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
Raw
Meaty Bones - RMBs - are any item
that has both meat and EDIBLE bone. Some examples of RMBs are
chicken leg quarters, backs, necks, wings, turkey necks, fish, rabbit,
ostrich neck, beef neck bones, pork neck bones, duck, pheasant, ox tails
... and so on.
Leg bones of large animals - like deer or cows - are NOT RMBs. These are recreational bones. Most dogs cannot actually consume the bone in a leg bone of a cow. The bone is much too hard (it was meant to carry the weight of the cow). Even beef knuckle bones - a softer bone - are recreational. They take too long to consume to be considered part of a meal.
Here's how I process our RMBs.
Chicken Parts
Leg quarters - I used to chop them up prior to packaging but now I just stuff as many as I can – AS IS - in the container or plastic bag and seal it.
Here's a picture of some leg quarters after being bagged (right) and then double bagged by potting several individual bags into a large garbage bag (left):
Double bagging can help limit the mess caused by leaking bag.
I don't bother chopping the quarters anymore because I’m always looking for ways to save time and I'm feeding them whole or just cut in two so it's just as easy to package them as is.
I rarely buy chicken wings and only occasionally buy chicken necks. Wings are just too pricey for the number of dogs I'm feeding - especially around Superbowl time. And I personally feel that chicken necks have too much bone and not enough meat. But I will sometimes buy them. And for those I tend to use the plastic containers for storing. I buy the cheap, disposable type you find at the grocery store. The lids tend to be more fragile than the actual containers. But as long as the lid will sit on top of the container, I will still use it even if it’s broken. When I run out of those I go to the plastic bags.
Here's
a picture of a case (about 40 lbs) of chicken wings (they were on sale) and my supplies for
processing them:
I
used to weigh out the chicken into the containers in daily portions but I
stopped that. Much too time
consuming. (You can read how
I deal with getting the right amounts in the section called Feeding Time.
I now cram as much as will fit in them, seal them and stack them in the freezer.
Turkey Necks
This is another RMB I rarely feed anymore. My guys just don't do well with them. For my 11 year old Shepherd Neke - they are just too hard to chew. My boy Remi gets consipated from having too many of these. And the Cocker and the Corgi mix need them ground or whacked into very small pieces. So I tend to use them infrequently. When I do buy them I tend to grind them just to make it easier on the dogs.
Other RMBs
All other RMBs get packaged as best I can. Whole fish (Talapia) come individually wrapped so I just toss a few in a freezer bag and seal it. Rabbit I butcher myself - they get stuffed in plastic bags for the most part.
I use canned mackerel (needs to processing) also. Yes, it has been cooked and it's not as good as the raw fish - but a few of my dogs won't eat the raw fish so this way at least they get some variety.
Feel free to email me at info@rawdogranch.com
if you have any questions!