Geoff, if it were me and I wasn't concerned about eating it myself, I'd do it in 6-8 pieces...legs, split the ribs, and possibly half the back half of the spine again. Depending on how many dogs you have, thawing out just one piece at a time would give you at least three days of food easily if the deer dressed out at 70-80lbs or so which isn't a large deer, really. You'd just have to monitor the intake of meat vs bone...some cuts obviously are skewed one way or the other.

 Quote: Mike Morrison

What an ugly black dog, Jenni

Yes, if he wasn't so smart, I would shoot him for sure.

I don't worry about it; they'll eat what they want, and leave the rest. And a variation of meat/bone ratio is normal...exactly what they would get in the wild.

If you can get the butcher to do it, have them use their electric saw to just cut the carcass into the size chunks you need, bone and all, and then wrap each piece or daily portion. The guts will probably be left in the field, so you could get beef liver for the organ part of the diet. The deer liver will have encysted tapeworms, so you would need to freeze it for at least 2 month before feeding. Beef liver would be safer. The ribs will be the easiest bones to consume so make sure that you get those.

Thanks Debbie, That sounds pretty doable.

My Hunter friend was going to bag the guts for me as he did his field dressing. Is that still a good idea?

He sounds like a good friend if he's willing to do that.
My farm dogs will eat everything in a gut pile but the stomach contents. I try not to watch. With just one dog eating a whole gut pile it might take a few days and might also gross everyone out with it strung around the yard, unless you cut it up and portioned it out.
Despite how attractive guts are you still have to consider the tapeworms with a deer, so I guess it depends on how long you want it in your freezer, or if you want to do a couple of tapeworm dewormings (dronset or praziquantel, 2 weeks apart, I think) for your dog when she's done. For my adult dogs I use the horse wormer Equimax. It has Ivomec and praz. One tube will worm 1100 lb for about $12. I get a 6 cc/mL syringe and squirt the 250 lb dose in (trying not to get any bubbles in the paste) and then figure out how many 10th cc each dog needs, given by mouth. Then I turn the syringe upside-down, shake all the paste to the plunger end and push out the air. I will push the right dose onto my finger instead of directly in the dog's mouth (too easy to overdose), then swipe the paste onto the dog's tongue.
You do not want to overdose a puppy with it, it will kill them.
Considering all that it might be easier to go with the beef liver.
A nice compromise might be to just have your friend bring you the empty stomach (tripe).

 Quote: Geoff Empey

What's giving you the trouble Brad?

Economy is what's holding me up! I need to get a freezer and then find the deals! I also need to get my GF onboard so that she will continue feeding when I go to Afghanistan next year. But I'm sure once the bad breath goes and nice shiny coat comes in I'll have less convincing to do! One step at a time though eh?

i had asked this on another thread, but i think that it got buried...

does anyone know if deer stomach has the same benifits as regular beef tripe?

my go-to slaughter house works only with deer during the hunting season, and i want to take full advantage of the usable parts ... i think you guys have even talked me into feeding some heads

I'm sure it does have the same benefits, only in a smaller package. Deer and beef are both ruminants. The deer parts will have the advantage over beef of being balanced in Omega 3's and 6's. There will also be more variety in the forage remnants in the deer stomach.

 Quote: Brad . Martin

Economy is what's holding me up! I need to get a freezer and then find the deals! I also need to get my GF onboard so that she will continue feeding when I go to Afghanistan next year. But I'm sure once the bad breath goes and nice shiny coat comes in I'll have less convincing to do! One step at a time though eh?

Well we need to GTG and have that beer soon then. As the system I have is pretty easy and the majority of my stuff is bought from my sheep herding trainer and is less than $.50 a lb once I put it together with a store bought premix. Which I am finding is less costly than most premium grade kibbles.

I also have a H.S. buddy that sells scratch and dent freezers for very reasonable prices that I could put you in touch with.

Thanks Debbie, that makes a lot of sense. I'm going to pass on the guts as the possible tapeworm scenario sounds like to much work for this man of leisure!

I'll have my hunter friend keep the heads and the stomach and then I'll get his butcher to keep the rib cages etc trimming them down to easier to handle packages. To me that sounds like a more doable plan.