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Request for Exact Recipe

MattM

Savannah Super Cat
Hi all,
I will be giving MattM’s chicken and turkey combo raw recipe a try shortly, and was wondering whether the calcium requirements are strictly provided by either the Mazuri supplement or by the whole chicken thighs? In other words, are the turkey and chicken thighs deboned?
Thank you,
Ezequiel


Oh and to clarify, there are two types of Mazuri supplement for "exotic" felines. Slab meat supplement (with calcium) and whole prey supplement (without calcium). That I believe is the only difference.
 

MattM

Savannah Super Cat
Happy to help because so many people here helped me!

Also, John Popp gave me some really good advice to use larger grinder holes. The larger the perforations, the easier it is on your grinder when working with bone. I was using 1/8" and have switched to 1/4" and larger. It's also really what your animal prefers.
 

John Popp

Site Supporter
I know the livers need to come from a good source, but do the meats in the raw food diet have to be organic? The price is pretty significant.

Whenever I have bought less expensive chicken our posse doesn't like it as much. The fresher the better with all the meats we feed and for the chicken the last round we picked up some from Amish country a little bit south of us. The bone to meat ratio seems higher as the body parts aren't exaggerated as much but the cats definitely like it better. Stays firm in the bags (although I don't add water) and it has more texture. Less expensive chicken seems to be a lot more mushy in the bag, likely had water added and certainly doesn't have the same color.
 

John Popp

Site Supporter
Happy to help because so many people here helped me!

Also, John Popp gave me some really good advice to use larger grinder holes. The larger the perforations, the easier it is on your grinder when working with bone. I was using 1/8" and have switched to 1/4" and larger. It's also really what your animal prefers.

That was a tip from someone else and I was actually double grinding before. Having watched our new kitten eat raw, which I was a little concerned about the coarse grind, I realized it isn't going to be a problem for even a small kitten. I also noticed that the bag of raw I was sent packing with from the breeder was even coarser than anything I feed. So next time through I am going to pick up a couple larger grinder plates.
 

Alicia

Savannah Super Cat
Urgent question about this very thing...... I ground up some chicken tonight for food and this time I ran some chicken thighs with bone in. I noticed when mixing up the meat it's pretty mushy but there are some little bone fragments too.
Can the cats eat this?? Will these little bone fragments cause any internal problems?? Some feel a little sharp :( should I pick thru the mush and pull out all the little fragments?
 

SlugMaster

Site Supporter
Urgent question about this very thing...... I ground up some chicken tonight for food and this time I ran some chicken thighs with bone in. I noticed when mixing up the meat it's pretty mushy but there are some little bone fragments too.
Can the cats eat this?? Will these little bone fragments cause any internal problems?? Some feel a little sharp :( should I pick thru the mush and pull out all the little fragments?

The bones are no problem for a healthy cat. I also give them hand chopped meat with bone in it.
They can pass pretty large bone bits that they didn't breakup when they chewed it. I do the chunks for oral health and the cats enjoy it.
 

Patti

Admin
Staff member
As long as the chicken is raw the bone fragments should be no problem, unless one gets stuck between the teeth. And you probably know that the chicken leg has up to 15 times the amount of taurine in it that a chicken breast has, so good choice for your kitties!
 

John Popp

Site Supporter
I agree with what's been wrote thus far and you really shouldn't have an issue. Getting bone fragments stuck between teeth is somewhat of an oddity and if a bone fragment is too large they will often just leave it in their dish. Rabbit bones always seem a lot tougher than chicken and I never had a problem with them either.

Also as Slug said, bigger chunks can work and they will actually eat the bone in more whole pieces. When using my grinder at first I was double grinding with two different plates and I would end up with very mushy food. I can't exactly remember what plate I ended up using but i believe it was a 7 or 8mm. I also plan on getting a #12 plate in the future as it's pretty clear that they seem to enjoy things a little more when they aren't so finely ground.

Also on the mushiness if you are adding water at the time of grinding don't. I know a lot of recipes call for it, but you can just as easily add it at serving time. I would add one tablespoon of warm water before serving, which warmed up their food a little, made it more aromatic and ended up being more water than any of the recipes were calling for. Also made the raw food much easier to handle when bagging it up.

Hope that helps!
 

Alicia

Savannah Super Cat
Ok good, thanks guys!! That did help... I did recently decide to switch recipes and start using the whole chicken legs, egg yolks, livers and hearts.... The kitties LOVE it! Tylie in particular actually inhales her food... She will growl and beat anyone up if they come near her bowl! I have never seen a cat so crazy about her food... But only the raw.
Glad the bones are ok... A friend gave me her Tasin TS-108 and it did the job! Some of the bones were a bit much, so I had to clean it a few times but worth the money I'm saving by not buying the raw....
 
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