bulk raw food makers - advice pls

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laur+danny+horde

laur+danny+horde

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Hi everyone, sorry I haven't been around much. I am working with cat rescue/TNR these days and so things are very busy. Many of the cats/kittens are in poor shape upon arrival so to bolster their health, I am feeding primarily raw... with enough canned so they remain accustomed for adopters who feed canned. Made mistake of starting one on raw and she refuses everything else now :YMSIGH:

Anyway, my question is for those of you making large batches. How long does it take you to make a large batch? I am buying 100 lb a week of ground chicken/turkey/rabbit from hare-today (about $3 per pound, delivered) and thinking home-ground might be cheaper... getting eaten out of house & home due to slow adoptions. But time is precious also, so I'm hoping to get ballpark estimate of time to grind large batches. BTW I supplement with platinum performance.

Is there a mega heavy duty grinder suitable for such large quantities?

Thanks in advance,
laur
 
I just recieved my grinder which is a tasin - lots of folks use them but I am not for sure about the quanity you are doing. This one cost 150.00. Sold from one stop jerky shop. They do have another one that is around 300.00 that might be better. I am not anywhere near the quanity you are doing, but I know that I will increase from what I am doing now - 3 lbs at a time (very very small amount) but that machine is great! Loud, but very quick. I buy chicken in 10# bags from walmart - semi cook and chill, then next day grind. WE are in transition and the girls seemed to like that better than the complete raw at this time. I know the site I am using for raw recipt is good site to visit. http://catinfo.org/?link=makingcatfood#Introduction.
I also am using canned food until the girls get to where they will eat all raw.
 
I do #30 about every 2- 2 1/2 weeks and have done so for at least 4 years. takes me approx. 4-5 hours start to finish but I do take meat off bones and chunk that. could cut 2 hours or so off time if you do not do that. I follow Dr. lisa's recipe but I do not par cook mine. I just rinse very well. I also buy the #10 bags from walmart
 
Thanks for the info. Is that time for single or double ground? I plan to only grind coarsely since they already eat coarse-ground HT. Plus some I would just chop with a cleaver, I guess. Do you mind estimating your cost per pound of finished food (e.g. meat/bone plus supplements, ignoring added water weight). That is a lot of time and unless it is substantially less than $3, I can't see how home-made would be worth it for me.

Do any of you have problems with your kitties getting chubby on the raw? I have a kitten and two cats that are eager raw eaters... too eager, really. They have gotten quite chunky. Is it your experience that they do slow down on their consumption like I've read?

Thanks,
laur
 
single grind but I use the smallest plate that comes with the tasin.
chicken pries have risen since I started, from 3.98 - 5.98 I buy all my supplies from I-herb or puritans pride and I wait for a sale to stock up. none of my cats have gained weight on this but I only feed twice a day and no more than I would feed regular canned food. I do use all the skin (fat) from the thighs/legs. if you want raw to be leaner use only half the amount of skin. I have no clue of the cost/time for supps cause as I said, I buy when on sale and stock up. I always have the top shelf of freezer full. when the first row is gone, I make another #30 and rotate the stock. I could wait for a month and make all over again but do not like to run out. gotta do whatever is easier for you. I personally find it time consuming, but like I said, I do remove all meat from bones and chunk it so they have something to chew on.
would take much less time doing what you are doing. buying already ground and adding supplements. just be careful with the course ground. some of the bones can be pretty large. I personally am not comfy with that so I started using the smallest plate to grind mine
 
We use pre-ground meat (venison from my dad... I may request that he do some with bones this year!), so I can't help with the time.

With the custom recipe that I got from Dr. Lisa, it recommends 4-6 oz. per day. Because I'm almost out of meat, I've also been rotating in some canned. I find that Willie eats much less when feeding raw than when feeding canned, in part from less "flavor," but in part less because he is better satiated from food that is meeting his nutritional needs more efficiently.

Good luck!!
 
I grind about 16 pounds every 3 weeks for my crew and it usually takes me an hour and a half from set up to clean up. I don't chunk the meat, I rinse instead of par boiling, and I do a single grind as well. This is for chicken thighs and I use a cleaver to chop the thighs up into 1.5in cubes to easily send through the grinder.
 
I've done 15lbs once so far.
It took me 2hrs from start to finish.
I partially cook mine, and I can only put so many chicken thighs in the oven at a time. What I did was take the first batch out of the oven and chunk meat and throw bones through the grinder while I was cooking the second batch-sort of an assembly line.
I have 2 5mo old kittens, so that will only last 15 days!!!! Little buggers sure can eat! Hopefully when they are done growing that will last a bit longer than a pound a day!
On her website, Dr Lisa lists it at $2.00/lb of finished food. You must be close to Hare-today, because shipping costs drive it up to more than $5/lb for me!
 
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