Our Precious Carnivora

Waiting for command & hand signal, "Okay Sadie, eat." That is Cinnabun, still in the oven there.

SuicideGirl, as many of you know, is our precious grey baby who loves her diet of unadulterated raw meat. I truly mean raw everything--from the bones out to the feather, fur, scales and skin and everything in between. She has been on a this diet without break for nearly two years and before that off and on over the five and a half years we have had her. I give her everything I can find that was once living would be something she would eat as a prey based diet.

She has had snake, who was unceremoniously dispatched via shovel in a neighbor's yard while visiting. SuicideGirl--who originally discovered the 70cm+ serpent--happily took to eating it after inspecting the newly two pieced snake. She also cleaned up an unfortunate mishap for me while gardening. I accidentally killed the severely obese field mouse (thanks to the steady diet of bird seed and suet we kept out for the local birds of Monterey). I did not know he was shacked up under some large, heavy broken bricks I had in my garden till I moved them and uh... I will just say; the laws of kinetic energy, physiology and physics all worked against the poor thing and after all was said and done: it was very dead--only God could get that creature to rise again.

Quickly I fetched the shovel from the other side of the yard so I could pick up the poor unfortunate creature and toss it into the field behind our yard before certain three or seven year old Unfortunates wondered outside again... Upon returning to the scene of the tragic accident, I discovered a greyhound licking her chops and taking good sniff of the ground and not a single hair, foot or tail was to be found. The only other clue to the final page of the tragedy was a resounding cough, sounding suspiciously like something was temporarily caught in the throat of the greyhound who was eagerly waiting for me to fish out more furry-crunchy-munchies I guess...


ANYWAY;
SuicideGirl's diet consists mostly of chicken and fish, with lamb, beef, turkey and an occasional rabbit, thrown into the mix. As previously stated, she is religiously fed what is called a prey based diet. Personally, I think it would be a better prey based diet if it was easier to come by less processed meats, but I do my best by getting as much of a variety of animal parts as I can. I have discovered she isn't a fan of poultry gizzards outside of the chicken, nor is she a fan of large fish heads. She rather starve then eat duck... and she did for two days straight when I was trying to get her to finish up the duck I got a great deal on, which she seem to like at the beginning.


Muttlie is fed twice a day and her staple diet is half a cornish hen with a lamb neck slice or two whole frozen sardines. I use to obsess over feeding her the correct amount of food for her weight and metabolism, carefully weighing and selecting the "right" amount of bone and flesh. Before that I use to obsess over exactly how much meat, bone and vegetable matter she got in her diet, weighing, measuring and calculating everything. Not anymore, not anymore. Those were inanely stressful days at times and I just kept reminding myself that this is for my dog's on good. Which was something that proved itself true.

SuicideGirl was beginning to have more serious skin problems besides the dry skin. She had a cyst under her ribcage right where it came in-contact with the ground when she laid down. It would grow and grow causing her discomfort and then it would one day pop somewhere on it and drain--taking about two or three days doing so. Once while draining it became infected and that was another enjoyable vet bill. Her teeth (and I'll just confess now, I detest brushing as much as she disliked the experience.) were okay, but I needed a bit more help. Expensive dog foods costing $50-60 for 35lbs, and a vet trying to hustle prescription food $80 20lbs are enough to start many thinking exactly how much is the dog really worth.


Once I bit the bullet and put SuicideGirl on a full raw--bones and all--her skin cleared up and the large cyst that she had for over a year disappeared without a trace. Her teeth cleaned up nicely making brushing quicker and more productive. Energy level finally was more like a young adult dog and hallelujah--no more gigantic dumps (two or more in a span of three minutes). By time she is finished eating, she is fully ready to do all her business and she comes in feeling satisfied--you can tell this by her immediately finding her bed, sprawling out across it and immediately finding sleep. This diet costs more than the cheapest dog food, yet is much less than the poor health vet visits with premium or cheap dog food.

At Zushi Beach.

Okay, since I was asked below are some other recipes--if you will--to the meals I commonly give her. Mind you I do shop first at the Commissary's discount meats, before going to the least costly regular meats, and least processed, never cooked.  If you notice regular chicken is conspicuously missing, it is because the only available kinds there are all imbued with 12% or more chicken broth. I do not like cooking it for the family. I do not feed her much in beef bones due to her jaw not being powerful enough to par it down or completely eat it. Cows are larger animals and their bones reflect that need to carry such weight.


Lamb shank
Lamb neck slices & beef cuts
Lamb neck slices with turkey neck
Turkey thigh & beef cuts
Full turkey wing
Turkey neck x2 (Commissary ones are huge so I refrigerate what was left and give that at breakfast)
5~cm of beef tongue & cornish hen half
Cornish hen half & big handful of frozen least processed shrimp
Turkey leg
Holidays Only:
Medium Salmon
Rabbit & beef tongue
Rarely ever she is fed pork.


(I do not strictly abide by this format, this what I usually do with her meals, holidays are the more expensive meats.)

Comforting a sick pack member: The CrazyOne

Beloved Elephante

Of course she gets gizzards and stuff, I had to become creative in going about that. I buy the chicken innards from Japanese stores and beef liver at the Commissary. I freeze them, cut up any overly large innards (beef kidneys and liver) and throw them into her dish three times a week. The freezer has helped in getting SuicideGirl to like fish. I started the hard way by giving her a medium fish. I learned to start small and frozen: freshly frozen small fish I bought from a Japanese store, then moved up to Sardines, then once gave her a day too long in the fridge salmon. Froze that fishy and gave it to her; she loved it and was looking for more. When prepping the cornish hens and beef tongue, I found quite by accident, it is best to cut the tongue while it is frozen and the hens while they are still half frozen. I love my knives and lovingly cultivate a beautifully fine edge on all of them. I apologize again for making a few of you who have visited me during this process, uncomfortable or nervous. It is dangerous cooking with a dull knife. Go ahead and laugh, I can take it, but I am serious.



I believe that is all. Raw feeding is a personal decision that many do not agree with, while many others do. It works for us, it is supported by everyone in this family and we find ways to keep it going through our busy life. It is satisfying to our beloved Carnivora as it is satisfying to us when we are complemented on our beautiful grey.
Now if I could just keep her nails cut, I'd be good.