Day One, chicken wings and a chicken liver

After ordering and reading a couple of classic Raw Dog Food books, I decided that today was the day to make the switch. That meant yesterday, which was Sunday, I had to locate all that cheap, wholesome meat. Market Basket turned out to be the most promising with the exception of chicken wings. Ever since bars started serving hot wings the price of those scrap parts is on par with breasts - almost.

Ruby weighs about 57 pounds. She's probably a little on the light side for her height and length but I'm so afraid of fat dogs I'm erring on the lean. I wonder why I don't apply this philosophy to myself? Doing the dog bone math about 2% of her weight should determine the amount of meat she gets per day. Rounding up to 60 pounds as ideal, I get about 1.2 pounds of raw food. I took a couple of big chicken wings (really composed of two parts, the round leg bone looking section which I tend to go for in the appetizer pile and that other flat section - further out on the tip of the wing.

I dropped them in her stainless steel dog dish where last night's chicken liver brought back in from the cold still clung. I projected that Ruby was excited. She did the first thing one of the dog books suggested, she dragged it out of the dish and dropped it on her dog bed. I decided that I should observe and modify instead of intervene. She got the other wing out of the dish and dropped that on the bed near the first. Probably thinking it might go away while she was working on number one. There was some hesitation in the approached.  Then she licked them worshipfully. This was a classic bone maneuver. I don't think she thought it was food yet. She got the nerve to put one in her mouth and gum it, but it was kind of wedged in her mouth so the flappy part was hanging out. She must have figured out it wouldn't fit this way, so she dropped it back on the bed. Then she did the second thing one of the dog books warned about. She started to bury them both in the dog bed cover. I intervened. I uncovered them. She covered them. I uncovered them. Then she must have sensed a stalemate. I went up to get coffee and heard some crunching sounds. Movement. I came back to the bed and only saw a small part of one of the drumstick sections left. I looked around for the rest in the folds of the blanket. Nothing. That was a little quick I thought. I searched again through the cover and under the parrot cage until I realized that I was behaving like a dog hunting after the spot where the balloon just burst. Nothing there. Gone. In the gullet now. Time to wait for the poop, or the vet bill.

I think this is her full day meal. I'll let this pass through the system for good measure.