Dam beaver, big bison, green tripe, it is making my mouth water just writing it down! What to feed us has been evolving since Mom got her first dog almost thirty years ago. Dog foods have also been evolving during this time. Mom switched from cheap kibble all the way up to supposedly the best kibble. Next came dehydrated food where she added water and protein. Finally, she figured out how to serve us raw.
Madison never ate her food. She didn’t like it and has always been on the thin side until raw came into her life. Now she chows down with the rest of us. Mom says she could never be a person who buys all the stuff, grinds, and mixes it up. When she found out you can buy raw pre-packaged, we switched. In the beginning we bought our food from a nice store where they sold it in five pound pails. For three of us at the time, it was quite expensive.
After asking around for a while, Mom found out about a place just over an hour away that sells raw in bulk. It is much less expensive than the store for sure. With four of us, we had to have a different option. Now we drive up there every three to four months and buy four to five hundred pounds of food. When we arrive it is waiting for us on a cart in the big walk in freezer. We take it home, package it up and put it in our own freezer. That is green tripe on top. It is super healthy, smelly, and we love it!
It seems that the raw world is a bit different, but we find it quite interesting. The place we make our big purchase has Alpacas that greet us most of the time when we show up. We love to see them.
At Madison’s nose work class a couple weeks ago, someone gave her a dehydrated piece of duck. She went crazy over it. Mom found out it is sold by another raw food place, so she went on line to buy a bag. It turns out this place has pick up spots around the cities a couple times a month. As she checked their website she found lots of interesting proteins for us. She could not believe they have five pound packages of beaver! Nelson and I opted to go along to make the pick up. We always love a car ride.
The pick up spot is just twenty minutes from our house. Mom ordered three tubes of food for us to try and the treats for Madison (but we all get to share). This company is about twice the price of our other raw place but for some unusual foods, why not get some now and then. Mom ordered the beaver, a bison/pork/green trip mix, and frontier mix with bison/beaver/venison/green tripe. I have to say, it all smells great and I can’t wait to give it a try!
Madison is loving her trail mix with dehydrated duck and beef. Hopefully it will help her do better sniffing at her next nose work trial. I hear that is one of the main goals of buying that stuff. Bailie also had a piece and says it is delicious.
Mom says we will probably buy things now and then because it is always good to eat something different. The pick up is easy. Everything is in big cooler bags outside, all labeled, and you just grab your order and go. Next time she wants to get us some meaty bones to eat with our meals. We are all for it! Having such great food is really something to be thankful for.
PS: After the taste test with beaver, we found our results quite interesting. Nelson, Mr. eats everything he can get his paws on, would not eat the beaver, not for dinner or breakfast. He walked away. We girls absolutely love it! Even Miss Picky Madison wolfs down her portion. I guess we will have to see how Nelson handles the other two new foods in a couple weeks.