# Organizational raw question...



## tuckersmom20 (Dec 12, 2010)

So....

I'm stuck in this raw rut.. Lol.

I've been taking one bag of a certain protein... These past few days the choice was turkey necks.
I take on bag out, thaw it and they eat it till its gone...
In the past I would thaw out many proteins, mix meals... But living situation has changed and not much space to do this.

But.... Who takes out multiple proteins to feed?
I have a big bag of chicken backs, huge bag o chicken hearts.... And I think the par that makes me not thaw them.... Is there's no much in the bag... They'll go stinky before I feed all.
Duke won't eat stinky food.

How do u guys do it?


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## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

We usually feed one protein source per meal. Everything we have is portioned into daily bins or bags. Occasionally I'll mix proteins in which case I'll get out several small packages. This mixing usually happens when I get a score off of CL or something.


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## Liz (Sep 27, 2010)

We package a protein in a large container/bag - turkey necks, pork necks, chicken quarters and I use yogurt containers for heart and organ. I usually take a bag of pork necks out and a container of heart and mix for a couple of days. Each is about a day's worth of so so two last two days. The shelties get more mixed meals because they get the left over tidbit all thrown together.


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## Scarlett_O' (May 19, 2011)

Liz said:


> We package a protein in a large container/bag - turkey necks, pork necks, chicken quarters and I use yogurt containers for heart and organ. I usually take a bag of pork necks out and a container of heart and mix for a couple of days. Each is about a day's worth of so so two last two days. The shelties get more mixed meals because they get the left over tidbit all thrown together.


This is pretty much exactly how we do it!:thumb:
Although we use quart or gallon sized ziplocks instead of containers, dont have enough of those!LOL
We feed around 10pounds a day...so I try to pull out between 10 and 20 pounds, that way I can have a day prepped ahead of time, many times its mixed proteins, some times turkey/pork necks or chicken leg quarters with turkey/pork hearts, lamb lung, turkey gizzards, some times just whole chickens or bone in but meat heavy chunks of pork/lamb/goat/etc. 
However this will be changing soon as we are going to start separating each animal's meals into daily portions so that Jesse can start feeding them once the baby is here. So they will more then likely be getting a lot of mixed meals....which they all love! :wink:


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## wolfsnaps88 (Jan 2, 2012)

I almost always feed multiple proteins. Certain things I have to break down into smaller portions. Example: if I get a case of beef heart, its this huge frozen block so I HAVE to defrost it. Then, I bag up hearts. Each bag probably has a couple of days worth in each one. Then I refreeze. I also do this with tripe and any other large thing I get so that way its more manageable. So I have these bags of different things in the freezer and I grab a couple and defrost in the crisper of my fridge (sorry veggies...you have to go on a shelf).

When I get a deer, I break it down into body parts. I cut off legs, head, spine, etc. Then I take a body part out to defrost and break it down further so I can easily add venison to their meals. Sometimes when I have something large to offer, they only get one protein (like, say, a pig head or something).
I have posted loads of pics of what I am talking about. It works for me. I spend maybe 10-15 minutes a day portioning instead of hours a month. Its whatever works for you. If feeding only one protein at a time works better, then do that. I don't think either way is wrong. 

I just like offering multiple things at dinner time. I think my dogs appreciate it and I can see which things they like better. Tripe and venison seem to be what my guys always go for first....usually.


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## twotonelover (Jan 10, 2011)

I have everything in my freezer portioned by protein type. Sometimes I grab a couple things from different bags, but normally I feed one protein source for a day or two and then switch to another. 

When I get large quantities of things, I "flash freeze" them separately on baking trays before I put them into bags for storage. That way they don't stick together, so I can just grab what I need without thawing out a WHOLE bag of...whatever haha


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## tuckersmom20 (Dec 12, 2010)

Totally understand flash freezing!

It's the only way to deal with chicken quarters, chicken feet and other small things.

I used to have a "thaw day", thaw a few bags out, portion and refreeze....but things got so busy that thaw day turned into no day.
I need to get back to that and making organ muffins. 

I feel bad that they get one protein, but right it's all I can do. 
My freezer is at my moms and I'm not living there right now... So I have about two weeks worth of food with me.
They haven't had offal in about 2 weeks which isn't usual for them.


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## GoingPostal (Sep 5, 2011)

Everyday is variety around here usually, Jersey can't handle a full day of boneless meat, Nero can't handle a whole day of bone in. Ripley is still being switched so gets turkey or chicken every day plus a little of a new meat. The ferrets and cat get proteins/meals the dogs don't. So I have 3-5 proteins out almost every day, like for tomorrow I have out a turkey neck, a grouse, some organ meats and a tiny amount of leftover pork heart I'm trying to use up for the dogs, plus rabbit for the smaller animals. I kind of enjoy the days they all get chicken and I just chop a whole one up. All of my meats are in 4 pound sections max and that's usually something like beef heart so we'll feed it as half the meal for two days and refreeze any we aren't going to use in that time.


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## shellbell (Sep 24, 2011)

I used to be so anal about portioning things out and having only enough for certain meals out at a time. Now things just get portioned by shoving as much of something as I can into a gallon or quart sized ziploc bag, and then it goes in the freezer. And I just pull a few bags out at a time. I just always make sure to have something bone-in and some type of organ available to feed, and then everything else is just random proteins as I pull them out of the freezer.


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## kathylcsw (Jul 31, 2011)

I typically have 2-4 proteins thawed and ready to go. Right now they are getting chicken thigh for bone; beef heart, deer, and pork butt for muscle meat; and beef heart and kidney for organs. They had fish Sunday and will have an egg one night too.


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## Sprocket (Oct 4, 2011)

I freeze everything in gallon bags. Then I pull various things daily to fill the holes in my 2 larger containers in the fridge.


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## Coffee (Sep 3, 2012)

Am I the only one who does it the way I do? :wink:

Everything is freezed in meal sized portions here. He eats approx 400gr per meal (twice a day) and some things get fed together to minimise poo issues, like heart will be fed with a chicken carcass and liver is fed with chicken necks so those portions are 200gr each for heart and carcass and 300gr/100gr for chicken necks and liver. 

Over 3 months into raw and I still do a weekly menu each week or I'd forget what I've fed and what needs to be fed (ie liver). Breakfast is taken out of the freezer before we go to bed so is defrosted for the morning and then dinner is taken out at breakfast time, left to defrost and then popped into the fridge as soon as it's defrosted, ready for dinner.

Reading that back it sounds like I make a lot of work for myself lol but it's not... I'm in a good routine now :wink: and having only 1 dog to feed definitely helps!


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## Ania's Mommy (Feb 8, 2009)

We package everything (except for organs) in containers that hold 3-4 days worth of food (we're a one dog house). Since I'm usually only dealing with packaging one protein at a time, each container only holds one kind. We package organs in 1 meal size ziplock bags (we feed one meal of just organs every week or so).

Ideally, I like to have two containers in the fridge at a time; one with muscle meat, and one with bony meat. Let's call the muscle meat container #1 and the bony meat container #2. Sample feeding proceeds as follows:

Sunday - #1
Monday - #1
Tuesday - #2
Wednesday - #1
Thursday - #2
Friday - #1
Saturday - #2
Sunday - Organs
Monday - #3 (new container 'o muscle meat)
Tuesday - #2
Wednesday - #3
Etc. 

So, Ania really only gets 3-4 different proteins per week. Variety over time is what's key. One week is short in the scheme of things.

I really only like to feed maybe 3 bony meals per week max so the plan can and does change around (10% is really a small percentage of overall diet. We tend to loose sight of that when we load up on bones during the initial transition. I know I did. Think of 10 pennies in a pile of 100 pennies. 10% is small. Know thy dog. In most cases, I would suggest feeding as little bone as you can to keep poo's solid. You will most likely be right around 10%).


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## Sprocket (Oct 4, 2011)

Coffee said:


> Am I the only one who does it the way I do? :wink:
> 
> Everything is freezed in meal sized portions here. He eats approx 400gr per meal (twice a day) and some things get fed together to minimise poo issues, like heart will be fed with a chicken carcass and liver is fed with chicken necks so those portions are 200gr each for heart and carcass and 300gr/100gr for chicken necks and liver.
> 
> ...


I did this for a few months in the beginning.


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## Liz (Sep 27, 2010)

I think it is great to be able to package individual meals but with 5 - 8 dogs at a time it is impossible here.


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## Sprocket (Oct 4, 2011)

Liz said:


> I think it is great to be able to package individual meals but with 5 - 8 dogs at a time it is impossible here.


Yup! I only have 3 and I got sick of it. I used too many bags, and when I got more variety of meats, I couldn't add them into their meals because they already had them made up!. It was nice in the beginning when they were transitioning but now since they get 90% venison, it would be rather redundant. It is easier now to just keep my 2 big containers to make up meals from and pull different bags every few days.

For what its worth, these are the containers I use right now. I need heavier duty ones but these were freebies and I love free stuff.


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## twoisplenty (Nov 12, 2008)

We have 3 chest freezers out in the garage for our crew of 5. One holds poultry, the other red meats and the 3rd holds fish and organs. Most of our stuff is packed into Large Ziploc freezer bags, usually 5 pieces for 5 dogs  (5 legs, 5 necks, 5lbs of heart etc etc) We have gone to feeding one meal per day and its always in the afternoon/dinner time so the night before I pull out what I want to thaw for the next day. I usually mix 2 proteins with one having bone and the other being a muscle meat ( Chicken leg with beef heart or Turkey neck with tripe etc etc)


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## JLeigh (Jul 15, 2012)

She gets mixed proteins for every meal. Every 2 weeks I go out and buy enough food for two weeks and then my husband and I cut everything up into chunks. Then I weigh it out and use a 1-quart ziplock bag for each day of food. It takes us about 45 mins every two weeks, so that's not too bad.


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## Neeko (Aug 11, 2010)

I regularly do mixed proteins. Faolan is now eating the same as Neeko and Bruce, just slightly smaller organ portions. He actually eats just as much as them. This morning, they all had a couple goat hearts for breakfast. For dinner tonight, they all had a chicken leg quarter, duck hearts, and beef liver. Last night they had pork tongue and sheep heart.

I get 10-20 lb cases of goat, sheep, lamb, pork and beef hearts, which is the majority of meaty meat I feed. I break them down into quart and gallon ziplocks, and pull out a few bags daily. I bag chicken quarters and duck backs three to a bag.

I feed organs frozen, so I individually freeze them on a parchment lined cookie sheet, than put them in a ziploc in the freezer of my thawing fridge. I also do this with duck necks, when I get them, to fit more in each bag.


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## _unoriginal (Apr 8, 2012)

Bentley typically gets at least 2 proteins per day (one meal/day). I have everything frozen in mostly 1 gallon storage bags. When I thaw, I take out enough food for a few days to a week depending on what I grab. Then I have a cake box with a lid that holds all of my thawing/thawed food.










This is a pork neck, beef heart, and a chicken quarter. Once thawed, I can cut up the neck and quarter and feed them however I'm feeling that day. Looking at this, I could probably squeeze 3-4 meals out of this. But I usually need at least a day to thaw. I feed it over the course of the week until it's low or empty or when I just have room and then I add more.

My system has been working wonderfully since I started using his box back in May or so. The bags leak and and I've had to take apart the fridge one too many times to clean up blood spills. Also, this box fits easily in my fridge without taking up too much space. It sits on a shelf that was not using often in the past due to the limited space on it.


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## lauren43 (Feb 6, 2011)

kathylcsw said:


> I typically have 2-4 proteins thawed and ready to go. Right now they are getting chicken thigh for bone; beef heart, deer, and pork butt for muscle meat; and beef heart and kidney for organs. They had fish Sunday and will have an egg one night too.



I feed beef heart as a muscle.

All Avery's food is portioned out into quart ziplock bags. I actually still weigh everything and I've been at it for 2 years but I have to know how much he's eating because he was thin for a while there. Anyhow right now each bag has just over 1 lb of one protein. Right now it goes: beef heart, venison, chicken and repeat. I'm still going to try to get him to eat rabbit (as I bought 50lbs of it) and I have to eventually pick up some pork. For the first time in 2 years I'm running low on organ meat!!! So I need to thaw and portion what I have left and then get a hold of some kidney..

All of my organ meat (kidney and liver)gets portioned into ice cube trays frozen then put in freezer bags..


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## SunRaven01 (Oct 6, 2012)

I have two dogs here, and purely by accident one eats exactly half as much as the other. How's that for convenient? I freeze everything in meal sized portions for the big one, and the little one just gets half. It's mainly for my husband's convenience, so that he can feed the dogs when I can't; he knows one muscle meat / organ meal and one raw meaty bone meal per day.










That's what my freezer looked like about a month ago; I've since replaced all the ziplock baggies with reusable plastic containers large enough to hold either two turkey drumsticks or one turkey thigh; a whole chicken leg quarter also fits. My favorite day of the month is the day after picking up our dog food, because the freezer is stuffed to the gills and neat and organized.


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## Neeko (Aug 11, 2010)

SunRaven01 said:


> I have two dogs here, and purely by accident one eats exactly half as much as the other. How's that for convenient? I freeze everything in meal sized portions for the big one, and the little one just gets half. It's mainly for my husband's convenience, so that he can feed the dogs when I can't; he knows one muscle meat / organ meal and one raw meaty bone meal per day.
> 
> 
> 
> ...


You are the Our Life + Dogs blogger! I LOVE your blog. 

I saw this post, and thought, "That photo looks familiar to me..."

Welcome to DFC!!


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## SunRaven01 (Oct 6, 2012)

Whoa, someone who reads my blog? I may die of shock!  I'm so glad you like the blog!


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## Maedusa (Sep 25, 2012)

I go to the market and buy everything fresh:
beef hearts, beef kidney, beef liver, beef testicals, turkey necks, turkey backs, chicken backs. Its usually 5-10-12kg purchase. 
I cut everything to smaller pieces (hearts to fist-size, organs smaller, chicken backs in halves, and turkey necks in halves or thirds. I feed turkey backs whole.). I mix everything up in one big bowl, and then just randomly pack meat in small bags (around 0,5kg per bag/meal).
I also have a separate bag of frozen beef bones (cut up hip bone atm).


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## creek817 (Feb 18, 2012)

I pretty much try to portion everything into meal sized portions when I get it, because thawing and refreezing is a pain. I rarely remember to defrost ahead of time, and Dobby likes things frozen anyway, so it's really easy if I can just grab a ziploc bag out of the freezer and give it to him. His organs are a week's worth in a ziploc bag, he can have a whole organ meal, so he gets one of those once a week. lamb hearts are one day's worth, so they go in individual bags. When I get something big, I get out the scale and hack it up into close to meal sized portions and label and bag it. The exception is tripe - I got 10kg of it (ground), so portioned it out into plastic containers which are each about two days worth of food, but if he needs anything added (ACV, garlic), I mix it with a little bit of tripe every day or he won't eat it.

I kind of think I need a new system. #1 - I'm using a lot of ziploc bags, even though I can reuse them, it's still probably not a good plan long term. #2 - most things have bene getting freezer burned, which I know doesn't matter, but makes me think there could be a better way of doing it. #3, I would like to start giving him giant chunks for a better teeth cleaning, since he self regulates anyway, so I might stop cutting up things like pork shoulder and anything else big. I don't know.

On the plus side, when I go away anywhere, or if I have to be away overnight unexpectedly, it's really easy to ring my neighbor and say "can you please just grab one bag out of the freezer and feed it to Dobby?". So easy for Graham to do when I'm not home. So, I probably will keep individually packaging at least some meals, mayve just the things that are already portion sized, like lamb hearts and turkey necks....


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## kathylcsw (Jul 31, 2011)

lauren43 said:


> I feed beef heart as a muscle.
> 
> All Avery's food is portioned out into quart ziplock bags. I actually still weigh everything and I've been at it for 2 years but I have to know how much he's eating because he was thin for a while there. Anyhow right now each bag has just over 1 lb of one protein. Right now it goes: beef heart, venison, chicken and repeat. I'm still going to try to get him to eat rabbit (as I bought 50lbs of it) and I have to eventually pick up some pork. For the first time in 2 years I'm running low on organ meat!!! So I need to thaw and portion what I have left and then get a hold of some kidney..
> 
> All of my organ meat (kidney and liver)gets portioned into ice cube trays frozen then put in freezer bags..


I meant beef LIVER and kidney. I also feed heart as a muscle. I must not have bothered to re-read my post before I posted it!


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## EckoMac (Jun 1, 2012)

I do one big shop per month, I shoot for multiple proteins, or whatever is on sale. Portion what I find and drop it in the freezer. I have bone and meat, and organ and meat meals. I pull one of each every morning. He gets bone and meat for breakfast, and organ and meat for dinner. He gets whatever I grab. Most of it is chicken, but if I find it on sale, or get a call from my CL add I can stock up on other proteins. Going to Ken's this weekend for Rabbit and braiiiiins. My GF calls him zombie dog when he grubs on brains. LOL!
I don't think I really have a "system" per se, but what I'm doing seems to work. Ecko poops solid almost all of the time, and aside from being chubby now, he is looking better then he ever has.


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## Neeko (Aug 11, 2010)

EckoMac said:


> I do one big shop per month, I shoot for multiple proteins, or whatever is on sale. Portion what I find and drop it in the freezer. I have bone and meat, and organ and meat meals. I pull one of each every morning. He gets bone and meat for breakfast, and organ and meat for dinner. He gets whatever I grab. Most of it is chicken, but if I find it on sale, or get a call from my CL add I can stock up on other proteins. Going to Ken's this weekend for Rabbit and braiiiiins. My GF calls him zombie dog when he grubs on brains. LOL!
> I don't think I really have a "system" per se, but what I'm doing seems to work. Ecko poops solid almost all of the time, and aside from being chubby now, he is looking better then he ever has.


I now have Plants Vs Zombies on my braaaiiiinnn.


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## xchairity_casex (Oct 8, 2011)

when i get a box/ bag of meat i empty it all into the sink if its not pre-packaged and just grab handfuls to stuff into baggies then toss those into my freezer, i never portion anything they get whatever i grab, though i try to make sure Cesar gets a bone-in every meal due to him needing alot of bone to keep evrything "solid"

and organs are kept in the original package in OUR freezer 9not the dogs freezer) so when i need to feed organ i can grab it let it slightly thaw enough to cut off a hunk r grab pieces to add then toss it back into the freezer.


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