How much?
 

Glad to see you back and glad to see you trying the switch! Congrats and good for you AND for your dogs.
First off, I'd like to let you in on a little prey model secret, lol ;);
The ages of the dogs, absolutely do not matter. No need to worry about different life stages and their accompanying k*bble anymore, which is a scam in the first place. Growing puppies eat a lot. Regardless of what they're being fed. Chicken wings are not that great of a muscle meat source as wings are very bony, meaning wings should not be used as the only meat source! If you have wings then you should also add a bit of boneless meat of whatever source available to you! I would also hold off on the organ meats for one week, until all dogs have gotten more used to the new diet. Introduce new meats and organs gradually. Too much variety, too soon is not recommended. Stick with one protein source for a week and then move on to the next protein and so on and so forth. Once the dogs had everything and poops seem normal, then you can feed whatever you want, whenever you want. So, freeze those organs until next week! :)
I personally started out with chicken drumsticks for all dogs, all sizes. And for the unexperienced and the smaller sized dogs, it's a good idea to cut into the meat a couple of times with a knife to make it easier to get pieces off. You can also remove the skins if it seems like they're having a hard time getting to the "good" stuff. Remember, all those things are temporary and while they seem cumbersome now, as the dogs get used to eating this way and get more experienced, those little "tricks" will be a thing of the past!
Once all of meat and skin is off then they'll start working on the bone and cartilage.
Let me know how that works for you and don't forget, even if I may not be available at the moment that you need to ask someone for advise, that yahoo group has tons of info stored in the database and email answer turn around time is pretty fast! :thumbup: ;)



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The Poop Chronicles part 1
 

In my own personal experience, the mucous in the poop was during the detox stages and the "string of little balls" is how all of my dogs poop! A small, black string of balls, sometimes twists. I know; poop inspector is probably the right term, here! :p :eek:



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You're welcome!!! The whole thing *seems* overwhelming at first, but it really isn't, promise! :)



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I should have clarified....I am very willing to spend extra time. I am just very much an organized, "planner" type person. So I would not be the type to just go buy pounds of various meats without having a plan. Not that this is wrong at all, I realize it probably is the most cost-effective way. I just can't, mentally, do it that way and keep my sanity. (I buy meat in bulk on sale for us....but always have planned in my head what I will do with it, for example.)

I want to be able to bag up, say a month's worth, at once, with each day labeled--and pre-planned...like having the bit of liver included already in the bag two days a week, instead of having to remember that I need to give liver two days a week. Because the fact is that I won't remember which days I gave liver and how much. I know logically that in the long run these things even out. But it would bug me to no end not to KNOW it......I know that sounds crazy to those of you who are very laid-back about stuff.

Planner
 

I get that! I shop with my own meals planned in my head in advance. After all, I'm German, born and raised in Germany to German parents so technically I wake up with my house already clean as I cleaned the night before and tonight's dinner has already been cooked :rolleyes:.......
I take one piece of meaty bone for each dog and put it in a ziplock bag and label and date it from when it was purchased on with a sharpie. Everything gets frozen the same day it was purchased. I generously pre cut the boneless pieces of meat/organs and handle those in the same manner. Nothing wrong with a little organization and sanitation! :) So each baggie is one meal's worth for all dogs together, so reaching in there and grabbing an entire day's worth is easy.
You will figure out your own groove and discover valuable short cuts along the way!





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LOLOL I absolutely LOVE to wake up to a clean house. Unfortunately, my husband does not share this affection for tidiness. :rolleyes: I really appreciate all the information you have provided, it is tremendously helpful.

I have a question that I am almost embarrassed to ask....I feel better because I have asked 3 friends already and they do not know either....<whispering> what exactly are chicken backs????

I know chicken wings, thighs, breasts, gizzards, legs, and on and on....but what does the back consist of? I have never seen anything labeled as such, and pulled up websites showing extensive diagrams of various chicken parts, but none showed it. I know you guys are probably ROFL over this silly question, but I just have to ask it. :p

I'm not the only one?!

Yes! That's it! :thumbup:

Not yet back, more brown though.

No Laughing Matter
 

Chicken backs are not generally offered in regular grocery stores are they're viewed as undesirable due to the mostly bony content thus making them a *cheap* cut of meat. Most ethnic stores have them available as ethnic cooking consists of a lot of "old school" type of cooking, aka soups from scratch where such cuts would be desirable. If you can visualize an entire chicken; take away the breasts, wings, thighs, drumsticks (am I missing something? LOL) what you're left with is the chicken back. It starts right below where the chicken neck used to be and ends at the butt, rofl. Like a somewhat narrow, long piece of bony piece of meat. I guess I had predisposition to this kind of stuff as pretty much my entire family consists of master butchers, butchers and chefs. My uncle in Germany had a butchery and grandpa was master butcher in a large slaughter house! Oh, would that be useful to me now!!!! *Day Dreaming* :D :D :D

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Ahhhhh. Well, I feel a little better for not knowing what it is! :) I will ask the butcher, but it sounds like I would have to stick with the more common offerings. Chicken legs are relatively inexpensive here, compared with the other parts.

LOL So you didn't have the "ick" factor to deal with :) Actually, I am not very squeamish about the raw meat...the only things I've seen that I really don't like to look at or touch are the feet. Those actually look like they used to be an animal, the other stuff doesn't to me. My husband is a paramedic, and I look through his books all the time, and hear the gory stories while I'm cooking supper. :eek:

Everybody content?
 

Does the silence mean that everybody is comfy? No more questions? :eek:
We could just let this thread die and start a new one on observations made in our dogs since switching to RAW/Prey Model. What do you guys think?

Sounds okay to me.:thumbup:

I went dog food shopping today and the cashier asked me if I was the one who raw feeds her dog.

I said this is my first time so I'm not that "one", but another "one."

She asked me all kinds of q's and then the cashier behind me started asking q's too.

I bought:

chix legs
chix drumettes
chix backs
Beef heart
chix hearts
chix livers
bnls/sknls thighs

So I'll be portioning tonight.

Milo licked some heart and liver but did not actually eat any.:rolleyes:

My dogs has issues eating bones and organs in the very beginning. I had to cut everything up in small pieces. Now, they just crunch away lol

They loooooove turkey necks (ewwww!) and chicken gizzards and hearts (double ewwwww!) :D

I don't get turkey necks (never seen them) but chicken gizzards and hearts are SoCo's favorite BY FAR. Most of his food has to be out for a while so it can get to room temp for his highness... not the gizzards and hearts, that's eaten almost frozen (if we waited too long to take it out before his meal time). He's a big fan of liver but won't touch kidney. This is fine with me since I think they are both gross but kidney is beyond disgusting - it smells like urine, ewwwwwwwwwwwww.

Tara :)

Only took Milo a day to start bone crunching so I'm hoping the same with the organs.

The little hearts and livers don't bother me.

I stood in the store holding the big beef heart and wondering if they would cut it up for me----decided it wasn't going to be a big deal, but worried because:

A couple years back I bought 1/2 a cow from someone and had it butchered and they asked if I wanted the liver. I said yes because I would give it to the dogs.

My only ref was beef liver from the store.

That stuff is sliced and packaged.

The whole thing is enormous!!!!:eek: And the thing just grows the more you cut it..........like something out of a horror movie.:eek:

I was traumatized for life I tell ya---- walked away gagging and DH finished the job.:rolleyes:

LOL LOL LOL :sidesplt: :sidesplt: :sidesplt:
Liver gives me a bad "vibe", too and I don't like touching it! One of my favorite's is browned pork liver with onions and potatoes. If I have to prepare it, I can't eat it! That smell will stay on your fingers for days! So I only get to eat this now whenever I visit my parents in Germany and my mom cooks it for me!
Heart is different. It's not quite so spongy as liver is. It cuts like beets or squid. I found that in order to keep the mess contained, I cut organs while they're semi frozen. One time at my beginning stages of prey model, I bought every kind of organ meat that I could find and then stuck everything in my large food processor for a pureed multi organ cocktail. Needless to say I had to throw away my processor as the smell still lingered even after a couple of washes. I had the perfect organ juice to serve to my babies and while they loved licking this up it was just a big mess all around. It dripped all over my kitchen and my dogs had nice little organ juice mustaches!
Yep, I got a couple of blunders like that! :rolleyes: :eek: :p



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