Where To Feed

Oh yuck!  Where am I going to feed my dog(s) if I switch to raw?  That was one of my major problems when we first starting switching the dogs over.  For the first few months I actually fed them outside, and when I was "dabbling in raw" before finally switching over, I took pictures of the dogs out on the deck in the snow eating their Raw Meaty Bones, in this case just chicken necks.  Guess it was my salmonella paranoia at it's best!  As with anything else, there is no one right way to do this.

Because I have dog crates in my kitchen, I feed my dogs in their crates.  The ground meat/veggie meal is easy of course, and they eat it from bowls, the same as eating kibble.  The RMB meals are also fed in crates. Some people pull out the crate blanket and put down newspapers or bath towels, and that works fine.  Most of us just feed the dogs and never give it a second thought.  If you are concerned and want to be extra cautious, it's easy enough to dip the RMB is boiling water for a few seconds, or wash them in the sink under running water.  Because any bacteria that might be present will be on the surface of the meat, that should do the trick- or at least make YOU feel better.  The dog won't care.  Many dogs new to raw prefer the RMBs warmed up anyway.  Just don't cook them!

Raw-feeders who don't have crates handy generally have a bath towel or washable throw rug for each dog, and the dogs learn to stay on the towel or rug until the bone is finished.  If you are not in control and your dog does not understand stay, put the dog on leash before feeding, and insist that he stay on his rug until done chewing.  They catch on quickly.  OR you can feed outside, at least in nice weather!

Dogs have had pretty boring meals for the past few days.  Ground turkey for breakfast with an assortment of added veggies.  One day I had nothing handy and opened a can of green beans.  Green beans or carrots work nicely and I always keep some on hand for the dogs.  I added an egg most days.  Yesterday I had some left over cabbage, an apple that was getting soft, an extra tomato, and some limp celery stalks. Chopped everything into bite-sized pieces, added a bit of water and put it in the microwave for 5 minutes.  Dogs love these mixtures and get a variety of vitamins and minerals from vegetables.

Dinner has been chicken backs, always a favorite.  They'll have chicken backs again tonight, then we'll switch to turkey necks for a few days.  See, this isn't hard at all!

Did you know that properly rawfed dogs almost never have problems with their anal glands?  Eating the way nature intended seems to solve that problem, even for the dogs with chronic problems.  Like many others, I am convinced that processed grain is one of the causes of many of the health issues common to dogs.