cut up my first chicken with EZ Complete

well that royally sucked.

I don't know how you guys do it. I would rather spend more on a prepackaged item then go through that again. My mom saw that chicken thighs were on sale so since she wanted the bones, she said she would cut the bones out & then I could chunk up the chicken for the cats.

I got my brand new kitchen shears out & was cut cut cutting away. I tried to trim off all the gristle & fat & make a good 1"-1.5" piece. I got my 2lbs measured out & then mixed the EZ Complete. Holy smoke that stuff stinks to high heaven! I also didn't know it was going to be so soupy. I thought it was more like a shake n bake where it would coat well. So after getting chicken juice on my feet, my shirt & my arms, I did wear gloves by the way, I put a few chunks down for my cats. My one cat came along & licked up the juice & then my other cat came & ate the meat.

This is exactly what I thought would happen. First off I don't understand why that stuff is so soupy, if they're supposed to eat it with the pieces of meat, since it's so watery, it runs right off. So then I added a little bit more meat & sprinkled in a little bit more supplement but it was still soupy. Then when I put it into the freezer containers, guess what? The end batch was total liquid even though I grabbed juice in all the other containers, I was trying to make them even but I guess I didn't do a very good job.

I got to hand it to the people that do this all the time. I just don't get it though. I'm sure the supplement works a lot better with ground meat but since the chewing is better for oral health, I wanted chunks.

I've never used it myself, but I believe that the premixes are designed to be used with ground meat. The majority of homemade raw feeders who use store bought meat (as opposed to pre-made ground made for raw feeding) have their own grinders and grind the meat themselves Do remember that there is no need to remove gristle and fat from meat for raw feeding. The idea is to use ALL the meat, including bits that we humans find unpalatable

If you want to feed chunks, you have a couple of options. The first is to use the premix and grind most of the meat (maybe 75-80%), and have the rest as chunks. The second is to make up the premix with 100% ground meat, and feed a couple of chunks of (unsupplemented) meat as a treat. Some feeders feed a treat of raw meaty bones (as for PMR) a couple of times a week for dental health too.

Lastly, do remember that NOTHING is equal to regular tooth brushing when it comes to dental health

it states right on there you can use with any boneless meat. since my cats do like to chew up steak & chicken, I thought that is where I'd start just didn't know it was going to be like soup with some chunks.

I think I will try the ground meat thing so I can stop buying Rad Cat

Use a little less water. Instead of the full 1 1/2 cups of water try 1 cup. The instructions do say to adjust the amount of water used to your cat's preference. You can always add water to the food before serving.

if water is maybe optional, why not just coat the chicken like shake n bake?

It's a lot more time consuming to buy bone-in meats and then cut the meat off. I did this once and never again, way too time consuming. You can add less water to EZ, in fact they have instructions on their site on how to make a "paste" so that it will coat the chunks rather than run off. You really only want to add a lot of water if you're using it with ground meat. Yes, it has a strong liver smell and the powered gets everywhere. 

Is raw food more fatty than canned? I guess it depends on the cans & it probably depends on what kind of meat. My cats stopped eating NV Instinct like at the end of July. I have one cat that is eating only raw, she won't even touch canned food. She is a little porker & really does need to lose some weight. I'm trying to feed her less but since the house I'm in has plants all over the place, whenever the kitties get hungry they go much on them & I can't afford another vet visit so I'm keeping the food a flowin. I'm wondering if I should just stay with the canned since I'm here & feed raw here & there or if it's not fattier, than I will continue to feed her raw food & wait for weight loss.