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Old August 31st, 2012, 06:02 PM
Lise C Lise C is offline
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Recipe for raw food for cats with chicken backs?

In another thread Love4himies wrote:

Quote:
Originally Posted by Love4himies View Post
I weigh the bones, hearts, liver, and muscle meat to ensure they are getting the proper proportions.
I was wondering where to get that information, about the ratios. I was just about to start making my first batch of raw food for my 5 cats, and I was going to follow the recipe at catorg.com, but 40 lbs of chicken thighs is $117 from the local poultry supplier. That will turn out to be between $3.50 and $4 per day to feed the cats. Not the end of the world, but it seems steep for home made food.

I know I could get chicken backs and necks for very cheap, but I don't know how to make those pieces fit into the recipe that requires 30lbs of ground chicken thighs (I have a commercial grinder, so that's not an issue). Wouldn't I have to add alot of meat to all those bones? Where do I get info on the ratios?

I should add that I have just spent 4 hours reading posts in this forum and it was very helpful. However, many people mention ratios but I haven't yet found out what those ratios are or where the info is coming from.

Does anyone use the recipe at catorg.com? If so, where do you source your chicken thighs? If you use chicken backs, do you add meat?

Thanks for any info.
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  #2  
Old September 1st, 2012, 07:44 AM
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Love4himies Love4himies is offline
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Hi Lise C. Yay for making your own cat food

The 80-10-10 ratio is the ratio that would make up a cat's prey.

I used the recipe that used to be on this website, but they've changed it since:

http://www.catinfo.org/?link=makingcatfood#The_Recipe

I don't add water or salt when I make my food as I heat up water in the cat dish when I am preparing each meal, then add the raw so it is somewhat warm for them. It's easier to judge salt by individual meals, than in a huge batch.

I went by the weights on the packaging and yes, I had to add different cuts of chicken (to make up a whole chicken), or add other meat types to make up the 80% muscle meat. After knowing how much bone & muscle meat I have I bought the other 10% weight of organs (heart/kidneys/liver, of which 50% was liver/25%kidney/25% heart). I do leave some skin on the chicken (cut off the fatty part ) as cats get their Vit D from skin of their prey, not from the sun.

Chicken backs or thighs are much too high in bone content so you would have to add other meat to it. You will be able to tell if you meat has too much bone and their feces would be whitish and hard, and they may become constipated.

I buy meat that is on sale and freeze it until I make my next batch. I do prefer to buy whole chickens, so when I can get them at 1.99/lb I buy a lot and freeze them. Would love to get some rabbit, but can't find any here in Kingston.

I have 4 cats who eat half raw/half quality canned. Raw costs me about 15 bucks a week, commercial canned costs me about 30, so twice the cost of raw .

All my cats prefer venison, so if you have a hunter friend that will give you some scrap meat, that will help with the cost. We used to have one that hunted goose, but he's moved .
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  #3  
Old September 1st, 2012, 10:26 AM
Barkingdog Barkingdog is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Love4himies View Post
Hi Lise C. Yay for making your own cat food

The 80-10-10 ratio is the ratio that would make up a cat's prey.

I used the recipe that used to be on this website, but they've changed it since:

http://www.catinfo.org/?link=makingcatfood#The_Recipe

I don't add water or salt when I make my food as I heat up water in the cat dish when I am preparing each meal, then add the raw so it is somewhat warm for them. It's easier to judge salt by individual meals, than in a huge batch.

I went by the weights on the packaging and yes, I had to add different cuts of chicken (to make up a whole chicken), or add other meat types to make up the 80% muscle meat. After knowing how much bone & muscle meat I have I bought the other 10% weight of organs (heart/kidneys/liver, of which 50% was liver/25%kidney/25% heart). I do leave some skin on the chicken (cut off the fatty part ) as cats get their Vit D from skin of their prey, not from the sun.

Chicken backs or thighs are much too high in bone content so you would have to add other meat to it. You will be able to tell if you meat has too much bone and their feces would be whitish and hard, and they may become constipated.

I buy meat that is on sale and freeze it until I make my next batch. I do prefer to buy whole chickens, so when I can get them at 1.99/lb I buy a lot and freeze them. Would love to get some rabbit, but can't find any here in Kingston.

I have 4 cats who eat half raw/half quality canned. Raw costs me about 15 bucks a week, commercial canned costs me about 30, so twice the cost of raw .

All my cats prefer venison, so if you have a hunter friend that will give you some scrap meat, that will help with the cost. We used to have one that hunted goose, but he's moved .
I bet the cats would love mice meat mixed in too. This web site said mice meat can prevent urinary problems in cats.

http://www.roen.com/060116.html
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Old September 19th, 2012, 04:26 PM
Lise C Lise C is offline
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Hi Love4himies

Thanks for the reply.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Love4himies View Post

The 80-10-10 ratio is the ratio that would make up a cat's prey.
I'm probably going to sound really stupid here, but what are the elements represented by the 80-10-10 ratio? 80 meat, 10 bones, 10 something else?
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  #5  
Old September 19th, 2012, 04:28 PM
Lise C Lise C is offline
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Join Date: Aug 2012
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Love4himies View Post
I used the recipe that used to be on this website, but they've changed it since:

http://www.catinfo.org/?link=makingcatfood#The_Recipe
I forgot to mention that that was the recipe I was referring to. I mistakenly wrote "catorg.com", but I meant what you linked to.
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