RAW stocking up

Well after promising myself that I would never get so low on RAW food for the cats again Christmas crept up and kept me busy so when I looked at the beginning of this week I found only a few bits a pieces left, aaghhhhh.

Felini Complete is used here as a supplement but now I use T C Feline

I thought we would have loads of success getting unusual game items as people had been on holiday and gone out for the day!! but no, we ended up doing two farm butchers, one local town butcher and one supermarket to get everything. What a morning!! however we came back with three rabbits, venison bits and pieces and liver, pheasant over shot items, Ox heart plus kidneys and liver etc. The best buy today however was pork at £3.59 Kg and Beef £5.59Kg at Morrisons. Liver, heart and kidneys are always cheap.

Chicken wings being eaten with mince to the left and Ox heart sliced to the right

Well if you think a well known brand of basic cat food is 50p per 100g  as long as I come in around that for 100% Human grade meat and I know I am trying to protect them against obesity,  diabetes and dental issues I think I have done well. Docs (Day old chicks) are also a brilliant way of cutting costs at 6.5p each.

The down side was that I had a pile of meat to wade through. I started with the most awkward, Rabbit. Already dressed meant all I had to do was cleaver apart and take off chunks of meat to add after mincing the bone. The first grind is very coarse to allow the bone to go through the mincer. Then I put in the finest disc to ensure the bone is minute, the bone adds to the calcium level whilst the meat adds to the phosphorus side, 10% of the total should be bone. I add heart, liver and kidney 5% heart 5% kidney/liver and then additional supplements plus egg. At this stage I add loads of water which is why I rarely ever see any of my cats drink at all. If I had been making chicken up I would follow the same procedure just trying to keep the proteins of the offal species appropriate i.e. chicken hearts and chicken liver to be added to chicken.

Basic ground mince without offal, heart, supplement, or water added yet.

Pheasant legs then had to be ground and added to a game mix of bits and bobs they had given me. The cats love the game food as well as the venison, beef, pork, and rabbit but they really dislike chicken??? why?? they love small game birds - pheasant, mallard, partridge, quail etc. The venison came next, as this has no bone in the supplement has to be added which has calcium extracted from natural bone. Similarly when it came to the beef and pork food additional bone supplement had to be added. I also ensure a balance as on the days I feed the pork, beef, venison meats I also supply mice or Docs , bone in. Visa versa with the rabbit, pheasant and chicken they get strips of heart etc.

Well after a morning mincing, cutting and bagging we have a freezer full of food and another months worth done. I must try and get a small etc garage freezer, the game meat should be frozen for around a month just to be uber careful regarding disease.