Liver is giving me major problems!  

Chance was eating 3 days of liver in 1 day then I made the math mistake and gave her rocker butt.  We got her back to normal and I started liver again.

1.25 days was no problem.  The same with 1.5 days.
1.75 days she had liquid poop on her AM walk the next day but that was it.  I think it may have been increasing the amount of liver AND the amount of lamb liver at one time.

We decided to start again with tiny amounts of liver and work back up.  So far so good.

Opened up the 1.34 lb. package of chicken liver I got from the raw co-op and almost puked!  The liver wasn't bad, it just smelled like ultra-concentrated liver.  My mistake for letting it thaw completely.  Bagged it up in easy to manage portions and refroze for easy, odor-free cutting!
It doesn't help that liver makes me want to puke anyway!

I gave Chance "rocket butt" last week.  I was so careful to move slowly, start her out with tiny amounts of new food and give her a tiny bit more, etc.  
And then I made a mistake calculating the amount of liver to feed her!  She was getting 3 days worth of liver at one time.  I was hoping to be able to feed her 4 days worth so I did several stupid things.

1. I increased the amount of liver she was getting by almost 3/4 of a day instead of by just a tenth-of-an-ounce or two!
   
2. I had just gotten some lamb liver (gorgeous grass fed and finished lamb liver, fit for human consumption and cheap thanks to the raw co-op) so I was also getting her used to a new liver.
   
3. Then the next day I gave her beef kidney, which has been fine in the past, but I also gave her more beef kidney than the time before.
   
4. And it was hot which always causes softer poop for her.
   

Luckily 15 or so hours of fasting, slippery elm bark and skinless chicken breasts all helped with the poop problem.
She's been eating chicken since Monday but is now getting a mix of skin-on and skinless.  She's also getting a little salmon and had some beef last night.  Tomorrow she'll be getting about half chicken, half beef.

And when the time comes to give her organs again, I'll back off on the amounts and increases SLOWLY with a day of no organs in between!

We have a lot of people comment that they wish they could afford to feed raw.

There are ways that you can keep the costs of raw feeding down but it does take time and can be expensive until you get that cheap supply chain established.

One of the best things you can do is buy a freezer so you can take advantage of windfalls that come your way.

1. Always check the sodium level before buying.  
The cheapest cut of meat is a waste if it has been enhanced with sodium and you can't feed it!

2. Avoid cuts of meat that are overly fatty, like brisket, unless you need to feed a very fatty cut or the price makes up for fat you will end up cutting off.

3. Watch the sales at grocery stores, especially if there are any holidays coming up. 

4. Ask at the meat counter when they mark meat down due to a short sell by date.
I was at Safeway just last night and they had unenhanced whole chickens on sale for $0.88 per pound.  There were a dozen or so chickens that were marked down an additional 50% because they had a sell by date of today.  That's $0.44 per pound!  And my fridge freezer and chest freezers were both full so I couldn't take advantage of that price!!!

5. Hunters can be a good source of free meat.  
Let hunters know you would be happy to take any old, unseasoned meat off their hands and also that you'd like the parts they don't want.
Remember, in the United States, it is illegal to buy or sell meat that has been hunted.

6. Neighbors or friends cleaning out freezers is another source of cheap or free meat.  
Unseasoned freezer burnt or unspoiled old (or ancient) meat is just fine for animals to eat.

7. If legal in your area, harvest roadkill. 
I know it sounds gross but it is meat that may otherwise go to waste.  Fresh roadkill or, in cold climates, older winter roadkill can provide a lot of meat.  Use common sense when deciding if you want to harvest a roadkilled animal.  If you do, just stick it in your freezer for a month or so to kill any parasites that may be present.
Check and follow the regulations for your area.

8. Check with custom game processors, slaughter houses and processing plants to see if there is anything you can get from them that they wouldn't be able to sell for human consumption.  
USDA-approved facilities are not to accept any animals that are unhealthy or not for human consumption but not all parts of an animal are allowed to be sold into the human food chain.

9. See if there are any co-ops you can join.  
I belong to a co-op and can get some very good prices.

10. See if a butcher or your grocery store meat counter can get you a good deal on bulk items.

11. If there is a wholesale meat supplier close, cut out the middle man and see what kind of bulk deals you can get straight from them.

12. When you are preparing your own meat for cooking, look at what you are cutting off.  
That raw fat can be used to provide extra fat when feeding lean meals.
If you have scraps of raw meat, freeze them together into odd shapes to make a frozen meal for your pet.
If you are roasting a chicken or turkey, consider removing the back before cooking.  We don't care for the backs because the skin is soggy and there's just not much meat on it.  So we cut the backs off and that makes a nice bony meal for Chance.  We do the same with turkey wings.  And whole birds usually contain goodies like hearts, gizzards and livers.

13. Ask local farmers or ranchers what they do with livestock that doesn't make it, such as newborns or young stock, and old animals.  
You may get a very good deal if you either butcher the animal yourself or agree to take the animal and have it butchered.

14. 4-H clubs
Check any local 4-H clubs to see if you can get a deal on animals they are raising.

We get a lot of questions about how we are feeding Chance but the most often asked questions are: 

1. Why did we start? 
   
2. What changes have we seen?
   

Why did we start?
Simple answer: Chance regurgitates commercial food and she won't eat it unless we add canned food and/or fresh meat to eat it.  

We've tried floating kibble and soaking kibble but she regurgitated it anywhere from multiple times per day to once every week or 2.  
Even canned food required us to thin it with water or it would come back up.  
Her ZiwiPeak Air Dried raw food was the best commercial food we tried because it was a soft jerky but even that we had to float in water and add in canned food or meat to get her to eat it.  But she did still regurgitate it every couple of weeks.

We could have chosen to feed a pre-made raw.
Long-story short, to feed pre-made raw to a 54-56 lb. active dog is prohibitively expensive!

After spending several years researching home-prepared diets, I decided cooking food was just too much hard work and raw was the way to go.

What changes have we seen?
With each commercial food change we made, we saw positive changes in Chance.

The changes going from Evo to ZiwiPeak was astounding.  
She had more energy but because the ZP was a low-carb food, that energy was steady instead of coming in hyperactive bursts after she ate.  
We went from having to give her allergy pills for her allergies to not needing to give her anything.
Her coat became very shiny and the texture softened, it also shed dirt and water easier.  
She no longer smelled like a dog, even when wet.

We didn't expect to see many changes going to prey model raw from ZP.
Were we in for a shock!

• She loves raw food.  No need to add anything to get her to eat it which saves money!
  
• Her coat became ultra-uber shiny.  So much so that people asked us if we were adding something to her diet or spraying her coat with a shine spray.
  
• The texture changed further and became even softer.
  
• She still sheds because she is half German "Shedder" but she's shedding less fur.
  
• Water runs off of her instead of soaking into her undercoat.
• Since switching just over 2 months ago, we have yet to smell "Frito" feet.
  
• Her poops have gotten even smaller.
  
• Her teeth are cleaner and her gums are healthy looking.
  

And she rebuilt all the muscle lost due to a back injury, regained her mobility and flexibility and was pronounced healed in just 10 weeks.  A rate that surprised her rehab vet who estimated it would take her that long just to progress to the next level of rehab!