I know there are posts on this topic, so if you are interested please do search, but I just had to post my latest "duh" moment.
I have been feeding my young dog rabbit parts for his whole short life, and he's a lucky boy. As my colony was previously sized to a family of 5 and now feeds me and a single dog, there's a surplus and I've been very casual about storing meat for him. Typically I harvest the liver, hind legs, pelt, and loin for my own use and give the dog everything else. The only parts not used are the bladder and the gallbladder which I discard. Obviously that is far too much food for him to eat all at once, so I tend to joint out the bony parts roughly with pruning shears and lay everything out on a tray to freeze so that I can throw it in a bag and grab out one portion at a time.
The stomach and intestines have always been a problem because they're a huge pile, but there is probably less balanced nutritional value there than in the other parts. They are also messy and smelly. I had been just saving them in a big frozen heap and feeding them outdoors on the weekend. Eeew.
Today I realized that I can cut them very easily while they're frozen, with a big chef knife. Now I can give a small cube of intestines each day and he wolfs it down before it thaws, making it clean to feed and much more balanced for him!
I feel like this is something I should have thought of sooner, but it just occurred to me today because I got the intestines too close on the tray to a fore leg and I had to cut it away and I suddenly realized, hey, wait a minute....
Maybe this will help someone or maybe it will just give you a good laugh! Either way I couldn't help but tell on myself.
I have been feeding my young dog rabbit parts for his whole short life, and he's a lucky boy. As my colony was previously sized to a family of 5 and now feeds me and a single dog, there's a surplus and I've been very casual about storing meat for him. Typically I harvest the liver, hind legs, pelt, and loin for my own use and give the dog everything else. The only parts not used are the bladder and the gallbladder which I discard. Obviously that is far too much food for him to eat all at once, so I tend to joint out the bony parts roughly with pruning shears and lay everything out on a tray to freeze so that I can throw it in a bag and grab out one portion at a time.
The stomach and intestines have always been a problem because they're a huge pile, but there is probably less balanced nutritional value there than in the other parts. They are also messy and smelly. I had been just saving them in a big frozen heap and feeding them outdoors on the weekend. Eeew.
Today I realized that I can cut them very easily while they're frozen, with a big chef knife. Now I can give a small cube of intestines each day and he wolfs it down before it thaws, making it clean to feed and much more balanced for him!
I feel like this is something I should have thought of sooner, but it just occurred to me today because I got the intestines too close on the tray to a fore leg and I had to cut it away and I suddenly realized, hey, wait a minute....
Maybe this will help someone or maybe it will just give you a good laugh! Either way I couldn't help but tell on myself.
