Easy Dehydrator Treats

Nova and Kerri have been eating a lot of treats lately- Kerri for agility and trick training and Nova because.... well not every post can be about Nova, feel free to read the rest of the blog for her story.  I have been looking for a variety of high value treats that are small enough for a chihuahua.  The problem with nearly all commercial treats is that besides being full of not so healthy stuff they are huge for chihuahuas.  When you weigh 6 lbs every bit of food you eat counts!  I pulled out the dehydrator and whipped these guys up in only a few hours.  Just one warning though- even though these are healthy treats- everything should be done in moderation.  I account for the treats my dogs eat by reducing the veggie portion of their dinner- and also by giving a variety of different treats.  Too many of these and your dog might get a little stopped up in the poop department.  They are made out of pumpkin after all.

First I took all my ingredients- 2 cans of pumpkin, a dash of tumerick and a few tablespoons of coconut oil- and I mixed them up in a bowl.

I spooned the mixture into a bag (you could use a pastry bag but I couldn't find mine so I used a sandwich bag) then piped it onto the dehydrator trays.

I dehydrated for about 2 and a half hours at 135 degrees.  Then I broke them up into tiny pieces like this-

They ended up just like I hoped they would- semi soft and tiny.  The dogs LOVED them- which is good because I was looking for a higher value treat.  Here is Copley politely sitting for a treat and ever bolder Nova being totally impolite.  It is something we are working on.

Have a great day everybody!

Raw food, cooked food, local food, people food!

I decided I have a lot to say about feeding raw food, buying that food locally and the fact that I am not a vegetarian (something that a lot of my friends in animal rescue surely judge me for).  Before I start I just wanted to say if you don't home cook, but you feed a pre-made diet don't feel bad.  Good kibble is a good decision for a lot of people!  Nothing at all wrong with that.  Also don't feel bad if you had a frozen meal made by ConAgra for dinner- I had a box of fruit loops the other day and I really don't feel bad about it.  Likewise don't judge me for having eaten bacon for breakfast this morning, pigs are really cute, and smart but...  I'm just going to stop before I put my foot in my mouth with that one.  If any of these topics make you really angry (or you just don't want to read a giant block of text that is nothing more than my opinion) feel free to pretend this post is just a cute picture of a chihuahua.  Eating a commercial dog treat.  With veggies in it.  Oops.  Even the raw feeders will be against me after this post.

Wow this post needed a lot of disclaimers.  You still feeling good about this?  Blood pressure holding steady.  Great. Lets be on with it.

The reason I moved to a home made raw diet in the first place was actually to help the world at large, not just Copley.  I believe that buying our food from local, small family farmers is the best thing a person can do to make a difference in the world.  I don't mean that you must buy organic (does that word even really mean much?) and spend your whole pay check at a health food store.  In fact I mean the opposite of that.  I mean you should go down to the local farmers market and talk to people who are lovingly growing healthy veggies and then barter with them for a good price on food.  I promise after a few trips the farmers market will be saving you money on your grocery bill (that is if you can find a good market).

I feel the same way about meat.  Factory farms are not good for you, they are not good for the world and they most certainly are not good for the food animals in them.  I would rather be a vegetarian than support feedlot cattle.  Over the last few years I have managed to slowly transition us off commercially raised feed animals.  At this point the humans in the house are eating 100% pastured meat and the dogs are at about 90%.  And when I say pastured I don't mean I buy the grass fed ground beef at Whole Foods.  I buy beef from a local rancher that has heirloom cows.  They are grazed on BLM land in Arizona and finished in pastures in Southern Utah.  Their cows are all born, raised, and slaughtered on the ranch, unlike commercial cattle that often changes hands many times over the course of its short life.  All of the eggs that enter my house come from "pet" chickens and ducks living in people's backyards.  Not one of these animals has its beak cut off so it can live its life crammed into a small cage.  I supplement my beef with occasional Goat- also local, and I can show you the pasture where the herd of goat spends their life.  Then my favorite local meat is the pork we just found.  That's right- after years of not eating pork I found a local farmer who keeps three pigs at a time and makes BACON.  Sweet, sweet bacon.

Many animal rights activists would tell me killing is killing and I am still doing it.  To them I say- well you are right about that.  I have no problem with vegetarians, my Mom is one, and I am worried that in the not too distant future Ben will be one too.  What I believe is the answer is not to stop eating meat, but to strive to move all of our food from large scale farming to small farms down the street.  I also believe if we are eating meat it is our responsibility to make sure the animals we eat are treated ethically.  The point is I am doing what I can, and what I think is best.    I don't want to sound like a saint here- cause I'm not.  I just want to encourage everyone to make a little change that helps the world.  Imagine what a difference would happen in the world if everyone just replaced one meal a week with food bought at the farmers market?  Or if you took one step to buy local, ethical, meat?

Alright- that went there- now back to the dogs!  I know people judge me for feeding raw, and think I am some sort of crazy dog lady.  I will have you know I am a crazy environmentalist, tree huger thank-you-very-much.  With that said the benefits of a home prepared diet are many after seeing the change in my dogs I will NEVER be going back to commercially prepared foods.  Even commercially prepared raw foods- because that would totally defeat the purpose of my home preparing food.  An argument people have against raw is that they can't afford all pastured, or organic meat.  Well who cares?  First of all supermarket meat on sale is still a whole food that is just fine for raw feeding or home cooking.  Also what do you think they are eating now?  Every kibble on the planet (even organic, "all natural" kibble) is made from commercial cattle.  So even if you feed 99% feedlot meat and 1% pastured, local meat you are making a difference, and doing better than commercial foods.

As of right now the dogs are almost totally on local, pastured meat.  I do keep backup canned food for emergencies, and buy a few raw mixes for our pet sitters to feed when we are out of town.  I also get green tripe from commercial cattle, and currently I struggle to find edible bone locally.  For the most part my dogs diet consists of beef from the cows we eat, eggs found locally, local veggies, rabbit that is raised on a small farm and local goat.  A few times a week they do get commercial chicken, and while I hate that the rabbit is really the only other edible bones for the chihuahuas and it is not affordable enough to feed all the time.

I don't want to sound like if you are feeding kibble you are destroying the world.  I fly a few times a year and that pretty much destroys my carbon footprint and I certainly am not going to stop that!  What I am saying is that it does not matter what people say to me- I am sticking to a home-made diet.  For my dogs and for the world.  I just had to get that out there.  

Thanks for listening everyone, and no matter what you feed your dog and your family make an informed decision.

Dinner Time!

Hey- If you don't like looking at raw meat that may still slightly resemble the animal it came from don't read this post!

First of all- hooray for my new camera!!!!

Second of all- horray for dog food!  It just so happened that on the day I bought my new camera (to replace the stolen one)  I also made dog food.  As you all  know we feed raw.  I call what I feed "prey model plus."  It is 70% muscle meat, 10% bone, 10% organ and 10% veggies.  Not to say that it what is in every meal, but it is what I strive to over time.  Also not saying that we feed the best diet out there or anything- I know lots of doggies thriving on home cooked, BARF and prey model.  With that said I thought I would use this opportunity to share our cooking adventures.  This happens every 2 weeks- because that is how much dog food fits in my freezer at one time!

All the veggies this week were not only local like from Southern Nevada/California and the farmers market- but all local to this very valley.  Horray for being uber local not even on purpose (usually everything is at least regionally local and bought directly from farmers).  We have pea shoots from Boulder City, summer squash from Boulder City, apples from Las Vegas and green beans from North Las Vegas are on the bottom of the pot.  The veggies we feed vary from week to week based on what is available locally.  Apples and squash are two of our favorite bases. 

The picture at the top of this post is Copley's meals.  This one here is Kerri's.  In this meal she has a chicken foot, some gizzards and hearts, a piece of beef kidney and a dalop of veggies.  I add various supplements and coconut oil to the veggies, depending on what dog I am feeding.  This particular meal would also get an egg cracked on it but I do those fresh.  We've always got some local eggs from somebody's chickens in the fridge.

People always ask me why I cook for my dogs.  The simple answer is that I believe whole, fresh foods are healthiest for my animal.   I also do everything in my power to support local farmers and not support feedlot animals.  Honestly it was that second thing that first motivated me to go to raw in the first place.  The commercial meat industry is a horrible thing.  For me those two reasons are enough and now that I see the change in my animals I would never go back.  There are some other surprising advantages though.  I used to buy a bag of kibble that lasted Copley about 3 weeks and cost $30.  Using some magic math I have determined it would cost me $50 to feed that same kibble to the dogs living at my house for 2 weeks (that would be 18lb Foster Dog George, 22lb Copley and 6lb Kerrigan).  On this round of food that is going to last me the same 2 weeks I spent less than $30.  This week didn't even include any free/really cheap meat that I usually get.  Feeding raw has also led me to meet a lot of cool other raw feeders- including my amazing Vet who I never would have looked for if I hadn't been feeding raw in the first place!

Now I must end this post so I can go to the DMV and register the car I wish I never had to buy.  It could take anywhere between 15 minutes and 4 hours- wish me luck.

Kidney Brownies

Have you ever heard of liver brownies?  They are a super easy home made treat that dogs love.  Because they are cheap, easy and good for training they are a favorite of those of us who are high volume treat users like trainers and obedience people.  Well today I set out to see if the recipe would work with kidney.  Why kidney you ask?  I happened to get 4 pounds of local, pasture fed-finished beef kidney for very little money.  It has been sitting in a giant 4lb glob in a bag in the freezer taking up way too much space and I really needed it to go.  If I were to put this in to dog food (even if it was the only organ other than liver I used) it would take months for it all to get eaten.  Right now I am not short on organ and frankly the other stuff fits in the freezer much better.

So here is the recipe I improvised for kidney brownies-

4 LB of Beef Kidney

1 1/2 Cup Corn Meal*

1 Cup Flour

1/2 a Wedge of Parmesan Cheese

4 Cloves of garlic**

*Read what I have to say about corn if you want to.  If your dog is allergic or sensitive to corn you could use regular flour and an egg but I think it will be more crumbly like a traditional brownie and not a rip-able, pliable bar like I got.

**From what I read garlic can cause anemia in dogs if used in large quantities.  This recipe uses only 4 cloves to make an amount of treats that will last two dogs months.  I hear that dogs like the taste of garlic and it also made the cooking smell of this a little more bearable for me so I am glad I used it.  It is certainly not necessary if it makes you uncomfortable or if your dog can't have it for some reason.

First I assembled all my ingredients-

Then I preheated my oven to 350 degrees.  Next I covered a cookie sheet in foil and greased it (I used olive oil, but any cooking oil would do).  I put the cheese in a food processor with the peeled garlic.

And zap, zap, zap- tada!

I don't have any pictures of chopping and blending the kidney.  It was too gross and I just wanted it to be over.  My only advise is if you value the motors on your kitchen appliances use a blender, cut the kidney up small and pour all the blood from the bag into the mix.  Once it was all processed I mixed it with the cheese, corn meal and flour.

Spread the mixture into your greased and foiled cookie sheet.  I made it about 1/4 inch thick but I now see that either thicker or thinner would both work although it would be a different consistency treat depending.  I like my 1/4 inch and at that depth I got several cookie sheets worth.

Bake for 25 minutes.

Once it cools a little I turned the slab over onto a cooling rack and carefully peeled back the tin foil.  Without the foil I can't imagine I would have gotten it off the cookie sheet.

Because of the consistency of the sheet it was easiest for me to cut it with scissors once it was completely cool.  I cut it into strips and then cubes like you see in the first picture.

These treats need to be either refrigerated or frozen.  I froze most of mine because I made a lot of treats.  I do have a tip on freezing though.  If you first freeze the treats laid out on a cookie sheet THEN put them all into a bag it will help avoid clumping.  You should be able to just pull out what you need without having to thaw the whole bag.  This method works for veggies and most other cooked then frozen items too.

I got a LOT of treats.  Previously I had been buying Welness Pure Rewards for about $6 a bag.  This recipe made about 12 bags worth of treats and cost me $6.*

*I calculated $2.50 for 1/2 a block of Parmesan cheese at $4.99, $2 for the kidney, 25c for the garlic (although I did get it for free from a farmer we know) and $1 for the corn meal and flour then to make it a round number I pretended it cost me 25c in gas to run the oven.  Total- $6

These were a big hit with both Copley (who would eat anything) and Kerrigan (who it a little bit more picky).  They are the perfect consistency for training and once done don't really smell like kidney any more. 

Goat

It all started when we saw a sign at the farmers market saying "Meat Goats- $100."

Next thing you know  I have an entire goat carcase sitting on my kitchen counter.  I am not one to turn down reasonably priced local meat for both me and the dog.  We spoke with the farmer who was happy to kill and skin the goat.  He also was gracious enough to give us the head and all of the guts in a bag for the dogs.  There are really no words to describe this journey, so I shall do it with pictures.  I have omitted the really gross stuff.

The counter after being sanitized with bleach.

Cutting and organizational tools.

We started with the bag o' organs.  It was frozen in two week
supplies for Copley, this is one of the packs.

After we were done with the organs we re bleached
the counters before starting on the goat.

Some of the prime cuts of "people meat" being trimmed.

Back, neck and pelvis bones for the dog's chewing pleasure.

Finally all packed we have: People meat- several lbs of stew
meat, two shoulders,two racks of ribs and scraps for stock +
Dog Meat- Several poundsof meaty meat, liver, lung, heart,
kidney, spleen, tripe, stomach, lots of meaty bones
to chew on and a head (not shown).

The first cooking project- goat stock with farmers market
veggies and fresh sage from the herb garden.

One question I have been asking myself after all this is "Why don't people eat more goat meat?"  Or more specifically "Where do all the baby milk goats go?"  As you may (or may not) know milk animals are constantly pregnant.  Be it a cow, goat, sheep, whatever, if you want milk from that animal you need it to have babies to stimulate lactation.  When the baby animal is born it usually is removed from it's mother (with varying degrees of humaine-ness, think before you eat veal) so the milk is all available for the farmer to harvest and sell.  Some smaller and more ethical farms allow the animals to stay with their mothers, loosing out on some milk but keeping things a little more natural before the babies are sent to slaughter.  Either way there are lots of baby goats out there being born to milk goat mothers.  A few of the female animals are kept around to become milk goats themselves and even fewer males are kept around to keep the females pregnant.  With goat cheese being so popular there must be lots of little goats sent to slaughter.  WHERE DO THEY GO?!?!  You can't buy goat meat at the supermarket, you don't even see goat meat in dog food.  That is particularly puzzling with the new "novel meat" anti-allergy craze in dog food.  If I can get emu meat dog food, why can't I get goat?

This puzzle is still unsolved, so if you know where the baby goats go, please let me know.