My friend Heather has inspired me to make some small steps toward being more eco-friendly. I started with some easy things. Rather than scooping the litter boxes and putting the “nasties” in an empty (used for cat food) plastic freezer bag, I’d use paper bags. Hopefully, even though they’re still going to landfills they’ll eventually disintegrate so future generations aren’t dealing with plastic bags full of cat poo. Also, rather than putting the homemade cat food in those plastic freezer bags, I’m using plastic tubs, which can be washed and reused. Baby steps.
The drawback to the tubs is the food takes much longer to warm than in the bags. I was tossing a bag of food in a bowl of warm water before meals, doing some other things, then pulling it out and serving. I’m doing the same with the tubs, but perhaps because they float so they’re not surrounded by warm water, they just don’t warm nearly as quickly. This morning, the food was still cold – still frozen in the center, but I had to get going (see Late-ness) so I just stirred it up and served it.
The cats were HORRIFIED. Louie didn’t eat. Afer ate only a little. Omaha barely nibbled. Rumpelmintz was yelling and complaining and hitting other cats for eating any of the cold breakfast, as they might convince me this was acceptable.
Studley and Latifah still ate well. Latifah ate her own and tried to finish everyone else’s. She said she didn’t mind.
I take out my containers the day before and thaw them in the fridge and serve the following day. Since you have pickier cats, 😉 you can thaw them in the fridge in advance and then throw them in the warm water like before to warm them.
I STILL am trying to find an eco-friendly, asthma-friendly, cost-friendly cat litter. OY!
I’m still not sure even putting paper bags in the landfill will decompose effectively since they will be surrounded by plastic and it needs to be exposed to the elements to decompose. It’s better than doing nothing though. It’s so darn difficult to be effectively earth friendly.
I put my containers in the fridge a day or two ahead, then put them in a bowl of hot tap water 30 to 60 minutes before the meal… I still had the above issue. I’m going to have to start thinking three days ahead.
Remember – a meal-sized container is a BIT larger for my brood than your two boys. 😉
Since it takes forever to get hot tab water at my house, I spoon out enough for two cats and heat it in a glass container filled with hot water from an electric broiler like the ones here -http://www.zojirushi.com/ourproducts/elepots/electricpots.html. Food is usually ready in a couple of minutes (never timed myself).