Raw feeding with ingredients from Hare Today - Recipes?

[auridicyl]

Hi all! I've been feeding Feline's Pride to my three furbabies for a few years now, with few problems. However, I'm getting tired of their exorbitant shipping charges and mediocre customer service, and I feel that their meat selection is not varied enough (the kids will no longer eat the FP duck since they changed its appearance, which has reduced the selection even more).

So I'm looking to start making my own food at home, but I don't really have the cash on hand to invest in a grinder yet. Furthermore, I really like the variety of meat/bone/organ grinds available from Hare Today - it's much wider than I could source even if I did have a grinder.

However, I'm having trouble finding a recipe for them. It seems all the recipes online are geared toward using plain ground meat from the grocery, so they say to add in all these organs and whatnot, which presumably are already at least somewhat present in the Hare Today chubs.

Does anyone have a tried and true recipe they use for the meat/bone/organ grinds or the whole prey grinds from Hare Today? Or should I just go with a pre-mixed supplement like Alnutrin?

Thanks in advance. I'm glad to have found this forum, and all the brilliant people on it!

 

[auridicyl]

Thought I had looked everywhere before I asked this question, then found this recipe for rabbit shortly after posting!

http://www.holisticat.com/en/raw-feeding/24-ground-rabbit-with-bones.html

Though even that recipe seems incomplete to me because she doesn't differentiate between rabbit ground with and without fur. I would think that with fur, you'd have a less nutrient-dense mix, and thus have to adjust something...

I will add to this list if I find more recipes of this sort.

 

[peaches08]

You can use Alnutrin for meat/organ/bone, that's what I did this first time for ease.  Dr. Pierson has a recipe as well:  www.catinfo.org.  The Holisticat recipe is probably fine, I would not use it for my cats since the grass would cause major pukage around here.

I was very impressed with my HT order, the meat is high quality and ground well.  I ordered a variety of things in 1 and 2 lb chubs in case there was something the cats just simply would not touch.

 

[sophie1]

If you do follow Dr. Pierson's recipe, use the one for ground rabbit and just substitute any of the meat/bone/organ mixes from Hare Today.  There will be some variation in nutrient content between products, but there should not be a problem if you feed a variety.

One issue to note:  the whole animal grinds may contain more bone than your cats can tolerate (15-20% I think, depending on the protein).   I've read that some people buy boneless meat and organ grinds along with the whole animal grinds from Hare Today, and mix them together in the correct proportion (as given on Dr. Pierson's website, for example).  Alternatively you can order hearts or other boneless meats and organs, and add those as chunks.  Or, you can simply buy meats locally and feed frankenprey minus the bone for a portion of meals.  That's what I do (2/3 ground, 1/3 meat/organs).  The main risk is that the cats might decide they prefer chunks!  That seems to be the case with mine, but thankfully they'll still eat the ground food.

By the way, my cats highly recommend the rabbit chunks, rabbit fur and all, and mutton.  Everything they have is good though.  It's worth the extra time to mix and package yourself.  The commercial raw foods are mostly leftover bits, like necks/backs and heart, liver, gizzard, which is not nearly as good as the entire animal.

 

[starbuk]

It's funny that my kitty isn't crazy about the duck from FP either. Since early on I've fed raw pieces of chicken, meats, organs and will be making a switch to only H2D products as soon as I finish up my FP batch. I won't be grinding because it's easier for me to just offer up chunks of meat and organs.

 

[harrylime]

 

[sophie1]

HarryLime, how do you store the 3 oz portions in the 16 oz mason jar?

I like the reusability, safety etc of the mason jars, but 16 oz took too long to thaw (1.5-2 days) and the smaller 8 oz jars take up too much space.

 

[harrylime]

I store about 15oz in a 16oz mason jar. I have about 30 of em filled in my freezer, and then I thaw them as needed.

 

[starbuk]

 
HarryLime, how do you store the 3 oz portions in the 16 oz mason jar?

I like the reusability, safety etc of the mason jars, but 16 oz took too long to thaw (1.5-2 days) and the smaller 8 oz jars take up too much space.

These were a lifesaver - 8oz so good for about a day or two so the food does not sit for too long and they stack very well so do not take up as much space as jars: