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Freezing raw food questions!

Nsarno87

Savannah Super Cat
I apologize since I am sure that this has been asked before but I cannot seem to find the answer.

1. How long can homemade raw food be frozen for?
2. Do you freeze individual portions? What are your tricks for easy thawing/feeding?
 

ambiente18

Site Supporter
I apologize since I am sure that this has been asked before but I cannot seem to find the answer.

1. How long can homemade raw food be frozen for?
2. Do you freeze individual portions? What are your tricks for easy thawing/feeding?
It is one of the link (about individual portion - you may see here)
 

F/3

Savannah Super Cat
What I do is put the individual portions in small Tupperware. Usually about a months worth. I feed simba twice aday. When I divide up the portions I put 4 containers in the fridge (2days worth) the rest go in freezer. When I take one out of the fridge to feed him I replace it with one from freezer. It will be thawed by the time the rotation gets to it.
As for how long in the freezer. I'm sure it will last a while. A litter freezer burn won't hurt them.
 

ambiente18

Site Supporter
I keep portion of food for each day one day in a cell for storage of cooled products only . And prepare and freeze food for my cats for two weeks only
 

John Popp

Site Supporter
We use pretty much the same process as in the video, freezer bags and portioned out so they won't be unthawed for more than 48 hours. We do take a little greater care in making sure the freezer bags don't contain any air, and a little less care on how much they actually weigh. Our 3 cats are good for a pound and a half of food per day which is what we get into each freezer bag. A quick test a while back suggested that we were ±2 ozs.

Never a worry as to how long it's in the freezer, as we go through it fairly quickly and I wouldn't have any issues feeding them something that had been frozen for 6 months.

Additionally, we do not not add water to our raw food recipe, choosing instead to add warm water at serving time. This helps as cats would prefer their meals at body or at least room temperature and one cat in particular wouldn't touch their food until it's been in their dish for 15-30 minutes. We just add in 3 and a half tablespoons of warm water to their 8ozs of their food per feeding, quickly stir it up and divide out their portions. So far it has worked well and the cats aren't doing the shuffle to see if any of them have something better in their dish.

Lastly, with the plastic freezer bags that have been thawed in the refrigerator, we squeeze the food through the partially opened zip lock on the bag. A quick close and brief rinse to the bag corner while keeping air from entering the bag. This helps limit oxidation of the meat and keep the color a brighter red. Probably doesn't make that much difference, but keeps the food looking very much as it did when it first went into the freezer.

I hope that helps!
 
D

DocMac

Guest
[quote="John Popp, post: 31086, member: 677"

Additionally, we do not not add water to our raw food recipe, choosing instead to add warm water at serving time. This helps as cats would prefer their meals at body or at least room temperature and one cat in particular wouldn't touch their food until it's been in their dish for 15-30 minutes. We just add in 3 and a half tablespoons of warm water to their 8ozs of their food per feeding, quickly stir it up and divide out their portions. So far it has worked well and the cats aren't doing the shuffle to see if any of them have something better in their dish.

[/quote]

I love this idea. I recently hijacked another thread to tell about our method of storing frozen. I think the thread was Raw Red Diet.
 

Lori Greer

Cahaba Cats
The other plus to adding water at feeding time would be to also add the taurine then. Taurine is essential to cat health and even more so with Savannahs who seem to need a bit more than the average domestic. Why I don't know, but certain heart conditions and (birth defects when discussing breeding females) are directly related to low taurine levels. Taurine is also temperature sensitive so freezing may actually nullify the taurine added at the time you prepare the grind. It would be a good practice to add the taurine after thawing and prior to serving the day's portion. :)
 
D

DocMac

Guest
Yes, that's Los a great dea, Lori. Instead go the "sprinkle and mash" plan, I'll mix the supplements with the thawed!
 
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