With the upcoming hunting season, I will have an absolute abundance of deer meat. We will also be butchering the deer ourselves this year, so I will have everything there is to have on a deer. This will be done with probably 5-10 other hunters, if not more, who will most certainly fill their bag limit. While most of the meat will go in the freezers of the combined families for consumption, I will still have a vast amount of meat, bones, and organs.

Is it possible for me to feed a balanced diet of deer parts? And if so any suggestions on how to go about it?

Also on a sidenote, I have a co-worker who breeds rabbits. I asked him if he would care to bring me the rabbits that died natural causes. He told me he would be more than glad to. I have an adult GSD and an adult Bloodhound. Would one whole adult rabbit (skinned or unskinned, suggestions?) be enough for one meal for them?

I usually partially skin rabbits at first or cut them in half to get the dog started on a carcass. Now if I hand the rabbit to the dog she knows exactly what to do.

How heavy are these rabbits (rabbit breeds vary from 2-20 lbs), are they adults or kits?

The deer scraps will be high in bone/low on meat.
If you feed them all the guts (organs and intestines) it will help the meat/bone ratio. They will also get some veggie glop in the deal. True prey model feeding is what the dog would get eating the whole animal.
Keep in mind that deer liver has encysted tapeworms so you either need to deworm your dogs periodically or freeze the liver at 0* for 30 days to kill the tapeworms.

Hunting season is a BONUS here at my house.
All is frozen at 0 temps for at least 10 to 20 days. Carcasses are tossed into the day yard and each dog gets a turn on them.

I do not consider organs and guts to equal out meat to bone ratios as organs should only be 5% of total daily meals (I think that is right, I always type it wrong)

If I have a carcass that has minimal meat on it, I add ground turkey, buffalo, chicken or beef to their meals.

I do not add bone when allowing carcass feeding.

As far as rabbits, have you calculated your dogs weight into what they need per day? This will tell you if they need a whole rabbit, half a rabbit or somewhere inbetween.

If I am feeding rabbit, they each get one a 1lb to 1.5lb rabbit (usually fur, organs and all) that day and then either veggie glop or Honest Kitchen for the other meal.

I do not weigh or anything anymore, but rather go by the look of the dog, so I would need to reference my "book" on raw.

I add salmon oil and vitamin e to one meal a day, eggs (whole) three times a week.

I'm not for sure about the rabbit weights, as my co-workers wife breeds and "shows" them. I asked in hope of getting the occasional dead rabbit. Not for sure on anything other than that.

Thanks Debbie for the reminder about the liver! If I fed a whole head, what would that count for and how often would you recommend feeding a head?

Also, there shouldn't be any problem with me adding some of the softer bones (i.e. rib bones) to their daily diet?

Correct me if I'm wrong, the back leg bones would be recrational bones, right? Would the back bones (vertebrae sp?) fall into the soft bones category where I would feed them as part of a meal, or are they rec bones too? And where along the categories would the front leg bones fall?

I have this resource, and I want to use every bit of it that I can. I'm trying to make myself a plan of every single part that I will have and how I can use it!

Thanks Carol, you must have been posting while I was. Do you take any of the bones off of the carasses or do you just let the dogs have turns chewing on the whole thing, like the head and everything?

I was planning on adding the organs a little bit to each meal, so that way if I don't balance it correctly at first, it will do it overtime. Does that sound good?

I usually give egg every other 1 or 2 days.

 Quote:

I'm not for sure about the rabbit weights, as my co-workers wife breeds and "shows" them. I asked in hope of getting the occasional dead rabbit. Not for sure on anything other than that.

Occasional dead rabbit? Ha!

The breeder friend I buy from says he can go through up to 20 or 30 before finding a really good conformation bunny. That means a lot of collateral damage. He also says that they (rex rabbits) peak at around 11-12 weeks of age (5 pounds give or take). Beyond that they continue to grow, but get proportionately fatter.

So 5 pounds is a big meal...but very do-able for my 75 pound GSD.

As for deer, other than the leg bones and antlers, the dog should have no problem with anything else. Let 'er rip. Head and everything.

A large amount of collateral damage would be nice, but I think the guy's wife wouldn't be thrilled with the rejects becoming lunch! He says she won't sell them to anyone wanting to kill them for food, so I figured my best shot was to get a dead one tossed my way every once in a while. He informed me that their rabbits were very healthy, and that his wife had been dubbed the "Rabbit Whisper" because of her uncanny ability to treat the ailing rabbit. I'm hoping she isn't as good as he says! =)

I was just curious how often some of this should be fed.

Any suggestions on how often the heads should be fed? Because I live in a very populated deer area, with an equal amount of vehicle population; deer heads would be one of the easier things to speedily remove from road kill!

 Quote:

He says she won't sell them to anyone wanting to kill them for food...

Give me a -f-ing break. I wouldn't even bother then. Sounds like more trouble than it's worth.

We cut the front and rear legs off, deer legs are exceptionally hard so we throw those out. I do not feed heads. Just preference I guess.

Wish I could find 5lb rabbits....the ones I get from the breeder here are small compared to those.

I always start with a little organ meat and build. Some dogs get the "runs" if you add to much at first. So with organs, the more gradual the better IMHO.