Well, it looks like I'm going to have alot of deer meat. Just got 30lbs. last night and other people I know that hunt are cleaning out their freezers.:biggrin: I might have to buy another freezer. I've put the word out for them to start saving me the "innerds."They most of the time leave them in the field where they gut them. (Organ meat)
I have a very hard time poop checking. I live on a farm and seldom see them poop. Most of the time they go out in the pasture. Every now and then I catch one in the act:smile:
danemama08
I would also hold off feeding the deer meat all at once. Unless you have an unlimited supply of it, I would keep the feeding of deer meat down to once a week if you can. If you have an unlimited supply (super jealousy if you did!) I guess it wouldn't matter how much you feed it to them. Although, variety in their diet is what you are striving for.
I guess the part that confuses me is, now that I don't have to stay with just chicken, how often can I feed something else in the evening? I will probably always give them a back or leg qrt. in the a.m. It's the evening meal that I'm wondering about.
I would say that you have been on just chicken for a good amount of time now that you can start adding other meat sources in.
Since you have the deer meat available and fed it last night, start with adding that into their diet. Alternate meals chicken and deer (that is if they handle it ok). Feed that alternating meals with chicken for one week.
Then add in Turkey, alternating that with chicken for a week.
Then add in fish or pork the next week, and the week after, all the while alternating with chicken.
Then add in beef. Same as above.
That should pretty much take care of your bases as far as readily available meat sources. Unless you have another meat source that you can find on a regular basis, add that in as well using the same method. Once your dogs get used to each new kind of meat source, you should start feeding a different kind of meat source every night/day.
So your feeding schedule will be a different meat source each day...chicken, turkey, beef, pork, fish, deer, etc. That way you are not feeding the same thing everyday. Variety in the diet is key, the more the better.
As far as adding in organs...that is a bit trickier. Most dogs don't really like them (from what I have seen and heard and experienced). You might have to trick them into eating them, ie mixing them up with something they do like such as fish. Or freezing it and giving it to them frozen. Or just plain old shoving it down their throats (that is what we do with two or our dogs...they are so used to it now that they don't really put up a fight.
To add organ meat...I would start off VERY small. Only give a very small amount in a meal consisting of something else they are already used to like chicken, and only do that once a week. Do that for a while, althernating weeks of liver and kidney (the two most important organ sources). After a while you can start doing one liver meal and one kidney meal each week (if you are feeding ~2 meals a day, having 2 meals of organ per week equals ~14% organ in their diet-but keep in mind that you feed less organ by weight so it ends up being more like ~10% of their total meal percentages), so total of two organ meals a week. Remember that organ tissue is VERY rich, so not that much is needed for each meal...so, don't feed as much organ as you would say chicken or fish by weight.
Very important: you have to remember that balance in their diets takes place over time, not in each individual meal. Don't worry about %'s too much. Just feed some organ, some bone and mostly meat from as many sources as possible.
