Christmas venison

Only a raw feeder would be excited about roadkill for Christmas...

A couple days, ago, I got a text from my sister's boyfriend, who had access to a deer that had just been hit by a car.  An hour and a half later, he arrived at my house with four huge deer legs and a heart for Mona!  I have no idea how much the legs weigh, but I'm guessing they must be at least 8 or 10 pounds each.  And the heart was probably a couple pounds too. All in all, a LOT of food.  Wahoo!

Then, for Christmas yesterday, my sister's boyfriend showed up with even MORE venison for me!  There are at least a dozen (probably more like two dozen) packages of deer steaks and several ziploc bags of deer burger.  And... a WHOLE squirrel!  I haven't sorted through everything yet, but with all the deer I've gotten this week, Mona has at least two months worth of food.  Needless to say, I'm THRILLED!

I took out a package of doe steak, maybe 6 ounces, and decided Christmas day would be the perfect time to introduce deer to Mona.  She loved it!  She didn't eat as much of it as I would have expected, but I think that is only because we were at my parents' house, and Mona was preoccupied with trying to play with their yorkie.  However, it looks like venison will be a hit!

(Side note:  Venison is unlike any other meat I've dealt with.  Not only does it have a completely different smell--a much stronger smell than the chicken, pork, or beef I'm used to--but it was much bloodier too.  I'm not sure if this is due to the way it was processed/packaged, or if this is typical of venison in general... Has anyone else noticed this?)

Mona's first meal away from home

This weekend my husband and I took a trip up to Michigan to visit my mother's family.  This is the first time we've had to worry about having someone else feed her.  We would be gone two full days, so my in-laws kept Mona and fed her two meals.  I should point out that I am thrilled to have someone as willing to take care of her as they are.  It's a real blessing.  They are crazy about Mona, and were more than happy to take care of her while we were gone.  However, they don't understand the raw diet at all, and I can tell they don't trust we're doing the right thing.

I decided the easiest meals would be some bone-in chicken, so I sent a thigh and a split breast half, each 10 ounces.  Around 2 o'clock on Sunday we got a call from my mother-in-law.  She was concerned that Mona was covering her food with a towel.  I explained that Mona buries her food when she isn't hungry, and that it was NOT a big deal.  I told her to just stick it back in the fridge and try again that evening.  We didn't hear back, so I assumed all went well.

When we picked her up tonight, I discovered that on Sunday night, concerned about Mona not eating, my mother-in-law took a butcher knife to the chicken thigh and hacked it into pieces!!  Thankfully, Mona ate the chopped pieces without incident... She is a gulper, and it's a miracle she didn't choke on anything.  Today's meal was eaten whole without a fuss, thank goodness.

Where I'm going with this is, when you leave your raw fed dog with people unfamiliar with raw feeding, don't be afraid to leave specific, detailed instructions.  I had let my husband to communicate with his parents about how to feed Mona her chicken, but his instructions were obviously quite vague and inadequate. To someone who knows the basics of raw, even if they don't feed raw themselves, instructions like "throw the chicken on the towel and she'll eat it" might be enough.  But when leaving your dog with someone with absolutely no understanding of raw, I'd like to make a few suggestions:

• Explain the importance of letting eat their meal whole.  I'm sure my husband explained that she could eat the chicken whole, but I doubt he explained WHY.  In the future, I will be sure to explain that cutting up the chicken would result in a dangerous choking hazard--both from sharp, cut bone edges and swallowable-sized chunks.
• Explain that it is perfectly okay if your dog doesn't eat.  My husband's family loves to eat.  Even their cat can't say no to a treat (and their cat gets FAR too many treats... she is quite overweight).  I know they simply can't imagine a dog that can turn down food.  They are probably not familiar with the idea that an animal could self-regulate with food.
• Explain that leaving meat out is perfectly fine for a raw fed dog.  My mother-in-law mentioned that she didn't want to leave the chicken out and make Mona sick.  I should have explained that the rules of raw meat humans are used to don't apply to dogs.  I have left raw meat out for over an hour, waiting for Mona to eat it.  And if she doesn't it is perfectly okay to put it back in the fridge and try again... Even several days later!
• Explain that raw fed dogs poop less!  My in-laws were also quite concerned that she didn't poop while she was over.  Of course, they are used to pets fed incredibly low-quality kibble that poop out almost as much as they consume.  I don't think they understand what a huge impact (proper) diet could have on a dog's digestive system.

Granted, everything went fine and Mona is great.  She is healthy and happy and has a full belly.  I suppose it doesn't really matter that I wasn't more thorough in explaining raw feeding.  But there were several errors that could have ended much less pleasantly, and I definitely don't plan to let those same errors happen again.  I keep thinking about how easily Mona could have choked on those cut chicken pieces!

Progress!

The other day I stopped by our small local meat shop just to see what they had.  After asking for beef liver, beef heart, chicken feet, kidneys, spleens, etc, the guy looked at me and said, "You're not really going to eat all that, are you?"  Ha!  I told him it was for my dog, who is on a special diet, and asked if there was any really cheap "junk" meat he could sell me.  About five minutes later, I'd paid $0.64 for a slice of beef liver and was walking out with a box of scrap meat he'd give me for free!

I should have taken pictures, because when people say they get scraps I always wonder what they mean.  Well, this box contained a big black trash bag full of trimmings and bones.  There was a lot of chunks of fat, a lot of connective tissue with small bits of meat attached, and a few chunks of ground meat.  I also got two meaty shoulder blade pieces that I figure I can give her as a treat... Let her work at the meat on it and then throw the bone away.  Unfortunately, the bottom of the bag was full of chili.  Of course, Mona can't eat that, so a lot of the meat on the bottom I didn't even bother going through because it was covered in chili.  I rinsed off a few pieces of fat that only had a little bit on them, and will hope that Mona handles it okay.

So, while a lot of the bag wasn't usable, I still managed to get at least a dozen meals out of it!  It will be interesting to see how she handles a meal that isn't one large chunk... These are mostly bite size chunks all thrown together to make a 10 ounce portion.  But because it was free, I'm sure not going to waste it!!

Also, remember that beef liver I mentioned?  Mona loves it!  Hooray!  It's been such a struggle to get her to eat chicken liver, and half the time the cat steals it and eats it because she ignores it.  I was really nervous that liver in general was going to be a struggle, but I fed her a piece beef liver today and it was gone in seconds.  Thank goodness!  The liver is a little more expensive than I'd wanted, $1.89 a pound, but since she needs so little of it I don't think it will really be a problem.

How do you "diagnose" separation anxiety?

This evening my husband and I pull into our apartment complex after a night out.  We'd driven separately, and I get out of my car while he's still maneuvering his car into the parking space.  I walk up the steps to our apartment door and hear a dog barking.  Surely it isn't my dog, right?  But I stop and listen, and after about a minute of silence I hear it again.  A dog--most definitely Mona--barking and carrying on like crazy for 15-20 seconds.  It sounds loud, frantic, and almost pained or scared.  Another 30 seconds or so of silence.  Then the barking, then silence.  By this point my husband walks up and listens too.  She barks again, and once she's been quiet for a bit we unlock the door and walk in.

I've been coming up with all the excuses I can think of: she got excited when she heard our cars pull in; she saw our headlights in the window; the cat had done something to antagonize her; she'd already spent a lot of time in her crate that day and had just had enough.  And maybe one of those is true.  But... I'm not so sure.  I recall one time, shortly after we adopted her, hearing her cry after I'd locked the door behind me.  It seemed to stop after a minute or two, so I left.  But what if it didn't stop?  What if she becomes so stressed while we're away that she carries on like this every time we leave her?  Has she been suffering from terrible separation anxiety this entire time and we never knew it?  The thought of it makes me feel terrible for her.  Not to mention her barking is loud, and I hate to think the neighbors have been suffering through it this whole time.

We have always crated Mona any time we are away.  We're working on leaving her out for short periods of time, but she likes to chew too much to be trusted out by herself for more than half an hour or so.  Our schedules vary daily, but I'd say she averages about 6 hours of crate time a day, five days a week (she is also crated at bedtime).  Usually, if we're going to be gone for over 6 hours, I am able to come let her out to potty at lunch. Today she was crated from about 8:30 to 4.  That's really the longest she's ever crated during the day.  I never thought it was an issue... She's never had any accidents in her crate, and she never appears stressed when I come home.  Well, I've never heard that barking before, anyway.

So, this barking has me really concerned... Are my concerns justified?  Or is it perfectly possible that this was an isolated incident, and she's usually just fine?  I suppose the best thing to do would be to stick around the apartment for a bit before I actually leave and listen in on her.  Likewise, when I come home after being gone, I should probably hang around outside the door before I unlock it and listen in then too.  And hopefully I won't hear anything.

...But if I do, what's the next step?  Ugh.