Home
Our Dogs
Raw Diet Info
Website Design
My Mary Kay Offer
Our Other Animals
Our Favorites
Testimonials
Contact
Us
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Raw
Diet Basics
Raw
Meaty Bones
Muscle
Meat
Organ
Meat
Veggie
Mush
Benefits
Drawbacks
Getting
Started
Premade
vs DIY
How
Much to Feed
Feeding
a Raw Diet
Grinding
Recreational
Bones
Planning
Orders
Finding
Sources
Supplies
& Tools
Helpful
Tips
How you feed your dog will depend on how your dog eats. Is your dog food aggressive? Do you have multiple dogs? Are they used to eating out of a single bowl? Do they like to take a mouthful of food and walk away to eat it?
My dogs all eat in our basement, by their food prep area. They have been taught to eat out of THEIR bowl only - no bowl-surfing allowed. They have been taught not to take food out of the bowl and walk away with it. They eat right at their bowl. Once all the dogs are finished they are allowed to lick out any bowl they want.
My dogs are fed twice a day, morning and evening.
They usually get their RMBs in the morning and their muscle meat and
organ meat (and tripe) in the evenings.
I don’t follow a rigid schedule as to what they get and when they get
it. If we’re too busy I might
just throw them outside with some bones and that’s all they get.
Sometimes they even skip a whole meal.
Here’s my usual daily routine. Each morning I get the containers of RMBs that had been thawing since the previous morning, all the dogs bowls, the knife or scissors, the scale and their supplements. I have their chart handy so I can see who gets how much of what. I also put a towel on the wall behind my work surface as sometimes the chicken splatters when I whack it.
If I'm feeding leg quarters I cut the
leg off the thigh, break up the bone in the leg and cut the thigh into smaller
pieces (if necessary):
I set the bowl on the scale, reset the scale and then dump in some chicken parts. Once I have enough, I remove that bowl and get the next one.
Once all the bowls are filled I add any supplements they are getting - Salmon Oil, digestive enzymes, Vitamin E, multi-vitamin, etc. Every dog is different and can get different supplements.
Here are the six bowls ready to go:
My dogs do not get fed in a specific order - it changes every day. They are fed in the same room, within just a few feet of each other. Again - they were raised this way and know how to behave. They eat their food and then wait for everyone else to finish. No bowl surfing is allowed. Once everyone is finished they are allowed to lick out any bowl.
Here is our girl Tessa, just starting her breakfast:
And here's a picture of Remi (in the foreground), Neke (in the back) and part of Tazer the Cocker (at the right) - all eating their food. Tessa's bowl appears at the left side of the picture - already empty! Riggs and Winnie are just out of camera range:
WARNING
– when you first try feeding raw to multiple dogs you should separate them,
just to be safe. Once you know they
don’t have issues you can let them all eat in the same area.
While the dogs are eating I start to clean up. The empty containers (if
any) get rinsed out with hot water and set in the sink. I wash all
containers at night when I have more time.
I put any leftover RMBs back in the refrigerator. Now I go to my freezer and grab another container of RMBs and place it on the counter, out of the dogs reach! <g> This container, along with the current days leftovers, are the next mornings RMBs. By the time the next morning rolls around these RMBs are defrosted and ready to serve.
If
I happen to use up all the defrosted RMBs I grab 2 new containers of frozen
stuff and set them out to defrost. Using
this cycle I don’t have to bother measuring amounts when I package the RMBs.
I
do the same in the evening with the muscle and organ meat.
After I weigh it all out and feed the dogs I grab a new container and set
it out to defrost. Since the organ meat is bagged in 2 day portions I only need
to defrost one more bag when I run out.
The entire process of gathering up the 6 bowls, weighing the portions, adding
the supplements, getting the next days batch out to defrost, stuffing pills down
their throats and cleaning up (washing the containers and tools) takes about 20
minutes each meal.
I
wash the dogs food bowls (stainless steel) when I think about it. They
probably get washed once or twice each month.
They are licked completely clean each meal by my Cocker Spaniel and my
Corgi mix!
Feel free to email me at info@rawdogranch.com if you have any questions!