Amber, the only thing I can add to this wonderful thread is something insignificant - containers. I used to use plastic bags for storing/thawing. No more.

It just seemed that no matter what type of meat stored within the baggie, it would make a mess in Gunnar's drawer in my refrigerator.

Now I use the plastic containers I get from chinese take out or I use the containers from the market that originally held a premade meal for people. They have snap on type lids. They're the size of a dinner plate and short so they fit perfectly in the drawer and hold a good size portion of the raw. No more cleanup. The juices are sealed tightly in the containers.

Just an idea.

Judy

amber, you can always feed frozen solid. it forces them to eat slower.

as for the defrosting mess, just get a great big tupperware container and toss all the rmbs into it. it will hold any juices that leak. the container i use takes up about half of the bottom shelf of my fridge and holds a few days worth of meals.

i am categorically against any individual wrapping or preparation. let the meat counter do it, is my motto! i want to handle the stuff as little as possible.

oh, also, i would always wash your hands and all surfaces the meat has touched (don't forget doorknobs) with anti-bacterial soap and very hot water.

 Quote: sarah_morris

.....I've been wondering since True simply explodes with energy after meals since I switched his diet and I've been afraid watching him run around like a maniac after eating. I watched a dog die of bloat and it was really horrible

I have concerns about letting a dog run around right after a meal, so I follow my instincts and don't let my pup do that for at least 30 minutes, prefer 1 hour. It gives me peace of mind and it doesn't make sense to heavily exercise immediately following a meal. So I give time for the food to "settle" a little further into the intestines. I do this with my raw fed pup since to me, a heavy meal is a heavy meal, raw or not.

I remember reading shortly after I started raw that a good rule of thumb is to limit exercise one hour before and one hour after eating - it helps to eliminate the danger of the stomach (positioned like a hammock) turning.

Amber, I sometimes finish thawing by dumping the food right into a plastic container filled with warm (not hot) water. I always rinse my chicken and pork anyway (chicken is many times soaked in a brine and pork is just slimy!), and this is an easy way to do it.

I also keep the running down before and after meals. No one knows for sure what keeps the bloat risk down, but it's worth a try. And I don't let him go swimming for at least an hour after eating.

Alice, I remember a discussion months ago on this board that feeding frozen food wasn't a good idea. Does anyone else remember that? It stuck in my head, but now I can't remember why it was supposed to be bad. Something to do with being bad for their teeth, but I can't remember.

We lucked out and we're getting a freezer from my fiance's brother...I think for free!

You know, at my grocery store they sell livers, hearts, tripe, etc., and it's really cheap. Perhaps a paranoid question: With all of the concerns about the various chemicals pumped into livestock, does anyone worry about feeding the liver? That seems to be the repository for various poisons, so I thought I'd throw that out there.

amber, i can't imagine why feeding frozen would be a problem. wolves eat frozen prey all winter in northern climates. if someone here knows a good reason not to feed frozen, i'd like to know about it, but my mentor does, and the dogs seem to enjoy it just fine, especially on a hot day!

ben will regurgitate his chicken if it is fully defrosted, but not if it is mostly frozen. i'm pretty sure that's because he eats it much more slowly when it is frozen. in the winter i feed it frozen most of the time, because i don't want to have to fool with cleaning up after him in the house. (he does re-eat it, but i still have to disinfect the area where it landed!)

i think all the meats from the supermarket probably have bad stuff in them--hormones, antibiotics, toxins... the way i look at it is, my dog is getting a very healthy diet compared to the vast majority of dogs--and his vibrant health is proof. if i could find organic meats for .69/lb. i'd feed them. but i gotta tell you, he hates the organic meats i've fed him. well, the chicken, anyway. something about the way the growers process them turns him off.

if you can afford organic, go for it, but i think we're doing better than 99.9 percent of the pet owners out there when we feed from the supermarket.

Alice, I was feeding frozen to slow my pup down when I read that thread about frozen food being bad. I hope someone remembers it and shouts out, because it did work on getting him to actually chew! I'll try to weed through and see if I can find it. It was awhile ago.

I agree about the meats, such as they are, are still better than kibble and I'm not going to worry about the organic issue (my checkbook would explode). I was only thinking about the liver specifically. I guess it's not that big of an issue, or someone would have said something long ago.

I just talked to my long-time butcher and he's going to give me all the chicken backs I can handle...for free!

I'm really looking forward to doing the raw thing now, and I have another reason to be happy about it. My very close friend just graduated from Tuft's vet school. I've been talking up raw feeding for awhile now, and he's had the typical I-just-got-out-of-brainwash-university response to it, but he did say he'd be open to learning more (I DID manage to get him off Iams and onto Innova for his dog, at least).

He's seen that my GSD is in spectacular health, and he knows that he's had a half-raw/half-Innova diet. But to him, that could just be genetics or the bloom of puppyhood.

HOWEVER, he knows my Corgi (the one with the auto-immune disorder) and has a huge soft spot for him. He saw the awful shape he was in and it really upset him. Since I've switched the Corgi to half raw, he has noticed a big difference in the Corgi's health. He saw it with his own eyes, on an animal he cares deeply for. Now he's REALLY interested in how the dogs are going to do when they go full raw. If he sees it with his own eyes, he said he'll consider switching his dog to raw...and then we might even have another vet in the world who promotes raw feeding! WOOT!

Thanks everyone, for the massive amount of help and info on this thread!

there is so much misinformation about raw feeding on the internet, it is a bit alarming!

i tried doing a google search on feeding frozen and if it is a danger, and i didn't find anything, but i found tons of inaccurate information. like never feed pork, for example.

i've been feeding raw for five years now, and feed frozen nearly 1/3 of the time, and i have never, ever had any trouble with it, nor has my breeder who has been doing this for far longer, so i'm not going to stop feeding frozen unless someone can show me something definitive on it.

Well, I'm not going to worry about it, either. It seems to me that it must have been something plausible or I wouldn't have stopped feeding frozen, but now I think it's pretty silly that I've altered my feeding practices based on something that wasn't even significant enough to stick in my head!

 Quote: Judy Troiano

Amber, the only thing I can add to this wonderful thread is something insignificant - containers. I used to use plastic bags for storing/thawing. No more.

I'm with Judy on being careful with raw meats (for the humans' sake). I do use plastic baggies, but all the ingredients for the dogs are stored in a separate bin in the 'fridge. It's just the tray from a big cooler -- that tray that is used to keep food suspended above the ice.

Baggies, butcher wrap -- all those things can leak, and I'd rather keep it all confined that have it dripping down into the vegetable drawers.