Have read the site for over a year now just a few days ago made the switch to raw with my 2 year old gsd Samson. I searched the site and couldn't seem to find how many days worth of food any of you may keep thawed and ready to feed?

When I was given him 9 months ago, his owner was deployed overseas and couldn't keep him, he was on Ol' Roy. I switched him to Chicken soup raw just seemed so intimidating to me. Last bag I bought was premium edge because they were out of chicken soup food.

Three weeks into it he started vomitiing and having diarreah. Vet gave him some antibiotics and he started doing better. I emailed the company that makes the foods after the last batch of recalls asking if maybe there was a problem with the bag I had and got blown off by their vet. At that point I decided to not take chances buying kibble since none seem safe atm and switched him to raw. Seems so much easier than I thought.

He is actually happy to eat now. Before he'd let it sit and skip meals often. Now he's hopping and spinning for his food.

Any help is welcome since I am so new to this.

Thanks so much for this great board with the forums and wonderful articles.

Pam and Samson

I'm only 3 weeks into feeding raw myself so....
I like to keep no more than 3 days worth thawed out in the fridge. Usually I make up about 2 days worth, then after the morning meal of the second day I pull more out of the freezer and let them thaw in the fridge and then pack up 2 more days that night.
Mike

My dogs are pigs so I have a huge plastic bin that fits on the bottem shelf of the fridge and keeps about a week's worth in it....there are 3 of them and there's a lot of stuff in there. On rare occassions something will start to smell gamey but they seem to LOVE that so I don't worry about it. Just keep a spray bottle of bleach water by the sink so I can keep the deck scrubbed down and it's all good.

I keep about 3 days worth in the fridge. We have a dedicated plastic bin as well. Only one 93lb dog, so 3 days worth is 6 ziplock baggies of meat. When we're down to the last day I'll take out another 3 day's worth and actually let it get a head start thawing in a bowl on the counter before I move it to the fridge (it's still usually a little frosty when I put it in the bin...). I've fed slightly "gamey" meat as well with no problems - as long as it's not growing anything funky or changing colors, I think it's totally fine. I've been advised not to thaw meat all the way through at room temperature, which will lead to it getting gamey more quickly, but I do start it out on the counter (it takes many days to thaw in the fridge...). *I don't live in a very warm climate, so the house temp. is pretty cool on average.

I also supplement with a veggie mush mixture which I make in big batches and freeze in quart containers. The container lasts about a week and then I thaw out a new one.

~Natalya