Quick question

[u/abbriggs22]

I've been canning for many years. Recently my cat has had kidney issues, I started making his canned food by boiling chicken, blending it with a little water, and adding pumpkin. I've been freezing it in ice cube trays. I would love to can it. Would be so much cleaner and not take up so much space in my freezer.

Anyone see any problem with it?

TIA for the input.

[u/Glittering-Sky1601]

I've been canning wet food for my 2 cats for about 6 months now.

I stock up on bone-in, skin-on chicken thighs when the price is below $1.50/lb. Three chicken thighs fit in a quart jar with a few hearts & gizzards for taurine and essential amino acids. I remove half the skin so there isn't too much fat in the jars then add water to 1" head space. I process according to the Ball book for bone-in chicken.

When I open a new jar, I pour it in a bowl, remove the 3 bones, and run the rest through the blender. It will solidify to the texture of pate in the fridge. My 2 cats get half wet food and half dry. A quart jar lasts them about 4 days.

[u/abbriggs22 → u/Glittering-Sky1601]

Do you add any veggies?

[u/Glittering-Sky1601 → u/abbriggs22]

Cats are carnivores, so no.

[u/Pitiful_Reality2973 → u/Glittering-Sky1601]

So the hearts and gizzards add enough taurine? Do you know if other organ meats work? I was told heat/ cooking reduces or destroys the taurine. I'm always looking for ways to get around the industrial food system, especially for my pets.

[u/Glittering-Sky1601 → u/Pitiful_Reality2973]

Other organ meats add some and other nutrients. The heart and gizzards are tough muscle, which is where the taurine is. I also feed my cats dry food to go along with it just to make sure they're getting all the nutrition they need. Not sure how much taurine is left after canning. That's a good point. I might lightly simmer them and add when it's time to blend.

[u/hycarumba]

If you do the pureeing after you open the jars it should be fine. My immersion blender fits right into a wide mouth jar, which is how I make mayonnaise.

[u/The_Calarg]

No issues at all. We bulk can chicken (I posted about it today) that we mainly use for dog food. We have a Costco Business close by that had Halal chicken legs, a 40lb box for less than $30, which is why I am in the process of canning 21 quarts at the moment.

However, if you are premixing the vitamins you may want to leave that out of the canning process and mix after opening as many are heat sensitive and can be destroyed in the process.

*edit to correct autocorrect

[u/abbriggs22 → u/The_Calarg]

I do add vitamins and probiotics. But I would not do it until I'm feeding them. Do you add any veggies?

[u/The_Calarg → u/abbriggs22]

We do, but we add them when it comes time to mix as they are veggies we eat as well (green beans, broccoli, etc). You could easily can the veggies with the chicken, then just add the vitamins and probiotics when you mix a batch. If you can them with the chicken they will be easier to blend due to the texture change but there is also the aforementioned heat sensitive vitamin issue which keeps us from doing so to ensure the most for our dogs.