A Question or Two For The Dog People

[Nyboy]

Bee that is a great use for road kill. The deer are so plentiful here every morning I pass at least 2 on highway.

 

[Beekissed]

Right now the dogs are getting much, much exercise as they pace the yard, looking for a place to bury their choice pieces of meat. This never happens, as the other dog follows to steal the cache, so it's just endless walking, walking, walking until one or the other gets tired.

Can't beat that....fresh meat AND good exercise, all in one step. We'll see if this all pans out or just turns into a big ol' smelly mess instead.

 

[Beekissed]

Bee that is a great use for road kill. The deer are so plentiful here every morning I pass at least 2 on highway.

In some counties you can get on the roadkill list with the local police and they are supposed to call you if they have a fresh kill reported so you can pick it up right then. A lot of folks do that for their dogs, especially if they have a great many hunting dogs. Except those folks usually have some huge chest freezers and they do it up right....cut it all up, wrap it and freeze it for feeding out all year long.

I don't have that kind of setup so I'll likely just get pieces of deer or small fawns in season and feed it all out at once~that is, if it doesn't start smelling too bad before they can get it all consumed. This could turn into a huge ol' imbroglio and I'll have to ditch this idea altogether.

 

[Beekissed]

The deer seems to be working out well. Both dogs have a full belly, the chickens got to share in the bounty and I expect they will make short work of the carcass.

 

[Nyboy]

Didn't Indians air dry deer meat to save it

 

[Beekissed]

Usually smoked it....but there was a lot of processing going on before that. I'm not willing to go that far for a couple of farm dogs. I'll take what we can get as we get it but I'm not one of these people that feel like dogs should eat better than a human.

They get the cheapest dog food I can buy and I supplement that with whatever we produce or hunt here on the land, or even what we scavenge/forage off the land, but I don't feel justified in spending a lot of money on dogs when there are people out there in the world going hungry.

 

[baymule]

I used to buy big bags of cheap dog food and I got LOTS of BIG turds. I switched to a better brand and they ate less, and pooped less. In the small yard we used to have, that was a MAJOR improvement. At one of the feed stores I go to, they get unlabeled canned dog food and we buy it for $5.89 a case of 12. When I butcher chickens, I have helpers that eat whatever I toss to them. They skip supper on those nights.

 

[Beekissed]

You know? I've heard that from other people, how cheap dog food causes big, loose dog stool but I've never seen that here with my dogs. The pup's stool was like that for a bit when he first arrived but it seemed like his bowels changed and now his stool is much like Jake's and all my other dog's stool....small, dark, dry.

Could be because my dogs get plenty of fermented type foods and a variety in their diet beyond dog food? They are also limited in the amounts they receive each day. The folks over on BYH feed 12 c. of feed twice a day to their LGDs to my 2-4 c. once per day.

 

[Nyboy]

!2 cups 2x a day

 

[so lucky]

There is an interesting site on line that grades dog food. It doesn't promote any particular kind, just tests the ingredients and verifies them. Most of the dog food commercials you see on TV are not for very high quality food.
Since Penny is pretty small, I don't have a problem feeding her a premium food, but it is one that isn't very expensive or well known. For her anal gland issues, we are striving for large stools, so the addition of the pumpkin and Glandex helps that.