Finally got done reading fruits basket manga, and now I can work on this book.

This morning was a nice one we walked in the field then headed back. I did some little yard work feed the birds and pick up dog #2..

Saya decided to wander in the woods while I was out front cleaning it up.

I was done saw she wasn't around so I checked at the shed the woods by the shed then I headed to the woods by the burn pile and I called her then heard her jingle she must been standing still sniffing or something since I didn't hear her bells.

I called her to come and I went down to check what she was up to she was on the other side of the water so she had to cross the little bridge and then she walked on the hill and came to me.

We headed back home because I needed breakfast and she needed to eat too.

Saya got pre made raw Bravo! brand beef, tiny bit of beef fat, caned sardines, water, coconut oil and blueberries. Yummy.

I made omelette with cheese, spinach and green peppers. Before I added salt and pepper I put a bit of omelette on Saya's food and she loved that.

I think this weekend will be a good one. I plan to do some more yard work then another walk in the evening then read my book.

Maybe draw some if I can find my pencil.

30lbs or less of pork in the freeze..

I gotten this two weeks ago, but since I was a bit busy with things I didn't post this, but anyways Marsh had a decent deal going on 98cents lb for a pork pack.

Each pack came with one pork shoulder roast good bit of pork chops and some pork ribs.

I got two packs for the dogs one pack for Bella and one for Saya.

Each pack weighed 15lbs. Bella's weighed a bit more about 15.30lb and Saya's 15.04lb or 14lbs almost 15lbs something like that I forgot.

When I prepped the pork it probably weighed less then 15lbs as I took off the bone on the pork chops to make it boneless pork as the dogs have plenty of bone in items with the pork ribs and bone in chicken.

Plus some of the bones on the pork chops were cut sharp.

15$ each plus tax isn't too bad of a deal for what I got.

We also got one pork pack for us humans yummy.. The pork roast tasted great as pork sandwiches once weather gets nice we can grill pork chops or the ribs. I've cooked pork chops inside too both taste good.

Here's one of the pork packs bags on left has ribs and middle and right has boneless pork chops and pork shoulder roast.

Bella really loves the pork ribs and pork roast.

When I did her pork pack I kept the pork roast out and she got that as a small snack so she'd get used to the pork meat.

She has had pork ribs and boneless pork before, but it's been while. She has mainly been getting Cornish chicken, chicken quarters for bone in and either beef tongue, liver, heart and kidneys, sometimes deer or goose..

Everything individually portioned it takes some work and a empty space of the freezer in the fridge to get it done, but it's worth the work as it's easy to just take one piece or two out.

This is Saya's portion so the pieces are a mix of 3oz, 4oz 5oz and some 6oz..

I can usually tell weight by looking at it sorta, but I weigh it just in case I'm wrong.

I like pairing up the 3oz with something like chicken heart and gizzards or bone in meal like lamb rib, or chicken part.

Bella's portions are bit of the same as Saya's. I feed Bella raw meals for dinner instead of kibble and I rotate it one day she gets kibble the next raw, next day kibble then next raw and so on..

Usually on kibble days I give her either a raw or cooked egg, caned fish(either salmon, mackerel, or sardines), or caned dog food like from wellness, Totw, or solid gold green tripe caned food.

Coarse caned green tripe doesn't have same benefits as raw kind I've read, but the dogs love both the raw and caned kind.

Bella seems do well with this kind of feeding and I do think it saves us some money as kibble last longer plus I'm sure Bella enjoys the variety she is always excited to get bone in chicken quarters, or half cornish hens, or pork ribs plus tiny bit of extra stuff like liver, kidney, heart, gizzards, or tongue.

Once I get my own freezer I'll be able to stock up on more chicken quarters, pork packs, gizzards, liver, boneless stuff and so on and be able to feed raw as dinner more often and kibble in am.

Right now I share a freezer so I don't want take up too much room.

Right now I'm using up the items I have to get enough room for my hare today order. I only order from them once year in winter so I don't worry about the stuff thawing..

I plan to buy couple bags of whole quail, rabbit and the whole raw sardines and herring. I can't find raw sardines or herring so that will be nice treat for the dogs.

Once I get more room I plan order some raw green tripe from blue ridge beef. Yummy.

Saya got a chicken quarter Sunday

I gave Saya a chicken quarter Sunday and got video of it. took it with my 3ds so it only recorded so much so it's in three parts.

part one 3:40 minutes


Part two 2:56 minutes


part three 0:49..


I haven't been feeding chicken too much which I really need to get some Saya does like it.

Being such big meal she got a small meal on Monday.

Turns out the farmer I'm getting chicken feet from forgot to email me to let me know she has enough so I sent email asking if she had them and she forgot.

Anyways I'll be picking them up this Saturday so Saya should be happy to get chicken feet again. I'm going to have her save turkey feet too.

Sadly she can't save the heads due to regulations and junk which is too bad. :\

Ah well chicken feet and turkey feet is nice thing either way. Turkey feet are really big probably too much bone for Saya, but make a nice treat for Bella and Saya can have some too one foot probably last her whole week I never seen turkey foot in person so not sure how big it is.

I also found a source of bone in goat for decent price about same price as lamb not bad, but bit more then usual items. I got 4lbs of it and good thing it's already individually frozen so I can take a bit out.

I'm getting a lot of chicken feet so freezing them individually will be fun!  I've been saving the bags from our bread for the turkey feet in case their bigger then normal ziplocks..

Chicken feet yummy!

I plan get more chicken and turkey feet at October since she stops selling stuff at end of October need enough to last winter and some spring..

I also need get some more kidneys and liver too since farmer market ends sometime after fall forgot when..

I really need my own freezer right now I share with my parent's, but even though mom recently gave me the bigger part of the chest freeze I somehow managed to fill it up.

Right now I'm mainly just looking for good deal on one or good one from craigslist.

If I had my own freeze then Bella could have raw more often since I can make a Saya and Bella area so I can find both dog's food easily without taking one or the other..

For now my parent's freeze is fine.. Once I get room I hope to get some beef scrap from the meat processor or order from hare today. then get some blue ridge beef tripe..

Got the ewe and emu portioned out

Yesterday I portioned out the 1 lb of ground ewe(female adult sheep I believe), and the two lbs of ground emu.

Saya really wanted some now, but she had a rabbit and some home made cooked food so she didn't need anymore food.

big pile of ground emu

I portioned it into 3oz balls for nice snack size or small meal size.

The ewe was $4.69 and emu was about $17 or so maybe less or more.

$17 for 11 balls of emu not to bad something exotic and tasty. We made emu hamburgers out of our ground emu we also have emu brats to make for ourselves later.

The emu farmer has bones so I might see if they can sell me something bone in wise I dunno emu are pretty big animals, but be interesting.. Emu neck maybe? Need big ice chest to bring that home. or emu feet? haha

As long as it's raw not those smoked kind..

I got this from farmer's market in Madison Wi during the shiba picnic. I hope next time we go they'll have organs and bone in stuff maybe I'll call them before and make sure they have it available for me.. hehe

Saturday dog food purchase

Today we went to the farmer's market Saya had a lot of fun meeting people and kids she met a little toddler she loved.

Farmer's market doesn't  allow dogs in the market, but it's OK if they're in the sidewalk which is fine by me she still gets to mee people who likes dogs.

A lot of distractions people, musicians, and so on. She did well during training watching me when asked, sit, and come when called. I didn't let her off leash I just told her to stay went to end of her leash then asked her to come and she came right away.

So sad they don't allow dogs, but I understand due to rude dog owners who bring their dog who don't behave well or are scared in the crowd.

Saya she does fine in crowds she follows me and when I'm getting stuff at the stall I have her sit and she stays sitting and won't bother people unless they show interest in her.

Saya waiting for me when I got stuff this was from another time though.

The other farmer's market it allows dogs, but it's on wednesday and mom works long hours during the week so we can't go then.

I'm fine with that Saya still enjoys it and it helps get her used to noise like music and people.

We went to butcher and I got her 10lbs of chickens hearts for $16 which is a good deal. Should last Saya for while. Yummy.

We also headed to a dog grooming place to check it out has some nice items like dog collars, leashes, harness and dog bathing stuff, brushes and even the honest kitchen.

I got the Love formula Saya tried the Keen formula and Love she seemed to like the Love formula more, but she ate both find.

Though I did screw up and added bit more water then the free sample asked for made it really soupy so probably filled her up. Good to be hydrated though. hehe

I still love raw diet I don't think she'll ever be off of it, but I thought the honest kitchen be nice for small snack and to put her joint supplements in. I enjoy raw and it's helped Saya a lot with her health.

Plus if we ever go camping it's make a nice meal. I'll probably add caned sardines with it for more yummy food too.

Here's a cute picture showing how tired Saya was.

August 4th meat haul

Saturday August 4th I went to the farmer's market and got Saya couple things, went to Asian market, and Marsh grocery store too.

I bought beef tongue and lamb ribs at the farmer's market, two packs of Pacific Saury, one pack of mackerel, and dried anchovy, I got pack of pork chops and pork shoulder roast at the grocery store it was on a decent sale and I needed pork anyways.

Everything here cost me $61.49 which I think is decent for what I got.

Weight on everything is about 289.71oz.

Lamb rib weighed 2.23lbs, beef tongue 1.69lbs, two Saury weighed18.34oz each, mackerel weighed 14.01oz, pork chops weighed 87.52oz and pork shoulder roast weighed 88.78oz. or something like that..

These fish have their heads and organs too which is a bonus they also have same fish gutted and no heads. I get these since they have extra goodies in them Saya seems like the organs too.

She sometimes eat the who fish or she'll leave the head part for another time when ever she eats it she will usually start with the tail and eat to the head or she'll eat from the stomach area then tail and head.

When she was pretty new to raw she was used to chicken, pork, beef liver and kidney I got these fish for her she was in a picky phase and it took her a while to get used to it. I mean it's much different then a piece of liver or boneless pork and so on..

She would usually lick it a lot and then just eat tiny bit and not want anymore I just bagged up and put in the freezer for next time and she eventually got the taste for it. Now she loves the fish. 

She also used to not like to eat it's head for the longest time I had to put a bit of peanut butter on the head to convince her to eat the fish's head. lol

So glad she eats the head no issue.

The mackerel has it's head, but no guts it comes with two mackerel in the pack. I love how much variety the Asian market it's mostly with fish, squid, octopus, they do have pork and beef, but none of the meat is what I'd want..

The fish is sold at good prices.. $5 and some change for a pack of four pacific saury..

They also sale kimchi, dried squid, shrimp, pollock, anchovy, dried seaweed, fresh seaweed or whatever, and variety of miso, tofu, rice, and various sauces and cooking items.

I had mom get some seaweed so we can put it in the miso soup when we make it.
The soup tasted good with it in it usually we put spinach instead since normal stores don't have it.

I never new the place had it, but who knows maybe I wasn't looking good enough.

Beef tongue! I had some in the freeze, but was getting low so I got one I have plenty of heart on beef and lamb..

Not much to say on it except Saya used to not like beef tongue when she was new to raw she would lick it take a exploratory bite to see if it was good and she didn't seem to like it.

She did same with beef heart so maybe it was a texture thing plus could be because I gave her the whole beef tongue to mess with she might been overwhelmed by it's size. haha

I kept offering the tongue and heart and in snack sizes frozen she seemed to eat heart and tongue bit better frozen.

Now she eats it frozen, thawed or cooked she don't care anymore which is good.

I got lamb ribs from the farmer I usually get them from a butcher and they're usually smaller..

I forgot how much it cost for the ribs it cost me $17 for the ribs and beef tongue so maybe it was $14 or something? I dunno. I need write down price of each item next time.

I plan to try keep better track of what I buy so I can post how much I spend each month.

I cut each rib so she each gets one rib as part of a meal.. I'll give it with boneless meat or organ or something.

She loves lamb ribs. :)

One farmer at the farmer's market will have ewe soon which is nice it's an adult female sheep I believe might be wrong..

She has liver, tongue, kidneys, and heart plus ground meat of it. I'll probably get some she is selling it at a good price.

Unfortunately with this dry weather farmer's been having issues with crops which isn't good. :\

The farmer with the ewe had issue with a weasel getting into the chicken coop and killing some of the chickens and got some of the ducks too.

I hope they can weasal proof the coop..

One thing about having chickens they do bring in predators.

Saya's pork chops. :)

I got it all cut up and portioned into meal size or half meal size..

I portioned everything and put them in big ziplock bags in the freezer in a way they don't touch so once they're completely frozen I can just take one small one or big meat to thaw.
It's a bit of work, but I don't mind.

Here's a picture how I do it it took two big bags and three little bags to do it. Once it all froze completely I put all the meat in one ziplock bag.

Here's her pork shoulder roast I doesn't have skin on it like the one I got last time, but it's still nice. When I first got pork shoulder roast this is the kind I usually get sometimes it'd have tiny bit of skin on it sometimes not.

One I got that had a lot of skin was a big pork shoulder roast it didn't even fit in ziplock bags I have.. Luckily I keep the plastic bags that the farmer's use to put the veggies in when selling them. It was big enough for it..

I like the skin because it makes it harder to get to the meat and is very chewy and good for the teeth, but this pork roast provides a good work out too.

Here is the big pork shoulder roast. It was huge lasted Saya for long time.

Bite marks from Saya.

She eventually got through the skin of coarse she ate from the bottom where the meat is and worked on the skin and stuff.

People ask is it ok to feed something that has been thawed and frozen multiple times? This roast is way to big for her to eat in one or two times.. It took her long time to finish it.

I first gave her the pork roast in 10/03/2011 and her last meal of it was 5/15/2012.

I so wish I bought two of them when they had that sale.. 88cents lb is a good deal or maybe it was 99cents lb either way good deal..

Here's what it looked like after Saya grind up some bone on the jointed parts..

The meat didn't seem to go bad from thawing and refreezing no smell or anything I thawed it and fed it and put back in freeze once she was done with it. 

I won't be getting anything till my chicken feet from the farmer. Hope to get lots of them.

Gulpers

When feeding raw some dogs can do fine with small bits and some will swallow whole a piece.

If the dog is gulper best option is to feed bigger item and take away once the dog ate enough. Feeding item frozen can help too or in a long different shape like a L shape or V.

Saya eats pretty good, but with boneless and ground items I feed frozen as precaution she eats thawed boneless, organs and ground pretty fast. So I feed those frozen so she takes it slower.

I fed a premade raw once thawed and she took big chunk and coarse it was too much so she regurgitated it and then chewed it properly.

For items like pork shoulder roast or leg of lamb or lamb shank I feed thawed the item are pretty big so it's harder work for her to eat it.

Once when she was still new to raw she was used to chicken, beef liver, and pork I gave her pork rib tips she had them before, but this time she swallowed it whole she thought it was piece of boneless pork she also regurgitated it and re chewed it properly crunching the bone up.

                                

Here's example of meal good for Bella a chicken quarter and beef heart. Sometimes she'd get boneless meat or beef tongue or tiny bit of liver or kidney.

Saya can also eat a quarter usually she eats half of it sometimes she'll eat the whole thing depends.

Bella also eats pork ribs pretty good too and pork shoulder roasts.

Holding the item can help prevent gulping too, but some dogs would get nervous with that.

Bella when she was starting out with her raw treat I'd give her chicken quarters frozen and then after while I gave it thawed out and she did good about eating not fast.

Cuting boneless into small pieces can help to, but I prefer to freeze the 5oz of meat slows her down enough.

Each dogs are different so some might do good with frozen and some might need it cut into small bites.

Green lipped mussel supplement came.

The green lipped mussel supplement came I got two of these to use up we'll see how long it'll last her and if it helps. I might keep supplementing anyways not too expensive for two bottles of it.


Ingredients seems fine. 
Two capsules contain:
Perna canaliculus (Green-Lipped Mussel) . . 1,000 mg
Alfalfa Leaf . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .200 mg
Cinnamon Oil . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 mg

Today is day two on it Yesterday she had one when I got it and second in evening I mixed it in plain Greek yogurt.

This morning I gave it to her by mixing it in caned salmon along with her joint tablet and her bug off garlic stuff. she gets the bug off tablet and joint tablet once a day and she'll get the green lipped mussel powder twice a day.

So far she seems to like it she hasn't refused the stuff it has a mussel, clammy oyster smell or something which isn't surprising seeing as it's green lipped mussel.. hehe
It also has alfalfa Leaf in it which isn't bad I don't think I seen it in some dog food I think honest kitchen maybe not I don't feed that or haven't tried it yet so I forgot.

 I dunno if it's worth giving, but the price is good $26 for 180 capsules of it.

I know someone else who gives it and says they like it coarse they also give another joint pill so it might be the joint pill that helped or could be a combo of the two that has helped with the dog's joints.

I plan give it a try and see how it goes.

Saya's morning supplements she gets one green lipped mussel in am, three bug off garlic in am and one glucosamin and condroitin in am and pm she just gets the green lipped mussel powder.

I have to crush the joint tablet and garlic tablet to mix it with the Greek yogurt or caned fish.

She'll eat the bug off garlic on her own, but the joint tablet she isn't fan of it. It's peanut butter flavor, but I guess not enough.

I have wrap it with bit of cheese, peanut butter to get her to eat it so I find it easier to crush in just give with her green lipped mussel also even though she willingly eats the garlic I crush it anyways so she gets it.

I give her one sometimes two where I don't give her garlic tablets.

Yummy crushed supplements, caned salmon and 2.25oz of grass fed beef kidney a meal only a dog would love. haha

This week I plan to get her some beef sweetbread(thymus) been out of it for long while.. I need to be sure I keep it in stock so I can rotate between that and kidney.

I plan to order the velvet elk antler stuff soon to try too.

Feeding big raw items and whole prey.

I feed raw diet and I like to vary it when I can I love to feed her big items because it provides much more of a work out then feeding ground meat or daily portions of boneless..

I do feed ground and daily portion of boneless meat, but I do provide her with big meals like whole roasting chicken, lamb leg, pork shoulder or bison roast... The bison roast coarse rare I only gotten it one time..

Yesterday she got a semi boneless leg of lamb Saya ate 13.37oz of it. usually she gets 5oz to 7oz a day so it was bit more then she usually gets.

13oz seems to be her limit on how much she eats in big meals she once eaten a 16oz turkey drumstick though.

Since Saya seems know where her limit on how much to eat is I let her eat what she wants on big items.

Not all dogs are like that sadly so know your dog don't let it gorge too much..

Whole roaster.

Pork shoulder roast once 9lb now 3 or 4lbs

 Feeding such a fatty item like pork shoulder roast may seem like I'm on the road to pancreatic diet, but Saya doesn't just eat fat she also eats bit of the meat, fat, skin so it's not pure fat.

I don't believe amount she eats each day will hurt her since she has been slowly introduced to it and tolerates it well.

Fat is important in a dog's diet too coarse when the dog is new to raw it's important to take skin off chicken, trim the fat on beef or pork, but once used to it it's good stuff.

Coarse I wouldn't be feeding pure fat as meals I don't think that would be healthy.

whole prey quail

I also consider whole prey quail as a big item even though they're just 8oz or so compared to her 9lb pork shoulder roast it still more work compared to 5 or 8oz piece of meat.

I hope to order whole prey rabbit eventually once I got my own freezer for more variety also more quail since I'm out of it.

A young rabbit Saya caught

Saya did caught her self a young rabbit she is good about leaving things alone when asked so I washed the rabbit and froze it for month in case of parasites. Sad she killed it, but rabbits do cause damage to my veggies so one less bunny to eat my plants..

Coarse I'm not off telling Saya to kill every bunny in the fields or yard it just happened. I was weeding the garden and she was laying by me she walked off and got the bunny I thought at first she was going to our outdoor cat to play with him, but nope it was a bunny a young one at that.

She killed it very quickly so I don't think it suffered. I fed it to her after it was done freezing for month. Bunny didn't go to waste coarse a wandering coyote probably would ate it if I threw it into the field, but I wanted to give it to Saya since it was her prize..

Saya pulling the rabbi's stomach out

One thing with feeding this bun bun I learned she didn't like it's stomach she pulled it out and the intestines and didn't want to eat any of the rabbit till I took it completely out of the bunny..


I haven't had chance to feed her another whole rabbit so it'd be interesting to see how she does when I get some.

Saya ate the bunny back end first..

When I first gave it to her she wasn't thrilled to eat it, but once I took some the fur off she saw there was meat under it and ate it up.

Pacific saury

While saury isn't big like pork shoulder or leg of lamb I still consider it a good big meal plus it still has head and organs in it yummy.

I feed mostly bone in items, boneless, organs, but I love giving whole prey because it has everything in one package, meat, bone, muscle meat organs, liver, and other secreting organs also has blood.

I hope to incorporate whole prey items more into her diet once I get my own freezer.

Quail, rabbit, whole sardines, herring, and pacific saury is kinds I'm able to get from either hare today or Asian market nearby.

Does feeding whole prey make your dog more apt to kill a furry animal or be aggressive?

I don't think it does, but could depend on the dog if you feed it a guinea pig fur on and the dog sees a live pet one it might think it's food, but most dogs think pets like rabbits, guinea pigs, or quail is something to chase or play with.

Saya eats quail and she leaves birds like doves, robins, and red wing black birds alone..

Coarse with rabbits they're on ground so easier to chase then birds.

Saya is reactive to strange dogs she never met before, but I don't think it's due to raw she had good puppy class, good socialization and everything and good temperament too.

She did get attacked by a mixed breed the mix was on leash the owner said he was friendly so we met, but her dog went for Saya.  Sai greeted the mix just fine she wasn't rude in the way so I dunno why it happened, but after that is when her reactiveness to strange dogs happen..

I'm fine with it she gets along well with Lily the pug, and our neighbor's lab/mastiff mix.

She seems get better not as defensive after meeting the dogs for few times. Lilly would get snarked at when she got near Saya, but by fourth meeting they did good Lily knows what her limits are and she doesn't bother Saya by being too in her face.

It's a on going process she does fine walking on leash where dogs are she isn't reactive where she lunges and barks at any dog in her sight she just gets defensive when the dog gets too much in her face.

Saya with 5month Marley she is bout size of Bella!