Carnivore Cafè

Last night, we roasted a chicken for ourselves. What we the next day is make sure all the meat is pulled off and then we makes some stock.

I make the world's most boring stock. All I do is cook the heack out of the carcass in water. This way I can use part of it for the dogs.

Once the stock is ready, I pour out all the liquid into my fat separator and there's a big pile of meat, skin, bones, and cartilage. I pull out the bones and the big piece of skin for....chicken topper! The dogs love it as a topper for when they have to have kibble or just as a little treat mixed in a kong.

Plus nothing goes to waste! By the time it's all done, we have plenty of stock in the freezer and our chicken has been reduced to a small bowl of bones and skin.

In honor of our performance season starting, I thought I’d start my review of Performance Dog Nutrition. First off, let me say that while I do have some criticisms of this book, I’m very thankful that it’s here. We need to be having more discussions about nutrition for performance dogs. Our canine athletes give us everything; they deserve to have all the tools to do their job – and that includes food. I hope 2012 brings new highs and personal bests to all of my friends who have moved their dogs over to a raw diet and those that have made better food choices for their dogs overall.

I remember years ago seeing a woman at a tournament pull out that big yellow brand-name bag of dog food and start dumping it into bowls. I was horrified! Your dogs just worked so hard and you’re giving them “animal digest” and “corn gluten meal”? Gross!

The first three chapters of the book act as a primer of sorts. The author discusses the digestive system of dogs as well was how dog food is manufactured and how to read a label. She then proceeds to rip into raw and homemade diets with all the same issues you’ve heard before. She might tell you that she’s just discussing the advantages and disadvantages but really, she’s an old school vet who finds few advantages.

You can’t guarantee that they are getting the same; equal, correct nutrition at each meal is one of her major concerns. I literally started skimming over this after asking her in my mind is she eats balanced nutrition at every meal. So if you buy the book, just skip over chapter 2 unless you need to raise your blood pressure a little!

Now we are starting to get to the good stuff. The author has a great chapter about nutrient evaluation. Sure, it continues to be geared towards making a choice with kibble but us raw feeders can still get a lot of good out of it. She discusses the different digestibility of proteins (you’d THINK she’d soften to raw at this point but no) and that soy husks aren’t as good as real meat even if both food have the same percentage of protein.

The first thrid of this book is a good beginning to evaluating food and understanding a little more about how to read labels and make smart choices. I've applied it to making choices about treats already. This year, if the finances work out, we may be making a week long trip to a competition and in that case I could be looking for a back-up kibble for the dogs who aren't competing in the event.

Next Time: Chapters 5-8: Energy into Motion plus Fats/Proteins and Carbs

Winter is here. Though you wouldn't now it until now with our clear skies and warm days. But around here winter means that while some of my dogs lay around and gain weight, others tend to look boney. And boney dogs get cold and grumpy and have to wear fleece jammies.

Obesity in dogs is a very, very serious problem. I bet that we've all had those moments of horror watching people and their grossly overweight dogs. But some of us, especially my fellow dog sport competitors, have what I call, hummingbirds. You know those dogs that can eat and eat and eat and are always skinny? Sometimes to the point of embarrassing you in public?

So now that it's getting colder - how can you keep or even increase your dog's weight? Here are some of my tips and tricks:

Feed an evening snack. By giving them calories right before bedtime, you can help it become extra fat and not get burned off by running, barking or generally vibrating it away. I like to do something involving easy to make, high-fat stuff. A piece of whole wheat bread with some peanut butter and an egg? Left over pasta with coconut oil and some meat trimmings? Heck, I've even handed out a serving of high calorie kibble from a sample pack.

Kong it up! If you use crates or kennels and are away form home, give your Hummingbird Dog a higher fat kong when they go away. Again, think of healthy, yet higher calories options. Cookies, regular cottage cheese, peanut butter, yogurt, coconut oil, cheese, etc.

Don't be jealous! Like I told a friend once: I wish I could eat a stick of butter off the counter and still look amazing. So let go of your human-based eating plan and get the fatty foods party started. Poultry is lower in fat - try beef or pork! Drizzle oils (Olive, Fish, Coconut) over their meals! Look for signs of visible fat in the products you are buying. If you have a dog that needs less fat, trim up their food and give it to the other dog.

and also, consider just feeding more food. If you are typically around 2% of the dog's weight, go up to 3%.

Though this all comes with the caveat that you need to make sure that there isn't an underlying condition for a dog being skinny. Check in with your vet if you try to fatten them up and it doesn't start to work. It's also important to check in with your vet if your dog is looking "off" and/or has poor energy or stamina.

I found this book at a Sale a while back but just took the time to read through it. Thought I'd share one of the homemade diets the author suggests!

Ok, ok! It's not really a scam. It's just people using their smarts to get really inexpensive turkey this time of year. Well, except the fact that both major chains around here changed their policies so instead of stockpiling turkeys, we have just 1.

Image courtesy of Mike Licht, NotionsCapital.com

Here's how it worked in previous years. Certain chains would have turkey on sale if you used your store card. They were broken down to weight ranges and there was usually a limit of 2. The bigger the turkey, the cheaper it was per pound. So we'd hit up 3-4 stores in our area buying up the biggest birds they had. Then they'd all get a nice trip to our bathtub where they slowly defrosted and got butchered. It wasn't happy turkey but we could go as low as .20 a pound.

This year, I was so excited when the pre-thankgiving grocery circulars came out. But there it was in fine print "with $25 purchase, limit 1." dammit. I can buy up some baking supplies but we really don't typically shop at either of these stores. and I certainly can't figure out a way to buy $200 worth of groceries just to get some turkey. It felt like cutting off my nose to spite my face.

So we headed out to buy up things like sweetened condensed milk, eggs, gelatin, sugar, flour, etc. Then we pooped out and decided to not be "those people" with multiple transactions. One sad, lonely turkey it is.

Mr. Tom's currently defrosting in a big tub on top of the chest freezer. I'm even pondering a Very Merry Thanksgiving and turning the dogs on the whole bird one by one in the kitchen. But he'll get eaten and fill some dog tummies this week so it all works out in the end.