Gun season is Nov 1st here and the Bow Hunt is already underway. I have a few hunter friends and want to put orders in for when they go to the butcher.

What do you ask for when placing a RAW dog food deer order at the butcher? I seem to remember Yuko feeding whole heads and the like. Though to me that might be a little hard to keep in the freezer, not to mention grossing out my wife and daughter!

Would you ask the butcher to grind the bones into the meat etc? How would I ask him to pack it especially meat-bone-organ mixtures? What do you all usually do?

Whole heads are only creepy if the eyeballs are still in.

I personally don't enjoy having my dog food stare at me every time I open the freezers, so if there are eyeballs left on the heads I pluck 'em off and use them as training treats (fun to explain that to people you run into on the training field, heehee).

Small heads are fine whole (lamb, baby deer). For really big heads, like whole pig heads, just ask the butcher to slice it in half (symetrically so you'd end up with one eye and one ear on each slice).

Or better yet, if your butcher's willing, ask them to chop up the pieces into meal sizes for your dog (1-2 lbs each). That's the most convenient for sure.

If you don't have a lot of freezer space, the grinding option might be best (you can fit in more).

I often get my organs ground up with tripe 'cause the pig heads take up a lot of space in the freezers and the ground mush allows me to take in more free stuff

I never have the bones ground up though. My dogs get so much enjoyment out of chewing, crunching and ripping up their meals. You should see the eyes widen & brighten on my pup's face when I present her with half a pig's head (probably weighs as much as she does).

She goes at it till she's full, then drags it around till she's exhausted and when she's snoring away digesting, I pick it up and pass it to the next dog. When he's full, I give it to the third one. If they can't finish it, I chuck it into the yard and they finish it off the next day.

During the winter, I take in WAYYY more (free) meats than my freezers can handle and I bury the excess under the snow in my backyard (away from where the dogs like to run around, though they know not to touch the food).
The presence of 3 highly territorial shepherds coming and going throughout the day is enough to keep the local wildlife away so I've never had a problem with raccoons or scavenging birds trying to steal from the buried stash in my yard.

As a fellow Ottawa resident, you can take advantage of this virtually unlimited freezing ability during winter too!!

http://s32.photobucket.com/albums/d33/Jenwilliams918/?action=view&current=Jen003.jpg

Not only are deer heads excellent nutrition, they're unsurpassed at creating warm feelings among siblings.

Beautiful, Jenni...

Btw, you mentioned a "tame" Christmas card of yours to me a while back. I'm still curious about that, do I get to see??


Oh and to not get too off topic... um, sheep heads are nice too! Not too big, not too small. Not as meaty as pig heads, but easier to stuff into the freezer and dogs love 'em:

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1242/663375385_7439469d02_o.jpg

http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1249/663375375_3c67e45f66_o.jpg

Are the dogs able to break up and eat the skulls too?

And hey, before they make it to the freezer you could have a few halloween props for the fence posts. Trick or treat!

Absolutely! They'll usually start by ripping off whatever meat/hide is on the outside, then they crack open the skull and slurp up the brains.
Once they're done with that, they meticulously rip off all the internal facial muscles and such and end up consuming most of the bones too.

They will usually leave the jaws behind (too hard) and they also spit out the teeth of the prey.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fHi3NWY12Fk


Lol!!! Brad you're a genius, I am SO going to put up heads around my front door this halloween


A few more deer head pics; the following head belonged to a young deer so the size is perfectly manageable:

Deer head in a bowl: http://static.flickr.com/112/304970792_11e8019af7_o.jpg

7-mo-old Taro taking the head for a walk: http://static.flickr.com/122/304970798_5b7bda5136_o.jpg

Moka meets deer head: http://static.flickr.com/106/305195912_8397028f1d_o.jpg

Moka finishes off the last of the deer head... http://static.flickr.com/106/305198778_c2f671db87_o.jpg

Fun stuff

 Quote: Yuko Blum

Or better yet, if your butcher's willing, ask them to chop up the pieces into meal sizes for your dog (1-2 lbs each). That's the most convenient for sure.

If you don't have a lot of freezer space, the grinding option might be best (you can fit in more).

I often get my organs ground up with tripe 'cause the pig heads take up a lot of space in the freezers and the ground mush allows me to take in more free stuff

I never have the bones ground up though. My dogs get so much enjoyment out of chewing, crunching and ripping up their meals. You should see the eyes widen & brighten on my pup's face when I present her with half a pig's head (probably weighs as much as she does).

As a fellow Ottawa resident, you can take advantage of this virtually unlimited freezing ability during winter too!!

Well that is what I was thinking of doing was getting the butcher to freeze it into 1 to 2 lb cubes for ease of handling. The RAW I get from our herding instructor is done in perfect 1 lb blocks for ease of use. I'm a lazy S.O.B so I like that!

Plus the fact I don't have a lot of freezer space either. I could probably bury some in a cooler or stash it away in the shed like you suggest once it gets really cold.

I talked to my main Elmer Fudd earlier and he will keep the organs and tripe for me. So you'd grind these together then?


Edited by Geoff Empey (10/23/2007 03:15 PM)
Edit reason: Yuko answered my ?? in previous post

Yes, our first 5 boxes of venison came in yesterday (on top of that my dh is a hunter so we get about 5 ourselves) and the dogs had a feast. We just bag it into enough to feed 3 dogs a meal and into the freezer (we now have 6 and counting!) it goes.

One slight problem... Rideau was enjoying a rather large piece yesterday and must have left parts of it in the backyard. So at 2am, 4am and 6am he wanted to go outside and check on it! He did the same thing when we got some moose a couple of weeks ago so we (me) came up with a new house rule - you give the dogs a bone you'd better pick it up before bed time... Now that dh had to get up with him 3 times last night I KNOW the rule will now be adhered to!

Hey Yuko, can you send me some venison? I don't have snow but I'm getting a new freezer soon

btw, Geoff, most of the game dressing butcher shops will do grinds of whatever you want...the one I go to does them in 30lbs boxes and will literally make them in any ratio I want...the only thing they won't do is non-bleached tripe. Evidently, there's some health code stuff when you have that around meat sold for human consumption. I think Angelique knows more about this than anyone on this board!

I like grinds for ease of feeding, but Brenna does love chewing on the bones and her teeth look great because of it. No tartar or stains anywhere

 Quote: Mike Morrison

the only thing they won't do is non-bleached tripe.

Would they...I don't know...look the other way while you got it out of the gut barrel?

A slaughter house that I use let me know what day they kill if I would like to get the leftover stuff. They pay to have it taken away, so if they trust you they might let you take it for free. Don't forget to tip though.