Raw question

[theretohere]

OK, I see that a lot of the people here feed raw. I have an 8 week old puppy.
This weekend my husband is going bear hunting. If he shoots a bear- can I feed the dog all the raw bear meat? Obviously not all in one sitting.
Is bear meat safe? Is most other wild game?

[Ola_]

I have not fed bear myself, but the general rule as I understand it is to feed herbivores only. So based on that, I probably wouldn't, but you may want to do some research on that. I'm not sure why but one guess would be that is has to do with disease transmission?

[angie7]

I think it would be okay but I would def. freeze it for at least 2 weeks to make sure it kills all the worms and such that the bear might have. I would really want the organs. That's what I get from deer and turkey hunters around here. They just throw them away anyways so this way, they get used.

[theretohere]

Originally Posted by angie7

I think it would be okay but I would def. freeze it for at least 2 weeks to make sure it kills all the worms and such that the bear might have. I would really want the organs. That's what I get from deer and turkey hunters around here. They just throw them away anyways so this way, they get used.

Should I freeze the organs for 2 weeks, too? Yeah, he's planning to harvest a deer just for the puppy come deer season. We'll save all the deer organs, too!

[angie7]

Originally Posted by theretohere

Should I freeze the organs for 2 weeks, too? Yeah, he's planning to harvest a deer just for the puppy come deer season. We'll save all the deer organs, too!

Yes. Any and all wild caught meat should be froze for at least 2 weeks.

[theretohere]

Originally Posted by angie7

Yes. Any and all wild caught meat should be froze for at least 2 weeks.

Herbivores, too? Sorry for the silly questions!

[PaulaJoAnne]

Gracious!!! Bear meat is some of the finest red meat out there!
Its all we eat now. Very tender and sweet!
I find it to be even better then good grassfed beef!

[theretohere]

Originally Posted by PaulaJoAnne

Gracious!!! Bear meat is some of the finest red meat out there!
Its all we eat now. Very tender and sweet!
I find it to be even better then good grassfed beef!

Really? I've always found it kind of greasy. I'm squeamish about some types of game, though.

[angie7]

Originally Posted by theretohere

Herbivores, too? Sorry for the silly questions!

I would, yes. Bears don't only eat plants and berries, they will also eat meat if they come across any (fish, etc.) . Plus you can get worms from other type of animals besides meat eaters, I'm thinking mosquitoes, certain types of flies, etc.

[Sailor]

Definitely freeze for two weeks. We do this with deer meat. We've never had a chance to sample bear, and it's not something I'd give my dog on a daily basis (mainly because it would be too expensive for us to get). But, I'd let him have some.

[Girl In The Fire]

I would not feed raw bear, freezing for two weeks is NOT a guarantee it will kill any and all parasites. http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5327a2.htm


This is what I was looking for http://cnia.inta.gob.ar/helminto/tri...0a%20black.pdf

Two
of the sibling species, Trichinella nativa and
Trichinella T6 have been identified as freeze tolerant
and are capable of surviving in frozen muscle tissues
for extended periods of time at temperatures from 5
to 18 8C (Kapel et al., 1999; Malakauskas and
Kapel, 2003).

Approximately 1.5 kg of frozen black bear meat
was received at the Animal Parasitic Diseases
Laboratory, Beltsville, MD, in December 2003. The
bear meat had been frozen for at least 6 weeks and was
kept frozen at 20 8C until January 2004. Coiled
intracellular larvae were noted on compression slides.
Pepsin:HCl digestion (Gamble, 1996) of the bear meat
revealed live, motile larvae which were washed by
centrifugation.