Deer

[Marrowshard]

Okay, the pheasant talk is making me seriously hungry. Hubby deer hunts but doesn't do turkey or pheasant so I end up having to buy it from the local gourmet place. Slow-roasted pheasant is to die for!

We sometimes give our raw deer bones to Oscar, but only under supervision since he has snapped the head clean off the femur before which meant I had to drop what I was doing and go fishing around in his mouth to find it before he swallowed it. I find the rib cages make great busy work for dogs. There's usually enough meat scraps to make it tasty and being forced to negotiate the gaps and such means they have to move it around, scrape their teeth, etc. We also sometimes give the hip (or a half, usually) because the flat surfaces are easier on teeth than the long bones.

~Marrow

 

[musicdeb]

LMAO @ Ruth...I want your neighbor!

 

[Jakesmum]

Found this thread a little late, but does anyone put the bones in the smoker? We have given Jake smoked bones from the pet store, but my hubby is going moose and deer hunting this fall and we were thinking about cutting up and smoking some of the bones ourselves? Any advice on that?

 

[ruthcatrin]

I've never done my own? I've bought the store bought ones on occasion, the dogs love them. I'd worry the deer bones are to fragile, and would shatter/break badly once smoked. Smoking DOES cook the bone, so if it does break badly you'd have long sharp spears of bone....Moose might be heavy enough.....

 

[Marrowshard]

If you cold-smoked instead of hot-smoked maybe, but ruthcatrin's right in that smoking bones makes them more brittle and you might end up with splinters or slivers. A good cold-smoke would be more akin to just drying them and might be the better option.

~Marrow

 

[bubba&bella]

I hunt for anything and everything as it is my favorite thing to do. My past dogs (Rotties) got all kind of deer, squirrel, pheaseant, turkey, rabbit, you name it. All in the dehydrator, unseasoned and loved it as snacks. Also as someone else had mentioned at my hunting camp during deer season it is a givin that everyone who harvests a deer keeps the heart and liver for me for my dogs.

 

[wolfsnaps]

Hi. Just thought I would add my two cents since I feed a lot of deer to my. Dogs. The mastiff eats the whole head all by himself. Sometimes he leaves a couple of teeth but that's about it. I have given him every bone from a deer (even good sized bucks). I always watch my dogs when they eat. If you have a chomper of a dog (you know the type, crazy to chew) I would be very cautious with the femur and hips. If you have a slow and steady meticulous dog like mine, I would say its safe. Dozer knows how to deal with bones. He chews the ends of f and cracks the bone then licks out the marrow. So basically, know your dog's style to determine if they can handle it. Also, I would not suggest smoking bones. I do dehydrate a lot of deer for my dogs and they love it. Do not cure it or add spices though.
I used to be a part time raw feeder. But even then, I never mixed raw with kibble. I had raw days and kibble days. Kibble digests slower because of the carbs and extrusion process which makes raw have to wait around. This can goive bacteria timeto colonize which is not good.
Between my husband and I, we have 8 deer tags this year. We will eat one deer ourselves and the rest will go to the dogs. I am so excited. Plus friends and family will save us their organs...plus processors, and I just wrote to the game commission and it turns out, taking roadkill is legal. So yeah, I hope to be feeding a lot of deer this year lol.

 

[STEVSH]

Just found a fourth pheasant in my freezer! I am now going to put them in the crockpot this weekend with a recipe I've found. May the force be with me.... A crockpot is as close as I'll get to cooking...

 

[ruthcatrin]

good luck!

 

[Marrowshard]

My last pheasant in a slow cooker: whole stick of butter, rubbed all over the bird + sprinkled with sea salt, black pepper, onion powder, and sage. Low heat. Use a baster to reapply butter drippings throughout cooking. I have to use onion powder or hubby won't touch it, but fresh sliced onion will work just as well.

~Marrow