Processing Day Support Group ~ HELP us through the Emotions PLEASE!

[ChaoSS]

I disagree that cats can't have any plant material, they do eat the contents of stomachs in the wild, which largely contain plant material. It's an important source of a number of vitamins.

 

[cassie]

Any wild cat, including Bengals and savanna Cats which are only part wild, should be fed an all meat, raw meat diet. I have a barn cat that I try to keep on a raw meat diet, but it's a pain to have to process the meat all the time for him and keep it from freezing at the barn. When he's on all raw meat for a while you can tell the difference, he slims down some but retains all of his muscle and energy, he also gets super shiny and soft. All I do is buy a 10 pound bag of chicken leg quarters and then cut each piece up into 3 pieces (drumstick, and cut the thigh in half) and give him a piece each day, granted, he's also hunting on his own, so that's not ALL he's eating, but his diet goes from fresh kills plus cat food to fresh kills plus raw meat. I don't grind it or anything for him, it's kind of frightening actually to give him a chicken thigh and hear him in there crunching through those big bones like they're not even there... course I've come in the barn and found just a rabbit head and guts before, so he did the same to an entire rabbit... The raw meat diet may be more expensive and harder to deal with, but it's definantly better for the cat since cats can't process plant based anything and that's almost all that is in commercial cat food. Also, sometimes the meat byproducts are ground up and processed pets that have been put down.... kind of gross if you think about it.

Where did you get the information that meat by-products can be made up from pets that have been put down? I am willling to bet that practice would be highly illegal.

 

[hennible]

I disagree that cats can't have any plant material, they do eat the contents of stomachs in the wild, which largely contain plant material. It's an important source of a number of vitamins.

Also they choose to eat grass on occasion... Think it has something to do with getting unwanted things out of their stomachs... Not sure that they digest it...

 

[Tomtommom]

One of my cats was pantsless when he was on Purina chow. I know, super cheapo food... Money was tight. He ate By Nature before I got divorced, then to save money we used Purina... and his butt, legs and belly went bald. Eventually I decided he needed grainfree and went with Taste of the wild. Fantastic stuff but TOO pricey. Now I get 4Health. Both brands are carried by TSC.

He's grown back his pants *laugh*



Scootie-no-pants


Scootie-with-pants

 

[jajeanpierre]

One of my cats was pantsless when he was on Purina chow. I know, super cheapo food... Money was tight. He ate By Nature before I got divorced, then to save money we used Purina... and his butt, legs and belly went bald. Eventually I decided he needed grainfree and went with Taste of the wild. Fantastic stuff but TOO pricey. Now I get 4Health. Both brands are carried by TSC.

He's grown back his pants *laugh*



Scootie-no-pants


Scootie-with-pants

This cat did the same thing! Bald belly and the inside of his legs. I thought he had been rolling or lying on fire ants nests or on one of their trails. There were little marks that were indicative of fire ant bites, but his whole belly went bald which was weird.

He's being fed a diabetic prescription cat food. I tried feeding him ground meat and liver (cooked) but he would have none of that. The places where ravens and crows are trained use something they call "meeces pieces" which I suspect are just chopped up mice, raw I think. I don't think I could cope with feeding the cat whole mice, that's for sure.d

I decided that the only reason I am putting him down is because I won't have a cat pot in my master bedroom. (I have door to the deck in my bedroom and until now it was never a problem.) Maybe I should just break down and put in a cat pot and clean it two or three times a day. Or, I could put him in the bird room, which also has a door to the deck. He won't be very happy, but I think if you asked him, he would choose that to euthanasia.

He's really failing. I'm going to keep my appointment and have his blood checked again to see if his insulin needs adjusting. He just crashed in two months. Last night, his back end was so weak, he had to use his front claws to haul himself up on the bed. I'm really shocked at how quickly he has deteriorated. Something else besides diabetes is going on I think.

I still might put him down today, but I think I'll leave that for another day. I just hate having old animals and I have a house full of them. My oldest Dachshund died at 13.5 years of heart failure when I was away. I have two of her daughters that are 11 years and a granddaughter who is 9 years.

 

[Kusanar]

I disagree that cats can't have any plant material, they do eat the contents of stomachs in the wild, which largely contain plant material. It's an important source of a number of vitamins.

I didn't say they couldn't HAVE it, just said they don't digest it well if at all. I know when a cat eats grass that it comes back out in much the same shape that it went in. Also, I rarely see cats eat the digestive tract of animals they kill. I have had cats all of my life and had to clean up lots of little piles of guts after they brought something in and ate everything but the guts.

Where did you get the information that meat by-products can be made up from pets that have been put down? I am willling to bet that practice would be highly illegal.

Ok, I don't know for sure, and I haven't done research, but a LOT of things that I have read and seen (admittedly mostly on facebook or linked to by someone on facebook, like I said, I haven't researched it, just ran into the info) have said that they are included in pet food.

Also they choose to eat grass on occasion... Think it has something to do with getting unwanted things out of their stomachs... Not sure that they digest it...

Exactly, they use the fiber every now and then to clean themselves out, but it doesn't really get digested that I've seen. Now, other than my boyfriends cat, I've never had a cat that was indoor only, they were also outdoor and able to catch, kill, and graze whatever they wanted in addition to the food I supply to them. If I was to have an indoor cat on a raw meat only diet I would have a pot of cat grass available at all times for them to use as they feel the need, but they certainly do not need corn....

 

[MargaretYakoda]

Does the bird go through its death throes as violently as when a head is copped off?

Well, I dispatched three using the broom method this morning. We've processed eight birds before this. Usually using the chop method, but a few were the result of a disaster where, in a rush (never process in a rush!) I had tossed three birds into a Rubbermaid bin before processing and they suffocated. Didn't mean to do that, and felt like hell about it ...
Anyhow, it's usually my partner who does the chop. This morning he didn't feel up to it. But we had had three cockerels in isolation for nearly 48 hours and I didn't want to put it off any longer.

So, I set things up in the laundry room, read the last couple pages here, and used the broom method. Worked perfectly for two birds. The third bird, however, I didn't get a good pull on the first time, and I had to do it twice.

My partner's just about through parting the birds out.

As for kicking, yes. The birds do kick for a couple minutes when using the broom method. But since the neck isn't cut yet, it's a great deal less messy.

 

[Tomtommom]

Glad it worked out for you

Having to redo it is still quick and not at all messy, unlike a botched chopjob.

 

[MargaretYakoda]

Glad it worked out for you


Having to redo it is still quick and not at all messy, unlike a botched chopjob.

Thank you, Tomtommom. I hadn't thought of that.

Also, my partner sucks at processing birds. That was unexpected, but it's true. He takes forever, overcomplicates the process, and winges about not liking the job.

Grump grump. Grump.

 

[LindaB220]

I just wanted to report back in on how our first chicken dinner went after all the help I got here. I brined it and roasted it. It was very delicious, but a little wilder than what I expected, and it's legs were a lot longer which made eating it a little strange. My younger son who wanted to help with the processing, but wanted to let the chicken run around decapitated (the whole story is available in this thread) thought it was delicious, and ate a lot. My older son was horrified and could not believe I would kill something I raised from a baby and then eat it. He refused to even eat the potatoes that were cooked with it and had bread and green beans for dinner. My husband was a trooper but I could tell he was a little creeped out.

I left the leftover in the fridge for about a day and a half, and then deboned it. Tossed the bones and vacuum sealed the meat to make chicken and dumplings later...but after the bones were out of site, I stole a bite, and it was fantastic! I think the lesson in this is that the chicken tastes better when the shape of it is gone so you are not trying to remember what it looked like...or to wait a while to eat the first one.

We had fast food bought fried chicken a couple of nights ago, and it was just nasty to me. films of fat everywhere and meat that seemed over processed and unnatural and sticky. That poor restaurant bird gave it's life for me to say that about it. Now, THAT's the real guilt people should have.

I am dreading the next processing day. Who wouldn't? But the key word is 'next'.

Easy, peasy, Put it in the fridge for 3 days to relax and then freeze it for about 2 or 3 wks. Don't make an issue of this is the chickens we killed. Just "We're have chicken tonight". My family had told me they will not eat anything I have raised. Except the eggs.