# cutting whole prey



## Kayota (Jul 21, 2012)

I don't think I can chop up another duck, guys. I can't. I don't want to. I wish I hadn't bought those.

edit: not to mention Roxie keeps turning her nose up at the scraps and I bet she won't even like it and all this will be for nothing.


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## Tobi (Mar 18, 2011)

Kayota said:


> I don't think I can chop up another duck, guys. I can't. I don't want to. I wish I hadn't bought those.
> 
> edit: not to mention Roxie keeps turning her nose up at the scraps and I bet she won't even like it and all this will be for nothing.


You can do it! just think of how much happier she is because she's healthier because of all your hard work! :thumb: Tough love has become my friend, in fact i love letting him go hungry and winning the next day when he walks in there and eats everything he was given from the previous day :lol:


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## Kayota (Jul 21, 2012)

These ducks were gassed rather than shot and I'm thinking there might be something about them like the smell that means she won't touch them.


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## wolfsnaps88 (Jan 2, 2012)

In order for me to afford to feed my three a well rounded raw diet, I have to get my hands dirty. In fact, just this morning I was hacking up a lung set complete with trachea and gullet alongside a deer leg. My kitchen counter was this bizarre butcher/slaughter/horror house. What I have found is that the more you do it, the easier it gets. You get desensitized to "yucky" stuff and begin to know what to expect as far as smell and texture...and just weird creepiness. So KEEP doing it and it will get easier. As far as your dog goes...tough love. Waste not want not. Keep offering it to your dog until he eats it or it spoils. Of course, the choice is your as to whether you want to feed something your dog hates. Give him time to aqcuire a ataste for it before giving up. If, after a while, he still turns his nose up at it, he may just not like it. But just like a little kid, you won't know you don't like something unless you try it.


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## Kayota (Jul 21, 2012)

Do you think the duck having been gassed might be a problem in any way?

EDIT: Also I basically just cut the whole body into quarters, can I feed it the way it is intestines and all? Is it okay to feed her the intestines?


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## wolfsnaps88 (Jan 2, 2012)

I don't know about the gassing. They use co2 so I don't think that would affect smell too much but I am not sure. personally id only feed whole prey with intestines intact only after freezing for a few weeks first.


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## Sprocket (Oct 4, 2011)

They gas ducks? I had no idea.


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## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

It took me a while to get used to butchering myself. It's still difficult sometimes but I have seen such an improvement in my dogs in the past year because of it. It's just something we have to do now for the girls. But don't feel bad if you just can't. Not everyone can do it for their own personal reasons. 

That said i have had horrible luck with duck. None or my dogs really like it at all....it may just be that your dog doesn't like duck.


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## shellbell (Sep 24, 2011)

Well, I spent my past Saturday morning cutting up an entire deer that had been sitting in the freezer since last February...I'd much rather deal with a duck, LOL! And it is almost deer season again, so I am sure I will be getting lots more workouts, or at least I hope so.....


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## Makovach (Jan 24, 2012)

Am I odd because I enjoy butchering and dismantleing? I can't kill them, but if its dead and its dog food, I enjoy the biology of it all.


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## Kayota (Jul 21, 2012)

They've been frozen for ages so that's no problem. Just now getting around to butchering them, though I had the one today already skinned. The skinning is nothing but the guts really freaked me out for some reason. I like butchering too though otherwise so it's just another thing to get used to I think 

Sprocket, I don't know where these ducks came from originally but they were used for retrieving trials after being gassed and then sold to me. From one dog to another!


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## Sprocket (Oct 4, 2011)

Kayota said:


> They've been frozen for ages so that's no problem. Just now getting around to butchering them, though I had the one today already skinned. The skinning is nothing but the guts really freaked me out for some reason. I like butchering too though otherwise so it's just another thing to get used to I think
> 
> Sprocket, I don't know where these ducks came from originally but they were used for retrieving trials after being gassed and then sold to me. From one dog to another!


That makes sense. I recall seeing hundreds of ducks at the last trial I was at. 


I am with Machvach (sp?) LOL. I enjoy butchering and processing. Ducks do stink quite a bit though.


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## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

I enjoy it as well....But it took awhile


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## Kayota (Jul 21, 2012)

Wow here I thought the smelly ducks were weird but apparently that's normal. I was all worried lol!


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## shellbell (Sep 24, 2011)

I don't mind butchering, it is just a workout and I usually end up with a sore back after dealing with a deer. Although this last go around with a deer I did not, so maybe my muscles are getting used to it, LOL. It is a great feeling of accomplishment when all is said and done and cleaned up.


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## Chocx2 (Nov 16, 2009)

Sometimes those ducks smell so bad the dogs won't pick them up. I have ducks in my freezer that I have had for about two years, I use them for training and refreeze.


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## pogo (Aug 28, 2011)

I right like getting to butcher things  .................


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## wolfsnaps88 (Jan 2, 2012)

We are a rare breed...lol. 

I look at things differently now. 

You see a roadkill deer on the side of the road...disgusting right? I see a possible opportunity.
You see a cute little lamb frolicking in a field. I see a couple of great meals on the hoof. 


I have...changed. LMAO


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## Kayota (Jul 21, 2012)

I couldn't handle the whole ducks any more between the guts and the blood and the smell and ended up tossing them this morn as I had no one to give them to.. I might try again when I've been at raw longer. I feel bad about tossing all that food but I just couldn't stomach it. I got some chicken and turkey and beef liver to replace what I got rid of, mostly on sale. Gonna post an ad for scraps when I have more room again. But no more whole prey... I can't do it.


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## HappyPuppy (Sep 26, 2011)

Some parts are pretty gross but I actually enjoy the anatomy lesson of cutting things up. I do it in spurts, tho - not weekly. Just cut up 2 store bought chix and a pork shoulder last nite. I have to say that when Ruby would not eat the 1/2 pig head I got, I cut it up and THAT was so gross, DH (my usual gross-handler) left the kitchen! LOL The jaw bone was somehow connected by a tendon or something to the eyeball and every time I moved the jaw, the freaking eye would move - yuk! I've never dealt with (fresh) non-store-bought parts or wholes so I can imagine those are 'more' of everything to deal with... I would love the experience (just once!) of cutting up a whole deer/sheep carcass.... DH's family raised meat/fur rabbits YEARS ago but I don't think we/(I) could do the whole process of it now.


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## Sprocket (Oct 4, 2011)

wolfsnaps88 said:


> We are a rare breed...lol.
> 
> I look at things differently now.
> 
> ...


ugh I drove by 2 perfectly good looking deer on the side of the road the other day. They were about 100 yards apart! Unfortunately it was broad day light and my passenger would have not approved


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## naturalfeddogs (Jan 6, 2011)

Sprocket said:


> ugh I drove by 2 perfectly good looking deer on the side of the road the other day. They were about 100 yards apart! Unfortunately it was broad day light and my passenger would have not approved



Oops....I lost control of the wheel for just a second, sorry. Dang, let me get those two deer off the side of the road before they are scatterd everywhere. We don't want them to cause another accident either. LOL!!


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## Kayota (Jul 21, 2012)

@HappyPuppy: The biggest difference I noticed was the amount of blood and of course there were more guts to deal with. Store bought stuff really doesn't bother me at all, I just bought a whole chicken the other day. But the amount of blood and guts of the ducks was just too much... I still want to puke thinking about it.


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