I've lost all reason

Apparently, cheap meat prices make me lose all sense of proportion.

How the @#*%&# did I think I could fit almost 50 pounds of meat in the freezer compartment of my fridge? (Remember, I bought some for me too - it's not all Kip's).

Here's evidence of the advanced level of my insanity:

Note how much of the freezer Kip takes up. He also hogs the bed.

To understand the enormity of the problem, there is still over 25 pounds of meat left in the fridge. Obviously, the ice cream has to go.

I've been using the space atop the two containers on the bottom shelf to hold a cookie sheet with portioned meat bits so they can freeze, and I can bag them all in a large freezer bag without using smaller bags for each piece - by freezing them separately, they are easy to remove individually when needed. It takes more time, but it vastly reduces the number of plastic bags required. After all the meat is frozen, that space will be claimed by the ice cube trays required for the vast quantities of gin and tonic that I will soon be consuming to block the memory of trying to fit 50 pounds of meat in a space designed to hold 10 pounds.

Well, I'll be busy trying to find a rift in the space-time continuum to increase my freezer space, and eating ice cream. Wish me luck!

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!!

... in for a pound.

Proponents of prey model raw diets suggest a diet of 80% meat, 10% organ and 10% bone - the theory being that is the proportion in "real" whole prey.

Chicken generally forms a high percentage of the diet for a lot of raw fed dogs - it's cheap, and readily available. However, chicken is really high in bone percent. Here are the numbers, according to the USDA Nutrient Data Laboratory

Back 44%
Breasts 20%
Thigh 21%
Drumstick 33%
Wing 46%
Whole 31%

Once your dog is on a raw diet, you want to average this out - so you would generally feed 1 or 2 boneless meals for every chicken-with-bone meal. But note the backs and wings. Over 40% bone! That might be a bit too high to feed, even followed by 3 boneless meals. Again, if you have a bigger dog, you can feed a breast with the wings or back attached - but for smaller dogs, this might be too big of a meal.

This is something to keep in mind when buying whole chickens. Depending on the price per pound, breasts or legs might work out to be a better price than whole. If you think about price per serving, vs. price per pound, this makes more sense.

For example, those whole chickens I bought. They were ~$6 each, and I cut each into 12 portions, or 6 days worth of food, which works out to ~$1 per day. But, if I take out the wings and back, then each chicken provides 8 portions, at ~$1.50 per day. I can get packs of legs (3 legs and thighs) for under $4 each, which provide 6 potions, at ~$1.33 per day. The good thing about whole, though, is you get the breast meat, which is generally quite expensive, and has a better meat/bone ratio than the legs.

One option for the "bony" chicken parts, is to feed along with organ meat. I might give that a try, but I still need to incorporate more "meaty" meat in Kip's diet. And that is generally where costs increase. I need to keep an eye out for sales - and buy a freezer!

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!!

All you need is love...

and a good knife.

A few other things come in handy as well- like a scale, a knife sharpener, plastic "ziploc" freezer bags, and tape and markers for labeling. Whole meats tend to be cheaper per pound, and with the right equipment, it isn't hard to cut them down to portion size. The size of each depends, of course, on your dog. With Kip, to start at least, I'll be feeding twice a day, so each portion should be around 4 ounces.

This is what a chicken looks like, portioned in ~4 ounce pieces. I know from previous dissections that each drumstick and thigh will weigh between 3 and 4 ounces - so those are one portion each. Cut off the wings, cut off the back, cut the back into two, and each breast into two. Viola - one chicken is now 12 pieces. I have been buying whole chickens for years for myself, so this isn't new to me. But believe me when I tell you - with a little practice, it is very easy to portion a chicken. And, the bigger the dog, the easier it is - as you will need fewer cuts.

A poor picture, but this is 3 whole chickens, all bagged and ready for the freezer. I separate each portion into it's own small freezer bag, then group all the different types into a large freezer bag, labeled with the meat and type. So here, there are separate bags for backs, wings, breasts, thighs and drumsticks. This way, I can remove each portion individually to thaw in the fridge, and I don't have to hunt though the freezer to find the piece I want.

I cut up 3 chickens, one pork roast, one beef heart, and some liver and kidneys in one session. From start to finish, it took less than two hours, including clean-up, to prepare one month's worth of meals. Not a bad use of my time, in my opinion!


A note about food safety. We are dealing with raw meat here. I have worked with microorganisms for the last 15 years, and I tend to be a bit lax about them - but not to the point of stupidity. The one thing you don't see in these pictures - the sink full of hot soapy water with a cup of bleach added. This is used to wipe down everything - including the markers and knife sharpener. Everything washable gets washed in this water (as I don't have a dishwasher). And I do not use "antibacterial" dish washing detergent. EVERY soap and detergent is antibacterial, and the chemicals added to the ones marketed as "antibacterial" have the potential to increase bacterial resistance. This is something I will not be a part of. There are fantastic cleaners that will not add to bacterial resistance - bleach being the best (as well as being cheap and readily available). Vinegar is another. And good old soap, water and air work great too. So, be smart, and be safe.