When I made my first batch of raw cat food, I was afraid the cats wouldn’t like it, which is why I bought only a small amount of the premix from TCfeline. I needn’t have worried because they loved it. Granted, I started with only two ounces mixed with a 5.5 ounce can of cat food, but it was a better start than I expected.
I made a second batch last Sunday and decided to photograph the process because I forgot to do that last time. This time I decided to give them variety and used beef instead of chicken. The decision was also helped by the fact that I had a $5 off coupon for two pounds of beef at Whole Foods using their app.
I thought I would cut it into chunks instead of having it ground so I went home to do the work myself. Often, the way I envision things going are very different from the way things really go. This is one example.
Even though I am no chef, I am still embarrassed to say that I didn’t have a knife sharp enough to cut two pounds of beef. With much effort, I was able to cut this hunk of meat into slices but then gave up.
Instead, I pulled out my Ninja blender and stuck the pieces in there. I don’t think it was designed for grinding meat but it did a good job cutting it up and it worked quite fast too.
A meat grinder may have been more suited to the task but I noticed one advantage to this method. The Ninja didn’t do a very good job of cutting up the gristle which made it easy to pull those pieces out of the mixture.
I then put the beef into a large mixing bowl.
I added two egg yolks, but not the egg whites since they are bad for cats.
The instructions then call for a cup of water (I use spring water) and a quarter cup of the TCfeline premix, which I then added to the bowl.
All that was left was to mix it up.
Put it into containers.
And stick them in the freezer.
I still had some of the chicken mixture left and wanted to use that while I let the beef mix freeze for at least 24 hours (three days is ideal) as an added precaution against parasites.
I didn’t fill the containers as high this time. Part of the reason was to allow room for expansion when frozen. Another reason was because I wanted to increase the raw food to caned food ratio by using the entire container per meal instead of half the container. Before taking that step, I needed to make sure they liked the beef mixture, so I continued to give them only half.
The first feeding of the beef went well, at first, but when everyone was done eating there was still food left in the bowls. That told me they weren’t crazy about the beef but as the week progressed, the amount of food left over decreased. The last couple of days there have been no food left over so, it seems, they are happy with the beef now.
I have to make another batch today so I will probably go back to chicken, or maybe turkey, if they have it. I also have to buy more of the TCfeline premix. This time I will buy a bigger container. I will also have it ground at Whole Foods which will cut the prep time in half and make my work much easier. Who doesn’t like easier?
Bad Cat Chris 
Thanks for letting us follow along on this transition
My pleasure. 🙂
Sounds like you’re getting them on the raw food diet slowly but surely and they LIKE IT! I haven’t tried this with Sam because he’s almost 17 and very STUCK in his ways especially with food……but it’s certainly the way to go and so much more healthy for the cats! Good for you!
Pam
Thank you Pam.
I think you did a great job. I agree it will be better to have Whole Foods grind the meat for you.
Thank you. It certainly is much simpler to have them do it.
Egg whites aren’t bad for cats as long as you feed the whole egg. There is a protein that binds to biotin, a b vitamin, but there is actually a ton of it in the egg yolk. Whites are a great source of low phosphorus protein. You can always cook the whites if you are worried, as it deactivated the binding protein.
Love that the transition is going so well for you 🙂
Fanks fur addin’ dat Connie, we meant to as we gave sis Lexi egg whites fur da extra protein she needed.
Luv ya’
Dezi and Raena
I didn’t know that. Thanks for the info Connie.
Yay ! Great job ! Slowly but surely, you transition everyone to raw in the best way ! Purrs
Glad they’re eating it. Thanks for the step by step with the pictures too!
I hope it helps.
Well, that doesn’t look like a hard process at all. Especially if you get the meat grounded at the store.
I I made it today and it took 6 minutes, not counting the time it took to put it in containers.
Those are really cool containers. What are they called and where do ya’ get ’em. ifin ya’ don’t mind us askin’? Glad things are goin’ well with da transition.
Luv ya’
Dezi and Raena
Some of those are Betty Crocker containers that I got at the Dollar Tree for $1 for 4 of them. Others I got in a six pack at the supermarket but I don’t remember the brand name.
Fank you.
Luv ya’
Dezi and Raena
You are doing a great job with this! Maybe it will inspire my human – all three of us kitties would like that.
I made another batch today and can say it has gotten very easy. Maybe your mom should try it, even if it’s just a portion of your food.
At $63 (that’s $2.62 worth in each pound according to them) for that supplement powder, plus the beef-cost, wouldn’t it be way cheaper to buy premade raw online? I’ve found sites with premium raw food that include everything your cat needs to be healthy AND come from non-evil sources, but the problem is I can’t get it below $5 a pound, which is still way too much for me. I mean, okay, maybe you have more money, but I would still think the saved effort alone would be worth you cutting the cost down from $14 a pound! The beef was discounted this time, but barely, so I’m sure you’re regularly spending more than the $5 that’s too much for me to not try to make it myself. And here you are makin’ it yourself. >.<
I mean, not trying to money-shame you (is that a thing?) because I love to see someone throwing it away on a cat rather than, say, clubs and bitches, but the effort involved confuses me. It's like seeing people spending their precious free-time bagging leaves from the yard — an insane waste of time! And what you're doing is spending MONEY to waste that time, it's crazy whaaat! I just feel like I'm missing something. <.<
(Also why is it always the rich, pro-recycling, liberal neighborhoods that are bagging dozens of dozens of bags of leaves? In your yard they decompose, and in a landfill they never do, it's messssssed uuuuup you're supposed to be the ones who care!! Do they not even think through what's happening or what, what's going on there. What.)
I currently buy the the suppliment for just over $50 which I once figured to be about $2 per 2 pounds of meat. I buy organic chicken thighs at $5 per pound. Don’t forget you also add a half cup of water per pound to reconstitute the dehydrated liver in the suppliment. That adds weight. Considering that, it comes out to about $6.50 a pound, maybe slightly more. That is the equivalent of paying $2.19 a can for wet food, which is normal for quality food, but it is so much more healthy.
Raw frozen food usually cost more than $6.50 a pound. If you can find it
for less, it won’t be organic. Yo also don’t know the quality control measures that were used to make it or how long it has been frozen before your cats see it. In addition, I used to buy the raw frozen food but my cats were more finaky about eating it.