Please, tell The Brat that! Its definitely her I'm afraid, I've caught her in the bucket eating. Guilty looks and licking grain off her chops!
Also I put the scoop down in the house on my way to feed the chooks, just to grab the pot of scraps, and when I turn around there she is she's pulled a big mouthful out of the scoop and has it on my kitchen floor chowing it down.
Not really getting why myself, I know, cats are the straightest carnivores on the planet, but she's weird.
She likes bread too, particularly crusts from buttered toast and fair enough its butter, but she'll make off with a whole loaf if I leave it out with the door open.
But she's never, ever shown interest in grains before, that's quite bizarre.
Also there are no racoons in my country ... there are possum, australian possum that is, a bit different from american possum ... bigger and fluffier ... body weight wise they could maybe knock off a brick, but I've never had one do it for any other feed, I don't expect that to be an issue.
It's true that I have to keep the sides of my buckets stirred down or cleaned or they may grow mold. But NEVER had to throw out the FF.
Thing is whatever lands on top of the water is going to seep down into the ferment as well. And then that water gets stirred into the ferment anyways. And what, the water on top is somehow magically NOT fermented? Plus that's how we get our colonies going from whatever is in the air. IF you DON'T stir your ferment, I can see this working to keep the mold out for a couple of days. BUT once your ferment runs out of sugars or whatever the good bacteria are feeding on, you WILL get mold colonies EVEN on top of the water layer! Yes I have done this, but ONLY when I didn't feed my ferment.
I had to ask, because I cannot believe how many people I've met here on BYC that feed JUST scratch... because that's what so and so told them to do. Agreed, I wouldn't add the meat to the FF. I do well if I know the WHY of something. It's not about being argumentative, but maybe just not blindly following status quo just because someone said so. I simply don't trust people. And I'm ALWAYS seeking the truth. I too welcome CONSTRUCTIVE criticism. And my hope is always to be helpful and not judgmental or finger pointing. I just want the best for people and their pets. I don't agree with everything in the tik tok article, but it's a great source of good basic info for keeping it simple. I always read comments to see what I might learn from people's experiences. But I also have to discern what is true verses hear say. So I take all the info, use what makes sense and forget the rest. Though I do keep the rest in mind, because I'm open to learning something new. And as my understanding grows, I switch it up if I need to. It's really cool when something clicks suddenly! 
