It Ferminted*** Why?

Hi guys,

The wife found three 2wk old kittens so we mixed up some kitty food and it ferminted. Why? what caused our mixture to fermint?

The ferminted mix:
1tsp Mayo
1 Egg yoke
1tbs Kyro
Caned chicken chunks
Heavy cream cut with 1/3 water
Blender until smooth

Were now using plan B, heavy cream cut with 1/3 water, can tuna in oil (drain off oil), blender until smooth. This works well for using a syringe for feeding.

T_Bone

Probably the Kayro syrup, adds to much sugar which promotes fermentation.

Hi TT,

Yes I agree that the kayro sugars were the seed but what did they react with too start the fermentation process.

I should have added that all the ingridents were at room temperature, approx 80ºf max, when the reaction occured, about 4hrs latter.

T_Bone

Hey T bone, that sounds like a mixture that any microbe would love. It could be bacterial rather than yeast growth. The eggs are notorious for salmonella, 80 F is ideal for exponential growth. Maybe best to keep cool till feeding time. Dan

How about the vinegar in the mayo?

Hi T_Bone,

There are wild yeast spores floating around in the air. Wine was made this way for several thousand years before the contribution of yeast to the process was understood and wine yeast, or some yeast bearing substance, was added for the specific purpose of starting fermentation. A lot of home made alcoholic beverages are still made this way all over the world, but all serious vintners, brewers, and distillers add yeast which has been cultured specifically for the desired end product. Sometimes the fermentable liquid is sterilized before the yeast is added to reduce the potential for wild yeast to interfere. Wild, free range yeast that make vinegar rather than alcohol are floating around, too. Getting vinegar rather than wine is the worst outcome of casual winemaking (not counting DUI's and hangovers.)

You may remember the bad reputation that home brewed beer got during Prohibition. Perfectly good quality malt syrup was available, and there was no reason that beer as good as that made by serious home brewers today couldn't have been produced. What people often produced, though, was something that tasted like cider flavored low grade fuel. Generally this was for two reasons: white sugar was added to the brew to increase the alcohol content, and bakers yeast was used rather than brewers yeast. White sugar creates a cider taste, and bakers yeast leaves a funky taste. It was potent, so people kept making it, but when Prohibition ended nobody ever wanted to have to drink any more of it.

All the best, Stan

sugar and moisture.if you refridgerate a mix it is less likely to ferment. our feed store has had some bagged feed do that. i never did find out how a drunk horse acts..lucas

Just read about a cat and dog food recall today. A lot of the stuff sold at Wally world. Salmonella problems.

Hi Guys,

Thanks Scotty for the vinegar lead as that was exactly what I was smelling and not the fermentation process.

Interesting reading Stan. I didn't realize there was free air-borne yeast spores.

From all the replies, it was time too take a closer look. My tuna/cream mix also exhibited the same symptoms as the chicken/cream mixture.

What I'm pretty sure happened, the meat was finely chopped then encapsulated with air that made this " meat foam" lighter than the heavy liquid that sank to the bottom.

After about 12hrs setting at room temperature, you could clearly see a thin liquid at the bottom with a air foam top.

If I skimmed off the foam, this was heavy in larger meat particles and would not pass thru the syringe orifice. The finner minced meat contained with-in the liquid would easy pass thru the syringe orifice.

I just mistook the "meat foam" for fermentation. All I could see is three little bellies growing extremely larger with no way to pass off the gas of fermenting.

T_Bone

YUCK! No wonder it fermented!