Freezing Home Made Barf Patties

[JeffnCel]

I went to the butchers today as I had ordered some minced chicken frames to make a fresh batch of raw meaty goodness for Buffy, and the darling butcher gave me an extra 2 kilos for free because "it's christmas". I'm just a bit worried about how long you can freeze your own barf patties for? If they're wrapped up well, do you think they'd be ok for about 2 months? I'm guessing that's how long this batch is going to last for.

If not... anyone in brizzy need some home made barf? Thanks everyone

[westiemum]

Hi JnC,

The commercial barf patties easily last two months and they don't contain any nasties (preservatives etc)... I've had them in the freezer that long as back-ups. So as long as they are really well frozen and don't freeze and unfreeze then freeze again before use IMO they should be fine.

Hope that helps,

Cheers,

Westiemum

Ed for clarity

Edited December 17, 2007 by westiemum

[Gayle.]

In a deep freeze (not the freezer compartment in the top of your fridge) they should last for at least 3 months, and if they're well wrapped and airtight, up to 6 months. After that they might start to suffer a bit of "freezer burn" but they'll still be ok to eat.

Use freezer bags and squeeze the air out of them before tying them closed.

[fbc]

I know u will all probably fall off your seats in shock at this question,

but what the hell are barf patties?

I have never heard of them before.

Ok now that you have finished laughing, get on your keyboards and explain, thanks

[JeffnCel]

They're part of your natural raw dog food diet. Whatever mince you choose, say minced chicken frames, mix it with vege pulp, and voila, a BARF pattie. When we feed it to her, we also add Missing Link (supplement), and also throughout the week we add in sardines, yoghurt, eggs. We use a combination of minced chicken frames and kangaroo mince. Buffy's not big on beef, but she does enjoy the beef bones. But she's mainly a chicken and roo girl.

Our patties make up her night time meal, with bones being her daytime meal. And she doesn't get a night time meal the nights we do training, she eats enough treats those nights!

EFS

Edited December 17, 2007 by JeffnCel

[WinGus]

Hi jeffncell

Sorry to hijack your thread, but where do you get your Missing Link from? I haven't been able to find it, although I must admit I haven't been looking very hard!

Sorry I can't add more to your thread. I make up Pepper's dinner fresh every night and don't make patties.

[JeffnCel]

We get our missing link from Mrs Flannery's Health and Wellbeing shop. Apparantly, they're not getting the "dog" one but the "human" one is exactly the same. So really, I'd think you could get it from any health food shop.

I would love to be able to make Buffy's food up every night, but our silly (but lovely) butcher insists that we buy at least 5kg's of mince at a time. This latest batch has given us a 2 1/2 month supply!!

[Gayle.]

I make my own "BARF" food.....bags of it rather than patties and I do it once every 2 weeks or so and freeze it in 500 gram lots. My little dog gets 150g, my big one gets 350g plus any table scraps that are suitable.

Just something to remember, if you are freezing quantities of it, remember to rotate what's already there and use that before the freshly frozen stuff.

[WinGus]

We get our missing link from Mrs Flannery's Health and Wellbeing shop. Apparantly, they're not getting the "dog" one but the "human" one is exactly the same. So really, I'd think you could get it from any health food shop.

I would love to be able to make Buffy's food up every night, but our silly (but lovely) butcher insists that we buy at least 5kg's of mince at a time. This latest batch has given us a 2 1/2 month supply!!

I thought as much with the Missing Link! I'll look out for the human one. Might help the ol' bod too!

I buy bulk meats too, but not 5kg!! Instead of making up patties I just freeze the meat in batches, enough for two or three days worth and defrost one batch every second or third day, then make it up fresh every night (combined with a vege mix that I freeze up in an ice cube tray on a weekly basis). Unfortunately, because Pepper is small and doesn't eat a lot, I have lots of batches of meat sitting in a freezer dedicated to her!! ;)

BTW, I do make sure that I label and date everything so that I know how long the meat has been in the freezer. I normally chuck anything that's been in there longer than five or six months.

[JeffnCel]

Yes we write on the little meat parcels the date, weight and ingredients, as we make some different ones up. This time is a bit more than expected.

This is our freezer

We're not quite sure what we're going to use as OUR freezer space ;) but at least Buffy will be well fed.

edit.. forgot to mention that we also had to use some freezer space at a friend's place, as it all wouldn't fit. If there's any hungry doggies in the Brisbane area they are very welcome at our place

Next time, I might try what you do, freeze vegie mixes, that would be MUCH easier than making up 7kg of meat goop

Edited December 19, 2007 by JeffnCel

[JeffnCel]

Just something to remember, if you are freezing quantities of it, remember to rotate what's already there and use that before the freshly frozen stuff.

Thanks for that info, that's a good tip!! We were down to our last three meals for Buffy, and I think Hubby has actually put them at the back of the freezer!!! I don't think I want to fish them out, but I will remember not to give them to her when we eventually get down to them.

[WinGus]

We're not quite sure what we're going to use as OUR freezer space but at least Buffy will be well fed.

That's what my freezer started to look like, so had to go out and get a bar freezer to put all Pepper's stuff in! Now our freezer is empty!! But at least we have lots of freezer room! Good to fill with frozen desserts!! ;)

[EllieD]

With your home made barf patties, what quantity vegetable do you put to the meat? I have been putting 50%, just wondering how that is to everyone else's?

Thanks

[fbc]

yep, i get the vague idea but being a bit on the hot and not functioning side at the moment would appreciate a full step by step instruction.

what do you mean by chicken frames???in my mind at the moment i am picturing a skeleton???

please bear with me, once i get the basic recipe i'll be right to add my own variations.

vegie pulp??? is that just another name for mixed vegies or am i missing something here as well???

yes folks are dumb where i come from lol

[JeffnCel]

LOL fbc... this is our second batch and we're still learning as we go along. We read the book by Billinghurt "Give your dog a bone" and went from there.

Vegie pulp is the remaining goop in the top of the juicer after you've juiced your vegies. This is apparantly the best way (I know of anyway) to get the vitamins from vegies into your dog.

I'm not sure on the mix between vegies and mince... I think we do about 2/3 mince, 1/3 vegies. I don't think it's 1/2 and 1/2 but then again, I don't really measure. I just put in what I think looks to be like a good mix. I probably should measure.

Yep, chicken frames are just the left over skeleton that the butchers don't use, and have realised they can make money out of !! Our butchers "pet mince" has offal in it, but Buffy doesn't like offal, so he puts some plain minced up chicken frames aside for us when we need them.

I think it's poodlefan or sivaro, they have a really good barf recipe. Have a search in here and I'm sure you'll find it. Really, we kind of follow the Billinghurst book, and by the looks of Buffy, she is just so healthy and full of energy, I think we're doing an ok job.

We also have some mixes that are plain minced chicken frames and minced roo, and another that is roo and veg. We also give Buffy plain chicken mince, and we add in sardines, yoghurt, an egg, and we always add missing link to her nighttime meal.

Hope that helps

[Sayreovi]

I do bulk buys and divide it up every 2 months, well actually i do it every month but i only have a certain amount of room, so after a month i have enough room to buy more meat then the next month i do the veggies and so on.

I freeze mine in containers as i find it easier, probably would have room if i did it in bags but it would be hard to seperate. Also dont mix the meat and veggies together they are frozen seperately.

[WinGus]

I've read Billinghurst's book as well as Tom Lonsdale's book. My mix is also about 2/3 meat, 1/3 veges, or thereabouts. I don't really measure either! One ice cube seems to be enough for Pepper, but then she is only 3.5kg. I'm not sure what that equates to if you have a bigger dog.

I usually just blend together a mix of veges as I don't drink juice. I make sure that there are at least two green leafy veges (eg. spinach, chinese veges etc.), one starch or heavier vege (eg. sweet potato or carrot) and one or two fruits, especially berries, for the antioxidants. The amounts of each vege are absolute guesses! Whatever looks right!!!

As JeffnCel mentioned, chicken frames are the left over whole skeleton after all the meaty bits have been filleted off. There normally is a small amount of meat still left on it. Lenards will sell you a bag of chicken frames for $1. You normally get four frames to a bag. I give Pepper a quarter of a chicken frame for brekky.

[JeffnCel]

Tollersowned do you think it would be ok that we've frozed ours together already mixed up?

We use a combination of carrots, pumpkin, sweet potato, cauliflower, apples, pears, brocolli and zuccini. We don't drink the juice, we just tip it down the sink. It seems wasteful, but really, cauliflower and apple juice isn't that appealing

We were buying our chicken frames from Lennards, but I think our specific lennards is just so cheap they did not leave one bit of meat on the frames. So we get them from a butcher now, 50c each, but there's quite a bit of meat on them.

[Sayreovi]

Tollersowned do you think it would be ok that we've frozed ours together already mixed up?

Honestly dont know enough about if its OK or not.

Ive just found it easier to divide up every day if they are seperate, as i have two dogs that get different amounts.

[Gayle.]

With your home made barf patties, what quantity vegetable do you put to the meat?

I made some up on the weekend and started with 4kg of meat and ended up with 6kg of mixture. So 2/3 meat, 1/3 "other stuff" which includes veges, eggs (I added 10), grated cheese, oatmeal, large tub of natural yoghurt.

I don't measure quantities, I work on the principle that variety is more important than exact measurements. To 4kg of meat, I added 2 zucchini, 3 carrots, 1/2 a small cooked pumpkin (I add the cooked skin, seeds, pulp as well as the flesh) and a bunch of bok choy, including the leafy green tops.