 4 oz jars are available too.

The square-shaped plastic containers would be more efficient space-wise, but I worry about using plastic. The BPA substitutes they are using now are considered by some experts to be just as bad as BPA.

I am using 16 oz. canning jars.I found I have room to freeze 20 days of food for my cats. The jars are easy to clean.

I put mine in the freezer bags also to save space.  I am finding that it is cumbersome and messy to spoon out the portion though.   I have three cats and usually put about 5 ounces in each bag and then weight out each portion I want to give.

There are a lot of great ideas for storing.  However, it seems like no one WARMS the raw food before feeding.  I always flatten out the food in the bag and soak it in semi hot water for about 5 minutes.  From the reading I have done, it says that cats prefer mouse temperature.

Does everyone feed it right from the fridge?

feline03 said:

 
There are a lot of great ideas for storing.  However, it seems like no one WARMS the raw food before feeding.  I always flatten out the food in the bag and soak it in semi hot water for about 5 minutes.  From the reading I have done, it says that cats prefer mouse temperature.

Does everyone feed it right from the fridge?

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I feed raw straight from the fridge. Neither cat has an issue with eating cold food. You can briefly warm raw in some lukewarm water to take the chill off if your cats prefer food that isn't so cold.