WOOHOO!

Katy is down to 20 pounds!!

Which is ~3 pounds off, which is a whopping THIRTEEN percent of her body weight in 3 months!

Yeah Katy!  Yeah raw diet!

We went to the vet today, to get Kip's annual exam and rabies booster, and a heartworm test for both.  All is well, and the vet loves both dogs!!  The ONLY issue she found with Kip was some tartar build-up on his upper canines.  Other than that, he's a perfect dog :)

Nothing much going on...

Things are fine in our little raw world.  Katy's eating beef now, again with absolutely NO issues, which is fantastic.  And let me tell you, she LOVES her food.  She's still eating in her kennel (while Kip eats in the kitchen) and when I tell her to "kennel up", she gets so excited, she literally spins her way into it.  Silly girl!  I have to try to get a video one of these days.

I don't know if she's lost any weight or not, but I'm going to call the vet next week, and see if I can bring her in just to get weighed.  And now that the nice weather is here, we should be more active, which will help move those extra pounds. 

The one thing we do have to work on is her food "aggression".  It happens with toys as well - if she has something in her mouth, she will NOT give it up.

When this issue comes up on many on-line dog fora, I often see advice given along the lines of "it's their food, they deserve to eat it in peace and quite, and it's their right to defend it".

I couldn't disagree more.

I got Kip as a puppy, and one thing I worked on was being able to take anything out of his mouth at any time, for any reason (along with "Drop it", of course). 

It's not some control thing, it's not about being "dominant",  it's not about being mean - it's 100% about being able to safely remove something from your dog's mouth that could possibly harm them if they were allowed to eat it.

And so I will be working on this with Katy.  It will also help with eventually being able to feed them both in the kitchen, un-crated, without her stealing Kip's food, which she will do now, and he just lets her, the wimp :)

So yeah, there's not much going on here right now.  Makes for a boring blog, but a nice calm life!

One year in, and a new addition!

I can't believe it's been one year already.

One year!

And Kip is doing so well - happy, healthy and full of energy.  He's doing so well, in fact, that we've decided to take on a new project:

 

Pudgy little no-name

This little girl was brought in as a stray - you can read more about her here.

She's a sweet dog, and is doing great.  The one issue - very overweight.  So we will be working on that, using, of course, a raw diet.  She's been here just over a week already, and has taken to raw like a pro.  

 

First meal

If I didn't know better, I'd say she was fed raw by her previous owners.  She's had no problem with bone-in chicken breasts, and no poop issues at all!  In fact, the night I brought her home, I put down a beef roast for Kip, and she attacked it with vigour!  She's currently being fed in her kennel, for two reasons - to make it her "good" place, and to deal with any food-guarding issues she or Kip may have.  Eventually, I'll try to feed them both in the kitchen.   

She is much shorter than Kip, and her ideal body weight is probably somewhere around 15 pounds, compared to Kip's 20-22 pounds.  She currently weight a whopping 23 pounds, but that will be decreasing with proper food and lots of exercise - play time with Kip included!

One thing this will change is my organization methods.  I have taken to giving Kip large hunks of meat, for multiple days, and letting him set the pace at which he eats.  For example, a 3 pound roast should take him 6 days to eat.  If he eats in it 5 days, then he fasts for the 6.  If he takes 7 days to eat it, so be it.  It save a lot of work in portioning the meat ahead of time, as well as giving him a good "chew" workout.  I want to continue to do this with Kip, but may not be able to with the new GirlDog, depending on what feeding issues she has  - I have noticed she is ALWAYS hungry, so a "gorge" model may or may not be right for her.  Then again, if she is allowed to eat as much as she wants, it might make her issues better.  We'll try a few things, once she has settled in more, and see. 

So that's what new around here.  And hopefully I'll be posting here a bit more, with up-dates on how she is doing with her new diet and new life :)

The devil is in the percentages

Kip was getting 1/2 a pound of meat a day, and dropped to below 21 pounds. I'm not too focused on weight, but more on how he looks and feels - and when I can start seeing his ribs, and easily feeling his hip bones and spine, I get concerned.

So, I upped his daily amount, closer to 3% of his ideal adult body weight, or ~11 oz/day.

And the porker packed on the ounces (can't really say he packed on the "less than a pound").

So, new plan:

We're back to ~8 oz/day, with the occasional extra meal thrown in if we've had an extra active day, or I see him getting a bit too skinny again.

One exciting OT thing - my shed got built, so his agility equipment (just jumps and weave poles... for now!) is here for us to play with - yippee!!

I heart independant butchers!

We have a great independent butcher in the area, and I recently got a uncured "ham" (shoulder? leg? I don't really know my meat cuts!) for $1.19/lb. I portioned it out, and it ended up costing a whopping $0.80 per day - cheap, and boneless too! The only thing, it has a lot of skin and fat, which in small amounts, are great for dogs that can tolerate it. Some dogs can't tolerate too much fat, so I'll have to keep an eye on Kip when he eats this meat.

The running total to date: approximately $1.15 per day to feed raw. (Without those cursed "bargain" turkeys, I'd be at $0.98 a day!!!!) Yes, it's more expensive than cheap kibble, but it's about the same (or less) than premium kibble, and I feel a lot better about feeding Kip real, unprocessed food. And Kip likes it too!

My costs are going to go up a bit though, as Kip is getting a bit skinny, and, as the warmer weather is finally here, we will be more active. So, I've increased the amount he gets daily. He is getting ~3% of his weight per day now (~8 oz of meat, plus ~2 oz of organballs mixed with an egg or sardine to make it irresistible to Mr. Picky Dog), and I'll keep it at that for a bit, and see how it goes.

I think I'm getting better at getting cheaper meats, and figuring out which sales are really a bargain, and which aren't. I'd also like to start sourcing some alternative meats, like rabbit and fish, but, until I get a real freezer, buying those in bulk (generally the most economical way) just isn't an option.

In for a penny...

So, is raw more expensive? Well, it depends on the kibble you are feeding, and how cheap you can get meat for in your area. I'm Canadian, so prices here tend to be more expensive than for my neighbours to the south. Ultimately, you need to do your own cost comparison. And there are many ideas to cut the cost of raw - tell friends and family that you will take freezer-burned or unwanted meat, make connections with hunters to take excess meat of their hands, let your butcher or meat manager at the supermarket know that you will take expired meat, etc.

Since I'm a "left" brain, I did the following calculations:

Premium kibble:
Amount fed per day: 0.33 pounds
Weight per bag: 13.50 pounds
Days per bag: 41.14
Cost per bag: $41.80
Cost per day: $1.02
.
Raw (guidelines are 2%-4% of ideal adult body weight):
Kip's weight: 22 .pounds
Cost per day: $1.02 (to keep the same as kibble)

Percent of body weight: 2% .
Pounds per day: 0.44
Cost per pound: $2.31 .

Percent of body weight: 4% .
Pounds per day: 0.88
Cost per pound: $1.15.

So, depending on the percent it will take to maintain a healthy body weight for Kip, I need to keep the cost of the meat between $1.15 and $2.31 a pound.

I'm starting Kip off on about a half a pound a day - somewhere between 2% and 2.5% of his body weight. This might be a bit low, since smaller dogs generally need a higher percentage, but we'll start there and see how it goes. So, if I can find meat for ~$2 a pound, I'm staying within the budget.

So far, this is what I've bought:

Chicken legs & back: $1.47/lb, $6.87 total, 18 portions
Whole chicken:$1.99/lb, $20.55 total, 36 portions
Beef heart: $1.47/lb, $2.78 total, 7 portions
Beef kidneys: $1.49/lb, $1.87 total, 4 portions
Beef liver: $1.69/lb, $2.18 total, 4 portions
Pork roast: $1.99/lb, $6.17 total, 12 portions

Total cost: $40.42
Number of portions: 81
Number of days: 40.5
Cost per day: $0.998

I'm right on track, with the dollar-per-day cost. Yippee!!