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.