I got so carried away trying to source bone in meat and offal, that i've just realised - I don't actually know what to feed for muscle meat...I've been so occupied with going 'ooooh liver i'll buy that' I don't really know what I'm looking for re muscle meat - all I can think of is chicken breast (spot the ex-vegetarian), but that's silly and would get awfully expensive.

So, obviously the meat off chicken wings, the meat surrounding ribs, heart..IF I can source rabbits easily then the muscle meat off them...

But what else constitutes as muscle meat? I might feed chicks/mice a few times a week. But if I want to make up my own meals of 80/10/10 what shall I look to buy for muscle meat....??

I think I must have missed the past 2999 raw questions of yours hun

Re muscle meat, anything you can find really. Lamb shank, lamb shoulder, beef shins (cheap), braising steak and stewing steak (cheap), brisket, whole chicken (don't bother with chicken breast - pretty poor nutritionally - aim for something from leg, shoulder etc), whole duck, goat (if you have got an ethnic butcher near you), pork. Venison is a big favourite in my house (get it already diced as that is cheaper than getting a haunch etc).

Now that it is game season again you can pick up woodpigeon and quail quite cheaply (these can be fed whole), poussin (again you can feed that whole), pheasant.

If you are going to source it largely from a supermarket than going shopping in the evenings can mean picking up some great deals.

If you are going to use a butcher talk to them to see whether they can keep chicken carcasses for you, make you deals on off-cuts etc etc.

Does that help?

Brilliant thankyou ....I don't want it to come across as me being lazy asking so many questions, and believe me i've read so much recently (much the the detriment of any other work I should be doing) ...I just found myself in the supermarket staring at the meat going 'hmmmmmmmmmm' and realised that my knowledge of meat is pretty much chicken breast and steak ....my OH is friendly with a butcher, so he asked me what he should ask the butcher for 'ummm, meat?'

You will never come across as lazy hun

When it comes to meat go for the cheapest stuff you can find. Cats don't need prime steaks but the cheaper stuff (such as shins, stewing steak etc) tends to be slightly fattier and gristlier, which is what you are after.

And hey, if a vegetarian can just by looking at it say whether it is british lamb or new zealand lamb kidney, then so can you soon! It will be a big learning curve but so much fun!

Hope your freezer is big enough!

What would we (I!!!!!) do without you Hobbs Majorly impressed at your kidney identification skills!
I've only got a diddy freezer so have dedicated one drawer to the curly's (eating for humans is overrated anyway), and actually just called my mum to see if I can have some space in her freezer may commandeer some space in the freezer at work too...if I just label it as my lunch no-one will touch!!

I think a few one day chicks and a mouse for dessert for luncheon is going to raise a few eyebrows though

Would you have room for another freezer just for the cats and dog? You can pick them up for next to nothing on gumtree etc or even for free on freecycle/freegle etc.

Lol actually not!! was clearing out the work freezer the other week and found some chicks alongside the icecream from when we had a kestrel in that we fixed a broken wing on.Nothing phases a vet nurse lol

I live in a one bed flat so unfortunately nowhere to put another freezer I'll work on getting the dog onto raw once the cats are on it, as my mum has the dog during the week when i'm at work so persuading her to feed raw when she has him will be another matter....but then maybe i'll be able to persuade her she needs another freezer