Time to switch

[Calicocious]

The Better in the Raw arrived yesterday. Time to switch from the commercial raw. Should be an easy switch since this is what I started them on when I first switched them to raw. Not too sure why I went to commercial really. Thought it was easier I guess since they come in little nuggets. I didn't have a good source of meat in place either. With the Primal it was getting pricey! And with Stella and Chewys so hard to find it was time to go back to BitR. Should've stayed with it probably!

 

[Xandria]

Good luck and have fun! I rather enjoy making the raw food.

 

[Sphynx Asylum Mom]

We are waiting to get ours in the mail and we will start our kiddos on BiTR!

 

[Condo commando]

I know this board loves BITR but in case anyone who is on the fence wonders by this thread I'd like to give a shoutout to Alnutrin. I make my cat food using meat with bone, so I don't need calcium supplementation. I buy Alnutrin without calcium. Real bone instead of a calcium supplement is more like what they would eat in the wild plus it's also cheaper to buy bone-in meat. One pound of meat needs just 16 grams of Alnutrin which costs all of 56 cents. And the butcher grinds everything for me in his heavy duty commercial grinder.

 

[Calicocious]

I know this board loves BITR but in case anyone who is on the fence wonders by this thread I'd like to give a shoutout to Alnutrin. I make my cat food using meat with bone, so I don't need calcium supplementation. I buy Alnutrin without calcium. Real bone instead of a calcium supplement is more like what they would eat in the wild plus it's also cheaper to buy bone-in meat. One pound of meat needs just 16 grams of Alnutrin which costs all of 56 cents. And the butcher grinds everything for me in his heavy duty commercial grinder.

I had looked at both in the beginning. It seemed like Alnutrin stressed exact measurements so much frankly it scared me off. Not something I wanted to tackle first time out. I might need to look at that again. Now that I've found a good butcher to go through its less of an intimidating idea to deal with grinding bones ect. What made you go with Alnutrin vs BitR?

 

[Calicocious]

Phiona did fine with dinner Sunday night and breakfast Monday morning. However dinner tonight was not so great. She wasn't too eager to dig in. I think the issue is the temperature. It is right out of the refrigerator. Any suggestions on taking the chill out? I keep it in a glass container, about 2 days worth at a time that I scoop out and measure into their dishes. Maybe add a little warm water? I did this with their Primal nuggets since those are so compressed. It helped loosen them up and warm them up. Any other suggestions are welcome!

 

[Condo commando]

2

I had looked at both in the beginning. It seemed like Alnutrin stressed exact measurements so much frankly it scared me off. Not something I wanted to tackle first time out. I might need to look at that again. Now that I've found a good butcher to go through its less of an intimidating idea to deal with grinding bones ect. What made you go with Alnutrin vs BitR?

It's a good question. I went with Alnutrin because I decided to go with real bone as the source of calcium. BITR is only for boneless meat. I just didn't see the point of going to raw food and then taking out a major component like bone and replacing it with something that comes from a lab. That's just my thinking.

OK so now about measuring out Alnutrin...it only takes 4 grams of Alnutrin per pound of meat. Four grams is almost nothing (one full ounce = 28 grams). That's why they tell you to use a scale. I have a $20 kitchen scale that gives the weight in grams.

This next point is important so I want to clarify - I don't grind the bones! I remember my mother putting me to work in the kitchen when I was little...I had to grind meat with one of those manual grinders....ugh. So I buy the meat already ground. My local butcher has a grinder that is much better than anything I could afford and I just tell him exactly what I want and he grinds it for me bones and all. I had the phone consultation with Dr. Pierson and she helped me come up with what cuts to use and all that fun stuff. Just in case there was any doubt how anal I am about my cats' food the answer would be "very" LOL.

 

[Condo commando]

Phiona did fine with dinner Sunday night and breakfast Monday morning. However dinner tonight was not so great. She wasn't too eager to dig in. I think the issue is the temperature. It is right out of the refrigerator. Any suggestions on taking the chill out? I keep it in a glass container, about 2 days worth at a time that I scoop out and measure into their dishes. Maybe add a little warm water? I did this with their Primal nuggets since those are so compressed. It helped loosen them up and warm them up. Any other suggestions are welcome!

I'm guess I'm lucky because my 2 don't care how cold it is but when I forget to dethaw, the ideal way is to float the food jar in a bowl of warm water for 15 minutes.

 

[Xandria]

Phiona did fine with dinner Sunday night and breakfast Monday morning. However dinner tonight was not so great. She wasn't too eager to dig in. I think the issue is the temperature. It is right out of the refrigerator. Any suggestions on taking the chill out? I keep it in a glass container, about 2 days worth at a time that I scoop out and measure into their dishes. Maybe add a little warm water? I did this with their Primal nuggets since those are so compressed. It helped loosen them up and warm them up. Any other suggestions are welcome!

Put a largish bowl or pot in the sink and let hot water fill it up. Place food in feeding bowl and then float it on the surface of the hot water. I use a spoon or fork to move the food around for maximum exposure to the heating feeding bowl.

There are other techniques, but I found this one to be the simplest for me. Cheers!

 

[Calicocious]

I added a bit of warm water to it and still turned her nose up at it. I have to do a bit of coaxing and chasing around the kitchen to get her to start but once she does she eats all of it. I'll try floating the dishes in warm water and see what that does. Maybe it was still too chilly. But she ate two meals of it without batting an eye. Sigh she is an odd one.

 

[Calicocious]

It's a good question. I went with Alnutrin because I decided to go with real bone as the source of calcium. BITR is only for boneless meat. I just didn't see the point of going to raw food and then taking out a major component like bone and replacing it with something that comes from a lab. That's just my thinking.

OK so now about measuring out Alnutrin...it only takes 4 grams of Alnutrin per pound of meat. Four grams is almost nothing (one full ounce = 28 grams). That's why they tell you to use a scale. I have a $20 kitchen scale that gives the weight in grams.

This next point is important so I want to clarify - I don't grind the bones! I remember my mother putting me to work in the kitchen when I was little...I had to grind meat with one of those manual grinders....ugh. So I buy the meat already ground. My local butcher has a grinder that is much better than anything I could afford and I just tell him exactly what I want and he grinds it for me bones and all. I had the phone consultation with Dr. Pierson and she helped me come up with what cuts to use and all that fun stuff. Just in case there was any doubt how anal I am about my cats' food the answer would be "very" LOL.

That is a good point about the calcium. I'll have to ask my butcher if he can do bones too. How is the price point with meat and bones?

 

[Condo commando]

That is a good point about the calcium. I'll have to ask my butcher if he can do bones too. How is the price point with meat and bones?

The same weight of bone-in meat is always cheaper than boneless, but I don't know the dollar difference exactly. Well I do know for chicken thighs - 1 lb of boneless is about $1 more expensive than 1 lb of bone-in. But on the other meats I don't buy with and without bones to be able to compare.

Just a word of caution with bones, in the conversation I had with Dr. Pierson one thing she emphasized is if you feed the "whole" of any animal, the bone content is too high. This is on her web site but there is so much there that it kind of gets lost. So what I do is I buy either boneless chicken thighs or dark turkey (already ground of course) and I mix it with my bone-in meats to dilute the bone %. I don't want to overwhelm you but if you are interested I'd be happy to give you more info. For now just know that if you buy "whole ground chicken" for example, you should add a bit of boneless meat in as well. Another oh-by-the-way, some of the recipes you see online use chicken thighs, and thighs have less bone than breast, legs, necks, wings, etc.

Now for the exception to that....there is a supplier about 50 miles from me that I don't go to very often, but she sells whole rabbit with skin and all. I mean it's got the reproductive organs and all kinds of gross stuff. They just remove the intestines and gall bladder which are never supposed to be esten. This is obviously intended for pet food only. Now if I use this rabbit, I don't mix in any boneless meat because the % of bone has already been diluted by the extra organs and skin. I think in the wild animals do get the right mix but when we buy our fancy meats in butcher shops where they have "cleaned" everything for human consumption, some things are lost. It's not the end of the world though.....if you know what you are starting out with then you can figure out what to add. I hope I explained it well enough.

You know what's funny is that we have been told by some food companies that by-products are bad, but what are skin and reproductive organs? They are by-products....yet in the wild that is part of the food. So I think sometimes we just need to step back a little from the advertising. The people on this web site are so much more informed than the average consumer.....don't be afraid to use your judgment

 

[Calicocious]

I was on the Alnutrin website and went to the link for hare today. I was shocked by how reasonable it was! They are in PA so 2 day shipping for me. Even with shipping costs ground bone/organ meat was potentially less than what my local butcher will charge me. Or at least same price. With hare today the ratio is already taken care of for me. I had never looked into it before as I had heard others say it was pricey. Maybe compared to what they can get locally or if they aren't in this area. For me it's pretty economical! They even sell the Alnutrin One stop shopping. Only drawback is ordering the 10 lb min. I'm short on freezer space but a few less of the boyfriends hungry man dinners and I think I can fit at least half a months rations at a time. The more I order at a time the cheaper of course but not enough space unfortunately. Something to ponder!

 

[Condo commando]

I was on the Alnutrin website and went to the link for hare today. I was shocked by how reasonable it was! They are in PA so 2 day shipping for me. Even with shipping costs ground bone/organ meat was potentially less than what my local butcher will charge me. Or at least same price. With hare today the ratio is already taken care of for me. I had never looked into it before as I had heard others say it was pricey. Maybe compared to what they can get locally or if they aren't in this area. For me it's pretty economical! They even sell the Alnutrin One stop shopping. Only drawback is ordering the 10 lb min. I'm short on freezer space but a few less of the boyfriends hungry man dinners and I think I can fit at least half a months rations at a time. The more I order at a time the cheaper of course but not enough space unfortunately. Something to ponder!

You basically hit the nail on the head......their prices for just the food are quite fair but the freight depending on where you are can be a dealbreaker.

 

[Xandria]

@Calicocious , can you maybe buy a small upright chest freezer? I put one in my pantry for my own frozen foods, and now cat food. This one is a Danby, and a very small footprint.

As for rabbit.... Here in Vancouver, if I buy rabbit at a butcher shop, it is 4 times the price than if I buy from a rabbit farmer. Crazy.

 

[Calicocious]

Arrrgh now I remember why I stopped feeding BitR. Phiona now flat out refuses to eat it. I don't understand how she can gobble down two seperate meals without batting an eye and now it's not something she wants to eat. Any suggestions on what I should do next?

 

[Calicocious]

@Calicocious , can you maybe buy a small upright chest freezer? I put one in my pantry for my own frozen foods, and now cat food. This one is a Danby, and a very small footprint.

As for rabbit.... Here in Vancouver, if I buy rabbit at a butcher shop, it is 4 times the price than if I buy from a rabbit farmer. Crazy.

I wish I had the room for a chest freezer, even an itty bitty one. We are in an apartment and no space to put one. Thought about asking my boyfriends mom if she'd keep a couple pounds in her freezer All this might be a moot point if I can't get Phiona to eat it.

 

[Xandria]

I wish I had the room for a chest freezer, even an itty bitty one. We are in an apartment and no space to put one. Thought about asking my boyfriends mom if she'd keep a couple pounds in her freezer All this might be a moot point if I can't get Phiona to eat it.

Maybe try a small batch first. And if it's a go, storing the food elsewhere would be handy!

 

[Condo commando]

@Calicocious When I had a sick cat that didn't want to eat I was told to sprinkle some parmesan cheese on the food. The smell attracts cats. Try that and see if it works. Good luck.

 

[Calicocious]

I ordered some fortiflora too. I had been meaning to try that anyway. But I think I figured out what the issue is. I think I had 1 lb turkey and 1 lb chicken by accident. Poor thing threw up what I finally got her to eat for dinner Wednesday night. It has all the ear marks of when I found out she had a chicken protein allergy. I was woken up around midnight to the sound of some more gagging and she threw up a little more liquid. Hopefully that'll be the last of it. I feel bad I didn't pick up on the signs. There was a reason she didn't want to eat it. Dense mommy. Hopefully this won't turn her off it completely. I'll try another batch and see if she'll still eat it. I might have to go to a commercial again for a bit and come back to it.

 

[Condo commando]

With hare today the ratio is already taken care of for me.

I'm not sure about this. I was just reading on their web site and it says it's whole chicken, whole rabbit, etc. If you decide to order from them I would suggest clarifying what is the % of bone in their grinds.

 

[Xandria]

But you're figuring it out! Sometimes it takes a bit, but you're attentive. Hugs.

 

[Calicocious]

I'm not sure about this. I was just reading on their web site and it says it's whole chicken, whole rabbit, etc. If you decide to order from them I would suggest clarifying what is the % of bone in their grinds.

I will have to clarify that. When they said whole I assumed they are referring to all the parts of the animal but each chub is portioned correctly.

 

[Condo commando]

I will have to clarify that. When they said whole I assumed they are referring to all the parts of the animal but each chub is portioned correctly.

I was referring to the whole animal. Whole chicken is 25% bone. Whole dressed rabbit also is also about 25% bone. Rabbit with skin and all is lower but by how much I don't know. It's important to note that different breeds of rabbit have different % of bones, so depending on what breed Hare Today sells it could be higher than 25% bone.

Anyway I do believe that feeding the "whole" animal is too much bone. I would think you need to add some boneless meat to dilute the bone content. Maybe ask the owner of Hare Today what other customers do. I'm just a pet owner so I can't give advice but there's a saying that "the devil is in the details" which applies here.

 

[Condo commando]

I will have to clarify that. When they said whole I assumed they are referring to all the parts of the animal but each chub is portioned correctly.

Also, chubs from Hare Today? I think they just sell ground meat and you need to make it into food by adding water and the supplement. The good thing is that after you add water you've got more food. For example, I add 2 cups of water to 4 pounds of meat. The 2 cups of water add 1 pound of weight. So I end up with 5 pounds of food. But I only had to pay for 4 pounds of meat.

When you think that all the food manufacturers have already added water to their raw foods, then you realize that the price difference is even bigger than you thought.