I guess it's been a month now since we switched all of the dogs from kibble to raw diet. Indie has been on for an extra month since he was on the pre-packaged rolls of raw meat mix to start out. There was no way all three dogs were going to eat that though, if for no other reason than it would have been crazy expensive. I'm much happier with their current diet anyway. This week they've been eating chicken and beef. Chicken days mean that everyone gets a half chicken (yes, bone and all). Beef days, they're getting 1 to 1 1/2 pound chunks of sirloin tip. Believe it or not, it costs the same or less to feed them now than when they were on kibble and canned food. It's funny to think how intimidated I was to switch them to raw diet. It's quite easy, it's not that expensive, and they eat in their crates, so it's not messy, either.
I can't imagine ever going back to kibble, no matter how "premium". All of Indie's skin problems have cleared right up, although they will kick back in if he eats one piece of anything with grain (like a crouton I dropped the other night). I suspect that once he's off kibble for 6-12 months he won't be so hypersensitive. It's also fitting to note that Katie's health was only better after we got her off the kibble too, although in her case we were doing home cooked meals. For anyone that didn't know Kate, she passed away at age 15 nearly one year ago exactly, and the last four years of her life were chock full of health challenges that we, amazingly, were able to get under a great deal of control. Boy, would she have liked raw diet.
One of the fun things about going to raw is shopping for sales. I am not a shopper by nature, but it has become almost a game to see what kind of interesting cuts of meat and what kind of bargains we can find. In the kibble days, it used to cost $2 per day per dog, so the game is to try to buy meat that will be that price or cheaper. If each dog eats roughly 2 pounds a day, that puts the target at $1 a pound or better, although all three dogs eat less than 2 pounds a day and some meats go farther than others, for example a pound of sirloin tip goes farther than a pound of whole chicken because the chicken has more bone and I guess the beef is just more rich. And it averages out, where we almost always buy chicken for less than $1/lb but the sirloin tip was purchased at a killer price of $1.55/lb (killer for beef, that is). That one was fun because it was sold in huge 15 pound hunks (we bought three, and yes, we have a big chest freezer now).
But the other fun thing is that we, Diane and I, have been eating much better since putting the dogs on raw. As we run around looking at meat, meat, and more meat, we find great cuts that just call out for us to eat them. It's given me a massive creative boost for coming up with ideas of new things to make, which has been a challenge since I tried to start eating healthy over the summer. And even more, we're eating things that I would have never thought of before. We've had liver and onions twice now. I'd never in my adult life tried it (or wished to), but wouldn't ya know I really enjoyed it. And it's healthy, cheap, and simple as heck. We've been cooking up whole chickens, which I've never done either, but in different and creative ways. Previously, my idea of cooking a whole chicken would have been just to roast it... whole.
The last whole chicken we made, Sunday night, created a story that strikes me as hilarious. We've been on a rawfeeding Yahoo! group, and someone posted a question about whether they should buy a whole chicken, remove the breasts for their family, and feed the dog the rest. Well, the answer is no, you really need to feed the whole thing because chicken is quite bony already, and you need the meat to be in there. Well, as we've been playing around with meat in new and creative ways, Diane and I have discovered that we actually prefer some of the odd cuts and scraps, like the backs and necks, and we've always preferred legs and thighs to the breasts. For dinner on Sunday night, I hacked up two whole chickens, removed 3 of the 4 breasts, gave them to the dogs for dinner, and we cooked the rest for ourselves. It cracks me up that we basically took the most expensive cuts to feed the dogs and ate all the "leftover junk". Hey, we'll probably do it again... we had to fight over who got stuck with the fourth breast. (Well, not really fought over, but it did get left until last).
Other things we've made in the last month:
* Pork roast with ginger and squash and apples -- mmmm... so yummy
* Flat roasted chicken with lemon and rosemary where I split the chicken at the underside and laid it flat with salted lemons under the chicken and under the skin -- holy cow, that meat got flavored through and through
* Gizzards, chicken necks, smoked turkey necks (tasted just like the turkey legs at the renaissance faire), and chicken liver with onions -- I never would have expected to place all that on the "exciting things" list
* Whole chicken hacked up into parts with a rub of sage, rosemary, and thyme with coarse kosher salt and roasted with sweet potatoes and purple potatoes also coated with the same herbs but oil instead of salt
On deck in the freezer are racks of pork ribs that we haven't worked up to yet, but I can't wait until we're ready to feed those. They come in packs of 2, so that means that two packages equal one each for the dogs and one for us. Yay!
We feed chicken feet as evening snacks now. There's one case where I have no desire to sample. I'll certainly let you know if that changes.
