# New Treat deer meat



## ellisrks01 (Mar 25, 2014)

I was cooking some deer meat someone gave me last night and saved a unseasoned piece for my little buddy's to try and they loved it! I cooked it in a pan and chopped it up real fine. Then I sat in the dark like a "creeper"and watched them eat. Lol

I just wanted to share my new treat idea  has anyone else fed thier hedgie deer meat?


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## Draenog (Feb 27, 2012)

I haven't tried deer meat, but I do feed them (all raw) chicken, duck, turkey, horse, cow and lamb.


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## ellisrks01 (Mar 25, 2014)

Draenog said:


> I haven't tried deer meat, but I do feed them (all raw) chicken, duck, turkey, horse, cow and lamb.


Horse meat?? Thats different, I wonder we're I can buy that.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

I never did try it with Lily but I'll have to try for future hedgies! My dad hunts, so I could probably beg some venison from him for both me and hedgies. Glad your guys enjoyed their treat.


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## Draenog (Feb 27, 2012)

ellisrks01 said:


> Horse meat?? Thats different, I wonder we're I can buy that.


As far as I know lots of people in the US have a problem with slaughtering horses for consumption? I don't see why it would be any different from a cow or something else though :???: 
But you can buy horse meat in the supermarkets here. I always get special "sausages" for dogs/cats though at the pet store and they come in different flavours. It's not just muscle meat but also organ meat and ground bones.

Edit: it is illegal to raise/breed horse for food in my country so the meat is either imported or comes from the slaughterhouses here which means it's from horses owned by people for sports/recreation etc.
The horse meat market (slaughter/transport) in North and South America is extremely horrible. Several supermarkets here have banned meat from there.


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## ellisrks01 (Mar 25, 2014)

Draenog said:


> As far as I know lots of people in the US have a problem with slaughtering horses for consumption? I don't see why it would be any different from a cow or something else though :???:
> But you can buy horse meat in the supermarkets here. I always get special "sausages" for dogs/cats though at the pet store and they come in different flavours. It's not just muscle meat but also organ meat and ground bones.
> 
> Edit: it is illegal to raise/breed horse for food in my country so the meat is either imported or comes from the slaughterhouses here which means it's from horses owned by people for sports/recreation etc.
> The horse meat market (slaughter/transport) in North and South America is extremely horrible. Several supermarkets here have banned meat from there.


I was just reading about it. I guess its legal here in the US in most states?? but know one sells it. Mostly only found at gun shows in beef jerky form.
Looks like I'm not trying horse meet. But I get lamb once in a great while so I'll have to try that since it's always on sale at my local store  I'll have to cook it though since I don't know much about raw foods and hedgies


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## Draenog (Feb 27, 2012)

Maybe because it's frowned upon by so many people? I remember reading something about a restaurant in New York city recently, they had to remove horse meat from their menu because of all the negative comments they got. It might differ per state though.

Do you have a pet shop who sells the meat sausages I mentioned for cats/dogs/ferrets? They're great for hedgehogs imo. But I suppose regular meat works well if you only intend to give it as a small treat.


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## DesireeM81 (Jun 14, 2014)

Pretty sure it was a French restaurant too if I remember correctly. 

I am assuming your little guys eat the raw meat just fine? Do you buy it specially for them or is it just meat that you have? I know some of the meat I would never eat raw but our meat in the U.S. can be pretty gnarly if not cooked. We have a butcher down the street that I can try. 

:lol: Oh boy, my hedgehogs might start eating better than me.


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## lilsurfergrlsp (Dec 13, 2013)

Haha my pets definitely eat better than I do too, Desiree. They're all on raw diets now.

And I think it's frowned upon for horse meat because so many people keep them as pets, plus they're considered more "important" (I think that's the term) than cows because they're used for shows, farming, sporting events, etc. I didn't even know there was a horse meat market here in North America though! 

On mypetcarnivore.com, there a lot of choices for raw meat, even alpaca and llama, but not horse. I looooove that site haha


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## Melanie G. (May 29, 2014)

I think horse meat is more of a European thing. My step-father is from the Netherlands and he used to eat horse meat as a child. But I haven't heard of anyone eating it in Canada.


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## AlexLovesOlive (Jul 7, 2014)

Horse meat was illegal in the US for a long time they passed new laws making it legal and it is actually better for horses and the environment.. I forget why...but my old assistant who did equestrian jumping her entire life, worked at stables, and went to the Olympics for it told me why right after they re-legalized it.


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## DesireeM81 (Jun 14, 2014)

lilsurfergrlsp - Thank you for the website! That is awesome. I'm planning on adding rabbit based food to the kibble and using it has a supplement to a raw diet. I just wasn't sure where to start!


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## Draenog (Feb 27, 2012)

DesireeM81 said:


> Pretty sure it was a French restaurant too if I remember correctly.
> 
> I am assuming your little guys eat the raw meat just fine? Do you buy it specially for them or is it just meat that you have? I know some of the meat I would never eat raw but our meat in the U.S. can be pretty gnarly if not cooked. We have a butcher down the street that I can try.
> 
> :lol: Oh boy, my hedgehogs might start eating better than me.


Yes they love it. Like I said I don't use regular meat meant for human consumption (I am a vegetarian as are the others here so we don't have meat available in our house). I get my meat from the pet shop, it's in a sausage shape and they're raw meat diets for dogs/cats/ferrets. Because of this they are more complete, it's not just muscle meat but also organ meat and ground bones.



lilsurfergrlsp said:


> Haha my pets definitely eat better than I do too, Desiree. They're all on raw diets now.
> 
> And I think it's frowned upon for horse meat because so many people keep them as pets, plus they're considered more "important" (I think that's the term) than cows because they're used for shows, farming, sporting events, etc. I didn't even know there was a horse meat market here in North America though!
> 
> On mypetcarnivore.com, there a lot of choices for raw meat, even alpaca and llama, but not horse. I looooove that site haha


There isn't (or wasn't) a horse market for eating them in North America and that's exactly the problem; they just ship their horses off to Canada and Mexico to be slaughtered, this transport is under the most horrible conditions (and most of the slaughter houses in South America are horrible too). They recently made a documentary about it here, I can look it up for you if you want (I don't think it has English subs though). Because of this documentary some supermarkets here banned the imported meat. For the horses' sake I do hope it gets more accepted in the US because it's very sad. They don't want to slaughter them because they are "above" cows and other animals, but the treatment they are getting now is horrible.


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## gracefulchaos01 (Mar 19, 2014)

The reason we have a "problem" with horse meat here in the US is because horses are, more often than not, our companions. We also have issues eating dogs, cats and hedgehogs  It's not generally cool to eat your best friend. 

To Quote:

“It’s a tragedy people have to eat horses. They’re beautiful animals. You ever take a peek at a cow or a pig? They’re ugly. We’re doing them a favor by eating ‘em. Saves ‘em the agony of looking at their reflections in the trough every morning. But a horse, that’s a noble beast. Why, in the cavalry, a man’s steed was his best friend, a real companion. Where do people get off making pork chops out of them?”
Col. Sherman T. Potter, Commander, 4077th "M*A*S*H


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## DesireeM81 (Jun 14, 2014)

I must be weird! I think pigs and cows are way cuter than horses. I like horses too. I wouldn't personally eat horse but I have no problem feeding it to my animals. Same with many things. I have eaten rabbit before, not really aching to do it again but I think rabbit would be a great addition to a hedgehog diet.

I understand not wanting to eat your friend. I have never owned a pig but if I did, I would probably still purchase pork. Maybe I'm just a weirdo.


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## gracefulchaos01 (Mar 19, 2014)

Actually, I liked rabbit. So do my hedgehogs  I think one of the biggest issues modern, 1st world man has is that we are so distant from Nature. Like... I couldn't kill my own chicken. And if ANY animal was put on this earth to eat, it was a chicken! I just.. I don't think in my present circumstances I could do it. But sure enough I can open the plastic wrap and fry it up, or bake it, or whatever. and my hedgies love chicken and rabbit and beef and duck... Those are the meats I have tried so far


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## AlexLovesOlive (Jul 7, 2014)

I remember why horse meat is really good now! So it uses a lot of resources to raise meat to eat, it is one of the biggest causes of pollution and resources, most of the water in the USA goes to meat raising, also the horses for Horse meat aren't raised for the meat, when a horse get's too old or hurt or whatever they take it to the meat mill and harvest the meat. Which is a lot better than the poor cows who live in disgusting and cruel conditions their entire life just to be slaughtered. These horses (most of the pet ones, not racing ones because they suffer a lot) have had great lives and it was their time anyways.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

On the FB raw feeding group I'm in, the biggest (and most concerning) reason I've seen regarding feeding horse meat is how many drugs, medicines, etc. are given to horses, and how strong they are. Numerous people in the group that actually own horses have said they would never feed horse to their dogs, etc. and not because of emotional reasons - they know what kinds of drugs go into that horse and aren't comfortable with the idea of then feeding that meat to a smaller animal.

Also, on the note of websites to buy meat for animals from and such....

I just got my first order from My Pet Carnivore today, I was very excited! Everything looked great, was packaged pretty well (though a bag of lamb tongues had a hole in it, so they got inadvertently rinsed while I was thawing them in water, lol). The driver was there on time, was very nice, and overall I'm pretty pleased so far.  Won't have to order from them again until September, but I'm looking forward to it!

Also, there are a few other US sites that you can order from. www.reelraw.com and www.rawfeedingmiami.com are the other two I'm planning on using, both have ground mixes available (though they're more expensive, but a hedgie wouldn't need much anyway). I'm planning on ordering whole prey from rodentpro.com too.


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## lilsurfergrlsp (Dec 13, 2013)

Thanks for those sites, Lilysmommy!! I'm always so excited to find new raw food websites. I'm glad My Pet Carnivore worked out.


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## Draenog (Feb 27, 2012)

gracefulchaos01 said:


> The reason we have a "problem" with horse meat here in the US is because horses are, more often than not, our companions. We also have issues eating dogs, cats and hedgehogs  It's not generally cool to eat your best friend.
> 
> To Quote:
> 
> ...


Horses are companions here too. That's about the only thing people keep them for. What a stupid quote, no animal is better than another.  I hope eating horse gets more popular in the US at least to save the poor horses from what they have to go through now. 
Most people here would have issues eating dogs and cats too.

@AlexLovesOlive that's what happens here with the horses we slaughter since they aren't raised for meat. It is probably the best meat you can get because the horses lived a good life. But a lot of meat is import from US/South America and that's the crappy meat you don't want.
Horses are chipped and have a passport here and if they get certain drugs they won't be slaughtered for consumption. 
But there have been a few meat scandals in Europe not so long ago about horse meat mixed with beef (that's common) and the meat contained certain drugs. All I can say is I'm glad to be a vegetarian. It's not like other meat is healthy, with all the antibiotics etc the animals get...


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## Draenog (Feb 27, 2012)

Lilysmommy said:


> On the FB raw feeding group I'm in, the biggest (and most concerning) reason I've seen regarding feeding horse meat is how many drugs, medicines, etc. are given to horses, and how strong they are. Numerous people in the group that actually own horses have said they would never feed horse to their dogs, etc. and not because of emotional reasons - they know what kinds of drugs go into that horse and aren't comfortable with the idea of then feeding that meat to a smaller animal.
> 
> Also, on the note of websites to buy meat for animals from and such....
> 
> ...


Sounds good! It's nice that they deliver it to your door


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## Ms. Bee (Jun 26, 2014)

It's funny the strong feeling horse slaughter brings up. I think people were protesting it in parts of Canada, so now the horses are just shipped to the U.S. for slaughter, which is likely far less humane in the long run.


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## Lilysmommy (Jan 7, 2009)

I didn't have MPC deliver to my house, they do drop-off points in Michigan (and numerous other Midwest states), which only costs $10, so it's even nicer! They do deliver to other states though, or if someone prefers, I'm just not sure how expensive it is. RFM & RR will both deliver to my house though. 

Horses are treated pretty terribly overall in the US. There may be some privately owned/pet horses that are treated properly, but even most privately owned ones get questionable training and treatment because it's just seen as a norm in much of the horse world. :? The more I hear about the horse world, the more I'm unsure I ever want to get involved with a barn or group. I do love horses, though, and riding (though I don't get to do that much). I just wish people weren't so bad with them!


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## ellisrks01 (Mar 25, 2014)

Draenog said:


> Do you have a pet shop who sells the meat sausages I mentioned for cats/dogs/ferrets? They're great for hedgehogs imo. But I suppose regular meat works well if you only intend to give it as a small treat.


I don't think I have a pet shop that sells those?? Maybe I'm wrong. I'll have to keep a eye out. For now, I only plan on giving as treats but would still get some if I see them.
I did run to the store last night and get a small lamb chop for them to try. Maybe I'll give my prego girl a tiny bit to try tonight. I think she'll eat it. She is eating anything new I put in front of her lately(introducing it slowly). So hopefully that's a good sign because until the last 10 days she never ate any treats I gave her.

Yummy! Lamb chops tonight! Lol I think I'll cook it though, since I don't know about raw feeding... My luck she'll get sick if I give her something raw.:lol:


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## AlexLovesOlive (Jul 7, 2014)

I've looked into raw but I don't know if I could do it, We only get meat from local people and they don't have a lot of the meats that are good for hedgehogs. I don't eat meat from the grocery store because that meat is packed full of chemicals, and sadness. When an animal is stressed out it's entire life it's filled with toxins and can actually cause you to become sad as a response to it. Very scary, I was pretty shocked when I did some looking close (at the lab) of the meat I bought at the store..and yes I am weird I took meat to the lab and did some tests on it. I was shocked and pretty grossed out. And everyone is upset because horses are "pets" when all the animals can be kept as pets, piggies are just as smart as dogs, have very sensitive emotional ranges, and love being cuddled and pet. So I think people need to be more concerned about all the meat in America. not to mention "Cage free" "grain fed" are just buzz words and don't really mean what you think they mean. Like cage free chickens are usually packed into a shed so tightly together that they can barely move.


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