CockersOnline Forum
Cocker Specific Discussion => Feeding => Topic started by: CraftySam on October 02, 2006, 06:57:29 PM
-
I've been toying with the idea of switching to BARF for a while now. I've read alot about the benefits of it and also some of the negatives but in the end decided to give it ago when our current bags of food run out. I'd been a bit anxious about how my three would accept it so have tried a few things out, like raw eggs and shells which they love. Yesterday I gave them a chicken wing each. It took them a while to work out what to do, but in the end they all seemed to like them, though Barney struggled a little as he's not a strong chewer, but I've since learnt that I could bash it with a rolling pin to break the bones. I did end up chopping it into chunks for him, though I'm not sure that was the right thing to do as he didn't chew much. ph34r He didn't have a whole wing, Sapphi had the rest of his.
Sorry this is going to be a bit uggh. ph34r This morning I was woken early by Max whining, something he only does when he's desperate to go out to toilet. He had a lot of diarrhoea. :-\ and he has on and off all day. Sapphi had a normal poo this morning but had diarrhoea this afternoon once. Barney's poo has been fine.
They all seem fine in their selves.
The chicken wings were fresh, bought the day before I gave them and in date. Is this something that happens when you first try them with raw, or are they having a bad reaction to it? I would think if the chicken was off that Barney would have diarrhoea too and that they'd maybe be off it too. They all ate their breakfast.
Should I try again with a chicken wing or not? Should I forget BARF all together?
I'd be grateful for any advice as to what I should or shouldn't do. :-\
I wasn't sure where to put this so sorry if its in the wrong place mods. :embarassed:
-
I'm not experienced in this at all - Melody eats dried food and mixer but I would have thought that would be normal for a first time eating raw food.
Hope someone experienced will come along soon.
-
I experienced this with Ronald. Ended up taking him to the vets who said he had a tummy bug. I still don't know if it was related to the chicken wings or if it was something he picked up conincidentally at the same time as I tried raw. I didn't tell the vet about the chicken wings for fear of being told off ph34r. The chicken wings must have been OK because Mikey and Herbie were both fine.
I can't feed Ron a raw diet, it just doesn't agree with him, but he's 15 and maybe just to old now to change.
I am not saying this is what's happening in your case - just what I experienced but hopefully some-one will come along to help you. :D
-
Raw food can be a bit of a shock to the system ;)
One thing I have discovered the hard way is that it really is important that Molo doesn't have a meal of raw and a meal of processed food too close together :-\ I now make sure he has 10 or 11 hours between the two - if he doesn't , then things get a bit yucky :-\
Also, there are a number of BARF'd dogs on COL that cannot tolerate chicken :-\
-
The first time we gave Buddy a chicken wing he failed to chew it properly and it kind of got stuck.
The result was that he had a bit of a runny poo which sort of escaped around the chicken wing, and soon after that he became a bit distressed, was in obvious pain and within a few minutes (which seemed like hours!) passed a very hard poo which obviously hurt him. Within minutes he was fine again, but it worried me enough to make me avoid giving him wings for quite some time.
When I did eventually give him his next wing, I took the advice of some other COLers and bashed it with a hammer first so that even if he did swallow it whole, at least the bones weren't very big. He has had no problems with them since.
I know it is a scary scenario, but it comes as a result of their lack of experience with raw food. I would suggest just leaving them to settle for a few days then try again with well-bashed wings. Eventually they do get the hang of it and it's great to hear them chomping away and enjoying them so much.
I hope the dogs tums settle soon. Of course it might be a bug in their case, but just thought I'd share. Try not to let this put you off. We are enjoying our BARF experience now, about 3 weeks into it. Even though Buddy is turning into more of a foodie than ever!
Just read Rache's post, and agree about not mixing raw and cooked.
-
Bella was hopeless on chicken wings - the first time I gave her two (probably too much) and she was a bit too full, hadn't chewed them properly, was a bit sick in the night and then even more sick in the morning. It really freaked me out at the time, thoughts of salmonella and poisoning my poor dog etc etc. I tried her on them again and she was still rubbish at chewing them (I bashed them first), she just swallowed them almost whole and was then sick in the night. She did the same with a rabbit's leg, swallowed it whole and was later sick.
So for the first few months of the diet I used to actually (don't read this if you're veggie!) put chunks of chicken and bone through an old blender to mash up the bone - it seemed to be the only way she could cope with chicken bone (although she was fine on breast of lamb). I actually only started giving her whole bits of chicken bone about 2 months ago (8 months into the diet) and she is now absolutely fine on it.
I do think it takes them a little while to get the hang of it - (a) to learn how to chew bone and to get their jaws strong enough to really break it into digestible chunks, and (b) for their stomach muscles which have been underused on kibble, to get stronger. Bella's belly used to rumble away in the first few weeks and I think her little tummy struggled a bit at the start but these days she has no problems.
So I think just be prepared that with some of them it takes a little longer to adjust (I don't mean switch gradually from kibble to raw, just maybe you need to mash stuff up a bit more at the start). I tried various things on Bella until I settled on her current diet. I was absolutely paranoid about her choking on bones or her guts being ripped up so I can promise you she is on things that I, personally, feel are really safe - chicken and breast of lamb are the only boney meals she gets and so far she has had no problems at all.
It can be soooo scary at the start, I think I lived, breathed and slept BARF for the first 8 weeks or so, waking up in sweats in the middle of the night because she was moving around more than normal and thinking "oh god she's being ripped up by a lamb rib" etc ph34r :lol:
So I'd say do give it a go but be prepared to experiment a bit, you should just introduce different meats gradually, start with easier things like the chicken but maybe try putting the wings through the blender first. You could also take some of the skin off if you can bear to as I think wings are fairly rich, myself.
I really wish you luck with it, it's honestly made such a difference to Bella's health and my next dog will definitely be fed on the same diet. Let us know how you get on. ;)
-
I think I lived, breathed and slept BARF for the first 8 weeks or so, waking up in sweats in the middle of the night because she was moving around more than normal and thinking "oh god she's being ripped up by a lamb rib" etc ph34r :lol:
Oh Claire, that sounds sooooo familiar ph34r ph34r
-
Thanks everyone for your advice.
I have been having a bit of a panic today. ph34r Just as you said Claire I've been worried about what if I'd poisoned them, what if its stuck somewhere. I've ummmed and ahhed so long about BARF and decide to try a chicken wing and then they're tums have been upset. I was wondering whether I shouldn't do it, but you've given me some encouragement to stick with the plan and some good ideas.
Rachel, I feed them the chicken wing about four hours after some kibble so that could well have upset them then. :-\
Should I just switch straight onto BARF rather than half BARF half kibble for a while? I will do as Claire suggests and break down the bone for them for a while.
I've been so stressed today, and can you just imagine what my drive looks like today with all that diarrhoea? Yuk, yuk, yuk. ph34r Kept OH occupied when he got home though! :005:
-
Should I just switch straight onto BARF rather than half BARF half kibble for a while? I will do as Claire suggests and break down the bone for them for a while.
I've been so stressed today, and can you just imagine what my drive looks like today with all that diarrhoea? Yuk, yuk, yuk. ph34r Kept OH occupied when he got home though! :005:
I switched mine straight on to BARF, but as you know that was because they had stopped eating their kibble. (Although they eat it now as a training treat! >:D )
If you want to do half and half, feed them as seperate meals so there is a good gap in between them.
I bet your OH was pleased when he saw all the pressies his little darlings had left him. :005: I hope you have a jet wash! ;)
-
x
-
i tried barf with paddy and ellie,it didn't really work as planned though.paddy just didn't want to know.ellie loved it but i think the reason she is now overweight is because she wolfed her dinner then paddy's coz he just didn't like it.
they are now back on the jwb with a raw something for ellie as a treat
-
I put Paddy straight onto BARF outright. In a couple of the books I read, they recommended that, because the digestive enzymes and gut flora needed to digest raw food differs from what is required to digest kibble or processed wet food and a "mix and match" approach can keep the gut in a "neither one thing nor t'other" state.
I'm not surprised that they've had a bit of a reaction, but really do keep at it. I'd suggest going to the butchers and getting some lamb mince and some breast of lamb. Feed them one meal raw mince with some blended raw veggies (I have been doing this in the morning although I'm slightly changing the routine for Paddy because of colitis at the moment) and one meal of just the breast of lamb - about three of the rib bones in size - for dinner, after they've been walked - gives their gut more time to digest the bone overnight.
If they thrive on this, add in some organs once a week - for some reason, Paddy detests kidney but loves liver and heart. Gives them the essential fatty acids they need.
Once they're settled, try them on the chicken wings again and if they react, it may just be an intolerance to chicken. I was really surprised when experienced BARF'ers confirmed that raw chicken is more often a cause of intolerance than other meats - I guess I think, in human terms, of how bland and easy cooked chicken is and extrapolated to Paddy that raw chicken would be the "easy" meat - but it seems more generally to be lamb that is the "easy" one (except for Penel's dog which can only tolerate raw pork!).
One of the books also says that some dogs go into quite a yuk "detox" period with awful breath, terrible poos, scaly skin and its just all the rubbish coming out - but that wouldn't be the issue here as one meal would be too little to trigger that.
Good luck
Denise
-
One of the books also says that some dogs go into quite a yuk "detox" period with awful breath, terrible poos, scaly skin and its just all the rubbish coming out - but that wouldn't be the issue here as one meal would be too little to trigger that.
Good luck
Denise
[/quote]
sounds like the atkins diet :005:
-
Thanks Denise. :D
Can I feed the same lamb mince with veggies and Lamb breast every day? Would you maybe do that for a week to see how the get on and then like you suggest tried kidney, heart or liver the following week? I know the like raw egg. I was going to try sardines too.
Would it be best to start as you suggested with the lamb mince etc and when everythings settled down (if it does get upset) add in one thing a week so I'd know what it was thats causing the problem? Would they get enough of everything they need from the lamb mince etc while we build up to a more varied diet?
Sorry for all the questions. I want to do this as I think they'd be better off, but I have to say I am worried. I'm waiting another book on what actually to feed to be delivered, as the book I've got is why to feed it.
-
Sam, what you've suggested sounds good to me - don't forget that they will only be on the lamb mince/breast alone for a few days so it's not likely to cause them any defiiciencies in that length of time. You can then add in one different meat a week. Bella has, over the period of a week, lamb, chicken, beef, rabbit, tripe and sardines, plus a couple of eggs and some liver - this seems fine for her.
Let us know how you go...
-
Sam - I know it is expensive, but you could try the frozen bags of Natures Menu which is ready-made BARF. It comes in chicken or lamb mince (I think!) with ground bones and veg. already mixed in. That way you know they will be getting a balanced diet, whilst getting used to eating raw at the same time. :-\ My pair ate this for a couple of weeks whilst I worked out what to feed them. ::)
When I switched to home made BARF, I introduced everything in one week. ph34r Mine have: 4 x chicken wings, 4 x lamb ribs, 2 x offal and veg, 3 x mince and veg (either chicken or beef at the minute) and 1 x sardines/pilchards and egg.
Perhaps I have been lucky in that they love everything and have had no problems with upset stomachs. :D
Denise - I always give them the bone meal in the mornings as I thought that gave them all day to digest it and it wasn't heavy on their stomachs over night. Do you think it matters? :huh:
-
Sam - I know it is expensive, but you could try the frozen bags of Natures Menu which is ready-made BARF. It comes in chicken or lamb mince (I think!) with ground bones and veg. already mixed in. That way you know they will be getting a balanced diet, whilst getting used to eating raw at the same time. :-\ My pair ate this for a couple of weeks whilst I worked out what to feed them. ::)
I think that might be a good idea Rhona. I'm concious that their kibble is running down and I've not got my act together. ::) This adverse reactions has thrown me a bit. :-\ Sapphi is still suffering alot today, woke me up at 5am and had terrible diarrhoea and has all morning. :'( Max seems to be drying up a bit today. Barney is still fine. :D
How lucky is my OH to be greeted by a yukky drive two days in a row! :005: Keeps him on his toes. ;)
-
I think the dogs will settle with BARF if you persevere - it's interesting that it's the youngest dog whose system has had least exposure to kibble that had no problems. But like others suggested, I would go back to chicken wings in a bit.
As a BARF beginner, I'd start with the following foods:
- mince (I usually buy turkey or sometimes beef)
- tinned sardines or tinned tuna (although neither of these are strictly BARF because they're not raw)
- stewing beef or lamb (they often reduce this in the fridge section of the supermarket)
- lamb's hearts
The above doesn't include bone so add some raw egg as the shell will give them calcium. Try this for a week and you'll be able to see how they adapt to the food without the panic that they are choking on bones. Also, it's all available at the supermarket and easy to prepare.
After a week you could be a bit more adventurous and introduce oxtail, lamb with bone in (I get these from the butchers) and some sort of chicken - Ruby eats wings, thighs, drumsticks - anything. With 3 dogs a turkey drumstick might be a good idea - they're usually just over £1 in the supermarket and Ruby loves them - but you will have to chop it yourself...I've got one of those butcher's thingies but I can't for the life of me remember what it's called.
Later on you could be even more adventurous and introduce other things to see of your dogs like them - kidney, liver, raw fish...Ruby ioves kidney, will only eat liver if it's flash fried (which means she doesn't get it because the smell of this makes me feel nauseous) and raw fish she tends to bury in the garden and try and eat a week later when it's well and truly stinky. >:(
The other thing which occurred to me is that dogs tend to eat very quickly when they're on kibble - wolf it down - and with bones they need to take a bit more time with their food. It may be the upset tummies were eating too fast, but I was also wondering as you have 3 dogs whether they are eating quick because they're worried one of the others will nick it if they don't. Perhaps feeding them in different rooms might help or if this is not possible at different times and maybe they'll slow down a bit.
Another reason they may be eating so fast is that this food is very new and exciting. After a week or so this should calm down when they realise it's not a one-off treat, so that's another reason why non-bone meals may be beneficial for the first week.
I would recommend making the leap in one though, and not feeding BARF one meal and kibble the other. I promise it does get easier and soon you won't be panicking at all as they crunch through chicken bones - unthinkable now, I know!
-
I think that's true about the wolfing the food thing - Bella definitely eats her meals more slowly now so I don't need to worry about her swallowing big chunks of bone - her breast of lamb portions take her a good 5-10mins these days. She used to try and eat them in about 30 seconds at the start... ph34r :lol:
-
I don't want to go off the thread but I'm fairly new to this forum and have been reading this with interest. Meg is not terribly interested in her complete food and never has been. I have to add fruit and veg to get her interested.
I may try the suggestions within this post and see how she goes as she loves bones but I've always been told by other various dog owners that bones are a no no. She also suffers with her anal glands which apparently chicken wings are good for.
-
Denise - I always give them the bone meal in the mornings as I thought that gave them all day to digest it and it wasn't heavy on their stomachs over night. Do you think it matters? :huh:
Rhona: to be honest, don't know and not experienced enough to hazard a guess! It was in Kymythy Schultze's book - she actually advocates only feeding once a day, in the evenings after they've had their walk and rationalised it on the basis that bone is so dense, even when chewed, that they need time to digest it without any meaningful exercise intervening. But I know one of the experienced BARF'ers said on a post in the last few weeks that she does it like you - in the mornings, so they aren't sleeping on a heavy tum.
Views??
Sam - the Nature's Menu suggestion sounds like a good one to get you started. Other tips, for when you move to home-prepared stuff:
1. If you don't have good knives/meat cleaver, then ask the butcher to cut the bones to size - e.g. 3 ribs per portion of lamb breast, two rings of oxtail at the fat end, three rings at the skinny end, chopping marrow bones to size.
2. Clear space in your freezer for all the individual meal/portion bags before you start!
3. Get your freezer bags out, torn off the roll and opened out, plus the tag/tie things torn off and in a pile before you start. I use the bags to pick up the meat if I'm in a hurry, so that I'm not washing my hands every minute when I need to stir a pot or answer the phone.
4. Get a clean and dry ice cube tray ready for spooning the blended/processed raw veg & fruit into, cover with cling film and freeze.
5. Lots of handcream afterwards - one way or another, you'll end up washing your hands umpteen times!
Not sure how everyone does it, but when I have a "prep session", I have it all ready to go (minced meat, bones, whizzed fruit and veg, heart) and divvy it up into portion sizes and into the bags, then freeze each one as a complete meal. I also use the ice cube tray suggestion of Rachel's, to use up the extra processed raw veg. Then if I need to buy extra mince, I can thaw a mince-only portion plus a couple of ice cube sized bits of veg.
The first time I did it, took me two hours. Have now (only seven or so weeks later) got it down to 45 mins - to prep two weeks' worth of food.
Are people feeding an "offal only" meal - like heart or liver - on its own? I've been chopping it up and adding it to the mince each day in small portions. Does it make any difference??
Denise
-
I don't want to go off the thread but I'm fairly new to this forum and have been reading this with interest. Meg is not terribly interested in her complete food and never has been. I have to add fruit and veg to get her interested.
I may try the suggestions within this post and see how she goes as she loves bones but I've always been told by other various dog owners that bones are a no no. She also suffers with her anal glands which apparently chicken wings are good for.
Hi Louise
Which food are you feeding at the moment?
The bones issue is that any cooked bones are prone to splintering because the cooking makes them dry and brittle, so you're more likely to get splintering and thus possible throat or gut damage. Any meaty bone should be good for anal glands, from what I've read (thankfully that's one thing Paddy hasn't suffered from!! ph34r) - it's the bone content that bulks up their stools and the resulting "firmness" helps to evacuate the anal glands. Oh yuk. Sorry to anyone eating their lunch and browsing COL!
Out of interest for the experienced BARF'ers - are there any raw bones which are prone to splintering and which should be avoided?
Denise
-
I don't want to go off the thread but I'm fairly new to this forum and have been reading this with interest. Meg is not terribly interested in her complete food and never has been. I have to add fruit and veg to get her interested.
I may try the suggestions within this post and see how she goes as she loves bones but I've always been told by other various dog owners that bones are a no no. She also suffers with her anal glands which apparently chicken wings are good for.
Hi Louise
Which food are you feeding at the moment?
The bones issue is that any cooked bones are prone to splintering because the cooking makes them dry and brittle, so you're more likely to get splintering and thus possible throat or gut damage. Any meaty bone should be good for anal glands, from what I've read (thankfully that's one thing Paddy hasn't suffered from!! ph34r) - it's the bone content that bulks up their stools and the resulting "firmness" helps to evacuate the anal glands. Oh yuk. Sorry to anyone eating their lunch and browsing COL!
Out of interest for the experienced BARF'ers - are there any raw bones which are prone to splintering and which should be avoided?
Denise
Not suggesting I am experienced at all but ..... :005: :005: :005:
I have found that when feeding a bailey a chicken carcuss I have to be careful which way I split it, because chicken ribs can become very, very sharp if they are snapped off at an angle.
-
Hi Denise,
She's on Wafcal at the moment because of it's high fibre content and lack of additives. She also has various vegetables added in (whatever I'm having).
Thanks for the suggestion I may go and see what my local butcher has.
-
Denise - I always give them the bone meal in the mornings as I thought that gave them all day to digest it and it wasn't heavy on their stomachs over night. Do you think it matters? :huh:
Rhona: to be honest, don't know and not experienced enough to hazard a guess! It was in Kymythy Schultze's book - she actually advocates only feeding once a day, in the evenings after they've had their walk and rationalised it on the basis that bone is so dense, even when chewed, that they need time to digest it without any meaningful exercise intervening.
Ah, that is the one book I am still waiting on! ::) It's only been a month. >:( But to be honest, I wouldn't want to only feed once a day anyway. They seem to be doing O.K. on eating bones in the morning though so I'll stick with it for now. :blink:
Not sure how everyone does it, but when I have a "prep session", I have it all ready to go (minced meat, bones, whizzed fruit and veg, heart) and divvy it up into portion sizes and into the bags, then freeze each one as a complete meal. I also use the ice cube tray suggestion of Rachel's, to use up the extra processed raw veg. Then if I need to buy extra mince, I can thaw a mince-only portion plus a couple of ice cube sized bits of veg.
The first time I did it, took me two hours.
That is exactly how I did it! :D Except I used bags for the spare veg. as I haven't got any ice cube trays. It also took me a couple of hours, but I did enough mince and veg. to last a month. :D
Are people feeding an "offal only" meal - like heart or liver - on its own? I've been chopping it up and adding it to the mince each day in small portions. Does it make any difference??
I feed offal (heart, kidney and liver with a dollop of veg.) twice a week. (When I worked out % it should be 1 1/2 meals a week, but that was too complicated. :D )
I don't think it makes any difference if you feed it seperately or mixed in with mince. I'm pretty sure 'The BARF Diet' sample menu has it mixed in a couple of times a week. (I will check if you want me to, but I'm too lazy to go upstairs to check at the minute! :005: )
-
As a BARF beginner, I'd start with the following foods:
- mince (I usually buy turkey or sometimes beef)
- tinned sardines or tinned tuna (although neither of these are strictly BARF because they're not raw)
- stewing beef or lamb (they often reduce this in the fridge section of the supermarket)
- lamb's hearts
The above doesn't include bone so add some raw egg as the shell will give them calcium.
If you buy the Prize Choice mince from PAH (chicken or beef) it does contain 5% ground bone.
-
Thanks Claire, Denise, Clairep4, Mich and Rhona for all your advice. :D
I'm so glad I've got you all, did anyone elses head feel like it was going to explode when you were trying to get your head round BARF?
Claire - Thank you for the menu for the first week, sounds very good to me! Nice and easy to get my head round. Should they have veg every day too?
Sapphi eats her food within a blink of an eye, literally. ph34r The boys tend to take their time. So I think I might feed Sapphi first on her own and shut the boys out of the kitchen and feed the boys after. When I gave her the chicken wing she licked it for a bit, not sure what to do, but it wasn't long before she was crunching away and it was gone. Ten minutes later the boys hadn't got that far. ::) The boys really didn't chew the bones up enough, and Barney really worried me as he hardly did at all, but he was the one thats ok.
Denise - thanks for all the tips on getting set up. Technically I'm not supposed to use sharp knives because of my hand spasms. ::) Who knows what could happen being let loose with a meat cleaver! ph34r :005: OH will have to be drafted in for hacking duties. ;)
I'm still waiting for my book with diet requirements info in. ::) All three dogs are different sizes/weights so they'll each need different amounts I guess.
Mich sent me a tip to freeze the chicken wings (and defrost) before giving them to the dogs. She'd read freezing them can kill off any nasties that are in them. Makes sense to me so thought I'd pass the tip on. ;)
I need to find a butcher and forge a relationship. Hopefully if I'm feeding the same every week, I could ask him to prepare it all for me, as Denise suggests.
So Louise are you going to switch to BARF with me? We could make the leap into the unknown together!! :005:
Thanks everyone for all your advice, I really do appreciate it, and I'm sure my pooches will when they get stuck into all together more satisfying meals. :D
-
Sam
Head was exploding, heart was jumping, the lot. Can't believe how blase about it I am now, (most of the time!).
On weights/amounts - it's 3% of body weight per day (to include treats). I worked this out for Paddy and the first few times, weighed everything using a set of scales, so each bag was exactly half of his daily total. Now - I get a packet of lamb mince from Tesco, it says 480g, I divide it by eye into approx 120g portions, chuck in some offal and veg - bingo. Like earlier posters have said - they look podgy, you fish out a bit of mince or pick a smaller bone, they look skinny you add some more in over the next few days.
Go for it!
Denise
-
And they dont have to have every nutrient ar every meal. As long as they balance out over a week or 2 theyll be fine. In other words, if they get only organs today, no bones or muscle meat, its OK as they will have muscle/bone/fish/eggs etc tomorrow. or the next day or the next or -----
-
And they dont have to have every nutrient ar every meal. As long as they balance out over a week or 2 theyll be fine. In other words, if they get only organs today, no bones or muscle meat, its OK as they will have muscle/bone/fish/eggs etc tomorrow. or the next day or the next or -----
Exactly. A lot of people panic about this. One of the raw feeding books pointed out that we feed ourselves and our children without weighing things out and knowing exactly what nutrients are in everything - it's just about eating a variety and it all being a balance overall. You wouldn't feed your children on a complete food (if someone invented one) on the basis that if you fed them a diet you made up yourself you'd worry they might not be getting a balance.
When you think of it this way, you realise there really isn't anything to worry about.
In answer to your question, I do tend to give Ruby fruit or veg every day, with her meals. However, when she snaffles something in the park and gets slightly less firmer poos (sorry if this is too much information :005:) than normal then I leave out the fruit and veg - usually just for a day - until they are back to their usual consistency. :D
I give Ruby chicken, turkey or fish in the morning with a little fruit, and beef, lamb or offal in the evening, with a little veg. I portion her meals in to sandwich bags and put these in to two 4L plastic icecream containers in the freezer - a dinner one and a breakfast one.
This makes it easier for me to ensure I give her a balance without thinking about it. Whether me or OH feed her, we know which is her breakfast tub and which is her dinner tub, and I also layer the food in a mix and just take the top one...so each layer consists of 4 meals in - a piece of turkey thigh, 2 wings, bit of tukey drumstick, turkey mince, and the layer above is the same, so her meals rotate. Her offal is kept in a smaller 2L tub and she has this every Tuesday so I remember.
It sounds anal (OK, it is slightly :lol:) but once the initial food prep is done, it is so easy, I don't have to worry about trying to remember what I fed her yesterday, last week etc. And when I buy new stuff I make sure I put it in the bottom of the tubs so there isn't anything that gets accidentally left in the freezer forever.
Ruby's under a year old, so I may review whether I want to feed her only once a day then - mind you, that's not much of a present "happy 1st birthday Ruby you only get fed once a day now" - not sure she'll be chuffed with that, but we'll see! :lol:
-
Claire - I do the bagging up and labelling thing as well but I have a list on the fridge door called "Beastie Girl's Dinners" :lol: so that OH knows what to get out of the freezer. I bag it up according to the type of meat, so one with chicken, one with breast of lamb and one with mince (some of which has offal in as well), then I have a bag of freeflow tripe, a couple of blocks of rabbit (the AMP blocks) and of course the trusty tins of sardines in the larder. I rotate the chicken and lamb during the week, which is easy to remember (lamb on Tues & Thurs, chicken the rest), then at weekends it's a bit more free and easy, generally tripe or sardines or rabbit. And if we have a roast on Sunday then so does she (well, the meat, gravy and veg anyway) She has mince every night.
I was toying with one meal a day for Bella but in the end stuck to two, she gets her mains in the morning so that she can get a decent sized boney meal and then a spoonful of mince in the evenings, which is gone so fast you sometimes think you didn't actually put it in the bowl :lol: but she REALLY looks forward to it nevertheless and will come and harrass me at 6pm sharp for it, so I'd feel like a mean mummy cutting it out... ;)