Quote: diane joslin

So far no ill effects from Nickie eating that bird yesterday - he seems to be looking at the doves in our yard with a renewed interest!

Yum, Yum...

 Quote: diane joslin

The only other "wild life" that he might possibly catch and eat would be small lizards. Do you know if they emit some kind of poison when they are cornered? He has come close to catching one already.

I googled this:

Warning, to read this requires a free registration to read, so I didn't read it. It is about the lizards biting the dog, which would probably occur when the dog tries to eat the lizzard, but it seems pretty close to what you are looking for.
Venom Toxicity in Dogs

I agree with Yuko that feeding in the crate is the way to go. She just loves the word kennel now, because at least once a day I give her the biggest treat for going in, her meal!

Before I fed raw, the idea did make me a bit squemish myself, but for me it is simply the abundance of grain in the food which made me want to stop feeding it. In the wild, dogs don't eat that many grains. So, why on earth would the first few ingredients in the dog "food" , or kibble, include grains? (This brings back memories in some huge petstore of me on a quest to find some food that had no grain, or very little. Couldn't find one!) To me, the idea of my dog eating kibble is worse than having to endure a bit of crunch, crunch, know what I mean? This is not to mention the roadkill and deseased crap that they use as ingredients.

P.S. The crunchy part of the meal is the part that raw feeders and raw diet dogs alike enjoy the most!

 Quote:

This is not to mention the roadkill and deseased crap that they use as ingredients.

Don't discount fresh road kill.

It's a winter staple of mine.

Edit: A staple of the dog's. Not mine. The dog's.

http://smg.photobucket.com/albums/v15/keinhaar/?action=view&current=puppies.jpg

Steven,
The only "road kill" that I have seen in the past 8 months of walking Nickie was a dead cat. Do you let your dog "feast" by the side of the road or do you somehow bag it up for later at home? The thought of either choice makes me cringe!

The idea of any roadkill in Las Vegas would make me cringe too.

No, I'm only talking about deer in the depths of Winter.

I bring it home whole, and deal with it there. It's usually when I come home after the night shift, and before the sun comes up. Still...gotta be fast, since I live in a townhome community!

Handling it isn't gross. A healthy deer has absoloutely luxurious meat. Dark, rich with fresh blood, and has a clean fragrance. Even a fresh stomach has a grassy, not-too-bad smell.

Ground beef is putrid by comparison.

Steven,



Are you sure that posting pictures of 'ravenous' pups on piles of meat and discussing the 'roadkill option' is the best way to convince Diane and her squeamish husband to come over to the "dark side"?

I know you have MUCH worse in your archives, maybe we should eeease them into the raw feeding first...

I get my deer meat from hunters so it has been hanging for a while before I get it. I have to admit that I am NOT fond of the smell of venison Ironically, the roadkill is probably the freshest option. GOtta love organic, species apropriate, free range, FREE dog food

I need a bigger freezer.

Diane - I read your post to my husband and we both laughed out loud. Our bullmastiff Star does the same thing if she's eating something she knows she probably shouldn't be eating. If she sees us coming, no matter what it is, she gulps it down 10 times faster just so we can't take it away from her. We could just picture Nickie out in your yard, gulping down an entire bird as fast as she possibly can!

We don't feed 100% raw but we do give Star chicken wings (among other meats) on top of her food every night for dinner. I grind them up because she's teething at the moment and doesn't chew the wings enough but gulps them whole - bones and all. So we'll grind for a little while longer. The sound of the bones and cartilage cracking in the grinder grossed me out at first, too, but tonight I ground up enough for a week to put in the freezer and I realized that it didn't bother me a bit. You get used to it after awhile. :-) And Star is happier than ever - she LOVES fresh meat.

 Quote: Steven Lepic

 Quote:

This is not to mention the roadkill and deseased crap that they use as ingredients.

Don't discount fresh road kill.

I don't have a problem with roadkill, especially fresh roadkill! I can envision a dog eating this, but a bowl of wheaties?...No...

 Quote: Brenda Mitchell

I grind them up because she's teething at the moment and doesn't chew the wings enough but gulps them whole - bones and all. So we'll grind for a little while longer.

Give her the wing attached to the whole chicken. Is she big enough to swallow completely frozen wings? If not, that would be the perfect thing to ease the pain of teething. Even unfrozen, bigger RMB's to work on through teething would probably feel great to her. Grinding takes that natural teething painkiller away.

Jennifer,
You are so right! I clicked on Steven's signature link and saw those two pups with the fresh road kill or whatever it was. Quite a shock!

When I went up to the Wal-Mart grocery a little while ago, I jotted down some prices. I have no idea if these are good prices or not:

Chicken wings - $1.55/lb
Chicken gizzards/hearts/livers - $1.18/lb
Whole cut-up fryers - 98 cents/lb
Pork neck bones - $1.08/lb
and last but not least (except in price):
packages of what were marked as "chicken paws" (they sure looked like chicken feet to me!) for 88 cents/lb

So, what do you think? Any other type of meat was either ground up or more than $1.55/lb.

 Quote: Diane Joslin

Jennifer,
When I went up to the Wal-Mart grocery a little while ago, I jotted down some prices. I have no idea if these are good prices or not

They sound pretty normal. Buying in bulk will cut down even more. I just bought 30 lbs. of whole fryers for $20, 10 lbs. of riblets for $8, and an 8 lb. bone in pork butt for about $8.

You might want to avoid the pork neck bones that you find out on the shelf. Ask the butcher for the whole thing before he cuts it up. That will also make it alot cheaper if they don't have to do anything to it. Then you can use the x-tra meat from a pork arm, shoulder, or butt to add to the neck bone since it can be too boney for some dogs to eat alone. You can also ask for those items whole and uncut.

Look for some whole fish, too. I think people say to avoid salmonoids from the pacific northwest since they can give you dogs salmon poisoning. Someone clarify if I'm wrong.

I also got a whole rack of ribs for $5 cause they were one day away from expiration. Look for stuff like that and get it home, cut it how you want it and freeze it. My dog has never complained about the price slashed expired meat I get.

With a dog as big as yours look for big items that he HAS to chew and you shouldn't have any problems.

So, are ya'll considering? C'mon, c'mon....do it....c'mon.