ok, i'll be honest....i find meat cuts completely confusing. when i'm in the grocery store, and getting something non-poultry, rabbit or fish (generally beef or pork then) i just eyeball the bone size as to whether the dogs can eat it. (i was surprised how hard they found ribs!)

i've wondered some of this stuff for a while, but i've always been too embarrassed to ask. i feel dumb not knowing

in talking about the eat wild link debbie posted. i'm looking at some of them to order, and yup, i need to get my big freezer (yes!) and probably i should buy a meat cleaver (i don't think i ever told you guys about the time i decided luc could break up the cornish hen for me....a bad idea, trust me).

but can you guys help me about the best way to order this? places that sell poultry i think i'm good with.

but say a place where you can:
Purchase your beef as a whole carcass,1/2,1/4(mixed) or smaller family packs.
A side of beef (1/2 ) is priced @$3.50/lb. including cutting and wrapping to your own specifications.(Based on carcass weight)

what sort of cutting is best for dogs? are there some bones/areas, assuming you're getting a part carcass, that are best to avoid? what would you ask for?

or a list like this:
http://www.centurygamepark.com/pricelist-order.htm

i've given the dogs bone in the blade steaks lots of times - is this like a t-bone steak? roasts don't have bones at all, right? i like the dogs to have a bit of bone at every meal.

sorry if this is a really stupid question, but it's something that completely confuses me and intimidates me a little bit about ordering outside of the grocery store....

I do not really think there is one best cut for dogs. I have to be careful that the T-Bones, Rib Eyes, prime rib and top round roasts stay in the freezer for Doug.

I am fortunate to be able to keep what I want from the trimmings on the cattle we slaughter as well.
There is tons of trimmings and I also have some of the fat ground up for some dogs that cannot keep weight on real well.

To be totally honest though, I do not feed a whole lot of beef. Buffalo yes, but beef is just something I feed once in a while.

I do keep the knuckle bones as well as the hip joints and what is left of the rib cages. My dogs are very methodical about cleaning recreational bones and do not try to consume them. All teeth check out good.

If you can find a meat locker, they can help you with what you want. Ours here sells $25 bundles all the way to $150 bundles and they include roasts, steaks (usually top sirloin), minute or cubed steaks, stew meat and hamburger.

Then you can get into the 1/4 beeves all the way to a whole one.

I would stick with sirloin, hamburger, ribs and flank. Also see if you can have the heart and liver as well. I consider heart a muscle meat and not organ, although I think it is considered an organ to some people.

Jennifer, this is what i do and i am sure someone else does it totally different but this works for me. The only bones i let my dog eat are from chicken, when i give beef or deer i give the meat only. Some bones are real hard and can hurt a dogs teeth, just depends on how aggressive the chewer is. i feed and oldie and she can crush most bones but i still limit the whole bones she consumes to chicken.

Like Carol and William, I would never be able to use up a side or quarter of beef for the dogs. I use poultry and rabbit (when I can get rabbit) for the RMBs, and beef makes its way into their diet as a small part of the variety (lamb, buffalo, fish, etc.) that I introduce to accompany the RMBs. I don't give much beef, and I don't find much in the way of digestible bones in beef.

That's just me, though.

thanks guys!

carol, that's great - thank you. i'd like to get the dogs some buffalo, so i was excited to see a place that sells that and elk, but without looking at the meat, i have no idea what the cuts are.

i class heart as a muscle meat as well. i usually can only find chicken hearts, and they're packed w/gizzards. i can get a variety of livers, kidney is usually beef kidney, and tripe i buy from a pre-made raw diet manufacturer, it's always lamb.

i don't feed a tonne of beef either, mostly b/c of the cost, to be frank. but i like the dogs to get a good variety, and teagan for some reason doesn't like seafood much - she likes canned fish, but not any other kind.

william, i know what you mean. teagan is a more sedate eater, luc eats w/a lot of....gusto. not that teagan isn't enthusiastic, but she's no luc i have started being more careful w/big bones w/them, b/c i worry about him cracking a tooth, with poultry, rabbit, and fish, i just don't have the same concern.

it's very helpful to know the best cuts b/c of the bone size. i do give the dogs recreational bones sometimes, but i don't want to place an order that is all big bones. i find the dogs do okay w/pork chop bones and bone in the blade steak bones, but with ribs.....well, to be honestly, eventually i took the bones away and went to bed (i don't give unsupervised bones) (don't worry, i did a switch w/the dogs to get the bones).

i really appreciate the help my mom doesn't know any of this stuff from a dog perspective, so it's very helpful.

edit: connie, thanks! i'm using the same bone sources. once i get a big freezer though, i'd like to spread out the meat variety, and like i said, i found the dogs can eat limited beef bones, but the different cuts do confuse me, especially if i was buying 'blind'. and i wasn't sure if i called the farmers, if they're going to know what is appropriate for a dog and what isn't.

Jennifer,

Have you tried the frozen whole mackerel for Teagan? I thaw them out a few at a time in cold water and just put them in the dish.

Jesea, who does not like seafood really either, loves these. And with Max, sometimes I leave them frozen and use them when working a trail for his reward from the helper. (I do give Nitro gloves if we use this cause of the fishy smell)

i haven't! i will try that.

i've tried smelt (she ate one, i think), rainbow trout (she will carry it around but not eat it) and skate wing (luc got to eat two that night, the little porker ).

she just doesn't seem interested, and i don't get why a dog who has such a love for canned tuna wouldn't like a trout, but she doesn't.

we used to use mackerel sometimes trapping feral cats, b/c it's nice and smelly. maybe she would go for it!

With large animals (hogs and beef) the spine and leg bones are going to be hard to consume. Some of my dogs can eat the ribs, but for puppies and Chi's even the ribs are recreational bones. When I feed muscle cuts from large animals I roll it in bone meal. Poops are all looking good with this method.
Your dogs could probably eat the shoulder blades. You could ask for those to be sliced up with some meat on them. The ribs can be cut to a specified length, normally the meat on the ribs is used for burger and the bone discarded. Other than that I don't think you have many bone options when feeding parts of large prey animals.
I know the locker I get scraps from throws away a lot of the trim pieces with meat and fat. If they will save those for you you would be doing pretty well.

thanks debbie! wow, now i really do want to get that freezer....i think that will be next month's big purchase

the bone meal is a good idea - i do have some, when teagan got diagnosed w/HD, we were also trying to rule out other possible issues since she wasn't going well, and the vet wanted me to cut out bone. i like whole bones for the dogs for their teeth, but bone meal is another good way to get the calcium etc.

i think it was pork rib that after 40 minutes, and they hadn't gotten through a single rib, that i gave up, took them away, and went to bed. which is strange, b/c i've seen luc get through far bigger bones, but for some reason....mind you, that was also the night i forgot to defrost any meat, and i don't have a microwave, so the ribs were briefly defrosted in hot water, perhaps the bones were still cold/frozen and harder b/c of that. i guess i shouldn't rule out ribs entirely.

If this any help, you really can't buy a whole or even a 1/2 side of ( beef, lamb, pork, etc. ) anymore.
We toured a meat processing plant in my Meat Science class at the Culinary Institute, it was a real eye opener.........

Meat is cut into "primal cuts" at the slaughter house and shipped that way.
The basic cuts are explained pretty well here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beef

Scroll down the page for the explanation of the cuts....


Hope that helps!