The eyes that melt steel

That's the face I get every meal before she gets the "Ok" command..

*sigh*

And I wonder who is training who now...

Rambutan season

Food Lover and her birthday

This is a belated post.

Teh Pao turned 4 on November the Fifth, so we had a simple celebration.

She got a new rope toy as present.

Bought her a black chicken as lunch.

Since it is quite a small bird, Teh Pao got the whole thing for 1 meal.

Pork hand for dinner.

Teh Pao even got boiled, shredded chicken as supper. 

The Pao's Maintenance: October 2014

This is an ongoing effort to keep track of pet finance.

Money Spent in October 2014

Food and Treats: RM40.00

Veterinary and Medicine: RM70.00

Accessories and Miscellaneous: N/A

TOTAL = RM110.00

Food and Treats

Last month I didn't spend much on food. Trying to clear freezer for routine cleaning, and also because I been hoarding from mum's kitchen ( she bought 15 chickens!), Teh Pao is the sole beneficiary of the meat trims and organs from all the poultry and beef. I just need to get some red meat from local stores and butcher to make up the muscle meat. By time I'm writing this, we've just finish the green tripe which I bought monthssss ago from hometown, have lots of bone in meal mainly chicken carcass/ feet, cow kidneys, some wildboar trims and lots of bishop nose ( from mum's chicken). I bought a pair of pig ears that comes with the rest of the head for RM5, which includes the snout and quite a lot of meat. I also bought an entire pork hand ( comes with huge chunk of muscle meat attached) mainly for Teh Pao's birthday. Didn't buy any store bought treats, I been dehydrating the pig ears and snout as chews.

Veterinary and Medicine

October wasn't very kind to us, first Teh Pao suffered from head injury which leads to minor infection, a walk in vet visit and some antibiotics cost me RM48. When I started to rejoice on the recovery, her allergy flared up so badly that we have another walk in to the vet and that trip cost RM22 with 2 strips of Prednisolone, lucky for me, vet waived the consultation for this trip and charges only for the drugs.

Weekends' treat

I'm on rather tight budget this month. I quit my job, then new semester started, school fees paid, books are expensive ( second or third hand books are affordable, but Family Law books needed latest edition because case laws develop way too fast).

Instead of getting store bought treats, I search through the remaining few bags of food in freezer and found a bag of long forgotten cow trachea/ oesophagus/ ears mix, so I decided to take it and turn them into treats. 

Dehydrated cow trachea

Cow ears

Ligaments

These, as I'm writing now, trachea is ready, but I like it crunchy dried, since both the ears and ligaments will need a few more hours to go, I'll just leave most of them safe and sound in the sauna room dehydrator for now.

Took a piece out for the quality surveyor to conduct some testing.

She looks happy with my product.

Here comes the tasting part...

Well I guess she is satisfied with the product, and we're on the right track.

Recent raw meals

I feed raw, but not compulsive. On days when I wasn't home, Teh Pao gets kibbles, sometimes when I feel like experimenting in mum's kitchen, I'ld cook a simple meal or two for the dog at home.

Beef, tripe, cow kidney, frozen yoghurt and some tumeric powder

Cow oesophagus, lungs and frozen yoghurt 

Chicken wing + cow lungs + cow kidney and a chunk of frozen yoghurt

Triple mix ( cow tripe + duck gizzard + boneless chicken meat) + chicken leg and frozen yoghurt

Tripe + chicken feet + kidney

Sardines + chicken wings

Chicken breast + tripe + cow trachea

Cow tripe + quail eggs

Half Chicken breast + tripe

Chicken wing + breast meat + cow kidney + beef trims + yoghurt

Boneless beef chunk + chicken trims + quail eggs

Sardine + tripe + duck egg

Chicken quarter + cow trachea + kidney

Few days ago my awesome neighbour gave me a pack of pig maw. They bought it for Chinese New Year dinner but totally forgot about it until now. Knowing that I feed raw, of course, they gave me a ring and passed it to me. I wasn't sure about feeding a raw pig maw ( frozen in freezer for months) is safe, so I cooked the traditional pig maw soup for Teh Pao, adding in some other ingredients to make up a balance meal.

Teh Pao obviously love it.

The Paos' Maintenance: August 2014

This is an ongoing effort to keep track of pet finance.

Money spent in August 2014
Food and Treats: RM38.60
Veterinary and Medical: RM140 RM113
Accessories and Miscellaneous: N/A

TOTAL = RM178.60 RM151.60

I was away for the past 2.5 months, took the opportunity to scout for authentic and "exotic"stuffs in hometown ( other towns I passed by).

Food wise, bought 1 KG of freshly grounded tumeric powder from an Indian acquaintance at RM15. He sells home made spices, in small quantity, quality assured. He ground the spices according to orders, and a little extra here and there just in case anyone came by to buy. I was there when he started grounding the dried tumeric, it is all manual work, so yeah, took quite some time, but it is worth the wait.

Down side about these home made ( or in this case, home ground) stuffs, they need to be stored in refrigerator. I'm getting this for Teh Pao, tumeric helps with the itches, so yeah, I'm stocking up a wee bit.

Tumeric powder ( known in Bahasa Malaysia as "Kunyit")

Then I bought some quail eggs and a duck egg from farmer's market for some change instead of the usual chicken eggs. Teh Pao loves quail eggs, so she gets it on special occasion ( ie. when she practices good recalls).

Cow tripe + quail eggs = HEAVENLY!

Other than that, I bought a 1.5KG tub of plain yoghurt, and a tray of Aussie beef from local supermarket. These pretty much summed up the total cost spent for food and treats.

Veterinary and Medical

I bought another 2 boxes of Heartgard Green ( expires Jan 2016) at the price of RM113 instead of the usual RM140 ( RM70 each). It is not ordinary discount but rather a "discount" in exchange for some insignificant paperworks done for the vet. He is a great guy, and I'm happy to render some favour here and there since he too sometimes help out with the costing of the rescues I brought in, but he made it a point that the "discount" I'm getting for preventive medicine is considered a pay so that neither party feels being taken advantage off, so I accepted it.

So we're well stocked for 2015. I'm planning to stock up Heartgard for the following year before the implementation of GST ( which, obviously, will force our wallet and bank balance to go on further diet).

The Pao's Maintenance: July 2014

This is an ongoing effort to keep track of pet finance.

Money spent in July 2014
Food and Treats: RM10.00
Veterinary and Medical: N/A
Accessories and Miscellaneous: N/A

TOTAL = RM10.00 ONLY

July was another month I didn't spent much on Teh Pao, mainly because I am in my hometown and don't get to see her often. The RM10 was for a cow kidney, and some muscle meat, the old butcher had retired in May, and his son took over, but that young chap is kind enough to throw in a free trachea as token for old time sake.

Bloody dog food

Teh Pao, on the other hand, was put on kibble based diet ( Merrick Duck & Potatoes, bought in June) during my absent. That doggy odour is back, her skin was horribly sore from all the scratches and her fur are rough and dry compared to the times when she was having fresh, raw diet. Mum came last week, knowing I missed Teh Pao terribly, she brought that spoilt, rotten dog of mine along, and we both had quality time together during that 5 days.

Of course, Teh Pao got some proper raw meal during that 5 days stay with me in this little town.

Other than that, I got a bag of mackerels from a client/ family friend as gift. This uncle owns a factory, freezing top grade mackerels and other sea foods then exports to Japan. That bag of mackerels served as a week meal for the humans and dogs at home. 

Goodies bag

Before I left home, freezer is still full of dog food, and some frozen yoghurt treats in little paper cups, and with the 13Kg bag of Merrick Grain free bought in June, I believe we're well stocked for August. I do plan to do some shopping from local butchers, mainly to stock up on certain parts ie. fresh green tripes, kidneys, tracheas and other "exotic" parts because it is more cost effective and easy to get here ( hey! I get to watch the whole process of slaughtering and cleaning of a cow) than in the city. Lets see what are the deals I manage to strike in coming month's budgeting.

Food we eat at home...

This is what I eat..

This is what my dog eats...

Recent raw meals

As some of the regular reader knew I practice raw feeding, and these are recent meals served to my local mutt weighing at 15.2KG. I try to get variety of protein and serve as many parts as I can get.

I use to measure and weight everything, now I'll just eye ball them, sometimes my dog gets a larger meal in a day and smaller in the evening, sometimes they're equally served. We're pretty flexible, especially when we go on a hike on daily basis, I would put in extra portion here and there.

Meals Teh Pao gets:

Sardine + Liver chunk + frozen yoghurt with blueberries

Half chicken back + buffalo tripe

Chicken breast + cow tripe + boneless mutton + boiled green peas

Duck egg + sardine 

Chicken wing + buffalo tripe

Chicken thigh + frozen plain yoghurt + chicken heart + cow tripe

Mixture of cow, buffalo, goat tripe + chicken egg + chicken leg + duck feet

Chicken drumstick + boneless duck meat + frozen plain yoghurt + goat tripe

Beef + half chicken back with neck 

Whole Tuna ( Local)

Chicken thigh + cow tripe + plain yoghurt

Chicken drumstick + boneless mutton + duck liver + plain yoghurt

Chicken wing + chicken liver + duck gizzard + buffalo tripe

As you all noticed, recent meals were mainly poultry/ chicken related, this because I harvested the last batch of chicken I raised. We're moving towards the last week of fasting month, and it is time to search for goodies at decent price.