Update on Raw Feeding

 So we are about three and a half weeks into the switch to a raw diet. So far so good!! We started out on chicken drumsticks and leg quarters. With leg quarters he got one in the morning and one in the evening. While the bone to meat ratio is slightly higher than what most people recommend for the normal ratios, I found it to be perfect for the switch as it helped with any.... loose stools he might have had with a diet switch.

Since Glock was doing so well on the chicken I decided last week that it was time to add in a second protein source. I started adding in a bit of pork with his leg quarter and he has been doing great on that!

Saturday I went to the store to pick up some split chicken breasts and also got some chicken liver. Saturday was three weeks in and he was doing great on chicken and some pork that I figured it was safe/time to start adding in some organ. He gets a piece of liver every evening feeding. There haven't been any issues with that either!!

I have to say that so far I am feeling really good about this change. I am keeping my eyes peeled for great sales on meat, and am excited about adding in other protein sources. I think that it is most likely that his raw meaty bone portion of his meals will continue being chicken, either split breast or leg quarters, simply because they are so inexpensive. Obviously other raw meaty bones (RMB) will be added in if I find them at a great price. Pork and turkey will probably be a main portion of his diet as well with beef organ and muscle meat (heart), as I can get those for a decent price.

So, how is he doing? Well his ear infection seems to be doing quite a bit better these last few days. I have also started adding in a bit of Bragg's Apple Cider Vinegar to his water to help and heal it as well. I figure hit it with everything to heal it as quickly as possible! He LOVES his food, gets super excited for dinner time and always wants more. He took to the liver immediately, apparently some dogs don't like it at first, and has loved everything he's gotten so far (not that that has been a terribly big variety).

Portioning out liver to bags!

A New Day Bakery

Maybe I am a glutton for punishment, but oh well! I have decided it is time to set up an etsy shop for gluten free baked goods. A way to lose money? Perhaps, I hope not, but one never knows!! I feel like it is time to take the plunge, a first step into something else. If you want to take a look, and I don't know maybe buy some *wink wink* you can do so here!! I have only done the cookies that I feel are stable and delicious, not ones that I am still trying to perfect. Okay, I am always trying to PERFECT all of them, but these ones are pretty dang delicious!

Gluten Free Snickerdoodles- Xanthan Gum Free!

So, I have decided to try and not use xanthan gum in my gluten free cooking. Now, if you are a gluten free baker you may know how common xanthan gum is and how useful it is. Instead of xanthan gum I have decided to use psyllium husk. It is a bit of trial and error to find the right amount of psyllium husk to replace the xanthan gum. Some sources I have seen say you can substitute it 1:1, others 1:2-3 (xanthan to psyllium). So, I have made cookies a few times using psyllium husk. The first time I did chocolate chip cookies with a 1:1 ratio. They turned out flat and crumbly. Next time I did peanut butter cookies with a 1:2 ratio. After the dough had sat in the fridge for a day it produced pretty darn good cookies! The first batch I baked after just a couple of hours in the fridge were a big thin. Today I did snickerdoodles with a 1:3 ratio ( a HEAVY 3, maybe closer to 4). They held their shape beautifully, but were crumbly once you bit into them. Le sigh. It looks like somewhere between two and three is the magic amount.

Although they were crumbly they were still melt in your mouth yummy!

Glock's Raw Food

So we are on day three of Glock's raw food diet. I have to say that it is going great! Saturday morning, when I first gave him his food he picked up a drumstick, gave it a few licks and looked at me like, "Is this really for me??" I picked it up and handed it to him. He took it from me and started in on it. After that it was smooth sailing.

We started out on drumsticks. I know some people say not to give large breed dogs drumsticks out of a fear of gulping it down and not chewing it at all. I know Glock well enough to do that he would at least chew it a little bit, so that is what we started out with.

Glock is about 90 pounds, probably not quite that much, but is the weight we are going off of. For 2% of his body weight that is a bit less than 2 pounds a day. He is a bit skinnier right now than I would like, so we are feeding about 2 pounds a day. There were two packages of drumsticks in the freezer, each just a tad over 2 pounds. So he got half of a package in the morning and half in the evening, three drumsticks each. This morning we started with leg quarters, and while he did give it a slight questioning look at first, he ripped into it and life was good.

I'm feeling good about this change in his diet. He hasn't had any diarrhea on it, and definitely enjoys it. In a couple of weeks we will add in liver and organ meat. Then add in a second protein source.

Feeding Glock Update

So, I did the homecooked food for Glock for a few weeks. A bit off and on, I went out of town and he just got regular kibble while we were gone, didn't want to deal with cooking it and everything. His diarrhea went away while back on the kibble, so when we got back I did a bit of a mixture of homecooked food and his dry kibble. This did seem to help. However, the more I really thought about it the more I knew that this was the time to start feeding him raw.

I have wanted to put him on a raw diet for quite awhile. Pretty much since he was a puppy I have done research on it. He was less than a year old when I decided I wanted to do it. At that time I was living in Show Low with my dad, and there just weren't the options of places to get inexpensive meat from me to feasibly do it, plus I didn't quite want to start him when living with family. Once I moved into my own place I really couldn't afford it, my money was pretty much all tied up in keeping us going.

Now that I am in a town with many more grocery stores, supermarkets, and ethnic grocery stores I have a much wider range of possibilities of meat sources. On Thursday a friend and I visited several of the ethnic grocery stores so I could get an idea of what they had as far as organ meat, and other types of meat. I did not buy anything from them that day, but now I have an idea of what they have and the prices.

We did go to Restaurant Depot where I knew they had chicken leg quarters for $.45 a pound for a 40 pound box. Soooo I figured that was the perfect way to begin, it would last a few weeks, and it was cheap. We went and I picked up a box, it did end up being $.47 a pound, but it was just over $18 for the 40 pounds!! Can't beat that!

With all of that said, today was Glock's first day of a raw food diet. Hopefully this will be a good thing for him!!