Venison!
Submitted by BellaStellaBulldog on October 9, 2010 - 10:24pmSo I found a local taxidermist who deals with Ranch Culls and is going to process a whole deer for me (=35lbs of lean meat + a few lbs of beef fat) plus give me some cut up leg bones and lots of organs (because most hunters see it as waste. - Anyway... all of that for $80. 35lbs + some will last each of my dogs a month. I was giving Stella (my preg Bully) and Dolly (my 4 year old spayed Lab) each 1lb a day of natures variety raw (as per directions on the box) and I was going to be spending well over $300 a month on food... but, I can now spend $160 and get venison plus bones and feed them for the whole month... 1/2 the price! - I think I'll still give them the occasional chicken back (once a week) and because my taxidermist guy doesn't grind bone he said I could buy ground bone meal at the local feed store and if I brought it to him he'd mix it in with my raw. He's going to grind the raw (plus organs) up into meat a little thicker than hamburger so it's easy to eat. I'll probably add some priobotics, sardines and eggs a couple times a week to level things out.
I did finally get my books in too. I got one about making raw easy... and then another about ancestral diet... (something like that)... I read both about 1/2 way through before giving them to my dad because he thinks I'm going to kill my dogs... Thinks Kibble is specially designed to fit their exact needs and that feeding raw is horrible. So I gave him those and he is a reader (cause he likes to prove me/people wrong... so I know he'll read them and hopefully, at the very least, accept my decision and not see it as terrible and neglectful.
How did your family/friends react when you started raw?
They all think I am crazy!!!!!
My Husband and kids go deer hunting a few times per year. We take a few good cuts for ourselves and Eddie gets the rest. I have a local butcher where we get all the beef organs, gound bones etc. My parents and brother can't believe I hand cut up lamb tripe. I find is so satisfying watching my bully enjoy his raw meal. When he was on kibble it was a fight to get him to eat.
Sandra & Eddie
good look'n boy too
well he's certainly healthy looking :)
people all have different ideas on raw
alot of people including vets feel your dog will not get the right vit and minerals...they have been brain washed by all the cute commericals....dogs are a meat eaters...they have short digestive tracts...i dont argue with people...when they ask i tell them..and then show them my dogs are healthy .we.see the vet once a year for a health check....and many just shake their heads....i mean you cant argue with a healthy dog...who has no health issues..their teeth cant get any whiter .... even my vet now just says their doing great and that he has never seen any bulldog with less health issues than mine....and believe me my crew eats a more healthy balanced diet than i do !!!!!!
ground bone??
So I am still pretty new to raw feeding..my question is do you just go to the local locker plant and ask them for what? Do you tell them it's for your dogs? Do you request them to grind the bone with the meat?
I just havent had the nerve to go ask yet!! I know DUMB!!!
You aren't dumb
If you are then a lot of us are! I am guessing you are not from the U.S.? I am not familiar with a locker plant so that's why I say that. However, I don't have any idea if normal meat processing plants here in the U.S. would grind bone. I think some people have butchers who maybe grind bone. I think some people have their own bone grinders or just use a mallet too.
If you were asking the question in response to my post... I started with Nature's Variety Instinct Frozen Raw and it has ground bone in it already. It's a pre-processed and packaged raw that is sold at a local healthy petfood store.
As for the other meat I ordered (the deer)... I did go in and tell him I wanted it for a dog. I told him I wanted the organs mixed in and asked if he could grind bone. He said he doesn't have a bone grinder so it won't be included.
Also, for another experience. I went to a new "meat market" today that's down the street from me and picked up some chicken leg quarters, oxtail, pig hoofs, beef and pork chunks and several other things. They didn't have a bone grinder either but I didn't mind telling them I was giving the food to my dogs. They looked at me like I was a little crazy but I can handle that. I pay for it so I don't think they really care where it goes. - Some people just think it's weird to give dogs raw so I get strange looks now and then.