Hmm, maybe I will put newspaper down underneath to minimize the mess if he takes it out. It'd be nice to use his bowl instead of the cutting board like I normally do...that or I need to get myself more cutting boards.

Huskyluv wrote:

You don't have to clean the fish at all! You can give Ginger the raw fish complete with head, fins and scales. Easier on you that's for sure!

Really?! THAT is the bomb that I wouldn't have to clean it at ALL! But I think when I'm ready to introduce raw fish to her, I'll have to cut up a whole fish...that I can manage and still be neat about it.

Huskyluv wrote:

cmanding wrote:

I do have to say though, Ginger has been tolerating a little more chicken and turkey ever since I've been rotating Force and Embark in her food along with her chicken wrapped carrots or apple treats from EcoNaturals! (Yay for Ginger!)

I have found the exact same thing with Faith, my sensitive one. She could hardly eat anything before we switched her to THK. As long as she's eating THK she can eat so many more foods that she previously was not able to stomach. Seriously, THK has been a lifesaver for us with Faith, you really have no idea! This might give you an idea, imagine Ginger when she had her tummy troubles recently...now living like that for almost a year and having near constant diarrhea both inside and outside the house. *shudder*

Yes, I remember this about Faith which is THE BIG/MAIN reason why I tried THK
I cannot imagine having to go through that for almost a year! *shudder AND dry heave!*

Huskyluv wrote:

Hmm, maybe I will put newspaper down underneath to minimize the mess if he takes it out. It'd be nice to use his bowl instead of the cutting board like I normally do...that or I need to get myself more cutting boards.

Yeah newspaper isn't a bad idea. I was even thinking about going over to Petsmart and picking up two of the place mats for bowls and just feeding them on those

cmanding wrote:

Yes, I remember this about Faith which is THE BIG/MAIN reason why I tried THK
I cannot imagine having to go through that for almost a year! *shudder AND dry heave!*

I'm glad it's continuing to go well with Ginger, actually I didn't even know you had started giving her HK!

Jennet&Embry wrote:

Yeah newspaper isn't a bad idea. I was even thinking about going over to Petsmart and picking up two of the place mats for bowls and just feeding them on those

OMG, that is an excellent idea! Can't believe I never thought of that. We have some really big Halloween placemats (for kids) that would be perfect for using when feeding raw. Thanks for the idea! I love forums!

Jennet&Embry wrote:

Yeah newspaper isn't a bad idea. I was even thinking about going over to Petsmart and picking up two of the place mats for bowls and just feeding them on those

We have the blue placemats with the walls or borders on the edges. They work nice and keep the food for the most part on the mat. Washes easily

Huskyluv wrote:

cmanding wrote:

Yes, I remember this about Faith which is THE BIG/MAIN reason why I tried THK
I cannot imagine having to go through that for almost a year! *shudder AND dry heave!*

I'm glad it's continuing to go well with Ginger, actually I didn't even know you had started giving her HK!

I started late December, I think...or right after the new year. But I've been bouncing/mixing Zeal, Force and Embark to see if she does better on certain ones or all. I just started to mix 50/50 of HK Zeal with her Orijen and she still is doing well.

I remember you saying Perfect Form was also very helpful and way back when she still had issues, I bought a container but then never used it because by the time it was delivered, she was already doing well on eggs and carrots!

Jennet&Embry wrote:

Yeah newspaper isn't a bad idea. I was even thinking about going over to Petsmart and picking up two of the place mats for bowls and just feeding them on those

Huskyluv wrote:

OMG, that is an excellent idea! Can't believe I never thought of that. We have some really big Halloween placemats (for kids) that would be perfect for using when feeding raw. Thanks for the idea! I love forums!

haha no problem

I am just picturing a husky tearing at a fish like a grizzly bear now LOL!

I am still researching the raw thing my fiancee seems to think that we cannot afford it because of the price of meats. He says we don't have any real butcher shops around here. We have Safeway, Food 4 less, a mexican grocery store which is equivalent to a food 4 less with smaller shopping carts. I have been trying to find a decent freezer that will fit in our smaller house (not to much extra space). I found this cute freezer for 75 bucks and I am wondering if something like this would work for us.

http://stockton.craigslist.org/app/2176012198.html

We have 3 dogs so I think that is why my fiancee is so concerned about the prices. I told him it would probably cost less than the kibble we get. So its just going to take some more time, research, and pricing around until he is 100% convinced I think. However I am all for it! I would love to feed them all raw I think it would solve any food allergy issues and stomach sensitivity issues we have with kibble. We can't give Loki or Coal wet food or they get the runs so its frustrating.

5.5 cu ft is not huge but it's better than nothing. Our freezer is 15 cu ft but we use it for both human and dog frozen food.

Took at pic of Dakota's and Faith's dinner. Dakota was served a chicken quarter sprinkled with Nupro supplement and a touch of garlic. Faith was served a mix of THK and kibble. Which looks like the better diet to you?



I took a chance and fed Dakota his chicken in his bowl for the first time and to my surprise he never took it out of the bowl. Yay!



A couple videos, excuse the whining Faith!

Awesome. You folks, I look up to. Of all the people in the world, I should have the time. But I just can't wrap my head around it. Although with a backpack trip this summer, the thought of raw is popping into my head again. Just not sure I could keep up with the acquisition of meat part. I get lazy fast. [/ramble]

I just cant get past the germ part of it and salmonella, i would have to wipe their mouths and paws and all off before i let them near me for kisses, and it would have to be done out side.

That part actually doesn't concern me whatsoever. I still do the wings for teeth thing.

jbealer wrote:

I just cant get past the germ part of it and salmonella, i would have to wipe their mouths and paws and all off before i let them near me for kisses, and it would have to be done out side.

Just like when you are handling raw meat for human consumption we clean up any surfaces the raw meat touches. Real easy. I taught my dog to eat laying down so he doesn't need to hold the meat with his paws, you can see from the video that the raw meat stays in the bowl and doesn't touch anything else except maybe a tiny bit touched the placemat underneath, again easy to clean. Our sibe also wipes his own face clean, after he's done eating I let the dogs outside and he proceeds to rub his face clean in the yard outside.

But there are plenty of people who feed their dogs raw food outside in the yard, no harm in that either. You can also take a wipe and clean off their paws and face that way if you prefer too. I don't have any problems with messes from raw feeding.

Huskyluv wrote:

If he continues to hold out you could try seering the chicken wing slightly, that will make it smell more appealing but just be sure to seer it quickly and take it off the heat before it really cooks because you want the meat and especially the bone to remain raw. Other ideas are to sprinkle something extra like parmesan cheese on the raw chicken wing, that may get him more interested. Give him time to get accustomed to it if it's his first time with anything raw. Some dogs dive right in while others need more encouragement. I'd definitely monitor him with a chicken wing to make sure he chews the bone and doesn't swallow it or choke on too big a piece. Let us know how it goes!

We had our first raw chicken wing success last night! WOOT! Chris and I had steak for dinner (something that makes Nikolai beg like none other), so at the end of our meal, I took his raw chicken wing and dipped it in the pan sauce from our steaks - he LOVED it. Sat there chewing the bones like bubble gum... I guess he just needed for it to be seasoned a little bit. Hahaha... I saved the rest of the sauce (it turned out a bit too salty for our tastes), so tonight I'll try it again with a chicken breast, see how that goes. ;-)

Wow Dakota eats really slow! Or maybe my crew eats really fast... Either way I was laughing the whole time in the first vid when the 2 Chis kept running around in the background! They are so cute with their little tails going crazy.

CoffeeK8 wrote:

We had our first raw chicken wing success last night! WOOT! Chris and I had steak for dinner (something that makes Nikolai beg like none other), so at the end of our meal, I took his raw chicken wing and dipped it in the pan sauce from our steaks - he LOVED it. Sat there chewing the bones like bubble gum... I guess he just needed for it to be seasoned a little bit. Hahaha... I saved the rest of the sauce (it turned out a bit too salty for our tastes), so tonight I'll try it again with a chicken breast, see how that goes. ;-)

Yay, that's excellent news! Hopefully He's learned how good raw is and you will be able to eliminate the need to flavor it.

Also keep an eye on his stool, loose stool indicates not enough bone in the diet and stool that is too firm to where they have trouble passing it indicates too much bone. Not saying this to worry you, just so you know how to handle it if it happens. As with anything else it's trial and error.

Here's hoping he eats the chicken breast and you can get pics to prove it.

arooroomom wrote:

Wow Dakota eats really slow! Or maybe my crew eats really fast... Either way I was laughing the whole time in the first vid when the 2 Chis kept running around in the background! They are so cute with their little tails going crazy.

Yes, Dakota is a slow eater. He always has been whether it's kibble, THK or raw. It takes him about 15 minutes to eat an entire bone in chicken breast or chicken quarters. The chi girls are always hoping for leftovers or handouts. lol Faith can be too bold for her own good sometimes too! Dakota doesn't care if the chi girls come and take kibble or Honest Kitchen from his bowl but he will defend his raw, it's a totally different ball game then, it's like the raw brings out his primal side.

Congrats Kate! Looks like the time is getting closer to buy a Costco membership to get chicken in bulk! Or you could just come with me...

I'm going to look for updated from you on how Nikolai does with raw food. I eventually want to do the same with Ginger, but that would be for at least another few months! More me being tentative in taking that initial step. I would imagine I'd start her off on a wing, minus the drummette...

cmanding wrote:

Looks like the time is getting closer to buy a Costco membership to get chicken in bulk!

I've priced the meats out at Costco (at least in FL, SC and NC) and they are pretty pricey. So I wouldn't go to Costco or Sam's in search of "cheaper" meat. That's just what I've found from experience based on the prices at the stores I've visited. You would think it would be cheaper at a Club warehouse but it's not...at least for here anyway.

Huskyluv wrote:

I've priced the meats out at Costco (at least in FL, SC and NC) and they are pretty pricey. So I wouldn't go to Costco or Sam's in search of "cheaper" meat. That's just what I've found from experience based on the prices at the stores I've visited. You would think it would be cheaper at a Club warehouse but it's not...at least for here anyway.

You know, come to think of it, you could be right about Costco prices all around. I think the best bet would be to get a whole fryer chicken and cut it up in pieces....

My sweet boy still thought that plain raw chicken would just be fun to toss around, instead of eat, so we upped the ante and tossed it with a bit of the pan sauce from our steaks last night. He thought that made it A-OK and he actually ATE it! WOOT!

Aww, he started out doing good. How much did he end up eating?

Well, I started out with about a cup (prepared) of THK (Keen) and about 8 oz. of the chopped up chicken chunks. He ate all the THK and flung the chunks all over the kitchen. So, I picked up the pieces, put them in a ziploc and poured a bit of last night's sauce in, shook it up a bit, and tried again. He ate all of it and was looking at me for more once he was done. I'm a proud momma.

Congrats Kate and Nikolai!

That's great! That's a lot of food actually so now I'm less surprised that he didn't want "seconds". lol How much does Nikolai weigh? My boy weighs about 55 lbs (he should anyway) and he eats 1 lb of food a day. So on the day he eats HK he gets 1 cup HK + 1.25 cups of water for a pound of food. On the days he eats raw he gets 1 lb of meat. At 1 cup of HK plus 8 oz of raw that's a good 1.5 lbs of food which is plenty and probably why he's not all that enthusiastic about the raw part.

Maybe if he keeps picking out the HK you might try feeding the raw first and after he finishes that he gets THK? Just an idea if you don't want to have to keep flavoring the chicken for him.

Btw, love the tray/mat!