so im new to hunting and I plan on hunting my first deer this season, ive researched on processing a deer and everything and i see videos and these people would do away with little pieces of meat( like the lower legs and ribs), but my questions is what do you guys do with the extras, leftovers? ive wondered if you can use the extras, like the pieces of fat and extra little meat chunks, and feed to your dog? if so how do you got about doing this? should you cook it first? feed it to them raw? or what other things can you do with leftovers?
I bone out the deer, then I take a hatchet and hack the carcass into small pieces that will fit in grocery bags so I could put them in the freezer. By the third or fourth deer of the season, I didn't have enough room in the freezer so I would just drag the carcass out back and let the dog and chickens fight over it. I always feed it raw. After my lab was done there would only be some bits of jaw bone and chunks of femur and pelvis left. You could fit the leftover bone bits into a mayonnaise jar. She was pretty efficient. She had a tougher time with elk bones. I do the same for my current lab but she's young and doesn't chew up bones like my old girl did.
I throw everything into a scrap bucket while I'm processing the deer. My two labs make pretty short work of most of it. BTW, I feed it to them raw.
Always fed the trimmings to the dogs raw. The carcass I generally bury with a backhoe, I don't want to feed wild dogs or yotes.
I feed it raw as well...usually don't have much left over but every now and then I find some freezer burnt burger buried and the deep freezer. I feed that raw too.
We feed it to our dogs raw. We take the entire carcass and lay it by the kennel. When the dogs are out they can munch away at their leisure. Any bone they can't break we will smash with and hammer and they can finish it off. 3-4 full grown labs can eat the entire carcass in less then 10 days. It's good for them, it's what they are supposed to eat.
When I fed my elk trimmings to my dog raw, I came home to a house covered in dog crap. Never "doo-ing" that again. The smell was horrific.
feed it to them raw and clean off as much gristle and fat as possible. Don't use any meat that's been in contact with brain or spinal fluids and no weight bearing bones as they are too hard for most dogs.
Never feed a cooked bone to a dog. Once they are cooked they become brittle and will splinter. This will result in a nice vet bill if you like your dog. Made that mistake once.
