Hunting small game to feed your dog?

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Pale_Rider

Pale_Rider

Member
Feb 16, 2019
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California
My buddy’s farm has more holes in it than overused pantyhose. GS and rabbit EVERYWHERE. He sits out there for an hour and takes no less than 5 (GS or rabbit) at a time. Get bored of small game? No problem, later in the night you can hunt coyotes in the same location. Back to the topic, he takes so much small game he never has to feed his dog “dog food” and he’s one of the finest German shep’s I’ve seen. So there might be something to giving a dog more of a diet consistent with what his ancestors would’ve ate🤷‍♂️


Does anyone else feed small game to their dog(or any other type of pet)?
 
My friend thoroughly checks the meat before cooking and giving it to his dog. He has come across rabbit liver with hardened cyst-like abnormalities. Other than visual assessment of the animal’s behavior and appearance I don’t know what ways you would detect the plague in a squirrel or any other animal for that matter. I just googled it and couldn’t find anything on symptoms of bubonic plague in a squirrel. It would be good info to know
 
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My Jack Russell Terrier, Spaz, loves eating doves. He eats them raw, after removing the feathers himself. At nearly 17 years old, I imagine he knows quite well how he prefers his meals.
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My buddy’s farm has more holes in it than overused pantyhose. GS and rabbit EVERYWHERE. He sits out there for an hour and takes no less than 5 (GS or rabbit) at a time. Get bored of small game? No problem, later in the night you can hunt coyotes in the same location. Back to the topic, he takes so much small game he never has to feed his dog “dog food” and he’s one of the finest German shep’s I’ve seen. So there might be something to giving a dog more of a diet consistent with what his ancestors would’ve ate
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Does anyone else feed small game to their dog(or any other type of pet)?
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bad@$& concept. They are animals, and it is good for them.
 
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It's not so much the cooking of the squirrel that I'm worried about. Its handling them. When I shoot ground squirrels, I just leave them, I don't go anywhere near them. If your friend takes his dog with him when he hunts, he should be extremely careful. The plague is carried by the fleas on the squirrels and they can easily be transferred to his dog. 

California has a wanton waste law. It states that ANY animal you shoot must be picked up and cannot be left in the field/on the ground. You can be fined for this. I've talked to several wardens and they say they will not enforce this law if you are shooting ground squirrels because of the plague. Advise your friend to be careful. Stay safe
 
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When I have a racoon or some rabbits I cook them up for my dogs. Lots of meat on a racoon I even used to eat them myself. As for squirrels I eat most of them myself but the dogs usually get a small portion. I just don't bag enough of them as I'd like too.

All small game meat soaks over night in salt water to kill bacteria and then boiled for an hour and a half before being cooked. This is always done regardless of who will be eating it.
 
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My dog is 100% raw fed, and she's a picture of health. The only thing that I shoot with an airgun that is suitable is rabbit, but there are periods of the year that her diet is 100% rabbit. I've offered her starlings and mynas, but she's turned her nose up at those - and the pigeons I shoot almost all come from places that I don't consider as suitable.

I like to feed whole, with fur on. Obviously I take the guts out, and chop the rabbit up into suitable portions. Having said that, I also eat a lot of rabbit myself, and I when I'm preparing those, pretty much everything that I don't eat goes to the dog. I *do* like to freeze everything for at least 24 hours though, to kill any external parasites. We don't have to worry about the plague in Australia, but there are often fleas, which in turn can lead to worms.

I'm a big believer in raw, whole feeding. To me, wild game is the best possible source. 

Oh, I cut the ears off every rabbit I shoot and keep them in a bag in the freezer as treats. They thaw out in the palm of your hand in about 30 seconds, and my dog absolutely loves them.
 
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The Oregon DFW advises to watch for white patches in rabbit liver, and discard the entire rabbit if you find them, IIRC. I too worry about fleas, on myself as well as the dogs. And once you get them in your carpet, getting them out is a painstaking and often toxic process. By the time you do, they might have already done their damage. It's very common for animals to be riddled with parasites in the wild, internal and external, and things like mange, so I treat everything as infected unless I know for a fact different.
 
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