Catfood, the pressure-canned version

[abifae]

my cats both hate chunks in their food >.>

so i'll blender it. and cook it all down for them i bet i can get little freezer plastic containers at the store. i use those for a lot of my freezing of broth. no broken glass to worry about.

thanks!!

wouldn't it be faster to poach the chicken for 6 hours on low? do both steps at once?

 

[freemotion]

Sure! Any way you want to cook it is fine. It is the proportions that are more important....mostly meat (and organs...you can throw in hearts, too) and fewer LGI veggies. No carbs other than the veggies. NOT low fat, of course!

I roast the chickens because it is faster and dh debones for me, and we make lots of broth. And do such huge batches. Smaller batches would be easier by putting everything in the same pot, I would think.

 

[tortoise]

Never saw this thread before, but have to mention it is not a safe diet - it is deficient in calcium. Which is probably why the cats "perked up" when they started getting a supplement with it.

I don't have information of bioavailability of calcium in cooked bone, but I wonder if bone-in-ground meat that is then cooked would work for the recipe?

 

[freemotion]

Good catch, T, but I did consider this and worked it out. I cook the bones for 24-48 hours with some ACV which draws the minerals out. I don't feel safe making it with ground bones as they would likely become sharp shards in the canning process. I would be more comfortable grinding some of the softer bones after the long simmer, as most of the bones, particularly the ribs and wings, are easily mashed. The weight-bearing leg bones don't always soften enough unless they are commercial birds raised in close confinement and quite young.

I feel strongly about adding supplements, and would do so even if I were able to feed what I consider the ideal food for house cats....raw meat with the bone. Unless they are catching their own wild critters, what we buy in the store will be quite deficient, even with bone-in. Maybe not so much in calcium, but in many other things. Our food supply is woefully deficient because of modern farming practices. This includes the baby chicks we buy as chicken....they won't even survive to adulthood if "allowed" to! How scary is that!

This diet was formulated by vets and both my cats have thrived on it for several years. One should've died a few years ago when his kidneys began to fail. The other suffered from chronic cystitis and was going to be euthanized when we met the vet that got us started on this. Yes, I did think of calcium and also taurine and other things, too.

The one thing that one of my cats told me was missing initially was enough fat. I still leave a small dish of butter near their dishes as one of the cats needs more fat....he eats less food. The other needs more food and ignores the extra fat. The fat-loving cat stopped getting up on the counter and stove, looking for pans to lick, when I started this practice. They are both a healthy weight and quite active into their teens.

 

[tortoise]

I was wondering if soaking bones in vinegar would work. I know that "pulls" the calcium out of the bone. I don't know if the calcium in useable afterwards?

I am a raw-feeder at heart, even though I have service dogs that can't be on raw for public health reasons. When I joined this forum I had a kitten and I raised mice to feed her.

I think the secret to healthy homemade diets is VARIETY. Even if mistakes are made or there are inbalances, it's likely to be minor with variety in the diet.

That's assuming the all-important macrominerals are in the correct ratio.

Sounds like you're doing a good job - just was hoping others don't start canning boneless meat, throwing in some veggies and calling it good, without doin ghtier homework first. That could lead to serious health problems down the road.

I'll pop out of this thread now - seeing that I don't have my cat anymore.

 

[abifae]

this is also supplemental for me. they get dry food all through the day to munch on

i'll do the bones for longer, with some acv. i like that idea.

i need apple cider. i have a mother needing a home lol.

 

[Denim Deb]

I'll be reading more of this thread and trying it myself soon.

 

[ORChick]

this is also supplemental for me. they get dry food all through the day to munch on

i'll do the bones for longer, with some acv. i like that idea.

i need apple cider. i have a mother needing a home lol.

Abi, I realize that this is an old post, but do you still have your vinegar mother? And did you find your cider? I'd like to point out that, if you have the mother already you do not have to have unpastuerized cider, if that is hard to find. If you can get just plain apple juice (no additives), pastuerized is OK, the mother will add the acetobacteria to get the vinegar going. You only need unpastuerized cider if you are starting from scratch.
OK, end hijack

 

[abifae]

Hey ORChick

I have the mother in some apple cider now and we'll see if i get ACV from it.

 

[ORChick]

Hey ORChick

I have the mother in some apple cider now and we'll see if i get ACV from it.

Just leave it alone for awhile, and you'll have vinegar . Shake or stir it occasionally, if you think about it, to get some oxygen in there. Or don't ... it will turn to vinegar even so.