Okay my fellow raw feeders... I have yet another question for you!

This time it's about blood. It's everywhere. I don't even want to look at the bottom of the raw food freezer because I imagine this frozen ocean of bodily fluid. I just want to know how to get rid of it. It's all over the food (obviously), all over the bags (inside, outside, stuck in the ziplocks), and all over everything it touches. I can't even thaw stuff out to feed without putting it onto thick folded towels to soak up the blood that comes leaking out.

The bloodiest things (like the chicken livers and hearts, for example) I have taken out and rebagged. They're all triple bagged. In a big ziplock and two grocery bags. I think a huge problem (well, not really a problem as it saves me loads of money) is that I buy all of my food in bulk from a co-op so it literally comes all frozen together in one giant block. For example, I just got 40lbs of chicken backs. And it's literally that. Two 20lb plastic bags stuffed with chicken backs.

I'm not trying to completely eliminate the blood as I know it's good for them and both Conan and my kitty love it.

But what do you guys do to keep clean? Every time I bag up food for the next few weeks it looks like a murder scene. And everyone around me feels like I'm contaminating everything! I just figure, there's GOT to be an easier way to do this that I can't think of.

I'd thaw it ONLY enough to separate it into smaller packages.

ETA
Oh, and I keep a container in the fridge (a big tray meant for holding food off the ice in a big cooler) that holds all the raw food baggies.


Edited by Connie Sutherland (06/30/2010 07:39 PM)
Edit reason: eta

We do. It's usually still half frozen or more and we use a hammer and a screwdriver to act sort of like an ice pick and separate it. But that blood! It still just comes pouring out!

Can you partially thaw the large bags in a tupperware container or something similar and then bag stuff, and then pour the blood in either the bags or a separate container? The only time I have this issue is either when I thaw a large bag which I did not realize had a tear, or when I used to bag up each meal separately. When I bagged up each meal separately, sometims a bone would perforate the bags and cause the problem.

Now, I have a large tupperware bowl in the "spare" fridge which I have a mixture of items to be fed. I simply feed by "sight" now (I used to weigh to the ounce..) and the tupperware bowl catches any juices. When I have to partially thaw a large bag, I do so in a container.

I hope this helps and is clear! You will figure out a system which works and with which you are comforatble, or NONE of us would be feeding raw!

BTW... any sponges or wipes I use to clean counters, dishes, etc... get moistened and put in the microwave for two minutes. Kills stuff good!

Someone is packing the original RMBs, etc., and then leaving them out of the freezer for long enough for the blood to accumulate outside the RMBs, and then when you start to thaw, that's the first thing that thaws.

At least, that's all I can think of.

I'd do that partial thawing in/over a container.

 Quote: Barbara Schuler

... BTW... any sponges or wipes I use to clean counters, dishes, etc... get moistened and put in the microwave for two minutes. Kills stuff good!

Or dishwasher.

Either way, I reserve them carefully for just that one purpose. Then I dampen a paper towel with bleach for the final pass on counters, etc., if they got yucky. However, they pretty much don't, since I do the whole operation over the container.

See! I knew there was stuff I wasn't thinking of

Tupperware is something I need and don't have. And a big bucket or container to thaw the big bags is perfect. And microwaving the sponges too. Here I've been washing so many towels! The bones definitely poke holes in the bags, or sometimes when we're making room for stuff in the freezer they tear from being stuck and pulled on.

Thanks!!

Thanks to you too Connie

I do all my thawing and separating outside, usually on my big "raw food separating only" blanket on the lawn.

Fabulous. I love how I can get the answer to everything on this board!

 Quote: Katie Finlay

See! I knew there was stuff I wasn't thinking of

Tupperware is something I need and don't have. And a big bucket or container to thaw the big bags is perfect.

Go cheap... Walmart stuff is perfectly fine and a douse of Clorox doesn't care what brand it is disenfecting!

Will do Barbara

I recently raided my local 99 cent store for plastic bags and gloves. I wonder what employees think when we buy all this stuff.