Diatomaceous Earth For Food Preservation

I tried out my first batch of cat food with diatomaceous earth on it. Rather I did it and my cats ate it. They seemed to appreciate it. I mixed a different kind of cat food with their usual when I did it. I am not certain what did the trick to get them to like it. I will keep doing the same thing since it worked.


I can see why one is advised to use the diatomaceous earth in small batches. It took a LOT of stirring to coat the cat food nuggets evenly. 


The amounts of diatomaceous earth for preservation of different foods seems to be consistent between people advising about it and the different foods as well.
Most say about a cup of diatomaceous earth for about 50 lbs. of food. I have seen some that get as low as 1/2 a cup for 40 lbs. of food, but that is not that much difference.


The exact amount does not seem to be as important as evenly coating each grain/piece of food. 


I suspect that once I have diatomaceous earth coated grain as a regular part of my diet, I will be able to stop or cut down my daily dose of diatomaceous earth for treatment and prevention of parasites.


The cats probably won't need to be dosed for parasites with DE either, once they are always eating it on their dry food. 


If you decide to treat your pet's food with DE, you might want to take extra care that they do not become constipated. I think oat grass is the best prevention. It is also very good for the general health of cats. If cats stay indoors they especially need oat grass.


Once cats start eating oat grass they really like it. Mine try to persuade me to give them a fresh tub before they finish the one they are working on. I am working on getting more tubs of oat grass into their rotation, so it will be fresh for them more often.


Both of them get very excited and yell a lot and sit up and beg for it when they see me bringing out a new tub of oat grass. They are always really happy when they get it.


My equivalent of oat grass is sprouts. I grow my own and eat them a lot. I keep sprouts in my sprouter all the time, but am probably going to make some extra ones to make it easier to have more than one kind at a time. I like the mixed sprout salads better than only one kind of sprouts at a time.


You can mix seeds of different types of sprouts in one container, but I don't like the same mix in everything I use the sprouts in. An example is radish seeds. The sprouts from radish seeds are spicy tasting and overpower the flavors on some things.


It is a pleasant feeling to eat a meal that I grew myself, even if it is only something as simple as sprouts. You might like it as well. It is also a way of eating what we store.

Store What You Eat And Eat What You Store

A great way to waste money on your food storage is to buy one of those expensive prepackaged deals with all the food you need for a year.


The way to be certain that your stored food will be fresh when you need it is:
Store what you eat and eat what you store.


Store what you eat. Pick foods to put in your storage that you like and eat all the time. You can even make yourself sick if you suddenly make a drastic change in your diet during an emergency. It can be comforting to have your familiar foods to eat during an emergency. You already know how to cook the foods that you eat regularly.


Thumbing through cookbooks with a flashlight for recipes and instructions to cook unfamiliar foods is not going to be a good experience. Making up recipes as you go, with unfamiliar foods is probably not a good idea either.


Eat what you store. If the foods in your storage are ones that you use regularly, it is easy to simply rotate them into your daily diet. You will need to work out a system to ensure that older foods are used first. As you replace the food that you eat, the food in your storage will always be fresh.


I have made some changes in my diet because of my food storage. An example of this is sprouts. I did not use to eat as many sprouts as I do now. 


Sprouts are an ideal food for storage. Seeds do not take up much room considering how much food they will become once you water them and turn them into sprouts. The seeds for sprouting do not require a refrigerator or freezer to store. They pack a great deal of nutrition and fiber into food once they are sprouts.


I began eating more sprouts so that my seeds in storage would always be fresh. I needed to use them up faster in order to require the seeds to be replaced. This keeps my storage seeds fresh, and lowers my regular food bill by not having to spend as much on fresh produce. 


I eat healthier than I used to, by eating more sprouts. I also enjoy my meals more with very fresh sprouts to eat.


Thinking and planning can lower the cost of both your food storage and of your daily diet. This can also make your food storage more useful when you are in a disaster, and prevent waste.