Newbie Needs Help Cobbling Together A Mostly All Pork Diet

[cheeser]

Okay, looks like Buddy is going to drag me kicking and screaming into making at least some of his food from scratch.

I need to learn how to make a nutritionally balanced diet of mostly pork, and as quickly as possible.

Per this thread I posted the other day, Buddy's most recent course of Veraflox for yet another skin infection has caused his food allergies to flare up with a vengeance. In all fairness, we still hadn't been been able to completely resolve his allergy related symptoms before then, e.g., some residual nausea, occasional vomiting, yeasty ears, foot and nail fungal infections, and face and chin itchiness. They had just significantly improved after eliminating chicken, turkey, and all other forms of poultry from his diet (we had already eliminated fish some time ago due to Buddy's history of urinary tract problems). So perhaps the only partially resolved food allergy was just waiting for an opportunity to go berserk.

There are now only a handful of things that Buddy is able to eat, and keep it down:

• Hound & Gatos Pork (of which he only eats about a 1/4 to a 1/3 of a can a day on his own)
• Gerber 2nd Foods Ham & Gravy (via spoon or syringe feeding)
  
• Bone broth made from beef or pork bones

As long as we supplement the H&G pork with baby food mixed with bone broth, Buddy acts totally normal. He runs, he plays, he stalks and attacks me while I'm doing housework, etc. We just know that we can't go on like this much longer since the baby food doesn't contain all of the essential nutrients that he needs.

orange&white had suggested adding a premix to the baby food, which sounds like the best short-term solution for us under the circumstances. We just want to consider some other alternatives so we can provide Buddy with more menu options, and hopefully be able to transition him back to completely eating a balanced diet on his own again.

One of my biggest challenges is simply one of time. Everyone in our humble little home has ongoing health issues of some kind, myself included. So it can often be insanely crazy around here. I also don't have a meat grinder or much else in the way of supplies.

But I do have a sick kitty who needs help, a crock pot, some basic kitchen supplies, access to a couple of stores, the ability to order stuff online, and a willingness to learn.

So how would you suggest I get started?

 

[orange&white]

Alnutrin will send you some free samples if you mail them a stamped self-addressed envelope. You'll want the one with calcium. You need to add boneless meat and a tiny bit of liver (beef or pork, in Buddy's case) to that. Each premeasured packet will supplement 1 pound of meat. Know What You Feed Your Cat - Alnutrin Supplements - Free Samples

I'm not sure if EZ-Complete will send you free samples (not shown on their website) but I've heard the customer service is excellent so you may want to inquire through email. EZ-Complete is more expensive, but you only add boneless meat (no liver). Contact

I can sometimes source pork liver, beef liver is easier to find, but it's hit or miss so that may make a difference in which product you'd choose.

I'd go get a pork butt roast and trim the exterior fat, throw it in your crock pot and let it go while you're at work. Pork butt is fatty, so I'd probably skim half the fat off the top, or let it cool in the fridge and all the fat hardens on top so you can break off half and discard it.

After the meat is cooled, you add supplement per pound of meat. You can put it in your blender with some of your "Buddy's broth" and make a puree, or serve it shredded.

I think Alnutrin sends 3 samples...so you could try with 3 pounds of pork.

You'll have plenty of leftover pork (pork butts are usually around 8 pounds) to spice up or mix with BBQ sauce or something and halve pull-pork sandwiches for you and your family. Buddy won't mind sharing his food with you.

 

[cheeser]

Alnutrin will send you some free samples if you mail them a stamped self-addressed envelope. You'll want the one with calcium. You need to add boneless meat and a tiny bit of liver (beef or pork, in Buddy's case) to that. Each premeasured packet will supplement 1 pound of meat. Know What You Feed Your Cat - Alnutrin Supplements - Free Samples

I'm not sure if EZ-Complete will send you free samples (not shown on their website) but I've heard the customer service is excellent so you may want to inquire through email. EZ-Complete is more expensive, but you only add boneless meat (no liver). Contact

I can sometimes source pork liver, beef liver is easier to find, but it's hit or miss so that may make a difference in which product you'd choose.

I'd go get a pork butt roast and trim the exterior fat, throw it in your crock pot and let it go while you're at work. Pork butt is fatty, so I'd probably skim half the fat off the top, or let it cool in the fridge and all the fat hardens on top so you can break off half and discard it.

After the meat is cooled, you add supplement per pound of meat. You can put it in your blender with some of your "Buddy's broth" and make a puree, or serve it shredded.

I think Alnutrin sends 3 samples...so you could try with 3 pounds of pork.

You'll have plenty of leftover pork (pork butts are usually around 8 pounds) to spice up or mix with BBQ sauce or something and halve pull-pork sandwiches for you and your family. Buddy won't mind sharing his food with you.

Thanks ever so much! I greatly appreciate your help, as always. (((((HUGS)))))

The EZ-Complete may work out better for me, as I frequently suffer from pain-related nausea, and the smell of organ meat being cooked doesn't exactly help. Or if the amount of liver you need to add is relatively small, I might be able to manage that if the aroma of the pork roast helps to tone that down significantly.

Sorry for such a stupid question, but when you say you discard half the fat, is that just for really fatty meats like a pork roast? Or is there a general rule of thumb for different cuts of meat, protein sources, etc.? I was just curious in case we can try to reintroduce some other kinds of meat back into Buddy's diet at some point.

And about how long will home-cooked cat food safely last in the freezer? Well, assuming the power doesn't go out from another hurricane or something?

Mr. Cheeser will be delighted to know there should be some leftovers up for grabs. Good grief! He and Oscar drive me nuts for the meat scraps every time I make bone broth for Buddy. It's like having a couple of kids in the back seat whining, "Are we there yet?"

 

[sabrinah]

When I got the Alnutrin sample it was only one, for one pound of meat.

 

[cheeser]

When I got the Alnutrin sample it was only one, for one pound of meat.

Ah, okay. That's helpful to know. Thanks!

 

[orange&white]

Thanks ever so much! I greatly appreciate your help, as always. (((((HUGS)))))

The EZ-Complete may work out better for me, as I frequently suffer from pain-related nausea, and the smell of organ meat being cooked doesn't exactly help. Or if the amount of liver you need to add is relatively small, I might be able to manage that if the aroma of the pork roast helps to tone that down significantly.

Sorry for such a stupid question, but when you say you discard half the fat, is that just for really fatty meats like a pork roast? Or is there a general rule of thumb for different cuts of meat, protein sources, etc.? I was just curious in case we can try to reintroduce some other kinds of meat back into Buddy's diet at some point.

Not a stupid question at all. Pork butt roast, I'd take out half the fat because it is almost 60% calories from fat. If you bought pork loin, the center cut, which is extremely lean, I wouldn't remove any fat as it's only 36% calories from fat.

The amount of liver is tiny (with the Alnutrin "recipe")...only 1/2 of one ounce of liver per pound of meat.

 

[orange&white]

When I got the Alnutrin sample it was only one, for one pound of meat.

Thanks for clarifying that! I made a poor assumption based on the photo of 3 packets on their website.

 

[Tobermory]

EZ Complete will send a sample, too. It costs $1 and you have to do it through PayPal: Samples

My cats love it. They also like Alnutrin.

 

[lisahe]

And about how long will home-cooked cat food safely last in the freezer? Well, assuming the power doesn't go out from another hurricane or something?

This is a good question that might depend on Buddy's taste! Our frozen food usually gets used up within about a month. No complaints there from Edwina or Ireland. I freeze the food in one-meal-sized (to split between the two cats) small containers (Glad, ZipLoc) and defrost in the refrigerator.

What might be a bigger issues is that some cats seem to prefer that their food have the supplement added either before or after freezing. Our cats would prefer that supplement be added after freezing. But it's easier to add it before freezing, to the full amount of meat I've cooked; then I can just portion it out into individual containers without weighing it. I use the latter method though they used to rebel against it!

And yes to removing some of the fat on certain cuts of meat, like Boston butt, which can be very, very fatty! Ireland loves pork tenderloin (she has expensive taste), which is very low-fat so I sometimes buy one and use some of it for us people. There's almost always some kind of pork on sale (sometimes even pork tenderloin ends) at our grocery store so I often just buy whatever's cheapest. Pork is Ireland's favorite and she's a bit picky so I tend to feed a lot of it.

Good luck, cheeser!

 

[cheeser]

Not a stupid question at all. Pork butt roast, I'd take out half the fat because it is almost 60% calories from fat. If you bought pork loin, the center cut, which is extremely lean, I wouldn't remove any fat as it's only 36% calories from fat.

The amount of liver is tiny (with the Alnutrin "recipe")...only 1/2 of one ounce of liver per pound of meat.

Awesome! We have a ton of pork loin in the freezer. And that's great news about the liver content. I think I can manage to cook that without tossing my cookies.

How do you know where to draw the line re: the amount of fat that's acceptable to include in a kitty's food? Or should I just start with the pork loin since we already have that on hand, see how much fat it yields after it has cooled down in the fridge, and use that as a baseline of sorts?

Thanks bunches for the links for both Alnutrin and EZ-Complete. I'll request a sample from each.

In the meantime, are there any supplements I could buy at the store or order via Amazon Prime to help tide me over until the samples of premix arrive, especially the taurine? I'd obviously need to adjust the amounts for a 2.5 oz. jar of baby food, but a starting point would be helpful and very much appreciated if possible.

 

[cheeser]

EZ Complete will send a sample, too. It costs $1 and you have to do it through PayPal: Samples

My cats love it. They also like Alnutrin.

Thanks!

We don't have a PayPal account. But the last time we ordered something that required payment thru PayPal, there was a provision available for that sort of thing. Guess I'm about to find out if that's still the case.

 

[Tobermory]

I

Thanks!

We don't have a PayPal account. But the last time we ordered something that required payment thru PayPal, there was a provision available for that sort of thing. Guess I'm about to find out if that's still the case.

I didn’t have one either! I created it for this one purpose and haven’t used it since.

Here’s a list of the brands of supplements Dr. Pierson uses in her homemade meals (from catinfo.org):

1. Nature Made Fish Oil, 1000 mg., 250 soft gel caps
2. NOW Foods Dry E-400, vegetarian, 100 veggie caps
3. Source Naturals, B-50 Complex, 50 mg, 100 tablets
4. Source Naturals, Taurine Powder, 3.53 oz (100 g)
5. NOW Foods Bone Meal Powder, 1 lb (454 g) — if using boneless meat
6. Morton Lite Salt
7. Source Naturals Psyllium Husk Powder, 12 oz (340 g) if needed for constipation

The recipe on her website has amounts to use of each for three pounds of meat and 3-4 ounces of liver. I apologize if you knew this! I sometimes get lost among the threads.

 

[cheeser]

This is a good question that might depend on Buddy's taste! Our frozen food usually gets used up within about a month. No complaints there from Edwina or Ireland. I freeze the food in one-meal-sized (to split between the two cats) small containers (Glad, ZipLoc) and defrost in the refrigerator.

What might be a bigger issues is that some cats seem to prefer that their food have the supplement added either before or after freezing. Our cats would prefer that supplement be added after freezing. But it's easier to add it before freezing, to the full amount of meat I've cooked; then I can just portion it out into individual containers without weighing it. I use the latter method though they used to rebel against it!

And yes to removing some of the fat on certain cuts of meat, like Boston butt, which can be very, very fatty! Ireland loves pork tenderloin (she has expensive taste), which is very low-fat so I sometimes buy one and use some of it for us people. There's almost always some kind of pork on sale (sometimes even pork tenderloin ends) at our grocery store so I often just buy whatever's cheapest. Pork is Ireland's favorite and she's a bit picky so I tend to feed a lot of it.

Good luck, cheeser!

Ack! I didn't even think about whether to add the supplements before or after freezing. I told y'll I'm new at this.

Okay, so I'm guessing that the upside to adding the premix before freezing home-cooked meals is that it's probably easier distribute the supplements more evenly before divvying up into individual sized servings -- especially for a total n00b like me.

So what is the upside to adding the premix after you've frozen all of those little meals? Do the supplements retain their effectiveness better that way? Is it based on a cat's taste preference, or what?

 

[cheeser]

I

I didn’t have one either! I created it for this one purpose and haven’t used it since.

Here’s a list of the brands of supplements Dr. Pierson uses in her homemade meals (from catinfo.org):

1. Nature Made Fish Oil, 1000 mg., 250 soft gel caps
2. NOW Foods Dry E-400, vegetarian, 100 veggie caps
3. Source Naturals, B-50 Complex, 50 mg, 100 tablets
4. Source Naturals, Taurine Powder, 3.53 oz (100 g)
5. NOW Foods Bone Meal Powder, 1 lb (454 g) — if using boneless meat
6. Morton Lite Salt
7. Source Naturals Psyllium Husk Powder, 12 oz (340 g) if needed for constipation

The recipe on her website has amounts to use of each for three pounds of meat and 3-4 ounces of liver. I apologize if you knew this! I sometimes get lost among the threads.

Ah, okay. Then looks like we're about to have a shiny new PayPal account.

Thanks bunches for the supplement info from Dr. Pierson's website. To be honest, I kinda forgot about the parts about making your own cat food. The dietary recommendations for cats with urinary tract problems worked out so well for us, the rest kinda slipped off our radar!

 

[lisahe]

Ack! I didn't even think about whether to add the supplements before or after freezing. I told y'll I'm new at this.

Okay, so I'm guessing that the upside to adding the premix before freezing home-cooked meals is that it's probably easier distribute the supplements more evenly before divvying up into individual sized servings -- especially for a total n00b like me.

So what is the upside to adding the premix after you've frozen all of those little meals? Do the supplements retain their effectiveness better that way? Is it based on a cat's taste preference, or what?

I know, it's one of those weird logistical things I didn't initially think of, either. You have to be sure you weigh the meat when it's raw -- you'll need a digital scale -- and then figure out how much supplement to add.

It's easier to add the premix to a batch of food (meaning multiple meals). Let's say you're using EZ Complete, where you add one scoop of supplement to 1.5 ounces of raw meat. Now let's say you have 16 ounces of pork that you've just cooked with some water. If you add EZ to the whole batch that means you add 10.666 (ha! I added the extra 6 because this is so devilishly complex) scoops of supplement to the meat after cooking and shredding/dicing/chopping/slicing it. And then if, like me, you're freezing it in meal-sized containers, you take out roughly 10 containers and divide it up, more or less evenly but not worrying that the containers are even. Now, if you don't add the supplement first, that means you have to weigh each individual container and label it with the weight so you know how much supplement to add. I used to do that, cooking batches that weighed some multiple of 1.5 but then I just got tired of it all and started making batches! The cats are okay with that now.

One other thing with EZ is that I always make small containers of the food since our cats don't like it if it sits too long in the refrigerator: enzymes break down the meat and it gets mushy. This is why I freeze the food in meal-sized containers rather than in batches.

I hope that all makes sense to you! Just ask if it doesn't! (That's Ireland approving of EZ Complete meals.)

 

[Tobermory]

I also make in batches, mix in supplements, then freeze in meal-sized containers. One container feeds three cats one meal. I feed twice a day. There are always three stacked in the refrigerator. I pull one from the top for the current meal and add a frozen one to the bottom. It takes a day and a half for them to fully defrost, and this way, I avoid having to heat the food. After I divide the food up into the bowls, I stir in a bit of hot water to warm it and to get more moisture into them. My girls don’t mind their food being sloppy!

 

[lisahe]

I also make in batches, mix in supplements, then freeze in meal-sized containers. One container feeds three cats one meal. I feed twice a day. There are always three stacked in the refrigerator. I pull one from the top for the current meal and add a frozen one to the bottom. It takes a day and a half for them to fully defrost, and this way, I avoid having to heat the food. After I divide the food up into the bowls, I stir in a bit of hot water to warm it and to get more moisture into them. My girls don’t mind their food being sloppy!

Same here, I often add more water. The meat seems to absorb a lot of the cooking liquid during freezing/defrosting. And I would also not want to warm the food in any way since heating would kill the enzymes.

 

[LTS3]

Ah, okay. Then looks like we're about to have a shiny new PayPal account.

You can delete the PayPay account at any time. There's an option to do that in your Account setting.

UStew is another pre-mix for cooked meat you can look into. I don't think samples are available but you can ask.

 

[orange&white]

How do you know where to draw the line re: the amount of fat that's acceptable to include in a kitty's food? Or should I just start with the pork loin since we already have that on hand, see how much fat it yields after it has cooled down in the fridge, and use that as a baseline of sorts?

I would start with the pork loin and hope he likes it. Unfortunately there seems to be a big gap in homemade diets when it comes to "how much fat"?

Both meat and fat count as "boneless meat" in homemade recipes...leaving us guessing.

Some cats do really well with a high fat diet and others not so much. Last year I was feeding 2 high-energy kittens under a year old and I had a lot of fat in their mix. At the same time, my senior cat needed to lose a few pounds and I ended up making him a separate recipe with very low fat and high protein. Now that the girls are over a year and Tangent got to a healthy weight, they are all 3 eating a mix where I'm shooting for about 50/50 of protein/fat calories.

Unfortunately, there isn't a "one size fits all" on fat content.

 

[orange&white]

In the meantime, are there any supplements I could buy at the store or order via Amazon Prime to help tide me over until the samples of premix arrive, especially the taurine? I'd obviously need to adjust the amounts for a 2.5 oz. jar of baby food, but a starting point would be helpful and very much appreciated if possible.

I'd bet that Alnutrin and/or EZ Complete will send the samples just as quickly as you could order anything to supplement the baby food.

If you feel the need, I would only get taurine and egg shell calcium (or grind eggshells into a powder in a coffee grinder) to add a bit to the baby food.

I also use the supplements Tobermorey listed from Dr. Pierson (and feline-nutrition.org) recipes. However, all those supplements will last about 6 months....for 3 cats. I'm not sure you need to buy all those unless you've decided to make homemade food for Buddy a permanent change and prefer to mix your own supplements instead of using a premix. "Do it yourself" supplements is a lot more cost effective.