Meals: a pictorial

I thought I would post some pictures of meals my dogs have had.

Everyone has their own method of feeding raw. I take a few days worth of meat out of the freezer to dethaw in the fridge. Once dethawed, I get their bowls ready and cut the meats into appropriate sizes for my dogs. I measure everything out as I have not mastered the art of "eyeballing" amounts. Sometimes, they get a little more than their specific amount, sometimes a little less depending on what it is I am feeding and whether it is feasible to cut it. I do not think the amounts have to be perfect every meal. However, if your dog starts to gain weight (like my boy, Sargeant) you need to cut back the food a little. He will not be happy about this. LOL. If they are losing weight, up the amount a bit.

Once it is portioned out, I add any supplements I plan to add and then serve. This meal they got Solid Gold's Seameal supplement. I also give them fish oil and joint supplements. I do not give those everyday though. This meal consisted of pork neck bones, pork chops, and beef chuck roast.

Here they got chicken quarters.

For this meal, they got venison, rabbit, egg, ground beef, and beef kidney.

This meal was for the largest dog, an English mastiff. He got turkey wings, lamb ribs and beef chuck roast.


As you can see, I vary their proteins as much as I can. I shop for sales as I can not feed expensive meats all the time. Some people are lucky and have access to low cost meats and some people are not. I think, if you put some effort into it, no matter where you live you can find SOME way to afford to feed raw.

The rabbit in a previous pic was from a friend who donated their catch to me. The venison was deer I hunted myself. The chicken and beef I found on sale at grocery stores for a very good price. I admit, I splurged with the lamb that I bought from Walmart. The way I look at it, now that I feed raw, I no longer buy my dogs treats. The treats I used to buy were basically junk food and even though they were not good quality, I was spending good money on them. I figure the money I used to spend on treats can now be used for superior dog food instead.

They do still have SOME treats for training (which we rarely do these days). Treats are now given very sparingly at my house. I no longer buy chew toys either. Nylabones and similar expensive chews sold at pet stores are a thing of the past for me. I feel a true chew toy is a bone from an animal.

Make sure bones are appropriate for the dog. This is a picture of Sargeant's meal. The round bone was ok to give Sarge because he could not swallow it whole. I let him eat the bone marrow and meat off of it and then I disposed of it. My mastiff could easily have swallowed that. If a dog is going to have bone they either need to be able to crunch it up to swallow, or not be able to eat it at all. An example of bones not to eat would be beef ribs. My dogs love them. They chew on them but can not eat them. This makes beef ribs a recreational bone that gives them something to do like a chew toy would.

And here is the pay off to all the work of finding, purchasing, defrosting, and portioning all that raw meat. A healthy dog enjoying a natural, biologically appropriate meal.

Sometimes, I give them a whole part of an animal. I find this is mentally stimulating for the dogs to be able to enjoy actually working for their meal. This is a deer ribcage. He did not eat it all at once. Some dogs self regulate and some dogs will gorge themselves silly. I give my dogs a certain amount of time with large pieces like this and then take it away until next time.

I will post more pictures as soon as I have more decent shots.