# Me or the Dog? (Raw feeder's dilemma)



## Poodlebeguiled (May 27, 2013)

If you feed raw or even if you don't, you might relate to this. My ex knows all about raw feeding. (with me prattling away all the time) He knows I watch for good deals and snatch up meats marked way down. Well, he called and said he was at a store and there are N.Y. steaks marked 50% off and how many would I like. Well, N.Y. steaks are really good, 2nd only to rib eye for my money. I told him get 4 pkg of 2. Really, for the dogs, I try to watch for cheaper meat in the first place, like stew meat. But for $3.50 for a couple steaks, I figure, well...if I decide the dogs don't need that, I suppose I could have one or two myself and even share with my daughter. (My ex can't eat red meat) So, what would you do? Feed to the dogs or save for yourself? I have some good looking lamb in my freezer too. (for the dogs, of course, eh hem) If you don't know what's for dinner, how many of you consider pinching some dog food from your dog's stash? Eeeny meenie miney, moe, _me or the dogs_? ho ho ho. :hungry:


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## Quossum (Mar 18, 2011)

We sometimes buy cases of whole fryers, so of course we're equally able to eat those as are the dogs! Thing is, for them we can just chop and toss it to them, but for us we'd have to actually cook the thing, so... :shrugs:

I admit there are some items I buy for the dogs that, though humans do eat them, I wouldn't really consider, like chicken feet. Once I selected a package of turkey tails at a big supermarket, and a woman standing near me started telling me enthusiastically how good they are and how to cook them. That's another cut of meat I hadn't really thought of as people food.

New York strips, though? The dogs might have to go hungry! 

--Q


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## FireStorm (Nov 9, 2013)

At our house it usually goes the other way around - I buy stuff for us, then we end up working late or something so I throw it in the freezer. Then, if it's been in the freezer for more than a few weeks Ian won't eat it (he's very weird about that) so it ends up being for Hans. He's gotten some pretty good suff they way...


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## MollyMuiMa (Oct 13, 2012)

I recently discovered an Arabic grocery store close to me with 'Halal' butchered meats that Muslim/ Islamic people are allowed to eat and goat meat is available for $1.99 lb........Anybody here ever eat goat meat? I'm going to purchase some for Molly but I'm realllly tempted to try it myself ....I like trying new things to eat! Does anybody know how it's cooked? 
(Molly will gets hers raw of course!)

I read that it tastes like a combination of beef and lamb?


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## Liz (Oct 2, 2010)

More than one person has told us that our dog eats better than we do.


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## seminolewind (Mar 11, 2016)

MollyMuiMa said:


> I recently discovered an Arabic grocery store close to me with 'Halal' butchered meats that Muslim/ Islamic people are allowed to eat and goat meat is available for $1.99 lb........Anybody here ever eat goat meat? I'm going to purchase some for Molly but I'm realllly tempted to try it myself ....I like trying new things to eat! Does anybody know how it's cooked?
> (Molly will gets hers raw of course!)
> 
> I read that it tastes like a combination of beef and lamb?



Garlic and Rosemary. So says a Greek friend a long time ago.


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## BorderKelpie (Dec 3, 2011)

MollyMuiMa, here's a start:

Goat Meat - Recipes - Cooks.com

Goat Meat Recipes | Yummly

Um, I have more at home, in books, but this might help. Shoot, now I'm hungry and stuck at work. *sigh* 


(Shh, don't tell my goats about this, OK? Please?)

:sheep:


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## Summerhouse (Jun 12, 2015)

I bought human grade lamb heart on sale to slice and dehydrate as dog treat. OH saw some of the meat and said that looks lovely meat is that tea or dog food?

It looked like lean dark steak meat. Next time I bought some for us chopped it up and slow cooked it as casserole and served it without telling them it was lamb heart. Well there were a couple of strange looks saying the stew steak tasted different but it went down. Then I told them. They don't want it again lol

But yes sometimes we get the food that was bought as dog food and he sometimes gets ours


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## fjm (Jun 4, 2010)

I reckon I would not need to have missed many meals before I raided the dogs' stash, and that is their human-grade dog mince not prime steak! I have bought joints on special offer and shared them before now, and the dogs often get the wings from my free range chicken, as well as the meat stripped from the carcass after it has been simmered for stock. It does sometimes slightly bother me that they eat better than most humans in the world - I tend to salve my conscience by eating less meat myself...


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## Summerhouse (Jun 12, 2015)

fjm you're not the only one who chops the wings off for the dog before the chicken goes in the oven.


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## JudyD (Feb 3, 2013)

When I was feeding raw, most of my red meat and organs came from a local slaughterhouse that gave me free hearts, tongues, liver and kidney, so I would never have used that for us, but I have on occasion used some of the grocery store chicken I bought for the dogs. (If I served baked sweet potato to dinner guests, it was all I could do to refrain from asking them not to eat the skins, because I chopped up veggies for the dogs, and they loved sweet potato.)


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## kontiki (Apr 6, 2013)

MollyMuiMa said:


> I recently discovered an Arabic grocery store close to me with 'Halal' butchered meats that Muslim/ Islamic people are allowed to eat and goat meat is available for $1.99 lb........Anybody here ever eat goat meat? I'm going to purchase some for Molly but I'm realllly tempted to try it myself ....I like trying new things to eat! Does anybody know how it's cooked? (Molly will gets hers raw of course!)


Wow, that is a real deal on the goat if it is fed natural greens, branches, etc. It's sold at my local farmers market as a delicacy for over $12 per pound! And yes, at that price I was the one who ate it. I lightly sauteed the chops to medium, bone in, in butter with seasonings I normally use for lamb. Yum.

Wow - your lucky Molly.


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## Poodlebeguiled (May 27, 2013)

So goat is tasty Kontiki? I just bought some yesterday at the Asian market. I'm not sure if the bones are too hard for these tiny dogs of mine or not. But I have fed it and just took the meat off the bone and gave them a chicken bone. I think some pieces are a little different than others. Do you know what kind of bone is typically attached to the goat meat? lol. I can't tell. It's just little square chuncks and some have bones, some not. 

I also got more beef liver...big packages and cheap. I finally was running out of that. And some pork brain for a little variety of organ meat. (really gross btw) I got some more chicken hearts and gizzards and duck gizzards too, as I was out of chicken meat. Yum, yum. They have all kinds of stuff. I even got some of my favorite seaweed salad for me. Yippee!


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## kontiki (Apr 6, 2013)

Poodlebeguiled said:


> So goat is tasty Kontiki? I just bought some yesterday at the Asian market. Do you know what kind of bone is typically attached to the goat meat? lol. I can't tell. It's just little square chuncks and some have bones, some not.


Goat meat is just like any other animal - for example beef - different kinds of bone throughout the body, same with chicken, etc. You would need to ask them which parts it is. They may not know if they didn't butcher it and it is a mixed package though.

Sounds like you have found a good source for raw feeding. We have nothing like an asian or other ethnic market within 4 hours of where I live unfortunately.


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## Poodlebeguiled (May 27, 2013)

kontiki said:


> Goat meat is just like any other animal - for example beef - different kinds of bone throughout the body, same with chicken, etc. You would need to ask them which parts it is. They may not know if they didn't butcher it and it is a mixed package though.
> 
> Sounds like you have found a good source for raw feeding. We have nothing like an asian or other ethnic market within 4 hours of where I live unfortunately.



Oh those Asian supermarkets are really amazing. They have a lot of unusual stuff and some beautiful sea food and all kinds of things for humans. But I don't know that everything is organic and I don't see grass fed, which I'd prefer for the dogs at least. lol. At the Asian market though, you can't ask a question. They don't understand English at all...at least the people in the meat department. I guess I could ask a checker or someone to translate. But I guess sometimes it's not that big of a deal so I didn't bother.

Kontiki...another place I get stuff is from Hare today, gone tomorrow, an online store that is very good. Some of their stuff is pricey but some not so bad. They have quite a bit of variety and choices. You could try that.


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## seminolewind (Mar 11, 2016)

It seems to me that is you feed kibble you don't want any meat by-products in it. But if you feed raw by products are okay? Or am I missing something?


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## kontiki (Apr 6, 2013)

Poodlebeguiled said:


> Kontiki...another place I get stuff is from Hare today, gone tomorrow, an online store that is very good. Some of their stuff is pricey but some not so bad. They have quite a bit of variety and choices. You could try that.


Yes, I just got a big order from them yesterday. It's the only place I can really get raw frozen green tripe shipped from. And they also have things my spoo loves like chicken feet, lung, mixes of organs to include things I can't get locally. But yes, it is pricey so I use it for variety and adding to cheaper local meat from the store.


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## kontiki (Apr 6, 2013)

JudyD said:


> When I was feeding raw, most of my red meat and organs came from a local slaughterhouse that gave me free hearts, tongues, liver and kidney, so I would never have used that for us, but I have on occasion used some of the grocery store chicken I bought for the dogs. (If I served baked sweet potato to dinner guests, it was all I could do to refrain from asking them not to eat the skins, because I chopped up veggies for the dogs, and they loved sweet potato.)


Sure wish my not so local slaughter house would give away some of those meats. My spoo also loves sweet potato, and winter squash too His faves in vegetables.


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## Poodlebeguiled (May 27, 2013)

Wow! Tongue has become a real delicacy I guess. It's very expensive. I bought it once when I first started feeding raw but haven't since. That's cool if you can get a butcher to give you all that stuff. Awesome!




> It seems to me that is you feed kibble you don't want any meat by-products in it. But if you feed raw by products are okay? Or am I missing something?


Seminole...the problem is...commercial food companies make dog food to make a profit. The better ones do it by putting in loads and loads of carbohydrates like vegetables, potatoes, grain sometimes...stuff dogs don't need and in fact, may do harm, especially in the huge percentages they put in....way more than meat and fat, which is what dogs need. They use pea powder for protein...vegetable protein etc. 

The poorer quality dog foods put in bi products as fillers...to take the place of meat. They reduce the amount of meat by a lot. 

A prey model raw diet can include things like skin, feathers, toe nails (They're on the duck feet I feed) or eye balls, heads, tails of fish or a whole prey animal which some people feed. (I don't). It adds fiber. It's something wild dogs would eat _some_ of. They don't try to eat feathers I don't think. But some gets ingested when they're biting off flesh I suppose. You see it in coyote poop, feathers, hair. Raw feeders who feed a prey model diet try to make it as close as possible (depending on their preference) as what would happen in the wild. Dogs don't eat a lot of vegetables or grains. They may nibble or sample something (a little grass, berries, etc) in their environment just because it's there. But it's not a staple or a main dietary need, not something they seek out, it is thought.

Now we all know that for a dog, being with humans IS natural, not out in the woods. That is something I consider when feeding raw in that my Poodles have tiny mouths, teeth and jaws. BUT other than that, their digestive process is identical to a wolf or wild dog. So I adjust accordingly...smaller, somewhat softer bones than a big wolf or even a big dog can handle. But, though life with humans IS natural, dogs only started eating kibble less than 100 years ago. What did they eat before that? What did people feed their dogs back all those years? Not kibble. Real food. They got bones, meat, whole chickens or what not, I'm pretty sure. They think they got some carbs too and that's why they have evolved to produce a little more amylase in their pancreas than wolves. And they can handle some carbs. But from what I've been researching thus far, it is not healthy for them to have too much carb. Their pancreas has to work too hard. They really don't need any...from what I've garnered so far. 

So I guess if the bi-products they put in commercial food isn't taking the place of real muscle meat, real organ, real bone, then okay. But if they're putting in so much that there isn't room for enough of the other stuff, that's no good. It's the quality of ingredients and quantity. And I don't think most commercial dog food companies are out there being overly generous with expensive, stuff...the best nutrition. jmo.


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## CT Girl (Nov 17, 2010)

Goat is not my favorite. The goat I had was tough and more suited to be stew meat than to be eaten as a chop. Like anything else it may be that I had inferior goat meat though.


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## oshagcj914 (Jun 12, 2016)

seminolewind said:


> It seems to me that is you feed kibble you don't want any meat by-products in it. But if you feed raw by products are okay? Or am I missing something?


That's because dog food companies are using byproducts as the main protein source instead of muscle meat. Raw feeders may feed a lot of the same parts, but they feed primarily meat, not feet, feathers, etc. 

I definitely have this dilemma too. Nearly all of the meat I get is human grade, so I raid the dog food freezers on a regular basis! I'm getting some boneless turkey thighs from my co-op this Friday and I'm not sure how many the dog will get  And it goes the other way around too - if I forget to get something out, sometimes the dog gets my dinner!


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## Poodlebeguiled (May 27, 2013)

oshagcj914 said:


> That's because dog food companies are using byproducts as the main protein source instead of muscle meat. Raw feeders may feed a lot of the same parts, but they feed primarily meat, not feet, feathers, etc.
> 
> I definitely have this dilemma too. Nearly all of the meat I get is human grade, so I raid the dog food freezers on a regular basis! I'm getting some boneless turkey thighs from my co-op this Friday and I'm not sure how many the dog will get  And it goes the other way around too - if I forget to get something out, sometimes the dog gets my dinner!


My dogs eat chicken and duck feet! They love them. They're a rich source of glucosamine.:amen: Not much meat so they're used for bone and they're given some muscle meat also plus organ. If I could, I'd feed them whole prey...that includes some feathers and some hair....like you see in coyote poop. It's all good. But not in lieu of meat, bones, organs. When wild dogs or wolves eat their prey, they do not pluck off all the feathers or skin the prey so there's no hair left. They may not eat those things on purpose, but some gets into them while they're tearing away at the muscle meat...opening up the animal. It's natural. Commercial dog food companies are in it to make money and they tend to cheapen the food so they do things for the wrong reasons and in the wrong ratios. They'll use whatever they can to save money and that's usually an extreme and incorrect ratio of carbohydrates.


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