Category: Misc

On my last trip to pick up meat for my dogs, I was chatting with the lady at Big Dan’s Trucking and Dog Food.  She mentioned that she had recently gotten a complaint on, what that customer felt, was the excessive bloodiness of their beef.

It threw me for a bit of a loop as it never dawned on me someone would be unhappy about that.  Their beef is “excessively” bloody for a couple main reasons:

• It is very fresh.  Often the beef I’m taking home on a Friday was a live cow that previous Monday.
• Perspective.  The beef to which most of us are accustomed, typically has some sort of packaging to absorb blood.

As someone who has been feeding raw for many years, I admit, I am a bit desensitized to the blood.  But, I know that many who are first starting raw have to overcome a certain “ew” factor.

I like the bloodier meat as it makes it easier to mix in anything I want to add to the food.  In the case of the beef, I have to add bone meal powder, so I typically pour a little blood into each dog’s bowl.

The blood is also good for the dog to consume as blood itself is a quality source of animal protein.

The only time I discard the extra blood is if the meat is starting to get a little….well, ripe. 🙂  The blood is what gets the worst odor, so if you drain the blood off (and rinse the meat if you’re working with RBM’s), you get rid of most of the gross odor.

If you are in the Des Moines area, check out this upcoming Puppy Up! event.  Puppy Up is a great organization that raises money for canine cancer research.  I am looking forward to participating!

Join me at the Great Iowa Pet Expo Sat-Sun Oct 21-22, 2016!  I will be giving a presentation about raw diets and how to get started Sunday at 10:30.  Looking forward to it!

When feeding raw, bone is a critical component.  Finding the right balance of bone is easy – just watch the dog’s stool.  Too little bone, the stools will be loose.  Too much bone and the stools will become hard and dry.  Any raw feeder knows the importance of watching the dog’s stools!

Because I prefer to feed ground foods lately, I have started using ground bone.  I’ve tried various options, but have found simply buying bone meal powder online works well.  I add about a teaspoon full per pound of raw meat.  From there, again, just watch to see what the dog needs.  (Organ meat will also affect stools as it is richer than muscle meat.)

The Great Dane Club of America Charitable Trust supports Great Dane welfare and rescue efforts, educational programs, Scholarship Programs for junior handlers, initiatives to create great awareness of breed-specific health problems and medical research efforts to improve the quality of life of the Great Dane.

An easy way to support the Charitable Trust is when shopping on Amazon, simply access the normal Amazon website via this link: http://smile.amazon.com/ch/36-4436942.  The Smile program contributes 0.5% of sales through that link to the registered charitable organization.  It’s as easy as that!  Once you log on through that link, you can shop like normal, knowing that you are making a contribution for our breed at the same time!

Gigi and I volunteered at the Central Iowa Kennel Club’s booth at the Great Iowa Pet Expo this past weekend.  The kennel club was there with a mission for education about responsible dog ownership and responsible breeding.  Lots of fun!  Gigi loved all the new doggy friends she made.

The girls!  Kizzy is 7 1/2 and Gigi just turned one year.

So excited and pleased with my first order from a new (to me) raw food supplier, Big Dan’s in MN!  I picked up 385 lbs of meat for the dogs, for just $220.  The supplier is a 4-hour drive from me, but completely worth the time and gas.  I split the gas cost with a friend, who also picked up food for her dogs.

I’m currently feeding two Danes and estimate that today’s haul will last me about two months, although I’ll supplement with a few other items, picked up from local grocery stores, too.  My 5 1/2 month old puppy will need about 4 lbs/day and her 6 1/2 year old mama will need about 3 lbs/day.  The pup will slow down on eating after about a year old and won’t require quite as much food after that.  But that first year, puppies eat a lot!