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Grocery Store Chicken Wing

carakitty

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I bought Uber a chicken wing from the grocery store on Sunday. I am hoping he will be excited to gnaw on it to help his teeth! I had read on a website (now I can't find it) that grocery store meat is supposed to be pre-frozen to kill bacteria. But e.coli and many other bacteria are freeze resistant. I am thinking it might be a good idea to serve the wing in the bathtub for easy clean up! Does anyone have a source for more information about this?
 

Condo commando

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This is my understanding.

To kill bacteria food has to go into a "deep freeze." This is not the same as a normal freeze. Difference between freezing and deep freezing

The problem with grocery store meat is that it has been unfrozen and exposed to air (air gets thru the clear thin plastic wrap). Now, there may not be enough bacteria to hurt your cat but there's no way of knowing how long the food was unfrozen and how much bacteria is on it. Freezing it in your home freezer won't kill it as per above.

Having said all that, one chicken wing is such a small thing that I wouldn't worry about it. You can run it under cold water to wipe off surface bacteria.

I'm a worrywort about bones; that would worry more than bacteria with one chicken wing.
 

pepal

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I'm a worrywort about bones; that would worry more than bacteria with one chicken wing.
Bones are not a problem unless they are cooked. Cooking makes them brittle and then they can splinter.
Ozzy loves his chicken necks / wings
but you should break/cut the wings on the hinges. a whole wing can be too much and hard to chew and might be left over
 

Xandria

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You can also buy chicken necks and wings that have been freeze dried in the pet section (the dog section LOL). Max loved chicken necks until I learned that he was allergic!!!
 

carakitty

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He got his chicken!
But he puked half an hour later :(
I will try again but if the upset repeats he won't get more.
 

Bailey21

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He got his chicken!
But he puked half an hour later :(
I will try again but if the upset repeats he won't get more.


I’m skeptical of grocery store stuff now after a similar experience I bought a pack of chicken hearts and gizzards, gave each kitty a heart and the boys ate the gizzards. Yoda puked 3 times that night, once was pure gizzards (had the silvery color/texture still). Then projectile vomit across our bed at 1 am and again at 5am on the carpet. All 3 cats had very bad poop (diarrhea/mucusy) for a week after that. It could’ve been completely unrelated to the hearts/gizzards, but poop test came back negative for all 3. I’ve been too scared to try ever again. Hopefully next try with Uber will be successful!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Condo commando

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Well that's interesting....I know sometimes I've given my cats food that sat in the fridge a bit too long and I thought about it twice but then I gave it to them and nothing happened. So I figured just a little bit wouldn't matter. But better safe than sorry.

Here's another idea - you can buy hearts, gizzards, and other stuff and have it shipped to you frozen. In the US you can check out Hare Today, Raw Feeding Miami, Whole Food 4 Pets. Let's ask @Xandria for suggestions in Canada.
 

Xandria

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Yeah, it could be grocery store related. If you lived in Vancouver I know a couple places that ware utterly trustworthy, but my knowledge of butchers in Ontario is non existent. And um... sorry to hear about the projectile vomiting... ewwwww.

Uber could either be very allergic to chicken or it just upset his tummy due to being grocery store chicken.

You could try the pet store freeze dried variety. Hugs.
 

Yoda mom

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@Condo commando , in your experience. Which from hare today has been the most palatable for kitties?
I would love to order something for chewing /dental benefit , but my brats hated raw when I tried years ago .. TIA
 

Condo commando

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@Condo commando , in your experience. Which from hare today has been the most palatable for kitties?
I would love to order something for chewing /dental benefit , but my brats hated raw when I tried years ago .. TIA

That's a good question. The idea is that wild cats had to chew flesh and bones. As best I can tell from reading, it's the bones (not flesh) that do the trick, and more specifically it's the bone ligaments or cartilage. I guess it's like dental floss.

Anyway, wild cats eat all whole prey so they get ligaments every meal. I just feed my cats ground raw so there are no ligaments. In case it helps a little, I do give them hearts, gizzards and boneless chicken strips (big enough they have to chew). I stick to mostly hearts because they're high in taurine and boneless chicken strips because they're lean.....gizzards I don't do too much because they're high in cholesterol.

If you're looking for palatable that really depends on the cat. One of mine likes hearts better, the other one gizzards. Both of them like the boneless chicken meat.
 

carakitty

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I don't think Uber is allergic to chicken, his usual food does have chicken in it.
I may not have been as careful with prepping it as I could have been.
We have a local butcher so I might get parts from them next time instead, or I will handle the food differently.
Next time I do the meaty bone I may also strip off most of the meat first. Uber seemed to get 'worn out' after 20 minutes and never actually got to the boney part. Or I might cut it in half?
The meaty adventures shall continue!
 
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naomi

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Hi there. My girl ate bone in whole raw meat for over three years. I only switched for convenience as they can get kinda messy with it. I suggest crate feeding. I doubt that kitty will keep it in the bathtub.

Don’t worry about bacteria too much. I used to purchase all my meat from the local butcher. I would be more concerned about getting the freshest product than about the freezing.
Remember cats are designed to eat raw meat. Their own natural gut bacteria and the naturally acidic environment of their digestive system will take care of all that nasty stuff that would send you or I running to toilet or worse.
This is a great way to help with dental heath! Good luck
 

Dublin Riis

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I trained Dublin to eat his food and raw meat on a towel. I began by placing a small amount in his bowl. He ran in another room with it....MANY TIMES. I picked the meat up as many times as he tried escaping with it and placed it back in his bowl. It can only be done if you have to the time to supervise (and clean the mess up afterwards). Eventually, he caught on. He'll usually pull the liver, gizzard, chicken wing....(whatever) out of his bowl, but will only eat them on the towel. It takes patience, but it will work if you want it to
 

Condo commando

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It drives me crazy how they do that. I put bloody chicken hearts down and one of my cats will take them to one of the kitchen mats and munch of them there. Then there's a pink spot and I end up having to wash the mat and they don't hold up well. I think I will try that towel idea - thanks!
 
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