Happy Dogs!

After hours of research and reading, I decided that I’d switch my dogs from commercial kibble to a prey-model raw diet. Last night, I went to the store to get a couple of week’s worth of chicken- the meat of choice for starting dogs on raw food. They were very curious as to what I was doing when I was cutting it up/packing it into ziptop bags last night. Since I eat a vegetarian diet, It’s been a long time since they’ve actually smelled raw meat, and it definately got their attention more than tofu and lettuce…

The prep is something I’ll get used to. It took a little while, and I was careful to sanitize my countertops afterward (while dogs can easily digest the bacteria in fresh, raw meat, it’s not so kind to us humans). I portioned everything by weight using a kitchen scale- Turbo gets ~12-14oz and Indy somewhere in the neighborhood of 4oz. Then, I put most of it in the bottom drawer of the freezer, leaving a couple of bags in a tray in the bottom of the fridge door to stay unfrozen for breakfast.

This morning, I was curious to see how the dogs would react- apparently, some dogs have no idea what to do with a chunk of raw, bony meat. However, these two did not dissapoint- they ran in and started muching away like a couple of wolves! Turbo, who normally inhales kibble, crunched her way slowly through a chicken thigh and a wing while Indy attempted to take his single wing out of the laundry room (probably to the carpet). When I didn’t let him, he went back to the spot near his bowl, dropped it on the floor, and started to crunch away. They seemed to thoroughly enjoy it. Here’s Turbo polishing off her chicken wing:

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5 thoughts on “Happy Dogs!

  1. Vegetarian huh? How do you keep your protein intake up for training? I have a chocolate lab on Canidae, a pretty expensive and healthier barnd that you can only get at “boutiques.” The raw diet is interesting, but its just too expensive an time consuming IMO.

  2. I still eat dairy and occasionally some fish, so I usually start my day with a whey protein shake. Also, I often cook tofu and tempeh.
    How much is Canidae? I’ve worked it out that I’m paying about $2.50 a day for chicken, which is more than I was paying to feed Nutro, though that cost will be less once I get to a store like costco or a butcher shop. As far as time consuming, it took me about 30 minutes to bag up 2 weeks worth of food. Other than rinsing the bowls out after their meal, daily time spent is the same as with kibble.

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