Food Care and Preparation      

 

Proper care and preparation of the raw meat is paramount.  Be sure to buy human grade foods and to take the same precautions preparing them that you would for your own family. 

I will explain what we do...

 

Purchasing/Preparation

We break our food preparation into five stages:  Chicken, Meat Mixture, Recreational Bones, Fruit/Veggie Mix and Supplements.

Chicken is purchased directly from the farm on the day it is killed.   We buy several hundred pounds of chicken backs and necks at once.  We bring it home and immediately bag it in one day portions.  For our eight dogs, that is approx. 12 backs or 18-21 necks depending on the size and how fatty they are.   We also purchase whole chickens, ground and frozen, and keep it on hand for puppies or dogs who are not accustomed to eating chicken bones. Please note that the ground chicken does have bones in it, they are just finely ground.  We drive about 2 hours for the chicken, so try to do it only about once every six weeks.  It then takes the two of us about an hour to bag it.

Meat Mixture is purchased from our butcher, who grinds up muscle meat, organ meat and tripe and freezes it in five pound bags for us.  Again, we buy several hundred pounds and put it into the freezer immediately.  We occasionally substitute the beef mixture with elk if available.  Since this meat is already bagged and frozen, there is no prep time for us!

Recreational Bones are also purchased from the butcher.  These are long beef bones (Femur) that we have cut into 2-3" sections for us.  Once again, they go right into the freezer, so no prep time.

Fruit/Veggie Glop is handled a bit differently.  Once a month, we puree fruits and veggies.  Generally Brocolli, Carrots, Spinach, Sweet Potato & Apples, plus whatever else is in season at the time such as fresh berries, pumpkin, squash etc.  The veggie "glop" is also mixed in with a bit of soaked oats.  This mixture is put into ziplock bags and frozen, again in one day portions feeding eight dogs.  This is the most time consuming portion of the diet.  Prep, bagging and cleanup takes me about 2 hours once a month.

Supplements  - Eggs and Oils are kept refrigerated, as are the yogurt, cottage cheese, and apple cider vinager.  Once again, no prep time here.

 

Actual Feeding

Each evening, I feed the dogs their Chicken and/or recreational bones (just hand them to them to chew...no bowls).  After I do so, I grab a bag of Meat Mixture from the freezer, as well as a bag of Veggie Glop, and put them into a stainless steel bowl to thaw.   I wash out the bowl that the chicken was in and spray the feeding prep area.  Wipe clean and we're all done. 

Total nighttime feeding = less than 10 minutes for eight dogs.

In the morning, Mike sets out eight bowls.  He empties the contents of the Meat Mixture and Veggie Glop.  Cracks an egg into each bowl (with the shell), gives each a squirt of Oil, a dash of ACV, a spoonful of yogurt and cottage cheese, a bit of honey, and a scoop of the powdered supplements.  Add a bit of water and stir.  In the time it takes him to wash out the meat bowl and spray/wipe the area, the dogs are finished eating.  Dishes go into the dishwasher and he pulls out a bag of chicken to thaw for me that evening.

Total morning feeding = about 20 mintues for eight dogs.

 

A few helpful hints to speed things up if you have multiple dogs or a kennel...

Keep a small "doggie fridge" right near the food processing area.  You can purchase these at really low prices during back to school time.

Always have a spray bottle of bleach/water nearby and some old rags.  A quick spray and wipe is all it takes to protect yourself and your family from salmonella and the like. 

Transfer oils into "squirt" bottles, such as the bottled water containers that have the "sports" top.  Saves a lot of time, just pull the top and squirt into the food...no more losing those little caps.

Mix your powdered supplements together for ease.  We mix vitamin C and kelp together along with anything else that may be powdered such as Glucosamine/MSM etc.