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Recipe for Raw Ground Rabbit
- Thread starter DumaLove
- Start date
Kristin
Animal Communicator
I know there can be issues with over supplementing of calcium in humans, so I'm sure it's the same with animals. Everything in moderation, right? I guess kibble is the 'safer' bet as far as getting everything in, but it does offer more long term issues. Was the recipe they were following off?
Was it only the supplementing issue that people chose to come off of raw or something else? That's scary.
John Popp
Site Supporter
About half our feedings are rabbit. We buy medium sized cubes which contain organ meat, but not the head fur or feet. With every 12lbs of these rabbit chunks, I add 2lbs of organs (Approximately 50% Livers, 25% Hearts and 25% Kidneys). All the Rabbit and organs come from Hare-Today.com and has worked out pretty well except for the mishap I had with ground rabbit containing fur. Trust me, you don't want to be cleaning up that cat yak.
I coarsely grind all these together adding whole Prey Mazuri as I go. The latest batch I made I decided not to grind the additional organs and put them in whole to see if there was something are boy wasn't eating. Not sure how I'll deal with it if I find out he doesn't like liver or kidneys, but I just want to have a better handle on what he likes and doesn't.
One thing that bothers me is that rabbit doesn't have a lot of fat content. If your cat is starting to turn his nose up at poultry, you might want to consider adding some butter to your rabbit recipe. I haven't had this problem with Dino, but with our other cats, they all became rabbit connoisseurs and didn't care for any fowl. A pound of butter for 12-15lbs of rabbit placed the fat content in the ballpark of chicken and their are definitely some fatty acids and other nutrients in animal fat that your cat needs. Butter is just the easiest way of delivering it.
Lastly, try your best to ween them off the dry food. They start craving that stuff and then it's an endless battle to get them to eat properly. With multiple cats its even more problematic as there's always the one that's going to put up a real battle over getting his crunchers, and of course the other start dish diving.
Hope that helps!
I coarsely grind all these together adding whole Prey Mazuri as I go. The latest batch I made I decided not to grind the additional organs and put them in whole to see if there was something are boy wasn't eating. Not sure how I'll deal with it if I find out he doesn't like liver or kidneys, but I just want to have a better handle on what he likes and doesn't.
One thing that bothers me is that rabbit doesn't have a lot of fat content. If your cat is starting to turn his nose up at poultry, you might want to consider adding some butter to your rabbit recipe. I haven't had this problem with Dino, but with our other cats, they all became rabbit connoisseurs and didn't care for any fowl. A pound of butter for 12-15lbs of rabbit placed the fat content in the ballpark of chicken and their are definitely some fatty acids and other nutrients in animal fat that your cat needs. Butter is just the easiest way of delivering it.
Lastly, try your best to ween them off the dry food. They start craving that stuff and then it's an endless battle to get them to eat properly. With multiple cats its even more problematic as there's always the one that's going to put up a real battle over getting his crunchers, and of course the other start dish diving.
Hope that helps!
John Popp
Site Supporter
Rabbit by itself leaves you a bit slim on the Taurine side. If you aren't using a supplement that contains Taurine such as Mazuri, or adding hearts you definitely want to add Taurine. 1 Tablespoon of Taurine for 10lbs of rabbit meat without organs is plenty, a half tablespoon for whole carcass rabbit and you don't need to worry about overdoing it.
Taurine is the single most important supplement you can give your cat. It's water soluble so what they don't use gets flushed with their urine. It promotes good heart health, alertness, healthy organ function and contains antioxidants. Only buy Human grade Taurine, and check the label to make sure it's not coming out of China.
BTW, Dino chowed down on about 12ozs of our rabbit mixture for dinner last night and another 12ozs this morning. Certainly not the volume his brother Atticus eats, but a lot of chow for my slender 14lb boy.
Thanks John! I called the local farm that has naturally grown rabbit and asked if they can prepare it without head or fur and made into chunks that will fit into our grinder, which they can. I'll have to ask them to remove feet as well. (I assume this is because they are all bone and no meat?) Afterwards I thought about "whole rabbit" and realized that would include all organs including intestines. I think on their own they would be OK, but wouldn't they then be filled with feces? Do I need to ask them to remove them or any other parts? I've never bought a whole slaughtered animal before so I am unsure how this all works. But I was very excited to find a local farm 20 minutes from my house that I can get fresh rabbit from. I can also get fresh chicken and beef there as well once we figure out what the fur kids will actually eat.
Maybe once we find a raw mix they will all eat without any prodding we can switch to all raw. Right now we can't because it can take up to an hour to feed raw and he doesn't have that kind of time in the morning when he has to be at work by 6am. I am not home during the week to help so it is all on him.
Thanks for all the knowledge!!
Maybe once we find a raw mix they will all eat without any prodding we can switch to all raw. Right now we can't because it can take up to an hour to feed raw and he doesn't have that kind of time in the morning when he has to be at work by 6am. I am not home during the week to help so it is all on him.
Thanks for all the knowledge!!
John Popp
Site Supporter
Yeah, rabbit has a high bone to meat ratio food and the feet definitely aren't a good target for reducing it. Also Witchy let me know about the dehydrated rabbit feet our rabbit supplier sells, so they don't need to go to waste and are great as a chew toy for teething cats.
The only organs that should be coming along with a gutted rabbit are the kidneys, heart and liver. Perhaps some lung accidentally left in place but that's it. Definitely nothing along the digestive tract.
Also, if you can get some rabbit organs from them, you should definitely get some hearts. Helps makes rabbit a more balanced food and ups the taurine percentage.
The only organs that should be coming along with a gutted rabbit are the kidneys, heart and liver. Perhaps some lung accidentally left in place but that's it. Definitely nothing along the digestive tract.
Also, if you can get some rabbit organs from them, you should definitely get some hearts. Helps makes rabbit a more balanced food and ups the taurine percentage.