We've already started raising chickens and plan on adding rabbits in the very near future. IF you could raise a few other animals (no pigs allowed) what would they be? Goats? Sheep? Guinea pigs? We have eight acres, mostly wooded.

If you got chickens, and will soon have wabbits, I'd say goats and/or sheep.

Red meat ruminants.

Dig a pond and stock it with fish and you'll be growing the full doggy food pyramid.

I'm rather envious of the Schuler farm you're building. Lucky.

Meat goats (boer breed) would be the easiest to raise and butcher. Lambs sell for SO MUCH more than goats at the livestock auctions that I would hate to feed lamb to my dogs.

Hair sheep are much lower maintenance (don't have to shear, worming can be done just 1-2 X year, they will lamb without hand-holding) than most wool sheep breeds. Some of the wool sheep breeds are pony sized so you would get more meat per slaughter.

Rams cannot be trusted and can severely maim or kill you.

Billy goats are usually not aggressive but most of them stink bad enough that you can taste it.

Goats will clear all the brush and small trees from your woods.

Your fences need to be tight for goats as well as sheep.

If predators are a problem you may want to get a Llama or mini donkey to guard the stock (if it isn't suited to the job you can always feed it to the dogs).

You could run a bunch of Guinea Pigs on 8 acres and the return would probably be very good, containment might be a problem, they would freeze in the winter, and predators would have a hay day. :laugh:

I know you said pigs are out, but they have excellent feed/meat conversion ratio and the carcass yield is much better than goats or sheep.

When you get to the butchering stage with your animals DO NOT throw away the guts/intestines, my dogs love them and it's an integral part of the prey model diet.

Unless I plan on selling the hide (beef and deer) I cut it off in strips with the meat and feed it to the dogs. This doesn't work with sheep (especially very woolly ones). I save a bunch of time and labor by not skinning the dog food.

Personally if it were me...

I'd have chickens, rabbits, guinea pigs, pigeons and rats with rats and chicken being the primary base proteins.
All these animals reproduce quickly, can be raised in a building so you don't have to clear much land, and eat relatively simple diets.

Rabbits and Guinea pigs I'd love to raise again for show. I'd love to use the small culls as dog food.

As much as I love goats they simply don't reproduce fast enough to warrant their existence for dog food. Well that and goat is a great underused meat, I can't imagine not making sausage out of every morsel. yum.

Rats and guinea pigs? Do you feed them whole? If so, live or do you kill them first? If killed, do you need to skin them?

What about chickens: Do you have to pluck them or can you just feed the whole thing?

We don't have a lot of land (in Honolulu, not many do). I have been toying with the idea of raising my dogs' food.

What about parasites? Do you need to worm rats or g.p.s?

I don't mean to hijack this post, so Moderators, please move this if appropriate.

Good info everyone - thanks. Mike, we already have a large koi pond (19 x 28') and year before last we ended up with 60 babies. Since we weren't feeding RAW at the time, most of those were given away or culled, but that won't happen again! The koi have been spawning like crazy this spring, so we shall see where that leads us. (So many of the eggs are eaten by the koi during the entire spawning process, we don't ALWAYS get fry...)

Pigs are out only because the area we live in prohibits them. All other live stock are allowed, just no piggies. Now that I have found a local butcher/slaughterer, I do have the option of "ordering" a hog and having him process the animal for us.

It sounds like rats, chickens and bunnies are the way to go as far as being the easiest and cheapest to acquire. Does anyone know if there is enough of a difference in ducks, geese and chickens to think about adding them, or is their protein, etc... the same as chickens?

I've never been one to hunt deer, but the more I read and the more they destroy my garden, I'm thinking of giving that a try this fall.

 Quote: Eric Sacks

Rats and guinea pigs? Do you feed them whole? If so, live or do you kill them first? If killed, do you need to skin them?

What about chickens: Do you have to pluck them or can you just feed the whole thing?

We don't have a lot of land (in Honolulu, not many do). I have been toying with the idea of raising my dogs' food.

What about parasites? Do you need to worm rats or g.p.s?

I don't mean to hijack this post, so Moderators, please move this if appropriate.

No hijack, Eric. Not a problem. I would always dispatch the animal before giving it to my dog... If I'm raising the animals, I don't want Falcon attacking them if given the opportunity. This may or may not work out; his prey drive is pretty high - which is why we are putting a hot wire on the chicken yard!

Some folks pluck or skin the chickens, some just toss the whole carcass. I had one dog who would occasionally catch a wild rabbit, and when she was done, there was not one piece of ANYTHING left to identify there was ever a rabbit. She ate EVERYTHING, so with rabbits I will probably do either or both (skin or feed whole). I do not plan on plucking the chickens but will most likely skin them - much easier.

I've read that dogs can get tapeworms from eating intestines of deer, so will either not feed that or will worm the dog accordingly. Since the rabbits and rats won't be foraging on the ground (they will be raised in hutches/cages) the chance of parasites with them will be less of an issue (I think...)

Leave the feet of the chickens or ducks for the dogs to eat...some won't but some will and it is good for them.

As for skinning...Hambone has eaten raw (own kill...no lectures, free range farm dog) and large birds he plucks feathers himself, small, eats it all.

Mice are almost the perfect food...almost perfect calcium:phosphorus ratio. None of my dogs ever at a rat so you might try it before raising any animal to see if the pups eat it.

Kill it before you feed it. If you raise it, your responsibility to see it is dispatched humanely.

That's all from me.

 Quote: Eric Sacks

Rats and guinea pigs? Do you feed them whole? If so, live or do you kill them first? If killed, do you need to skin them?

What about chickens: Do you have to pluck them or can you just feed the whole thing?

We don't have a lot of land (in Honolulu, not many do). I have been toying with the idea of raising my dogs' food.

What about parasites? Do you need to worm rats or g.p.s?

I don't mean to hijack this post, so Moderators, please move this if appropriate.

Rats and mice from my snake days are one of those things that do well raised in rodent racks.Basically a 2 x 4 or 5 foot rat rack would more than satisfy the need for dog food. As with all things food cleaning is a virtue and the best preventative. If you're not comfortable with the idea of cleaning rat cages twice a week then rats may not be for you. There is also the associated small animal smells.

You do occasionally need to worm rats and guinea pigs. Sometimes something slips in with the food, hay, or fresh veggies. I forget the name of the chemical we used to use for it but I think DE could be used instead.

NEVER ever feed a live animal to your dog. Not only is it horribly unethical but you are putting yourself in a terrible legal spot. If you are seen by a neighbor feeding a live rabbit, rat, or gp to your dog you will go to jail and if I was on your jury I'd make sure you went. It's not hard to humanely put down small animals. Research CO2 chambers for one of the few legal methods still available to private citizens.

As far as skin... or not to skin as far as I'm concerned is if the dog will eat whole you might as well feed whole.

Personally I found raising these animals just as interesting as the dog thing. You might be surprised how much you like raising them. After all there are some very pretty guinea pig, rat,and rabbit breeds that breed just as easily as the boring normal ones.

 Quote: melissa thom

Personally I found raising these animals just as interesting as the dog thing. You might be surprised how much you like raising them. After all there are some very pretty guinea pig, rat,and rabbit breeds that breed just as easily as the boring normal ones.

I can see this is true already... our chickens are keeping us very entertained and in spite of my promise to not name any, they are of course, getting named! However, ONLY the ones which I think are hens and will be staying with us. The one exception to naming one of the "meaties" is today's awarding of "PECKER HEAD" to this one little feisty, in your face rooster-wanna-be. I've already told him "Sweetheart, keep that attitude up and you are moving to the head of the line!". He picks on everyone and is always the last I can round up to put in the coop for the evening.

There is something satisfying about having ordered the eggs, hatched them, etc... and now see them running around like little bullets in the chicken yard!

I'll stop now... this is getting too far off dog related conversation to be in this section! BAWK, BAWK, BAAWWWWKKK!