Preparing Birds for Raw Feeding Dogs

[chisNchickens]

Okay, may be silly questions so I will apologize in advance. I hate scalding/plucking.
Is it absolutely necessary immediately after killing the bird? Or can I kill, let it sit and go out of rigor and then scald/pluck? Would I need to scald or would the skin naturally loosen after rigor? Can I put it in the freezer for a later plucking? This is for dogs remember, so they don't need to be pretty. I am mostly processing very young/small birds for my chihuahuas.
Raw feeders - any ideas and techniques would be appreciated! I recently began producing my own chickens for my dogs and want to go the easiest route possible, of course.

Does anyone feed sans gutting? Just feed the whole plucked bird?

Thanks!!


Note: Please do not post opinions regarding feeding raw vs. kibble...I only want ideas on processing.

 

[EricaD]

We have our dogs on a raw diet also - they've never been healthier!

Have you considered skinning the chickens for them? No need to pluck! The important component of a raw diet is the meat and bones - don't think you need the skin.

As for gutting, I would think you want to remove intestines and any other 'yuck" parts, but could leave the other organs intact? Not sure about that one.

 

[chisNchickens]

You know that might be a better option. The skin on fresh/home grown bird is completely different than store bought. I am having a hard time getting a few of mine to eat fresh chicken, I assume because they are hooked on the flavor enhancers.

Thanks for the idea...duh! They don't like the fresh skin anyway.

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

In theory, I guess you could feed your dogs the whole chicken, without doing anything to it. After all, wild dogs would pull the feathers off and eat the eddible parts and leave the rest. On the other hand, my cats kill birds and mice and eat parts of them and leave other parts sitting on my front door step, and it's pretty nasty to have to clean up. Also, if we're talking chiuahauas, you're not going to be throwing them a whole bird anyway. I think I'd do the scalding and plucking, but not go overboard on all the plucking. You know how you remove about 90% of the feathers in the first few minutes and then it takes twice as long to do the final 10%? I'd leave that final 10% alone and not worry about it.

 

[chisNchickens]

Thanks Hummingbird. I do need to remove feathers, my dogs and birds roam the same land I don't want these vicious little chis attacking live birds;-) Seriously though, I am having a hard enough time getting them to eat fresh (though rested) bird. If I left the feathers on these dogs would starve.
Also, I am feeding a half of a bird to each dog. They are young birds, my dogs can easily eat the bone of young birds.
I tried skinning for the first time last night. My mistake was skinning older birds. Unbelievably difficult! Tomorrow I will try the young ones and hopefully this will be much easier!