Day 4

The dogs seem to have fully adjusted to the new diet. Their stools are 100% healthy now, with no mucus. Their stools are also only half the size they used to be, and they have only making bowel movements once a day now, instead of twice a day.

This afternoon, I took apart a whole chicken, getting as much meat off the bones as possible and putting the bones in the food processor. The food processor does not do the best job though. I had to hand cut several pieces smaller. Now Riley has six meals worth of crushed bone all ready for him so I dont have to grind them each meal. I will add the preground bones to whole pieces of boneless meat. We will go out tomorrow to a hunting store and pick up a metal hand cranked meat grinder and see how that works. Then I intend to premake lots of patties for Riley at once and freeze extra.

About Henry, who is able to chew the bones, I have found it better to give him big pieces and let him chew away at one big piece. I lay out a plastic table cloth cut in half and he holds the hunk of meat under one of his paws and tears away at it. Right now he takes about 15 minutes to eat. I like that he does not rush. After he is done with his chicken, he eats from his bowl the veggie mash that I add his medicine and supplements to. When it is warm, I will have him eat outside. Riley just eats all of his from his bowl as it is already pre ground for him.

What I find so satisying about raw is there is so little waste! When I prepare chicken for my family, all the bones and etc. get thrown away. With the the dogs, the skin is the only thing I throw away. I don't know if most people feed the skin as well, but I remove the skin because Riley is older and Henry is on a medicine that makes him more prone to pancreatitis.

Henry has either stopped passing gas, or his passing gas no longer has any odor since starting the BARF diet. That's a huge plus! =D