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I’m not sure if I mentioned this before, but we raw feed. We’ve been raw feeding for a little less than a year and are in no way experts.
This post is not meant to persuade you to raw feed. If it’s something you’re interested in learning more about, I can help find you resources, but I really want to talk about the containers we use for raw feeding.
I will talk a little about what raw feeding is, why we raw feed, etc., because it plays a significant role in why we use these containers, but I also want to cover these awesome containers we use to store our meat in.
If you aren’t interested in the raw feeding information, feel free to scroll down to the bottom 😉
What is raw feeding?
We provide uncooked meat, organs, bones, vegetables, fruit, eggs, etc. to our dogs to support a balanced raw/whole food diet.
Why??
Many years ago, Bailey’s breeder started raw feeding. I saw her raise several litters on a raw diet. I was interested at the time, but to be honest, it seemed like a lot of work and very overwhelming and kinda gross. 😝
A little less than a year ago we made a decision to bring 2 new puppies into our lives because our current dogs were almost 12. We reached out to two breeders we know. One was Bailey’s breeder. Neither had litters at the time, but we kept in touch. Eventually, both breeders were expecting litters within weeks of each other.
Bailey’s breeder was expecting to raw feed the new litter. I told her that I wasn’t sure about raw feeding, but I wasn’t against it either. She provided me with a lot of resources and information about raw feeding.
Jeff and I discussed it A LOT. We watched as Remy grew and started eating raw food. We saw him eat his first chicken bone. While it was still a little gross, it was also incredibly natural looking. It was a lot different watching him eat raw vs kibble.
Jeff and I had a lot of feeding challenges with Ella and Bailey over the years. Ella would throw up almost any kibble we fed her. Bailey wouldn’t throw up, but he was very gassy and his stomach often made lots of noises. Remembering all our issues trying to find a single food two dogs could both eat, we decided to give the raw feeding a try.
The First Raw Feeding
OMG! I was so scared! It was like having a baby all over again and not knowing if they were eating enough or the right foods. Was I doing the right thing or was I going to permanently hurt them?? All normal parenting concerns 🙂
The first week feeding Remy was surprisingly easy. I cut up his meat, we fed him until he was full, and that was it. It was so simple that I felt like I must be doing something wrong. Remy’s breeder was super helpful and supportive and ensured me I was doing everything right. It was great having her as a resource!! 🙂
6 weeks later Leo joined Remy and took to raw feeding naturally. He was a lot smaller than Remy when we got him, but even he was able to each small pieces of chicken with bone by 9 weeks. We now had two puppies raw feeding.
A few months later we unexpectedly lost Bailey. I’m not going to write more about it (I don’t feel like crying today), but you can read about it here in my post on ASEA and emotions. In my heart, I felt his diet contributed to his health issue and his unexpected passing.
This doubled my resolve to raw feed the puppies. Plus, by the time we lost Bailey, we had gotten use to the raw feeding and it was undeniably easy.
How?
We buy our raw meat and freeze it. I’ve learned over time how much food our two puppies go through and make sure to have enough in the freezer. We thaw what we need and cut it to edible sizes for the pups. Then we store the thawed food in the stainless steel steam table pans.
The Pans!
These pans are the perfect size. Each pan holds one 10 lb bag of thawed chicken quarters. The bags of chicken we buy happen to come in 10 lb bags 🙂 What a coincidence!
The pans fit on the bottom shelf of our fridge and are narrow enough to leave plenty of additional room for other food. In fact, we can put both pans side by side on the shelf and still have half a shelf. My fridge is close to 30 sq feet, so I can also fit one horizontal and one perpendicular behind it. If your fridge is smaller, this might not work.
We’ve been using the same two pans for about a year now and they don’t show any significant wear and tear. The lids fit well and are a must for storing the chicken. Plus they’re easy to clean.
My only critique is that I wish they were a tad thicker. They are thin enough that if I’m not careful I can give myself a paper-like cut while cleaning them. I’ve only done that once or twice in the past year and I think this is more due to my klutziness than the quality of the pans 😉
You can use the link below to buy the pans on Amazon. Using this link doesn’t increase your cost, but it does help support my site. Happy shopping!
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