A trip down a dark forest trail.... *raw photos*

What is this about a dark forest trail!?
Ok, lol, so not really we didn't go down a dark forest trail.  But I thought it would be an interesting vantage point on the kind of meat we have acquired for the girls, Elk and Deer.

Tell me about the elk and deer...
First off, before going off on that tangent, let me tell you readers that we introduced organs since the last post and the dogs have done amazingly on them. 

We couldn't have had better luck with our switch honestly.  Neither dog is having issues or anything and it's been nothing but good things for us. 

So how's the Cannon Butt going?
No cannon butt thus far *knocks on wood*
Still no stomach upset, I'd know lol, and if there's one thing you'll notice when you feed a raw diet, it's the poop.  Yes, I said poop.  Is it gross?  Yes, but it's a fact of life lol, get over it.  A raw diet helps a dog to properly digest what it needs and what is leftover, the poop, well there's not much left and what is there is broken down into dust within a couple days.  It's craziness.  Turns out dogs fed on kibble aren't actually digesting very much of it and aren't acquiring as many nutrients as they need, hence all the poop, and the stink of it.  Normal kibble fed dog poo takes months to break down to the point where raw poop is at in a couple days.  Like I said, craziness lol.  I think it's great.  Dog poop that breaks down in two days and doesn't smell bad?  Yes please!!

You're feeding organs!!??
Somedays I feel like Doctor Frankenstein feeding my dogs these weird looking culinary concoctions of blood, meat and organs.  Somedays I'm flat out grossed out and wretch a little when Inga horks down a liver, but those days are slowly dwindling to an end.  I'm getting desensitized to it, and grossly enough when I was serving up some elk steak it actually looked appetizing...perhaps I'm turning into a vampire O.o  LOL.

But yes organs are good for the raw diet.  The organs are the source of your vitamins and minerals that are oh so important for our canine friends.  Liver is the most important organ, taking up a whole 5% of the 10% organ makeup of the diet.  This is because the liver is a strong secreting organ and if you only had access and funds for one type of organ, liver is the best.  And it's cheap, think it was 2 dollars last time I bought a container.  Liver, kidneys, lung etc are good organs.  Hearts and gizzards are considered muscle meats actually, so they don't really count, but wow do the dogs love them.

Someone is horrible at waiting her turn

Do they like the organs?




I don't know you tell me.. LOL





They love their raw food, and well any food for that matter, but they are on a strict raw diet. 




We do not, and I repeat, DO NOT feed our dogs people food.  What is "people food?"  Seriously?  Ok, I'll indulge you, it's food people eat.  "But if you're feeding your dogs chicken and people eat chicken then don't dogs technically eat what you eat"  Ok, I guess you got me there, but I don't feed the dogs anything outside of their menu list, which is strictly raw meat right now. Yes, they do on occassion snork a piece of food from the kids or something on the floor, but it's nothing that's going to effect them too much.



Has it caused any problems?

Honestly, sometimes.  But that's my fault.  I haven't been able to exercise the dogs as much as I want to right now due to the limitations of our yard right now, and there's no way I'd walk my dogs in our neighborhood.  So all this raw meat is giving them amazing healthy energy and they have no where to put it, so yea, they're going kind of nuts.  But nothing a 30 minute game of fetch up and down the kitchen won't fix. 

That and the occasional annoyance of them thinking I'm cooking them dinner when I'm actually trying to dress chicken for us lol, yea that's kind of annoying.  Their begging has gotten worse, something to work on for sure.

Also Inga's apparent complete insanity driven brain for food has gotten kicked into batshit crazy mode, so I have taken to feeding the dogs separate now.  I used to let them eat outside, but Inga would finish and literally headbutt Laila across the yard from her food.  And when I fed them inside she'd heatbutt me onto the floor when I was blocking her path.  So, to avoid anymore injury to myself ( a bruised rib tyvm Inga you psycho) and a possible dogfight, I now feed the dogs separate, period.  I don't have two kennels or I'd feed them in separate kennels.

Why not feed them and let them go at it?  Dogs have a pack structure, who's more dominant?
Our dogs do not have a pack structure among themselves, they are both submissive and on the bottom of our family pack we've created.  They are never allowed free access to toys, treats, or chews.  Why allow a dangerous situation to present itself?  Do I think they're dangerous?  Absolutely not, but dogs are dogs, and they "could" potentially fight, but why let temptation occur?  You have to remember we just adopted both dogs in April and July, so they are still technically new to us, and I'm still unaware of all of Inga's previous issues.

If we allowed either of them "dominance" over each other, there would be serious problems.  Both our girls are very dominant alpha dog personality types, and no this has nothing to do with their breeds, it's just their personality.  So instead of allowing either of them to be "alpha", neither of them are.  I think this is a stupid mentality to have in regards to dogs and asking for trouble.  Have you ever tried to break up a dog fight?  How about between two females fighting over raw food?  No, ok then go back to your corner.  **and yes this was a question I actually got from someone**

Ever going to take that trip down that forest trail we started on?
 Oh yea, so anyways, we acquired some elk/deer meat from some nice folk in town for the girls.  Free meat?  Yes please :D  Not much, maybe 10 lbs or so, but enough to feed the dogs for now.  And between you and me, financially it's nice to have free meat while we wait for the next paycheck to come in.

It's definitely a lot different from chicken in it's color, consistency, and smell.  Oh the smell, much more different.  I cooked some the other day and ug gross, guess I don't care for gamey meat.  But oh boy do the girls love it.  Game meat is some of the best raw meat you can get because it's natural, grass fed, and free of antibiotics and such.  It's packed with a lot more nutrients and goodness than your run of the mill factory farm chicken for sure.  I'm definitely going to try and find some more.  But it's a hit here and I'm jealous of all the other raw food people I know getting 100 lbs of venison for free on CL.  Where is my 100 lbs of free game meat!!??

So what do they eat normally?

Normally we're doing a chicken quarter and I've been mixing an egg in there lately.  The girls like the egg and eat it shell and all, but ug they get stinky gas from it blech >.<  But I also like to mix in organs with it.  I also try to get some blood in there when it's in the bag.  Full of nutrients. 

Blood? Seriously!?

Yes seriously, blood of our enemies is the best ever!  Lol, ok that is cryptic but blood is really good for them as it does have a ton of nutrients in it.  Think of how much iron and such is in our blood, it's good stuff.  I remember when I was interning at the zoo we'd freeze all the blood from the thawed horsemeat to make giant "bloodsicles" for the lions for enrichment.  Super oogy I know, but animals will be animals.

So now some pictures!!

Here is a bowl of raw goodies.  *scroll if u want to pass it, i'm not offended*

On the menu, is Livers (middle), Gizzards and Hearts.

And now Laila sitting oh so politely for her food.  She's the good kid, but don't tell Inga I said that ;D

See all that red around her muzzle?  It's Blood!!  No, just kidding lol.  That's from her previous allergies, she's still recovering, she has the worst allergies I've ever seen.

So as a last interesting note the girls are always starving, even though I feed them plenty.  They're dogs, they will always be hungry lol.  I've been reading a lot from the leerburg sections, a site I frequent on doggy discipline and such, and they add veggies to their dogs' raw diet, so I'm going to look into that and discuss in the next post.  Thinking it might work, for us, to add some veggies to their diet.

Oh here's the link to their Q and A section on raw feeding if you feel like a long read :D
http://leerburg.com/feedingarawdiet.htm

I'd really like to see if anyone actually reads this, so please leave me comments below, and honestly I'd love to do a Q and A if anyone is interested.  So please feel free to message me or leave questions below and I'll tackle them next post!  :D

That's all for now, till next time!!

Doing good so far

So the girls seem to be doing very well on the new raw diet.

We started them almost 2 weeks ago, and no problems thus far.  They get a bit persnickety when the chicken is frozen and they have to wait for it to thaw out, but other than that they are doing well.

No stomach upset, no GI issues, no "choking" issues or anything.

Stats wise, Laila weighs 44 lbs and Inga weighs 55 lbs.  Kind of weird how those digits work out lol.  Anyhoos, they are both a perfect weight, scoring perfectly on the "pet weight scale." 

She thinks she's a 5 lb lap dog O.o

They are both lean and muscular dogs and since starting this diet, the amount of muscle they've put on has been insane.  I swear if Laila gains anymore muscle in her legs and thighs she's going to start walking around like one of those bulky body builders LOL.

I have noticed that Laila has been developing her body rash again, but it's been over the last couple days so it could be related to the winds and storms we've been having with all the pollen around.  We have very thorny underbrush growing in our dirt yard, and it tends to aggravate her allergies to no end.  But she was fine before a couple days ago, so it could be anything.

They're doing so well in fact, it's time to start throwing in some turkey :D  Being November this has got to be the most perfect timing ever with turkey since the entire country is flooded with it, not to mention all the turkey sales that will be going on after thanksgiving. 

I have yet to order from a meat seller yet, however I'm going to be checking one out, and supposedly ordering from these vendors allows us to save money, buy in bulk, and be able to get more variety.  Not to mention, might as well order food for ourselves too ;)  I'll be contacting them this week about prices and whatnot.  Supposedly if I can find hunters with excess meat that would be a win situation as well, but no luck so far.

I'm sure you're wondering if I finally figured out how to feed the dogs yet, and yes, yes I have.  I decided to feed them outside mostly because of cleanup issues.  I don't feel like scrubbing the whole kitchen down when they decide to haul their chicken quarters all over avoiding each other.  So, they stand outside, I hand each one a quarter and they each run off to their own designated "spot" that they've each claimed on their own.  They scarf it down, Laila finishes first and then Inga, and then I invite them back inside, and avoid doggy kisses for a couple hours lol.  Laila eats too fast and seems to regret it after.  After she eats she kind of sits there like she ate too much.  She'll never learn lol.

Inga has no more eye goopies, and Holy Cow look at that shiny coat!!

I'm going to start them on chicken livers tonight, and see how that goes.  When we order from the vendor I'm hoping to get some turkey necks and chicken.  I'm also trying to find chicken feet, which are soooooo gross and creepy as hell to look at and touch, but they're the raw food diet equivalent to giving the dogs a rawhide chew.  I could get pig's feet too, but they're not ready for pork yet.  Pork is next to last, next to beef.  But I'm thinking I can either get weird stuff like that from either the meat vendor or a hispanic/asian specialty market.  There are a bunch here, it just involves going to check them out.  Although I think I'd rather buy a couple from a place in town than in bulk in case they don't like them.

That's pretty much it for now :D  Girls are doing good, it's not expensive really, as much as their old dog food, but better for them. They have crazy shiny white teeth and Inga's remaining tarter from 5 yrs of kibble is almost completely gone, they have shiny coats that aren't oily anymore, Laila's ear issues are going away, Inga no longer suffers from her annoying eye goopies, more muscle is developing, their energy is more productive, and I'm not having allergy issues with Laila, other than the seasonal ones. 

Btw, there are myths that a raw diet will make dogs become bloodthirsty?  
To that I reply..bullshit and shenanigans!  That is just plain ignorance.  Just saying.

Sleepy after a meal, it's made them bloodthirsty O.o LOL

Meet the Crew and First Days

 I figured you may want to meet the dogs in our story, since we'll be following them, and it IS their story after all. 


Both of our dogs, both girls, were adopted off of craigslist.  Normally I don't like getting animals off of CL, as I've had nothing but horrible experiences with animals from there.  But in these cases, we reached out to the families and I'm glad that we did, because we now have the two best dogs ever for our family.

Meet Inga!

Inga is a 5 year old Doberman/APBT mix.  She is spayed, is full of energy but calm around us and our kids. 

She is "child proof" as I like to call her because our young kids can sit on her (which I don't allow but it happens), dress her up, play with her, and she's very tolerable of it all.  She is very gentle with them and has good spatial awareness with them, meaning she won't knock them down or pummel them with her happy tail.

She has some "issues" that we've been able to work with her and train her out of.  But it wasn't really anything that would make me want to rehome her or anything.  After getting Inga's medical records, we discovered we were her 5th home, and I think that's horrible.  She's such a sweet dog and at first we didn't understand why, but as time went on we found out Inga likes to bolt out doors and is a runner.  We also found out she has a very, very high prey drive, so we've worked with her a long time to get her to understand it is NOT ok to chase the cat, and we don't even let her interact with our smaller animals until she knows they are off limits and not to be touched/eaten.  We found out she has no dog socialization and seeing another dog would send her into such a hyper frenzy that she would be so stimulated it would start a dog scraffle 99% of the time. 

Other than a couple..personality quirks...that we easily overcame, all in all she's a wonderful dog.  She has lovely manners, knows her obedience, is very smart, listens well, is great with the kids, us, and strangers, and is an excellent watchdog.  She has never had an accident in the house and is well versed in "house doggery" as I like to call it.  House Doggery is what I call a position a dog holds in the household when they know how to behave inside and they are an inside dog, with inside manners.  This means no breaking of things in my house, chewing of things they aren't supposed to have, and knowing their place in the pack structure.

Inga is a very healthy dog with no underlying health issues, she eats whatever, and doesn't have any allergies so far.  She's done amazingly well on the holistic food we were buying for her.  She has some leash issues and dominant dog issues we've worked on for a very long time.  Inga has come a long way and is a wonderful addition to our family and "pack."


A Sidenote on Doggy Discipline in our home

I strongly believe in positive reinforcement when it comes to dog training.  I've used clickers and not used clickers, I've trained several dogs.  I've studied dog behavior, worked with and groomed dogs of all kinds and breeds for almost 12 yrs now.  I know what I'm doing. 

With that said...some forms of dog training do not work for every dog.   Inga is that kind of dog.  And honestly, the breeds of dogs we like require some "stronger" leader type training. 

I'm not saying in the least that anything we do requires aggression or violence in any form.  That is wrong and unacceptable in dog training.  Dogs should never be harshly reprimanded or physically punished in any form.  

What I'm saying is that Inga is a very dominant dog, and some dominant dogs require being taught pack structure so that they know that we are pack leaders and they do what we say.  I found a website a while back that helped us with some issues we were having with Inga's dominance.  This guy has been training dogs a very long time, and he has more of a view on dog training that I agree with. 

Only Dog Training Information you'll ever need, ever again.

When we planned on finding a second dog for our pack I knew her dominance could potentially become an issue and the kind of dogs we were looking for would most likely need pack training as well.  So, I followed a lot of his advice and it worked so well.  When we acquired Laila it helped us so much I can't even tell you.  If I hadn't introduced the girls the way he suggested and formed our pack the way I read about, I don't think Laila and Inga would have the relationship they have today. 

I digress... but wanted to show you, the reader, how important dog training is for your dog.  Just letting your dog do whatever it wants, when it wants is a disaster for a spoiled dog that doesn't respect you, and is a bite waiting to happen.  Just because a dog does tricks for you doesn't mean it really listens or thinks for itself.  Leave a piece of food on a table.  A dog that respects you and it's place in the pack won't touch it without going to you for guidance.  A dog that isn't trained well and doesn't know it's place with snork that food off the table with little care as to your input, and will prolly fight you for it if you go after it.

Moving on...

Meet Laila!

Laila is our newest dog.  She is an APBT, or American Pit Bull Terrier, Red Nose, cute as a button, sweetest personality ever! 

A cute sweet pitbull?  I know right?  Those of you thinking I'm crazy or we've endangered our children, go read up some more and educate yourself, I'm not going to spend my time writing a novel on breed profiling and how wrong it is.  Don't get me started.  Ignorance is weakness.  BSL is wrong, etc etc...  Punish the deed not the breed etc.

Laila came to us from a nice military family who was being transferred overseas.  They only had a couple days to find a family and we were lucky enough to be picked from a handful of people they'd already met.  We're still in touch with them.  I'm so incredibly glad we found them. 

Laila is an amazing dog!  She's barely a year old and still insanely puppy dumb, but we still love her.  She has manners, sort of, but still needs to learn that we, as a family, don't allow her to sit her 50 lb butt in our laps, or let her sleep in our bed.  She's cute of course, but until she gets over her own dominance issues and learns to listen she can't sit on me lol.

Although her family didn't have kids, she's great with our kids and has adjusted surprisingly well to our kids, who are loud, rambunctious, rough and tumble, and fun.  She has good spatial awareness and doesn't knock them down, she's gentle with them, and loves to give kisses, a little too much.  She's an obsessive licker, and kind of doesn't stop once she gets going.

Health wise, she could be better.  Nothing serious, but she's plagued by ear infections and the worst allergies I've ever seen.  She breaks out if she even looks at a weed XD  She'll break out in hives, has oily skin, her face and muzzle get swollen if she starts rolling in the wrong area of weeds, etc..  I have to bathe her weekly to help soothe the itching.  Vet med wise, there's not much we can do other than keeping her on benadryl every day and getting steroid injections every month.  But after having a dog for 12 years that suffered from allergies and had steroid injections, I don't want her to live that life.  Steroids over a long time deteriorate a dog's health.  I want so much more for our dogs.

Raw appealed to me so much due to the fact that it will improve Laila's health the most. 

So now what?!

The raw diet has begun!!!

We fasted the girls for a day, and started them on chicken quarters last night.  They took to them immediately, weren't picky at all thank goodness, and were really, really enjoying their primal meal.  There was no food aggression from Inga at all, which she has normally, and both of them actually seemed to be satisfied and weren't scrounging for food all day like they normally do.

So we're on Day 2 of the PMR diet, and they're doing great so far.  No cannon butt or stomach upset *knock on wood* and I'm thinking, and hoping, that we won't have any issues. 

I fed them in their bowls, but it ended up on the floor, which I promptly disenfected once they were done.  Today I fed them on a towel, which was a lot more sanitary and easier cleanup.  I'll prolly start feeding them outside once it warms up, but I do like being able to monitor them and make sure there are no fights over food.

So, there you go!  No big issues going on.  Laila's rash is already clearing up, her face isn't swollen today, and she has good positive energy, as opposed to crazy pent up energy.

I'm happy and satisfied thus far.  If things go well we'll start adding in turkey in 2 weeks from now.

The Journey begins...with knowledge!

So the other day, I realized we were almost out of dog food, again..

I grow weary of spending so much money on dog food, and what do I get for it?  Although I buy good quality holistic and organic dog food, I still can't even pronounce most of the ingredients on there and although I keep switching foods for my allergy prone dog, she is still having health issues.

This brought me to the whole raw diet thing again that I visited a couple years ago with our first dog, but decided not to do it due to an idea that it was too complicated to deal with, the whole "oh it's gross and it's raw meat" thing and just feeling like it was too much effort.  I know right?  Too much effort, maybe as humans we've become too comfortable and too lazy to deal with making our own foods, hence all the convenient and prepared foods, so why would we want to do that for our own pets?

It got me to thinking again about making our own homemade dog food.  I've read books about making your own kibble, but even this honestly seems incredibly daunting and time consuming.  I rarely cook anymore for myself and my family, so what makes me think I can stick to cooking for our dogs?  It made me realize how lazy I have truly been, how I stopped cooking for my family and how the microwave meals and quick prep meals have become second nature.  This is NOT how I want to be.  I want to get back into cooking again, every meal.  So I figured while I'm changing my whole lifestyle for my family, why not do it for the dogs too?

Lesson #1  Knowledge is POWER

And apparently, everyone has it nowadays.  I went on youtube for "homemade dog food"  and you know what I got?!  Well, you don't want to know all of what I found, *shudders* but for the most part I found that almost everyone is making their own videos, writing their own recipes, and creating their own diets for their dogs.  In this economy, people want the best for their pets, and a lot of people have figured out that home cooking and diy dog food is the best option. 

Now I'm going to take a moment to point out that not every diet for dogs is a good diet, or healthy, or balanced, etc..  
But everyone makes their own decisions for their pets.  I'm not saying that MY choice in diet is the best (even though I may feel that way) but for me, through my endless hours of painstaking evidence and scientific research, I'm saying what I've decided to do, alongside with my husband's thumbs up, is what is best for our dogs.

The hardest part was finding "accurate and scientific" information, which is hard to come across but I finally found it.  I will post a listing of good solid links to the diet which we have chosen if you choose you may want to look into it. 

Finding websites with good, solid information regarding a raw diet is good compared to a website that states "raw meat is good for dawgs cause dat's what dawgs need for strong muscle to beat other dawgs"  So yea, and I quote that from a real "cool guy."

Anyways, I repeat myself..  Research Raw!  Not every site is going to have accurate information.

Lesson #2:  Play nice with the Raw Community

Ok, I know that sounds weird, but finding forums to join with other enthusiast who are feeding their dogs the same diet is a good idea, a really good one. 

Here's why...

They know more than you!  
These people have been feeding their dogs a raw diet longer than you, they do know more than you.  They are the experts.

They can help you in time of need and are an amazing resource.  
When your dog is transitioning from kibble to raw food, you're gonna want a shoulder to cry on when you feel like you don't know what you're doing, have questions about meat, or are just upset about the cannonbutt your dog is soldiering on with.  (cannonbutt is a term for that horrible diarrhea some dogs get when transitioning)

You need your meat, and they know where to get it from!
Sounds odd again I know, but when feeding raw you have to get creative, unless you don't mind spending a lot of money on meat.  There are co-ops to join, meat companies to order from, and online listings to help you get started with the meat you need for your dog's diet.  These seasoned veterans of the raw diet world know how to get it, where it comes from, know the best deals in your area, will go in on an order with you so everyone can save you money, and can tell you which vendors to avoid. 

Lesson #3  Get your gameplan on
When I finally figured out that the raw diet, to be more specific the PMR or Prey Model Raw diet, is what we wanted to do, I did my homework, read up on how to transition the dogs, and started a plan.  When switching over to raw, you have to have a plan.  There is a very specific process and timeline to introduce meats and certain proteins to make the switch over as smooth as possible for your dog.  I want our switch to raw to be as uneventful as possible and I had a lot of questions.

Here are the steps I've done to ensure success.

1.  Research!
I did all the homework ahead of time, knowing what to feed, when to feed, how to do it, etc..

2.  Joined the forums, made friends, shared my gameplan with them, and got ready
I found lots of lovely people in the same bandwagon as me, made some introductions, asked a lot of questions, got educated, and then I told them my plan, got their input, and got ready to jump forward with the plan.

3.  We made sure we had things ready. 
We fasted the girls for a day to ensure their GI tracts were ready for the new raw food. 
We got the chicken we needed for the first couple weeks.  Chicken is the best starting protein due to it's ease into the system.
We have a chest freezer already, so I didn't need to get one of those.

4.  We waited..
Now the girls are fasted and it's time to start their Journey to Raw!  In my next blog entry I'll post about their first meals and how the journey is going so far.

For now though...LINKS to good websites..

Prey Model Raw

Dog Food Forum Raw, Lots of good people here :D

I'm sure I could post more, but for now I think those have enough reading to last someone all day honestly.

Thanks for reading, and I hope that you'll stay with us on our Journey to Raw